Professional Developer & Designer going into Affiliate Marketing

FingerFort

New member
May 5, 2012
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Hi,

I'm a professional designer and developer who has served as Creative Director for a top affiliate marketing company in the south. Our main product was credit report monitoring and we were #2 in our industry. There I learned the very best at how to design for conversions through design, copywriting, form strategy and tested everything down to the button, colors, size of fonts, etc...

Currently I'm a Creative Director at a different company who doesn't do this type of work, but am getting really tired of having all this knowledge paying off for the "man" should I say. I want to use my degree and what i've learned through employers to make money for myself.

I have a bit of an advantage as I can design and code myself. I know my designs sell because I've seen 60% conversion increases with my designs leading to millions in sales for my last company. With this being said, and with my experience, what is the best place to start with affiliate marketing? I have a substantial start-up capital, but really don't want to get into the ppc or display ad game.

I signed up on ClickBank in hopes of creating landing pages that convert to the vendor's products, but it looks as though they really just want you to direct to their landing pages and not create your own landing pages to sell directly to the product.

If anyone has any advice on where my abilities would pay off the most, please let me know! I believe if I converted the time I'm reading the mindless drivel on Facebook to building something of value I'll be off to a good start.

Just to clarify, I'm not here to try to sell my services as a designer/developer. I'm tired of making others the money and want some for myself.
 


Someone just tried to send me a private message but it wouldn't let me reply. It said I didn't have access to the page. Strange.
 
Trial and error builds experience.

Since you are a designer, you should be able to take swings at campaigns easier and faster than most... Do yourself a favor and take 6 good swings at campaigns... i guarantee you start to learn the fastest that way, and may even end up with a hit. I often say, its similar to building an extra muscle in your brain, the more campaigns you do, the easier they become, and you start hitting more and more.
 
Thanks for the advice. Since I have some play money to start with, and landing page/conversion optimization is my strong suit, I'll give it a try. I've been reading the beginner threads here and the learning center on your site (Bevo) and getting a lot of ideas.

If anyone has any more advice in regards to who or what to avoid, what's worth outsourcing or diy, tips, etc... and want to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

PS. Forum Gods - my apologies for not seeing the noob forum at the bottom. Thanks for not banning.
 
My best advice when it comes to outsourcing is you get what you pay for. There are a lot of people out there who offer content for $0.02/word. I'm not saying all of these individuals suck, because I have found a few gems that severely undervalue their work. Just be cautious. Sometimes I've found myself wondering if my content writer hired a different content writer to write their sales page.
 
If anyone has any more advice in regards to who or what to avoid, what's worth outsourcing or diy, tips, etc... and want to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

I wrote a guide on outsourcing and managing multiple web properties - see if you find it useful - http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/156213-100th-post-trying-share-some-ideas-long.html

I am going to continue building that thread and you might wanna chime in.

Also, as Ryan mentioned above - you definitely have the edge over the average marketer when it comes to design and LP building. Much of your startup cost is going to be pre-compensated for by your design skills. So consider it a considerable asset.

There's no harm in outsourcing to a $0.02 per word writer as long as you wade through the filth and discover gems (and that my friend is HARD).

Also again to reiterate what Ryan said, diversifying your campaigns in the initial stages will be a hit. Most people get overwhelmed because of their lack for programming/designing knowledge and end up with a single campaign. If this single campaign doesn't take off, they lose both their patience and their enthusiasm and we see threads like "IM is Dead" - "IM Sucks" and god knows what else.

Whatever, you do. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the tips.

Any suggestions on networks that allow noobs to make their own landing pages for the products without any history? What I'm finding on Clickbank is scary.