Human Action

How can you learn affiliate marketing?

There are literally countless courses and ebooks – free as well as paid – that can teach you how to affiliate.

The basics will usually be the same:

You should affiliate for products you actually bought
Products that you have personally seen results from that you can share
The method and structure of the suggested sales letter will usually be similar.

Now, you may think that this diminishes from the value of a course if what it offers is basically the same as all the rest.

But first of all, this isn’t true.

While courses may be similar in the basic principles, the may differ dramatically in the details.

For instance, the way you would affiliate effectively on a certain platform, may not be the way you do it on a different platform.

Secondly, if the basic methods are the same, it’s only because they work.

And the great thing about affiliate marketing is that it isn’t nuclear physics. If you study the methods and apply them consistently, you’re going to succeed.

It’s just a matter of time.

Now, if you want to get started, the easiest way I’ve seen people do it is on Twitter. I’ve seen people make affiliate sales with under 100 followers.

I’ve seen people make sales with less than 50 followers.

It isn’t rocket science.

Hope that helps

Jon

Did you like this post? Don’t forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons.

I’d also love to hear your feedback in the comments. And if you want to get more content from me, check out my Twitter page @TheJonKahn

Four Things You Must Avoid When Starting an Online Business

The first thing you need to understand when starting an online business is that while many people are making money online,

And there are essentially endless ways in which you can make money online,

Everything requires work. Usually, a lot of it.

It will also require time.

With some businesses, you can do it in less time if you invest more work, but you’ll still need both.

So any online business model must take into account a certain amount of time and effort before you can see results.

Another element that is almost certain to result in failure is choosing a business model based on someone else’s success.

We are all individuals, we all have the things we like doing and things we don’t like doing as much.

An unfortunately very common mistake with people starting their online business is that they choose something that was “sold” to them as easier.

It didn’t have to be a scam. Most courses and ebooks about affiliate marketing will promote it as the easiest way to start an online business (you don’t need a product, the sales copy is written for you, etc).

This is true for all online businesses.

And while the statements are not false, and the course creator may have achieved fantastic results doing whatever it is they’re promoting, it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for you.

If you hate selling, then no matter how great the product you’re an affiliate for is and that it has the best sales copy anyone’s ever written. Your results are likely to be lousy.

So get familiarised with a bunch of online business types, and choose the one that’s right for you.

And the last key mistake newbies make with their business model is lack of focus.

It’s hard to blame them. I fell for it too.

When you dive into this world, every business type looks shiny. You want to do everything, and every time you see someone sharing their success you get FOMO.

But you can’t do everything. When you’re just starting, you probably can’t do more than one thing.

You have to focus.

So, to summarise, the biggest fails of online business models are:

Don’t take into account that it will take time.
Don’t take into account it will take effort.
Follow someone else’s passion, not yours.
Lack focus.

Avoid these, and you’re on the right track.

Hope that helps

Jon

Can you and your friend have profitable businesses in the same niche?

Well there’s plenty of business to go around.

Even these days, when so much of our shopping is done online.

Even though we’re buying products made on the other side of the world, sold by people living sometimes thousands of miles from us.

Even though for a few months in 2020 none of us visited a shop.

Despite all of these things, when we think of selling, we think of a brick and mortar store.

And yeah, it would really suck if you and your friend opened two separate stores that sell the same things, in the same city center.

And that’s how most of us see Etsy stores – there’s a limited amount of prospective customers who pass through, and those who buy from your friend won’t buy from you (and vice versa).

But this is not true with online businesses.

First of all, the amount of customers you could sell to (provided you’re picking a profitable niche) is almost limitless. We’re talking hundreds of thousands, millions.

You only need a tiny fraction of a fraction of that to do really well.

Both you and your friend could sell the exact same product to the exact same customer base, and you could both do very well.

Secondly, you could sell the same product but brand it differently, and sell to a different customer base.

For instance, you could sell the exact same coffee, but brand it one way to attract a no-fuss crowd that just wants to drink their coffee and get on with their day. And a completely different way to a hipster crowd that cares about where the coffee is from, how it was made etc.

In the online market, there are literally billions of prospective customers. You and your friend are less than a drop in that bucket. You could both do very well, and I hope you both will.

Hope that helps.

Jon

Can I be wealthy without education?

I guess it depends what you call an education.

You don’t need formal education. Nowadays someone with very basic knowledge can outearn a university Professor relatively easily.

Now, when I say easily it might seem like I’m implying that it’ll be easy – it won’t.

It’s just much easier than it has ever been.

See, we live in the greatest period in human history.

It has never been this easy for people to rely on themselves for their income, and basically – if you wish to – you can make money sitting on a beach in some Caribbean island while drinking a nice cocktail.

*Snap out of the dream now*

While this can be done, it takes a lot of work. But here’s the thing – that’s all it takes.

