I recommend you guys save up a fair bit of bank before you start affiliate marketing. The more you have, the easier its going to be for you to make money. But I know that only 1 out of 5000 of you will have the patience to save up $5k or so. In that case, this little tip sheet is gonna be for you guys with less than $1000 to spare.

So the first step to any good affiliate campaign, especially when it comes down to breaking your bank account or not, is doing a bit of research. Now, this obviously includes demographic research on the offer you want to run, but it’s a lot more than that. When you are on a budget, you’re going to have a hell of a time launching 10+ campaigns to see which one works. That’s why its impertinent that you know which offers are really working. Sure, you can follow the lead of your affiliate manager, but sometimes they aren’t always out to really get you making money for yourselves.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to start socializing. Meet up with other new and experienced affiliates. Chat. Invite them out for a drink. Get coaching. Other affiliates know best from experience. You don’t need a plan laid out for you, just a hint in the right direction. Take that hint and do more research into ad networks, costs, what type of landing pages work best, how to write ad copy, and every other step of the affiliate marketing campaign building process. The more guesswork you take out of it, the less you’ll end up spending.

Bid low. This doesn’t always give you the highest quality traffic, or best ad placement, but lowering initial CPCs can keep you from blowing through your small ad budget off the bat. Assuming you read the first part of this post, and have things “pre-optimized” with those insider tips, you should be able to start seeing results. Up your bids little by little if you need more traffic. I know, for example, you can get decent US traffic on Plenty of Fish for as little as 20 cents. Not a lot, but it’s there.

Use unique angles. Unique angles provide you with something higher budgetted affiliate marketers won’t go after – small amounts of traffic. But you don’t have the budget to be targeting broad anyways. Find a unique way to sell that offer (a landing page helps). Black guys for Asian girls, or vice-versa is a good example with lower competition and a small to medium amount of traffic for the new marketer.

Learn some new skills. Outsourcing landing pages, banners, coding and writing can be expensive. Learn to do it yourself. There is a tool called Google with millions of free resources to help you figure that stuff out. Another benefit – you can sell your work. The way I used to learn was to take orders on designs and writing, then learn how to do them properly as I went. This will give you a boost to your limited campaign budgets.

Are any of my readers affiliate marketers on a limited budget? What do you feel helps you to work through that issue?

This is a follow-up post in reply to a question asked on my “Ask Questions, Get Answers” post. If you’ve got any questions on affiliate marketing, drop them in the comments of that post!

So you’ve gathered up $1,000, launched a few campaigns, and eventually one stuck. You spend your $1,000 promoting it, but now what? You’re crap outta money. You’ve got no credit line, or it isn’t high enough. You’re probably stuck waiting 7 – 30 days to get paid out, depending on which affiliate network you are working with. You’re already working a second job or freelancing and dumping all the money from that into your marketing campaigns, but that still isn’t cutting it. That’s a lot of lost opportunity to make more money just because you are lacking it. So what are your options.

Number 1: Most affiliate networks are very flexible with payments. If the traffic you’re sending is quality, of course they are going to want you to send more traffic. When I was starting out, this was my exact problem. I had limited funds, spent it all on a great campaign and didn’t even have the money to buy a decent meal (thank god for ramen!). At the time, I was working with Ads4Dough talking with the owner, Jason. I told him I was out of money. The next day, he wired me all the cash I made, even from the day before, and I was set for another week. By that time, I was making enough to get paid weeklies.

Number 2: If you’ve got great credit, it might be worth it to try and apply for a credit card. I uses an American Express Plum Card back when CCs were easy to get. These days, card companies might hassle you quite a bit if you don’t have the best credit. If all else fails, try for a student credit card. They’ve got horrible terms, but if its just a quick boost you need for your campaigns, they give you at least a couple days more time to run campaigns. Cut ‘em up when you’ve paid them off and have enough cash flow to pay with cash. I quit using credit cards about a year ago.

