Affiliate Masters Course Review
January 25th, 2009
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In her post Blog Business Plan – Monetization, Marelisa Fabrega pointed us to the Affiliate Masters Course. This is a free 152-page ebook that presents a 10-day course on learning affiliate marketing.
- Day 1: Intro To Affiliate Business Basics
- Day 2: Brainstorm Your Site Concept
- Day 3: Develop High-Profitability Topics
- Day 4: Plan Your Monetization Models
- Day 5: Refine Final Concept And Register Domain Name
- Day 6: Build A Site That Gets The Click!
- Day 7: Build Free Traffic
- Day 8: Build Relationships
- Day 9: Know Your Visitors
- Day 10: Monetize!
- The Road To Success
<sarcasm>I wasn’t planning to do another review right now, but Evelyn and Carla complained that I wasn’t giving them enough books to read!</sarcasm>
Anyway, I didn’t find this too helpful for me personally, because I had seen most of the information before. It’s really geared towards new people (you don’t even register a domain name until halfway through). But if you’re new to affiliate marketing, or thinking about taking the plunge, this is a great way to get a lot of information in one place. I don’t agree with everything they say, but it’s a good starting point.
One topic they mention is the difference between selling (writing sales copy) and preselling (writing a review that encourages people to click through to the sales copy with intent to buy). They say that many people are selling when they should be preselling, and this hurts their results. This was new to me, and it seemed really important. I wish they had gone into much more detail here. But other people will appreciate all the detail on finding niches, keywords, affiliate programs, SEO, etc.
The main thing I didn’t like is that it gives off a very strong marketing vibe. There are many sales pitches sprinkled throughout, though I guess that’s to be expected in a freebie. It also seems a little hyped up and impersonal. My favorite line, for the sleaze factor:
“If you don’t monetize a visitor one way, convert her into dollars another way!”
People are not objects to be converted into dollars!
While most of its attempts at humor fall flat on their face, this one worked for me:
“The key to traffic analysis is to simplify. Forget the 150 different ways that traffic-analyzing software slices and dices hits, visits, pages, page views, and visitors. You simply don’t need to know how many left-handed Norwegians visit your site between 3-4 AM on Sundays.”
Again, great info for new people, but it’s just a starting point. It appears to have been written before blogging had come of age, and something more up-to-date would be helpful.
For people who have moved past this basic info and need something more advanced, Online Business School is a great choice. It gives an overview of six different ways of making money online, not just affiliate marketing. And WordPress SEO Secrets is the best SEO guide for people using the WordPress platform.
But the Affiliate Masters Course has one great advantage: it’s free. Check it out if you need an introduction to affiliate marketing. And if you’re a left-handed Norwegian, let us know in the comments.
January 25th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
The point about pre-selling is one that we should absorb, as it adds another layer of positive marketing to the whole package. It eases the purchaser/customer into the scenario even more than regular sales tactics would. The note about statistics is entertaining, and it does make it clear that many statistics are not that useful to keep track of; at the same time, a couple of specific ones, connected to well-defined goals, may make a large difference.
Armen Shirvanian´s last blog post..Mind-Mapping Your Day or Week
January 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
@ Armen, I’m going to see if I can learn some more about pre-selling, because it does seem important. And yes, certain statistics are good to watch. You just have to know what matters.