Before really jumping into Affiliate marketing, it’s good to have a basic understanding of the tracking that enables it and what affiliate marketing actually is.
Hey! Thank you for this read, I just signed up for affiliate marketing and am learning the basics. I would love your opinion; would Fiverr be a good network to begin with? instead of ClickBank and the others?
However, the first was an ad that look like an article that was about some fake news to make the eader emotional (fear) and then linked to the above link.
Is that a profitable way of doing affiliate marketing? Make a random article that induce fear, buy traffic, send them to a similar aggressive site and cash in? Or would it be better to do it yourself with your own store the same way (fear based article with traffic > landing page > ship and get paid)?
That's a niche of affiliate marketing that's making a lot of money. You have to get your ads and long form on point then scale. It's a feasible way of doing it if you can blow a bunch of money to get your ads right.
Unfortunately though, a lot of that isn't affiliate marketing. It's actually the same person running it to one site or multiple sites trying to sell their own product.
I see now. Just trying to wrap my head around all the different ways to monetize on internet right now and it is overwhelming to decide what model to go with... I have tried one store and one blogg before, complete failures for different reasons but I learned my lessons from it...
I'm curious about the SEO game with regards to AI.
Written content is being generated on the fly.
I'm sure Google will ban, hammer down on (easily recognisable) generated SEO blogs and the like, but this does feel like the game has changed.
Makers that build apps for marketing, retain traffic/audience and last time I heard, some of them say they use these apps as marketing and are much stronger at retaining an audience/followers than just (generated/written) content. Would you say the future for SEO will be or has already (completely) changed?
SEO is going to change but Google's going to fight tooth and nail and I wouldn't bet against Google since their entire revenue model is based off of ads.
Remember this stat. 1/6 of Americans still use flip phones.
I clicked the "Seriously go check those links" links and completely nerded out on the ability to understand what was going on in the URL on the Google page I landed at
imagine trying to start a Wi-Fi biz without a decently structured guide like this. everyone teaching Wi-Fi biz should take notes bcz it’s criminal to throw an absolute beginner into the deep end without him ever having even set foot in a kindergarten pool.
i speak of myself here btw. anyway, I took this weekend & shut everything down and have already completely setup the site (no posts yet)
Problem is, bowtied tetras substacked you linked to ..says you should NOT do affiliate if the average payout per order is less than $50.
by that definition, the niche I picked (skincare for xyz problems).. might not be worth the effort unless I own the product bcz the AOV is usually $40-60..leaving very little for commissions.
Am I missing something here? Is skincare in general .. orfor ‘xyz’ problem/demographic a bad model for affiliate???
Nothing is absolute but you will make way more money on higher ticket items. $50 is a guide. You have to think about it wholistically because the money you earn is a combination of many things and not just commission payout.
Traffic X Ctr X Cvr X Payout
How easy is the traffic to get compared to a high ticket item?
What's the clickthrough rate of that traffic?
What percent of those users convert?
What's the payout?
$50 as a rule is a good guide to keep beginners away from starting amazon affiliate sites and sites they won't make much money on for the work they put in. It doesn't mean that if the commission is $40 AND RECURRING that you shouldn't do it.
Using that as an example, if on average, that sale recurs 4 times... It's actually a $160 sale.
If you *magically* found an offer that had a 50% ctr and 50% cvr but only had a $20 commission... You build that site as fast as you can.
The Honey browser extension had small average commissions (probably $7) but because of their model, they generated $100M in 2018 before they were sold.
Guides are there to guide your thinking. Not hard and fast rules that you can never ever break. Have to put some thought into why the rule/guide was mentioned.
This post goes into more of the thinking/math of revenue creation.
thnx for this. I read that link a few times. I’m am starting from scratch & don’t have a lot of money. Have to build up the digital muscles & save have enough $ to launch my own product (long term). from what you’re saying, I may have to pivot abit and look for higher ticket items. (but I don’t want the site to look like a jumbled mess of product reviews.
do you recommend a beginner to write articles (informational), slowly rank and then put in links .. or jump right into signing up on affiliate links and write and include the links along the way?
