You’re new to affiliate marketing. You know people are making millions doing it, and you want to do it to. Problem is your budget is very limited – less than $100 a week. Now, it isn’t impossible to work on a budget this low, but you are limiting a lot of things – the amount of data you can generate being the most important.
Data is the most expensive, but most important resource in an affiliates arsenal. Without it, you’d probably make more money (or lose less) trying your luck at penny slots. So how can we maximize the data and minimize the spend to keep you in budget?
I can’t emphasize the importance of research enough. This includes theoretical and practical research. You need to know the standards of how to do things, and how others are doing them. Join an affiliate marketing forum, such as Wickedfire, and read, read read. There are also some great blogs that drop good information. Check out Affbuzz. Know and understand what exactly Internet marketing is.
Then you need to gather data on whatever you choose to run. There are demographic toolsets and search targeting tools you can use freely all over the internet. Google Keyword Tool and Quantcast are great for these. Learn to use and love these tools and similar other tools.
Another form of research? Make friends. Many think they can work alone in this industry, and you can. But the moment you start making friends is the moment you start getting massive info bombshells dropped on you. You’ll make 10 times the amount you thought you could make with the info you can share with other people. It’s a game of give and get, as are most relationships, so keep that in mind!
Tracking is your main way to collect data after you set up campaigns. BevoMedia offers a new solution that you might want to look into if you aren’t familiar with any tracking at all. Prosper202 is what I use now, and has been the industry standard for the past 3-4 years. Learn how to use them. Without tracking, you are shooting blindly.
Without a somewhat decent budget of 100+ dollars a day, you need to simplify all your campaigns and traffic sources. In fact only use 1 on 1. Focus on building one campaign on one traffic source and don’t change things up just because they don’t work after 1 day. Learn how to split test with this campaign. Learn how to track keywords and referral sources with sub-ids. With a small budget, you are slowly accumulating data and experience.
And after all this, you still might not be making a ton of money, but you’ll know how to scale that one campaign once you gather all that data and do the research. If I can suggest you wait till you have at least 100 dollars to spend a day for a month, I would. I know some of you want to make money now, but you also need to be prepared to lose that money, and trust me when I say there will be times when you will lose that money.
I’m not being pessimistic; I am being realistic. Any who, if you guys have some budget knowledge to drop for my readers, leave them in the comments below!
Get the "Top Secrets to Making Money with PPV" Guide by subscribing here. You'll also get exclusive access to free downloads every Friday and over 700+ images you can use for FB/PoF Dating Ads!!
Copyright © 2006-2011 JustinDupre.com
good tip about just focusing on one thing. It's hard for me to think about only having a $100/day budget now, but I remember when I was nervous if I spent just $50 in 24 hours. Then came the times when I would blow $300USD in about 20 minutes because I had no idea what I was doing on a new traffic source.
If you don't know what you're doing and have a small budget, make 1 traffic source your bitch until you move on. If you want to start on Facebook, for example, then don't jump to POF/MySpace/TrafficVance until you've tested several different methods on the same offer on Facebook. But before you do that, actually talk to some people, like your affiliate manager, about whether or not the offer is good for facebook.
and to second your other point… be prepared to lose your money…er… invest in your education!
[...] Affiliate marketing on a budget by Justin [...]
Being very, very new to Affiliate Marketing, so new I have not started yet, I am doing research as you suggested. I am absolutely blown away by your honest and realistic comments rather than they hype about being able to get traffic at practically no cost. I completely agree that $100 a day could be hard to meet at first but I will stick to your view of waiting until I have enough. I really think that your blog is really good advice am so glad that I found it. All the best to you and I am looking forward to future blogs from you.
affbuzz is definitely a great place to pick some of the smartest brains
if you are on a tight budget, you could still learn a lot by setting up your own sites/tracking and using free traffic sources to optimize it before you jump into paid traffic (use coupons when you're first starting out)
Unfortunately I don't have the budget to burn $3k/month. I have been using SEO with content filled sites and then pushing offers on those, do you think this is a good way to build up some cash?
Sure, doing SEO is a good way to grow your business. I have a friend who is making 5 figures per month by just doing seo (black hat).
you are full of shit,seriously,all of your posts are nothing but rehashed garbage.
[...] free alternative! Again, it is a bit more complex than a paid solution, but for those that are on a budget, it does it’s job [...]
Good tips Justin. Staying focused and starting with just one campaign is a great way to get into affiliate marketing on a limited budget. You can definitely build slowly and ramp up your programs as you start making money.
Hey Justin,
Great point man, having a budget for your campaign is crucial for sure!! Thanks bro.
Aloha Justin, I enjoyed your affiliate post and I can relate. I can't say if we would be tired of affiliate programs, but get tired of it being stagnant. Learning the methods of marketing and promoting is a big key and issue with most. Thanks for sharing! Lanikee.com :)