Not money

Not education

Not people skills

All it takes is a willingness to grind and grind, for months in the face of little to no results, and then grind some more.

If you start to do it, you’ll slowly see people who started around the same time as you drop off.

Most people can’t handle working hard with seemingly nothing to show for.

Most people can’t see beyond the next turn in the road, the next hill.

You’ll be better than that though. You know that, as the song goes, “at the end of the storm is a golden sky”.

You can live that dream. You just need to want it enough.

Do you?

Check out my bio for more info.

Hope that helps

Jon

Did you like this post? Don’t forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons.

I’d love to get your feedback in the comments.

And if you want to get more content from me, check out my Twitter page @TheJonKahn

This post may contain affiliate links

What are some good side hustles for a 20 year old?

As a 20 year old the world is your oyster.

This is true in many aspects of life, but few more so than in your ability to make money online.

As a 20 year old you have an immense degree of freedom. A degree that you’re likely to only fully grasp once it’s no longer there.

I would say that for anyone, when choosing a side hustle it’s best to think what is the best thing for YOU rather than “a 20 year old”.

First, ask yourself- do you have any exceptional skills? Examples of this would be programming, web design, SEO, etc.

The truth is that at your age, even if you don’t have a skill like that it’ll probably be relatively easy for you to learn.

If you do have a skill like that, utilising it would be a great place to start.

There are also other types of hustles that don’t require specialised skills.

If you want to make money fast, one of the fastest growing and most profitable hustles is flipping products. This is where you buy an item at a local store and then sell it online.

I’ve seen many people make profits flipping from day one, but it’s very labour intensive.

There are other types of ecom side hustles like dropshipping or print on demand (which is what I do), those are less labour intensive than flipping but require a large degree of trial and error.

Then you have affiliate marketing, which is many people’s “gateway drug” to making money online. This is where you sell other people’s products and make a commission for it.

That requires a degree of speciality, though I’ve seen people make money very quickly, but it can turn to almost passive income if you do it right.

Your opportunities are endless. The one thing you MUST beat into your head is that rich & easy does not exist. Whatever you choose, it’s going to require work and dedication.

Hope that helps

Jon

What is the best way to get into affiliate marketing and maintain a healthy audience?

Hi,

This really depends on you, your personal preferences and your strengths.

Some channels – like blogging – will require some time to get a good audience that trusts in the quality of your articles.

Once you have your audience trust they will return to read your articles. The next step is then to figure out what types of products your audience will be interested in, and promoting these.

Again, this takes some time to build. But once you have built a good audience base, you can choose the right products to recommend to them.

At least some of them are then likely to take your recommendation.

Other channels – like Twitter (and Instagram is finally starting to turn into one as well) – won’t require as much time.

You don’t really have to have a large core audience on Twitter or Instagram – I personally know people who started making money with 50 followers on Twitter.

It’s more about the quality of your sales tweet, and social proof (i.e. the results you’ve had) is a very powerful tool to establish trust.

This would be true for a blog as well, however in a blog you can post all the social proof you like, if nobody sees it it’s meaningless.

So it’s really up to you and your personal preferences.

If you are interested in getting set up on Twitter, let me know.

Hope that helps

Jon

Is Direct Affiliate Marketing becoming the new best way to affiliate on Twitter?

Direct affiliate marketing – is it real?

There’s a new game in town, that’s changing how affiliate marketing is done on Twitter.

It’s still on the fringes for now, but the question is will it remain a fringe method, or become the new way that pro affiliates are making money on the platform.

Right now, most affiliates promote specific products on their tweets. This will be much like promoting a product on any other platform, apart from the fact that you’re limited to 280 characters.

There will either be a link at the end of the tweet, or a call to action to get the link. But the general method is promoting a specific product to a general audience.

This new method, that I’m calling Direct Affiliate Marketing (or DAM), pulls the ol’ switcheroo on that method. Instead of promoting a specific product to a general audience, we’re promoting general products to a specific audience. A very specific audience. An audience of 1.

The principle behind DAM is simple. Start direct messaging your followers (or any new follower), asking them a general question.

If you’re taking the approach of messaging new followers, drop those copy/paste scripts. Anyone can recognise them and nobody likes them. Find something in the person’s profile that you can comment on. Once you combine that comment, even into a copy/paste script, it looks completely different.

So you reach out, ask a general question about what they’re doing, and take it from there. The aim being finding every affiliate’s golden nugget – your prospect’s pain points.

Once they reveal it/ them to you, you can start telling them about a product in your portfolio that might solve that pain point. If you haven’t got a product, you can still help – by doing that you’re ensuring that when you promote a product that’s relevant to them, they’ll buy it.

So, does this actually work?

I’ve been trying this method for a couple of weeks now, not a long time by any stretch. And I have had some success selling products.