(Or Perhaps a link to an example of what a good recently new SEO optimized site looks like)
I don’t want to spend ages titter tottering on what niche. I’m in too much pain and have to start. I can’t waste my mid twenties. I look at 40 year olds in my neighborhood and a lot of them have that dead / “what if” look. Like something is broken deep down. Gives me anxiety knowing that’s what awaits if I’m lazy.
just need some guidance before I mash the gas pedal.
Been a subscriber for a few months but honestly just getting into it now. Can you elaborate a bit on this?
Should I just choose a topic to write about based on the offers I expect to promote? What comes to mind is writing about something and then becoming an affiliate down the line for something in a different category.
I don't have skills in this space yet but have some $$ so appreciate your substack and look forward to getting to it!
I'm still wrapping my brain around the affiliate marketing business models. Is this a good example: find a niche such as truck accessories, write articles rating accessories with links to amazon or other sites that pay you if someone buys, then work my ass off on SEO optimization as I continue to bang out content about truck accessories??
How would something like this work for somebody who is trying to create a tele-mental health business? Just trying to figure out some logistics stuff but am kind of... feeling overwhelmed with everything
Hey! Thank you for this read, I just signed up for affiliate marketing and am learning the basics. I would love your opinion; would Fiverr be a good network to begin with? instead of ClickBank and the others?
Fiverr isn't an affiliate network. They may have an affiliate program but they aren't a network
I went in on a random site like msn.com to find ads and see how they do them. I found this for example: https://findsafesoundalarm.com/
However, the first was an ad that look like an article that was about some fake news to make the eader emotional (fear) and then linked to the above link.
Is that a profitable way of doing affiliate marketing? Make a random article that induce fear, buy traffic, send them to a similar aggressive site and cash in? Or would it be better to do it yourself with your own store the same way (fear based article with traffic > landing page > ship and get paid)?
That's a niche of affiliate marketing that's making a lot of money. You have to get your ads and long form on point then scale. It's a feasible way of doing it if you can blow a bunch of money to get your ads right.
Unfortunately though, a lot of that isn't affiliate marketing. It's actually the same person running it to one site or multiple sites trying to sell their own product.
I see now. Just trying to wrap my head around all the different ways to monetize on internet right now and it is overwhelming to decide what model to go with... I have tried one store and one blogg before, complete failures for different reasons but I learned my lessons from it...
hey can you please post the whole article from Jake Langley: 1 Weird Trick To Make 10s of Millions With Click Bait...
would love to see this info, its not on twitter anymore!
1. I'm not Jake Langley
2. Why would I post someone else's content without their permission
1. i know
2. you used it as an example in your own content.
3. maybe you could replace the twitter post(its not available anymore) with something else, makes your thread better and we learn more. Would be nice
Where did I use it? Are you saying I retweeted it, Jake deleted it, and you want me to go find it for you?
I'm curious about the SEO game with regards to AI.
Written content is being generated on the fly.
I'm sure Google will ban, hammer down on (easily recognisable) generated SEO blogs and the like, but this does feel like the game has changed.
Makers that build apps for marketing, retain traffic/audience and last time I heard, some of them say they use these apps as marketing and are much stronger at retaining an audience/followers than just (generated/written) content. Would you say the future for SEO will be or has already (completely) changed?
SEO is going to change but Google's going to fight tooth and nail and I wouldn't bet against Google since their entire revenue model is based off of ads.
Remember this stat. 1/6 of Americans still use flip phones.
wow interesting stat! that must only include lower income bracket/older generation/etc
I clicked the "Seriously go check those links" links and completely nerded out on the ability to understand what was going on in the URL on the Google page I landed at
This is cool.
Thanks BTO
You're welcome!
imagine trying to start a Wi-Fi biz without a decently structured guide like this. everyone teaching Wi-Fi biz should take notes bcz it’s criminal to throw an absolute beginner into the deep end without him ever having even set foot in a kindergarten pool.
i speak of myself here btw. anyway, I took this weekend & shut everything down and have already completely setup the site (no posts yet)
Problem is, bowtied tetras substacked you linked to ..says you should NOT do affiliate if the average payout per order is less than $50.
by that definition, the niche I picked (skincare for xyz problems).. might not be worth the effort unless I own the product bcz the AOV is usually $40-60..leaving very little for commissions.
