To be honest, I don’t read many blogs or forums about affiliate marketing. The reason? Aside from not having the spare time, most of what you read is simply wrong. Everyone has an opinion, but unfortunately their opinions are probably based on circumstances that don’t apply to you.
Here are some examples of things I have read, that are just plain wrong.
- x traffic source sucks, no conversions. Insert whatever traffic source you want here, and someone is out there saying it is terrible and doesn’t work. While it is terrible for some, another person is making a killing with it at the same time. The truth is many do work for certain cases, and you never know until you test for yourself.
- X niche is dead. Again, insert whatever niche you want here and there are people saying its too crowded, not crowded enough, not converting anymore. The truth is, its probably working great for some people.
- You have to push rebills to make money in this industry. False. I don’t do any rebills and know plenty of other people doing really well that have nothing to do with rebilled offers. Rebills are only a tiny fraction of the available offers. There is a whole universe of offers out their besides the “hot” offers.
- You can’t do lead gen on facebook and social sites. I actually saw someone stating this argument as a fact. The fact is, when done right, social networks work extremely well for lead gen campaigns. Whether that be local, regional, or national campaigns.
The bottom line is, you just can’t make generalizations about making money online because they don’t hold up. The only constant I have found in the years spent doing this is:
Do research, pick a niche, set up some campaigns, test, track, optimize, test new traffic sources and repeat.
So don’t believe everything you read or hear. Don’t even believe me :) Just keep your head down and keep working. You will succeed eventually.
Till then, Jean
Ya, I am really seeing a lot of BS lately about afilites stuff. I pretty much don’t believe anyone these days.
Here here… Very well said.
Agreed on every point. Strange how many people just blindly believe anything and don’t test it for themselves.
Very true. The only generalization worth believing is, “You can’t believe generalizations.” There are so many individual variables at play…
A fantastic post with so much truth in it
and it reflects my own experience.
A great example is contextual traffic. There
are literally thousands of people out there
in forums, claiming that is is un-targeted and
unethical traffic that doesn’t convert.
Nothing could be far from the truth!
If you know what you are doing, it can be extremely
targeted and it will convert well.
Once again, thanks for a great post,
Volker
Yep, I have a rule I’ve followed for years: success lies in the opposite direction of where everyone is going (or what everyone is saying)
And one more: Don’t listen to anyone more messed up than you are. If they are not having the success you want to have, why listen to their advice?
Yup. Testing and tracking. This is the two things you should believe in online business because every market is different. Heck, even if your mentor tells you what works for him, it won’t necessary work for you. You need to tweak, test and track the results.
Franck
I remember back when “everyone” said don’t use google content network. Suckas
who wants to hook up this is a good blog
[...] Misinformation in affiliate marketing - Affiliates, don’t listen to everything you hear on blogs and forums. You can listen to what this post is saying though. [...]
I agree that all those pessimistic comments people make comes from their own experience, and because of that it’s not an absolute truth.
I think it’s important to note the other side of that argument as well. Those affiliate marketers that reveal their highly converting traffic sources, their niches and so on work for them, but it might not necessarily work for everyone.
Anyhow, can you list some of the affiliate marketers that you keep up to date with?
[...] trust in everything right away until you test yourself. Chad has a great blog post about Misinformation in Affiliate Marketing. Check it out and you will understand what I mean with [...]
Yes there is a ton of misinformation out there about affiliate marketing. I’m sure some it is purposely misleading to prevent more competition in their niche or on their hot traffic source. Never assume that everything you read it 100% true. In this industry, a lot of people like to ramble about their assumptions or theories.
I think this just says it all…
Do research, pick a niche, set up some campaigns, test, track, optimize, test new traffic sources and repeat.
That right there could be a best seller book on how to make serious money online!
Most of what I read on forums are not believable anyway. You’re right. You won’t know if something sucks until you try it your self. Just entering this game and on my first step of research. Following great posts like this.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about affiliate marketing, everywhere you look people are saying opposites. The only way to find out something for certain is to do the ground work yourself.
Regards, Dave
http://www.cdfnetworks.com/why-adbrite-doesnt-work/
I just couldn’t pass that up! Now to be fair, you wrote that a almost THREE years ago and things change-people too for that matter.
Anyway thanks Chad; I got one of my first $25 ppc coupons from you a couple of years back when I decided to move from Adsense to affiliate marketing. I think your banner link had broken or something so I emailed you and you sent me a good link. Now I spend THOUSANDS on ad space. In fact, I came to read your Adbrite piece because I had such terrible conversions from there recently and wanted to see how other people were doing with it.
Dave
(different from the one above, although I DO use a linkwheel software)
You can always find two commentators saying the exact opposite. Its about testing for yourself - most people read rather than do.