I have been trying to make a little money with affiliate marketing for over a year. I have not made a dime. I have followed the instructions I have received, but no sales. I have no money and can,t try buying my way in. What can I try?HELP!
I know you're asking an honest question, and feel like you are struggling, and failing at something you really wanted to do and succeed in. I'm sorry that the last poster laughed and said you were "sucked in".
I also am an affiliate marketer, and it is something that I love to do! I have been doing it since November, and no I am not making thousands a week, or a month, but it is getting to a point where I am seeing a profit. But, I do mostly PPC advertising, so I am just trying to stay even for now until I figure out the right products and the right keywords to make it work.
That is what the "super affiliates" do. Some may be very lucky to be able to make big money right away, but I am sure that most of the "gurus" have been at this for years before something clicked for them and they made a fortune.
What can you try? I would say if you really like affiliate marketing, like I do, learn all you can about Internet marketing–read everything you can. Do you have any keyword tools? Those help me a lot, since you need to find keywords which have less competition. I have 2 different ones, plus I use Google's keyword tool.
Do you have a website? Or do you just advertise your affiliate links?
If you find the right niche, and make a website about that niche, and include advertising for the affiliate products on the website, choose the right keywords, and get your website included in the search engines and get traffic to your site, then that will begin to just run on autopilot.
That takes several weeks to get a site listed in the search engines, so continue advertising your affiliate links through other ways. PPC if you have some advertising money available, or through traffic exchanges, email campaigns, etc.
If you continue to learn and apply all you can (not just what the affiliate programs tell you to do), invest some money into helpful software (like keyword tools), make your own websites with your own domain (so you don't have to compete with others of the same affiliate programs), and just continue plugging away at advertising in different ways (articles, blogs, social networking, etc), you WILL start seeing a profit!!
BELIEVE you can succeed, and don't focus on the sales (or lack thereof). All it will take is finding the right combination, and you will be successful! Affiliate marketing is a legitimate way to make money (too bad other people don't understand that, and judge it wrongly…).
Blessings on your marketing ventures!