Am I missing something here? Is skincare in general .. orfor ‘xyz’ problem/demographic a bad model for affiliate???
Nothing is absolute but you will make way more money on higher ticket items. $50 is a guide. You have to think about it wholistically because the money you earn is a combination of many things and not just commission payout.
Traffic X Ctr X Cvr X Payout
How easy is the traffic to get compared to a high ticket item?
What's the clickthrough rate of that traffic?
What percent of those users convert?
What's the payout?
$50 as a rule is a good guide to keep beginners away from starting amazon affiliate sites and sites they won't make much money on for the work they put in. It doesn't mean that if the commission is $40 AND RECURRING that you shouldn't do it.
Using that as an example, if on average, that sale recurs 4 times... It's actually a $160 sale.
If you *magically* found an offer that had a 50% ctr and 50% cvr but only had a $20 commission... You build that site as fast as you can.
The Honey browser extension had small average commissions (probably $7) but because of their model, they generated $100M in 2018 before they were sold.
Guides are there to guide your thinking. Not hard and fast rules that you can never ever break. Have to put some thought into why the rule/guide was mentioned.
This post goes into more of the thinking/math of revenue creation.
https://bowtiedopossum.substack.com/p/back-to-the-basics
thnx for this. I read that link a few times. I’m am starting from scratch & don’t have a lot of money. Have to build up the digital muscles & save have enough $ to launch my own product (long term). from what you’re saying, I may have to pivot abit and look for higher ticket items. (but I don’t want the site to look like a jumbled mess of product reviews.
do you recommend a beginner to write articles (informational), slowly rank and then put in links .. or jump right into signing up on affiliate links and write and include the links along the way?
(Or Perhaps a link to an example of what a good recently new SEO optimized site looks like)
I don’t want to spend ages titter tottering on what niche. I’m in too much pain and have to start. I can’t waste my mid twenties. I look at 40 year olds in my neighborhood and a lot of them have that dead / “what if” look. Like something is broken deep down. Gives me anxiety knowing that’s what awaits if I’m lazy.
just need some guidance before I mash the gas pedal.
You won’t be accepted for most affiliates until you have content and traffic to your site so start with info articles
Been a subscriber for a few months but honestly just getting into it now. Can you elaborate a bit on this?
Should I just choose a topic to write about based on the offers I expect to promote? What comes to mind is writing about something and then becoming an affiliate down the line for something in a different category.
I don't have skills in this space yet but have some $$ so appreciate your substack and look forward to getting to it!
"Should I just choose a topic to write about based on the offers I expect to promote?" - Yes
What exactly are you confused about or would like me to elaborate on?
Okay perfect that makes sense. I didn't know that I couldn't begin as an affiliate w/o having some type of traffic already.
Just one more thing: I know you suggest starting out as an affiliate bc you'll burn through less money.
But I saw one of the examples where you said ecommerce might be an easier play vs affiliate for some things (think wight loss was one of them)
So does it still make sense to learn the ropes w affiliate even if I have upwards of 20k to play with to get started?
I'm still wrapping my brain around the affiliate marketing business models. Is this a good example: find a niche such as truck accessories, write articles rating accessories with links to amazon or other sites that pay you if someone buys, then work my ass off on SEO optimization as I continue to bang out content about truck accessories??
Interested to know if you’ve tried applying this idea? I have all of these same questions and considering just doing it and seeing what happens.
Yes. This is exactly what affiliate marketing is and how most sites do it.
How would something like this work for somebody who is trying to create a tele-mental health business? Just trying to figure out some logistics stuff but am kind of... feeling overwhelmed with everything
Are you creating an affiliate tele-health website? Or are you onboarding the doctors yourself?
If the first, it's the same process. If second, then it's a bit different.
Really enjoyed this, slowly making my way through your sub!
Great article! Thank you Opossum!