Number 3: Get a business loan. If you’re registered, and again, have great credit, try and go for it. I haven’t tried this and wouldn’t know where to start, but I know a few buddies that have used this when they were in a squeeze for some cash to feed their profiting campaigns.

Number 4: If you’re a smooth talker, ask your friends and family for money. Give them a percentage of your profit, show them your campaign stats, and prepare a small presentation for them. Venture capital, if you will. Hell, go out and try some real venture capital and getting in some angel investors. If you got the communication skills, you could potentially raise tens of thousands of dollars!

Number 5: Sell your stuff. Hold a garage sale, sell old collectibles you don’t even look at anymore, or just pawn them off. Once you start making cash back, you can buy it back anyways!

So those are all the suggestions from me. Do you guys have any other ways you can think of on how to get a quick buck to fuel your campaigns when you’re short on cash? Drop them in the comments section below!

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?

Research

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

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.

Simplify

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!

Tired of affiliate marketing training and resources that are way too costly? Check out the forums for a change of pace!

So I was looking over my bank account at US Bank. They’ve been decent to me over the past 7 years I’ve had my money in there. I more or less was forced to bank with them, as my parents opened my first savings account there and they had access to manage all my checks through their accounts at US Bank. It’s a good bank if you live in the States. Lots of branches, helpful phone service (when I called at least) and it was pretty much a no-hassle service for me.

Anyways, back to me looking over my bank statements online today. I was pretty shocked to see they were charging me ridiculous amounts of money just for taking out money through an ATM. We’re talking about 3% here, and that is on top of the $5 the Thai banks charge me for using a foreign ATM card (another giant rip-off, I know). Now 3% isn’t too much if all you need is $20. But I’m withdrawing thousands a month – to pay rent, pay my employees, pay for my hookers and blow entertainment, etc. It can add up to several hundred extra dollars a month their screwing me out of.

A lot of you are probably wondering why I don’t just get a bank account in Thailand. Does paying tax to two different countries sound fun to you? I’m not sure about the rules on that, but just to be safe, I’m keeping my money in the US. I get a tax break for staying out of the US anyways, so it makes more sense to me. Plus, transferring money through PayPal or wires costs extra and take a longer amount of time. My designer, whom I’ve used PayPal to pay, insists I don’t pay him through it because it takes him a week to get the money into his bank account.

So a quick tweet for a no-international fee bank for my checkings came back with a reply to check out Ally. Their website is the shit by the way. Reviews were nice, so I said what the hell and started signing up. It took me 2 minutes to fill in my info. I thought it might take a day or two to approve, or they’d do some dumbass credit history check and ask me questions I don’t know the answers to, but I was instantly approved and have full access to the account.

Just have to wait for my check card and all my monies will be with them. So, to any US Bank reps that read this, I’m willing to let you guys redeem yourself if you’d like to refund all my cash you jacked from me. I’ll gladly continue to use your service if you can match Ally’s terms.

Of course, that probably won’t happen.

And, if you haven’t already seen it… the Ally commercials are sadistically hilarious.

I can remember my first $1000 day. I was so excited I went out and bought a PS3 (which have a huge importation tax slapped on them here bumping the price up a couple hundred dollars more than they would be in America)! I ran that campaign for a few more day, racking up a few more $1000 in my network account. Then my affiliate manager emails me telling me I wasn?t going to get paid for my leads because I promoted them against the terms of the offer (my fault). So now I was down the $1000 or so I spent on traffic, plus the cost of my new toys.

It was a bad decision, and even to this day, I keep making poor choices with my money. I have a feeling if I managed my money and time better I would be 100x the marketer I am now (in experience, knowledge and monies). I think money management is half the battle of making money in this industry. You are making more money than you thought you ever could in a matter of hours, and you want so much to buy that new gadget, car, or house you?ve wanted forever. I can tell you though, that someday you will be able to buy 100 of those if you save it and reinvest it now.

