Affiliate marketing is one of the most competitive yet profitable industries in the world. Thousands of people get into the field every year and only a fraction of them end up making significant money.
On the flip side, however – if you can make it work, the amount of money you can make can literally change your life. People under 21 years old have made over a million dollars a month in the affiliate marketing field.
How do you become a cutting-edge affiliate marketer?
==> Attend the Conferences
Nobody who’s making real money in affiliate marketing is going to write about it in a blog or create a CD / DVD product.
After all, would you? If something was earning you $50,000 a month, would you come out and teach it in a $50 eBook?
The only way to stay up to date on the latest tactics, news and secrets in the affiliate marketing industry is to get to know the players. And the only way to do that is to meet them in person.
The best place to do this is at affiliate conferences. ad:tech, Affiliate Summit East, Affiliate Summit West and the smaller Meetup202 are the main places to do that.
==> Master One Traffic Source
There are successful affiliates doing Facebook ads. There are successful affiliates doing PPV. There are successful affiliates on Bing and even still on AdWords. There are successful affiliates doing SEO.
The worst thing you could do when you’re starting out is to jump from traffic source to traffic source. The reality is that there is no “easy traffic source.” They’re all hard.
Pick one, then stick to it and master it. Learn the ins and outs of the system. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Don’t jump ship when the going gets tough. Instead, learn from your mistakes and keep going until you make one traffic source work.
Once you get one to work, then and only then should you try and replicate it in another traffic source.
==> Master Tracking and Testing
Tracking and testing is a huge part of being a successful affiliate. In fact, testing and tracking may be even more important than knowing how to buy traffic.
You need to be able to test and track everything. Specific keywords, specific demographics, specific times of day, specific creatives, specific landing pages, etc.
Usually when you start a campaign you’ll either lose money or break even. The trick is to figure out where the money you did make came from. Then you can turn everything else off and just leave that on.
Becoming a cutting-edge affiliate marketer takes a lot of dedication. Start by networking your way to real world contacts. Pick a traffic source you intend to master, then learn the ins and outs of tracking.