Affiliate Marketing - Experience Pays!

Background: Firstly, my Affiliate Marketing and Internethow not to light fires online and get burned)
experience began back in 2003 as a paid ResearcherI share this with you so you don't fall prey to any of
Online. I compiled statistical reports. Top executives inthis plaque. Thankfully you can profit from the mistakes
the education field used this data at seminars toof others. (I wonder who that might be...)
successfully leverage high ranking GovernmentFinally, I discovered some real gems that have
officials for extra "educational" funding. I made themrestored my faith in human nature. Better yet- I finally
look really good. Naturally, they never bothered todiscovered how to make money from Affiliate
thank me and took all the credit.Marketing and learned many excellent skills. The most
At the same time my Research work gave me theamazing thing that happened was- (oh he is a gutsy
opportunity to Research Affiliate Marketing Online.kid) I did learn a lot about AdWords and Pay-Per-click
(those were the days my friend.... I thought they'dfrom a good Carpenter. (not Jesus) I am talking Chris
never end... da da da da... da da da da da da...)Carpenter and the AdWords Bible "Google Cash
However, next thing- I was redundant and broke withMethod."
no real prospects. (I quit my day job ha!)I garnered more good oil on AdWords (Pay-Per-Click)
Undaunted, I still had grandiose visions of working onlinefrom Brad Callen, the guys at Bryxen Software, Jeff
from home. I believed I was well equipped to succeed;Walker, Chris Mcneeney, Ewen Chia, Ken Evoy of
given my background in "clever surfing" and Research.SiteBuildit, Jeff Alderson, Rob Benwell and many more
(dumb and wrong ha!)AdWords experts. These are bona-fide people with
I discovered that Research online and making a livingGold information and Diamond advice. These top
at Internet Marketing weren't quite the same Pony.earning Marketer's have all been there and done that.
(donkey) I got stuck with a girl called "miss-information"At first, the thought of Pay-Per-Click advertising (the
and her brother "bad advice." I even bought a chain ofamount I would be charged for each click) and losing
programs complete with "missing links". I was somy shirt, scared the living daylights out of me. Until I
enchanted just to be disenchanted. I got disillusionedremembered I was never a wimp. I tempered that
with the illusion of money making online programs.thought with confidence instilled in me by all of these
These promised so much and delivered so little. (of...AdWords "warriors." Although I went into Google
not-a-lot)AdWords a total Newbie, I was bolstered by the
Yes... I too fell for the same honey traps as 99% ofexperience and advice of the 12 Apostles, safe in the
"wannaBees."knowledge I would only have to pay for results, after
I spent money I didn't have on a raft of products. (asomeone clicked on my ads. I managed to stay under
raft, a boat, a shipload) I fell for the...budget for the first ten days.
you-got-to-have-this-new "software-program" to makeAfter the second ten days I broke even. I was excited
a seven-figure-income. (Guinea pigs unite)that I had done this well even I then made my first sale
Like everyone else I discovered that "free" actuallyof $47.00 as an Affiliate. The very next day I was
meant... nothing was actually free under-the-Sun. (creditdumbfounded to see I had another $178.00 worth of
card details after you signed up was a deadsales in my ClickBank Account. The moral of the story
giveaway) I signed up for every free report and gotis: I did not lose my shirt first time up in Pay-Per-Click
stress headaches from information overload.(AdWords) I was able to make a profit albeit a small
I also fell for the... 17-free-outdated-E books-giveaways.one. I figured I must have done something right and
(with opt-in-special) Only if I paid for the back endfollowed some good advice. I kept tweaking my
product. This came complete with a promise of morecampaign and I split tested my text ads several times.
useless information in a free report. (itI got expansive and experimented with content
worked-last-year information as well) . I got sentnetwork advertising. I switched back and forth
truckloads of outdated information that worked beforebetween normal Google AdWords advertising and the
the Dot com crash? Yes I fell for the hype! I felt like acontent network. I tested both to see what worked
Mushroom... fed on BS and kept in the dark!best. The content network worked well from a traffic
All this aside, it wasn't all bad. I did at least learnpoint of view. There were huge increases in traffic. I
something positive from each experience? Each time; Iput this all down to excellent advice and a proven
managed to find another piece of the puzzle. (I learnedmoney making system from the 12 Apostles.