Money is the name of our game, and we all love it. We especially love to spend it when we have it. I get that craving far too often, but I?ve made it a goal to now save and reinvest at least 80% of my profits everyday back in to my business and other assets. While I could buy that new computer I wanted with yesterdays profits, I now might have to wait 10 ? 20 days to save up my 20% (most of this goes to daily necessities (rent, food, transportation)) I also try to keep at least keep 10% of it all in my bank account so even if everything else fails, I?ve got some cushion.

The 80% I profit from goes towards a lot of different things. Much of it goes towards research and data/creative creation for marketing. I?ve got an employees payday to worry about, and freelance payments for web scripts and copy/content.

Another chunk of that goes towards different assets. Domain names ? I can write them off as a business expense on taxes AND they generate nearly automatic income (type in traffic to domain parkers or set up a mini-site and throw up Adsense). After enough time, you can sell them off for more than you paid or develop them further if you know what you?re doing.

Stocks, bonds and options are other things I?m looking in to. I?m not prepared enough to actually dive in headfirst yet, but being young means I can take more risk with my money and more risk on my choices. More risk can equal more monies if I?m lucky, though. We?ll see how it?ll go here.

There are other thinks I can look in to once I develop the cash flow. Real estate in Thailand is booming. Foreign exchange and physical businesses are also things I?d like to get my hands dirty with. I think of it like I still get to spend a large chunk of change, it just isn?t that new Nissan I was going to buy. But in 2-3 years, I could change that Nissan into a Ferrari or 2.

Save it and invest it. Stop spending money on things you want now to build your business empire further!

The dream of any none-millionaire… Reach that moment where you can say “My bank account is worth 1-million dollars. I’m sure once, if you ever reach that status, you’ll be thinking why was I only dreaming for 1-million. I should have been hoping for 10 or 100 million! (and you really should think crazy like that) However, 1-million isn’t a shabby number, and making bigger profits than that just gets easier once you have that type of capital available to you. But for you hopers and dreamers, making $1,000,000 isn’t just a goal. It should be a lifestyle for you.

Everything up until that 1-millionth dollar should prepare you for what life will be on the other side of those 6 zeros. You should train yourself to work hard like any self-earned millionaire and have an idea of what it will be like once you yourself are there. I try to live my life everyday as though I’m already there, and that is what is helping me pace myself to get there.

I wake up, take my shower, and make myself look damn fine. Shaving, styling the hair, and dressing up in some fashionable clothes help me get into the groove of things. I’ll do this even if I know I’m not going to go out for the whole day. It’s all about this mindset that prepares me to do my work and get down to the business of making that first cool million.

I also work out and feed myself a healthy diet, too. Once again, I’m just trying to look like I’m at the top of my game, even if it’s been a bad month for my Internet marketing business and my bank account shows so. I can’t let lousy performance in one are bring down the other areas of my game. If I let my guard down, then I’ve got no chance to recover. Keeping myself healthy and up can help boost my performance in areas that need some improvement.

This is my money-making mindset. Knowing that this is what my life will be like, even when I really do have that 1-million lets me see that I’ll be having a really enjoyable life. I’ll be able to look handsome, dress fly, and go out to wine-and-dine at the hottest restaurants around Bangkok.

Alright, I hate college! It sucks arse. But, there is a lot more to college than just babes, bongs, beer, and creepy art students. Over on Deeboo, I posted a little somtin somtin that might help you guys on some big college campuses make some money. Hell, as long as you live close to a university or college you could do this junk. Well, if you want to check it out, head over to my other Internet marketing/webmaster/online business blog at www.deeboo.com.

Past few days have been killer on my wallet due to shit campaigns and problems with some networks. And I guess Facebook treating me poorly in my past post has got a very sour taste in my mouth. Myspace traffic is shit, as well, I’ve found out last night. It can be good, but you’ve got to target some tight demographics with a pinpointed offer. And also, a tip from Tangy: don’t use 300 x 250 ad banners. There are too many stray clicks. Try using the header banners for better quality.

