Making The Switch To Aff Marketing

Soupyone

Soupyone

Banned
Dec 8, 2009
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Les Etats Unis
Hello guys,

I've spent the past four years generating/selling leads & building lead gen websites (financial verticals) and I've decided to make the switch over to affiliate marketing after seeing how much money I'm leaving off the table since I've never really scaled what I was doing.

Questions for you wise ones: Do you know of any people who made the switch from full-time SEM & lead gen to aff marketing? Having the technical know how or capabilities and similar experience. How do you recommend someone in my position proceeding?

I plan on throwing up a few random campaigns on a few social networks and seeing what sticks before I start testing & testing different platforms.

Any responses will be helpful (minus the compulsory "GTFO nube").

Thanks!
-Soupyone
 


Well, don't know anyone who's made such a switch but you seem set to go. Just don't let your technical skills get in the way. Apply the 80/20 strategy to your business. Focus on your most productive tasks (i.e. marketing) and outsource everything else (i.e. website/landing page creation).
 
It could be argued that what you were doing was affiliate marketing. So i don't think it's really a switch at all.
 
megatabbers said:
Well, don't know anyone who's made such a switch but you seem set to go. Just don't let your technical skills get in the way. Apply the 80/20 strategy to your business. Focus on your most productive tasks (i.e. marketing) and outsource everything else (i.e. website/landing page creation).
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Thank you for the advice, I was actually doing that. I'm teaching a graphic designer friend the ins and outs of landing page design (I like working with people I know I can trust from the start), and I'm going to hire someone from Get Friday to do all of the time intensive things (i.e. responding to emails with networks, sorting through reports to give me the gist of things).

That was the mistake I've been making the past four, thinking that no one does it better than me therefore only I should be doing it. Problem was as soon as I stopped working, business stopped coming in.

I took off for a year to relax and just explored America, now I'm back and ready to do it the right way.
 
kingfish said:
It could be argued that what you were doing was affiliate marketing. So i don't think it's really a switch at all.
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Point well taken, that thought has run through my mind a few times.

Either way, I have much to learn and many things to do differently.

Thank you for your insight.
 
if you've got a background in the industry, start with traffic you're comfortable with. unfamiliar traffic source + unfamiliar offer can be bad.

just make sure your offer is relevant to whatever traffic you're driving. (durrr)
 
mumblejae said:
if you've got a background in the industry, start with traffic you're comfortable with. unfamiliar traffic source + unfamiliar offer can be bad.

just make sure your offer is relevant to whatever traffic you're driving. (durrr)
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Thank you for the unfettered advice :smilie_weihn_winki:
 
Although, since we don't know everything you've done for the past 4 years, it seems like you should have a firm grasp on the basics and fundamentals that affiliate marketing is built on.

...The biggest challenge people like you usually have is trying to be too perfect. The ugliest pages sometimes will pull the highest results and sometimes you really have to under use the skills you may have. (Meaning not every site you build will be a master piece.)

I would stick with what you know best - and learn about the approach IM'ers usually take with that given field.(Eg. SEO/SEM) You'll probably find fundamental differences.

Keep cracking away and remember that the face of the IM industry changes quicker than Sammy Sosa's skin color - so make sure, once you've built up a good base of money, to branch out a bit into different areas.
 
FTC-Hater said:
Although, since we don't know everything you've done for the past 4 years, it seems like you should have a firm grasp on the basics and fundamentals that affiliate marketing is built on.

...The biggest challenge people like you usually have is trying to be too perfect. The ugliest pages sometimes will pull the highest results and sometimes you really have to under use the skills you may have. (Meaning not every site you build will be a master piece.)

I would stick with what you know best - and learn about the approach IM'ers usually take with that given field.(Eg. SEO/SEM) You'll probably find fundamental differences.

Keep cracking away and remember that the face of the IM industry changes quicker than Sammy Sosa's skin color - so make sure, once you've built up a good base of money, to branch out a bit into different areas.
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I can't even imagine not making everything a masterpiece. I hear you, but I just don't comprehend how yet.

Sounds like I have a lot of mindset changing to do :) :banana_sml:

In terms of a money base I'm going to start off exploring with a little under $1,000 for CPC then when I find something I like throw around 20K I like at it over 30 days.
 
Soupyone said:
I can't even imagine not making everything a masterpiece. I hear you, but I just don't comprehend how yet.

Sounds like I have a lot of mindset changing to do :) :banana_sml:

In terms of a money base I'm going to start off exploring with a little under $1,000 for CPC then when I find something I like throw around 20K I like at it over 30 days.
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That sounds like a great idea. I personally started with $1000 for my entire source of funding and it took a while to scale up profits with that little amount of money. You should be fine
 
Soupyone said:
Hello guys,

I've spent the past four years generating/selling leads & building lead gen websites (financial verticals) and I've decided to make the switch over to affiliate marketing after seeing how much money I'm leaving off the table since I've never really scaled what I was doing.

Questions for you wise ones: Do you know of any people who made the switch from full-time SEM & lead gen to aff marketing? Having the technical know how or capabilities and similar experience. How do you recommend someone in my position proceeding?

I plan on throwing up a few random campaigns on a few social networks and seeing what sticks before I start testing & testing different platforms.

Any responses will be helpful (minus the compulsory "GTFO nube").

Thanks!
-Soupyone
Click to expand...

Affiliate marketing will probably be easier for you since you know how to drive the traffic, and you won't have to worry about selling the leads to anyone. The leads you generate will generate commissions as opposed to finding a client, running a campaign, delivering leads, getting paid.


The amount of money will be less for leads than you're probably making now, but you're getting to generate leads for someone else as opposed to a client who is expecting "X" number of leads in a given amount of time.

Good luck with the transition, and let us know how it goes.
 
Dwight Schrute said:
Affiliate marketing will probably be easier for you since you know how to drive the traffic, and you won't have to worry about selling the leads to anyone. The leads you generate will generate commissions as opposed to finding a client, running a campaign, delivering leads, getting paid.


The amount of money will be less for leads than you're probably making now, but you're getting to generate leads for someone else as opposed to a client who is expecting "X" number of leads in a given amount of time.

Good luck with the transition, and let us know how it goes.
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That's what I've been thinking. Plus, no pesky charge backs because the person couldn't close the leads. You wouldn't believe how many lunatics there are in the mortgage business.

I'm looking forward to just growing without having to depend on clients for business; I have no idea why it took this long to figure out to do this.
 
Soupyone said:
That's what I've been thinking. Plus, no pesky charge backs because the person couldn't close the leads. You wouldn't believe how many lunatics there are in the mortgage business.

I'm looking forward to just growing without having to depend on clients for business; I have no idea why it took this long to figure out to do this.
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I spent many years in the mortgage industry, so I can tell you from experience as well - you won't get screwed in AM like you have in lead generation.
 
The financial lead market (mortgage, debt, etc) is very saturated, as are many of the current popular AM niches. With that said, if you have experience generating finance leads online, then I think you'll do great in AM. The strategy/mentality is very similar if not the same.

I got my start in IM at a mortgage lead broker company. Under my direction the company ended up generating the majority of their own leads. Fast forward, years later, I took that knowledge and successfully applied it to affiliate marketing.

My favorite part of leads vs AM is not having to deal with lead caps, closing rates, and dumb lead buyers. An acai advertiser can scale their operation with the addition of new merchant accounts, outsourced fulfillment and call centers, versus a mortgage broker shop would take a lifetime to add enough competent staff to achieve the same.
 
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