Affiliate Marketing. Experience Pays

Background: Firstly, my Affiliate Marketing and Internet experience began back in 2003 as a paid Researcher Online. I compiled statistical reports. Top executives in the education field used this data at seminars to successfully leverage high ranking Government officials for extra "educational" funding. I made them look really good. Naturally, they never bothered to thank me and took all the credit.

At the same time my Research work gave me the opportunity to Research Affiliate Marketing Online. (those were the days my friend.... I thought they'd never end... da da da da... da da da da da da...) However, next thing- I was redundant and broke with no real prospects. (I quit my day job ha!)

Undaunted, I still had grandiose visions of working online from home. I believed I was well equipped to succeed; given my background in "clever surfing" and Research. (dumb and wrong ha!)

I discovered that Research online and making a living at Internet Marketing weren't quite the same Pony. (donkey) I got stuck with a girl called "miss-information" and her brother "bad advice." I even bought a chain of programs complete with "missing links". I was so enchanted just to be disenchanted. I got disillusioned with the illusion of money making online programs. These promised so much and delivered so little. (of... not-a-lot)

Yes... I too fell for the same honey traps as 99% of “wannaBees."

I spent money I didn't have on a raft of products. (a raft, a boat, a shipload) I fell for the... you-got-to-have-this-new "software-program" to make a seven-figure-income. (Guinea pigs unite)

Like everyone else I discovered that "free" actually meant... nothing was actually free under-the-Sun. (credit card details after you signed up was a dead giveaway) I signed up for every free report and got stress headaches from information overload.

I also fell for the... 17-free-outdated-E books-giveaways. (with opt-in-special) Only if I paid for the back end product. This came complete with a promise of more useless information in a free report. (it worked-last-year information as well). I got sent truckloads of outdated information that worked before the Dot com crash? Yes I fell for the hype! I felt like a Mushroom... fed on BS and kept in the dark!

All this aside, it wasn't all bad. I did at least learn something positive from each experience? Each time; I managed to find another piece of the puzzle. (I learned how not to light fires online and get burned)

I share this with you so you don't fall prey to any of this plaque. Thankfully you can profit from the mistakes of others. (I wonder who that might be...)

Finally, I discovered some real gems that have restored my faith in human nature. Better yet- I finally discovered how to make money from Affiliate Marketing and learned many excellent skills. The most amazing thing that happened was- (oh he is a gutsy kid) I did learn a lot about AdWords and Pay-Per-click from a good Carpenter. (not Jesus) I am talking Chris Carpenter? and the AdWords Bible "Google Cash Method."

I garnered more good oil on AdWords (Pay-Per-Click) from Chris Mcneeney, Brad Callen, the guys at Bryxen Software, Jeff Walker, Ewen Chia, Ken Evoy of SiteBuildit, Jeff Alderson, Rob Benwell, Mohammad Latif and many more AdWords experts. These are bona-fide people with Gold information and Diamond advice. These top earning Super Affiliates and Merchants have all been there and done that. Experience pays.

At first, the thought of Pay-Per-Click advertising (the amount I would be charged for each click) and losing my shirt, scared the living daylights out of me. Until I remembered I was never a wimp. I tempered that thought with confidence instilled in me by all of these AdWords "warriors." Although I went into Google AdWords a total Newbie, I was bolstered by the experience and advice of the 12 Apostles, safe in the knowledge I would only have to pay for results, after someone clicked on my ads. I managed to stay under budget for the first ten days.

After the second ten days I broke even. I was excited that I had done this well even; I then made my first sale of $47.00 as an Affiliate. The very next day I was dumbfounded to see I had another $178.00 worth of sales in my Click Bank Account. The moral of the story is: I did not lose my shirt first time up in Pay-Per-Click (AdWords) I was able to make a profit albeit a small one. I figured I must have done something right and followed some good advice. I kept tweaking my campaign and I split tested my text ads several times.

I got expansive and experimented with content network advertising. I switched back and forth between normal Google AdWords advertising and the content network. I tested both to see what worked best.

The content network worked well from a traffic point of view. There were huge increases in traffic. I put this all down to excellent advice and a proven money making system from the 12 Apostles.