I’ve been struggling to hit a $1000+ rev day for a long, long ass time. In fact, I’ve only ever had one, and I actually proffited more than $1000 that day, too. Well, this isn’t all profit, but I’ve been rolling out this campaign for the past 3 days instead of studying for tests. The first day I sent a few hundred clicks with some decent profit. 2nd day, rolled out some more clicks and lost cash because it looked like A) the advertiser was fucking me over or B) the network was fucking me over. I’d hate to say it is B cause I don’t know, but the network EPC has dropped significantly in the past 3 days so it is hard to spot the problem. I doubt thats the case so I won’t go any farther.

Anyways, at night on day 2 I switched the campaign to Advaliant. Within half an hour my conversions shot up, and by the end of the night I had made up what was being lose with the old network. Day 3 finishes up with some massive campaign explosion and here are the stats I get:

Gotta hand it out to Geofferson for being the best AM at Advaliant by far, and some props to Sohan and Ryan Eagle for helpin’ me get set-up/get inspiration. I’m 3 days into this, and bringing in rev of over 1k a day (about 60-100% ROI I’ve seen on each day). Now, this campaign will just keep expanding and expanding until I’m making at least a few K a day. For all you who think it’s not possible to get up and running that fast, look, I just did it, and I’m going to have some seriously profitable weeks/months ahead of me. $500 bucks ain’t much in a day for some in this game, but $500 bucks buys you a lot more shit than your 9-5 does.

Anyways, get up on Advaliant if you aren’t and start setting up some campaigns. You’ll lose money till you split test and try everything until it sticks, but once it sticks, you’ll bank like gold! Alright!! I’m gonna go do some more ballin.

No big accomplishment for most out there, but I hit my first $1,000 profit day. Big thanks out to Advaliant for that and some tips that helped me get there.

It was mostly FB traffic. Spent 750 to get there, and it was spread out over several different niches. Experimentation, folks.

Alright, I’m out to class. Take care!

So my first month (and 1 week) of affiliate marketing has come to an end, and I’m down and ready to enter into September. I had an amazing month, and learned a ton about affiliate marketing, the people and the ways to get money while staying efficient and maximizing your ROI percentage. Let’s just jot down the numbers of what I got this past month and a week.

Revenue

Neverblue Ads : $2,800.55
Ads4Dough : $5,747.00
Rocket Profit : ?? $568.00

Referral Commission :? ? $543.77

Total Revenue : $9,659.32

Expense

Facebook Ad Expenses : $5,929.06

Income

Net Income : $3,730.26
ROI : 63%

Not too bad for 5 weeks time and my first month in this game. This money is the most I’ve ever had the chance to have in my life and I have just been blowing it on everything. I think I’ve got most of what I need now, and I will be saving up for the next few months until I can move out of my tiny apartment and purchase a sexy vehicle.

You can tell by the stats that I am still no super affiliate, but I’m slowly working my way up there. In fact, several of my earlier days were plagued with low ROI and that blasted daily limit Facebook gives its advertisers. For the last 4 days of the month, I was on a roll with my $500 limit and generated ROI of 45 – 75% on each day. Today, I am sitting on an increased $750 budget that I can’t wait to hit.

If my stats stay where they are at like they’ve been for the past few days, I should profit $10,000 – $15,000 next month. If they continue to increase like they have been this past month, I should see profits of somewhere around $15k to $25k. I’m hoping and wishing that’s how it continues to go.

A few of my referrals did pretty well, however, most of the 15 or so that I have only did a few leads. My number one guy has pushed more that 2000 leads. Those commission numbers are all from Ads4Dough. Looks like my help here and here isn’t enough to really get you to get started with affiliate marketing, then. This isn’t free money, but if you aren’t taking at least a stab at it, you’ll never know just how well you could be profiting.

So here’s to next month and some excellent profits!

EDIT: Thanks for pointing out that I said October profits… I was half asleep when I wrote that.