The main issue with DAM is that it’s very labour intensive. With an affiliate tweet you promote the product and you’re guaranteed it’ll reach at least dozens of people. With DAM you’re doing a lot of work to promote to a single prospect.

However, I think the conversion rates end up being much better. My experience is most people won’t reply to that initial reach out message. Those who will reply are already interested in having some conversation, and the conversion rate once someone replies is significantly higher than in general affiliate marketing.

What I really enjoy about it is that you get to have conversations with people and help them with their problems specifically. It makes it for me something worthwhile.

For you, it’s something to think about.

Hope that helps, and have a wonderful weekend

Jon

Did you like this post? Don’t forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons.

I’d love to get your feedback in the comments.

And if you want to get more content from me, check out my Twitter page @TheJonKahn

This post may contain affiliate links

What advice would you give a person just starting out in affiliate marketing?

The one advice you must follow to succeed is to be patient.

Ask yourself, if some random person you knew nothing about started to push a product on you, would you buy it?

Most people would answer that “no”.

And the reason for that is that there’s no trust built yet between “some random person” and you.

In affiliate marketing you hear a magic word a lot, “Authority”.

Once you gain authority, the road to making sales is paved for you.

There are a few ways to get authority, all of which take time. There are no shortcuts here.

You have to know in advance that it’ll take time to make sales, and to decide in advance that you’re just going to continue.

See it, if you want, as an investment. You’re putting a lot of work and time into it now to build up your authority, and once you’ve gained it you’ll start reaping the rewards.

I keep banging on about this in my posts but it’s true. The number one reason for beginners to stop affiliate marketing before they ever made money doing it, is that they lost patience.

Don’t be sold on Quick & Easy, it does not exist. Definitely not in affiliate marketing. Put in the work, day in day out, and in time you’ll see the results.

Hope that helps

Jon

Did you like this post? Don’t forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons.

I’d love to get your feedback in the comments.

And if you want to get more content from me, check out my Twitter page @TheJonKahn

This post may contain affiliate links

What are the best products to affiliate for during COVID-19?

Obviously, COVID-19 has impacted many lives all around the world, and I’d just like to acknowledge that for a moment.

While many people have lost close ones or their livelihood (or both) during the pandemic, many people have also changed their lives for the better.

Affiliate marketing has definitely been one of the main sources for improving people’s lives, which is a wonderful thing because when done right, affiliate marketing is simply helping people solve a problem they have.

Some of the greatest products to promote during this pandemic involve courses teaching side hustles.

It can be any side hustle really. There are so many options that anyone could find something that interests them, and the past few months have shown people that having a 9–5 isn’t as safe as they thought.

And as more people go into side hustles, affiliating for these information products becomes a matter of learning some techniques that work for you, and you’re all set.

In addition, as a results of more people getting into side hustles, and therefore more people succeeding at it, there are more people going into the stock market.

So investment courses and ebooks are also seeing tremendous success over the past few months.

In general it seems that some of the barriers to entry into affiliate marketing have been lifted by the sheer volume of new consumers in this space.

Even getting a significant crowd and power of authority isn’t that big of an issue anymore, if you’re promoting the right products.

So if you want to succeed as an affiliate during this pandemic, your best bet is probably going for information products, and specifically money making and investment products.

Hope that helps

Jon

Did you like this post? Don’t forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons.

I’d love to get your feedback in the comments.

And if you want to get more content from me, check out my Twitter page @TheJonKahn

This post may contain affiliate links

How do I know if I have what it takes for Affiliate Marketing?

So this question raises another question really – what does it take to be an affiliate marketer?

The answer, in my opinion, is that it takes these three things:

Laptop/ mobile phone with internet connection
Some affiliate links for people to buy through
Determination

If you’ve got all three, you have everything it takes to be an affiliate marketer.

See, I keep saying – affiliate marketing is not rocket science.

You also don’t have to be one of those savvy salesmen – I never saw myself as having an ability to sell stuff – affiliate marketing is not about that.

So what is it about?

As cliche as this may sound, it’s about helping people.

It’s really true, because as an affiliate you’re literally not selling anything. It’s the product owner who’s supposed to sell the product, and that’s what their sales page is for.

Your job is different. Your job is to find out what the pain points are for your prospective customers.

You then have to identify the product in your portfolio of affiliate products that will help them with those pain points.

You need to explain to them how this product would help them, and convince them of that.

And then you need to get them to that sales page, where the product owner will sell them on the product.

So affiliate marketing is about listening to your customer and caring about their problems, and helping them find the solution.

For some people, this comes naturally. But even if it doesn’t come naturally to you, it is a completely teachable skill, and one that most affiliate marketing courses deal with.

Hope that helps

Jon

Did you like this post? Don’t forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons.

I’d love to get your feedback in the comments.

And if you want to get more content from me, check out my Twitter page @TheJonKahn

This post may contain affiliate links