Affiliate Marketing Training Sites
After learning & experimenting with Affiliate Marketing for 2 years, I found that the best way for me to really dive into the concepts and quickly apply what I learn is to be a part of a community. There are tons of affiliate forums out there, but many of the people on them are only there because some self-proclaimed "guru" told them to promote their crap in the forums! That's why I decided to try out a couple of the paid communities: to eliminate the tire-kicking spammers!
Plus, I realized in no time that many of the paid membership sites for affiliates include tools, courses, software, and better support.
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Wealthy Affiliate University - Wealthy Affiliate is the site that taught me just about everything I know about being a successful affiliate, and it's actually FUN to be a member. I've made quite a few friends from the community, and I love learning & teaching whenever I feel like it. It's great to have other people that understand my passion for making money online, right at my fingertips.
It's only $39/month ($29.99/month if paid yearly), which is incredibly cheap compared to the $497 home study courses and $97/month membership sites floating around out there. The best part is, they offer everything from keyword research tools, to landing page generators, to detailed marketing tutorials, to excellent networking opportunities in the most comprehensive forum I've ever been a part of!
You will truly enjoy being a member, and you'll learn enough to make back your investment many times over! It will keep you motivated, keep you on track, keep you learning, AND keep you up to date on the latest methods for dominating the affiliate scene.
Check out WealthyAffiliate.com to learn more & see why it's the coolest affiliate marketing training site ever...
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Affilorama 2.0 - I joined Affilorama before Wealthy Affiliate, back when it was still Affilorama 1.0. It was nice, but at the time I only wanted to belong to one membership site. It didn't have even close to the number of lessons, videos, web-based research tools and members that WA did, so I canceled my membership.
Almost a year later, Mark Ling (the creator of Affilorama) decided to re-launch the site with dozens of new tools and lots of new material to keep affiliates up to date on strategies and techniques, and here's the kicker: it's free! There is a paid option that has more features like "Mark's market of the month" in which Mark just goes crazy telling you everything you need to know to profit from one niche, among other things. At least sign up for the free option to take advantage of the free tools and content, then check out the premium option to see if it's worth it for you.
See if Affilorama 2.0 is what you're looking for...and don't forget to at least sign up for the free account!
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SEOmoz - This site focuses on driving free traffic to your sites through the Search Engines. It comes with dozens of fantastic research, analysis & tracking tools (all web-based), a huge community of passionate Search Engine optimizers, and lots of free resources for beginners.
They have tons of downloadable PDF walkthroughs & "cheat sheets", and enough informative blog posts to last you a few years of studying easily.
They're at the top of the SEO industry in many people's opinions, and to me they offer a wonderful resource for staying on top of the tried and true method of letting customers find your website for free: SEO.
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Affiliate Marketing Courses & Learning Material
Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to create an entire community of people around one or two strategies or pieces of information. So, for those guides that were written for one purpose alone, this section filters through the terrible stuff and the scams to reveal the hidden gems.
Cash Bootstrap Method - If you're just getting started with Affiliate Marketing, or you've been having trouble getting to the point that you'd like, this is a good $9 investment. Yep, I said 9 bucks. This report has diagrams, step-by-step checklists, and detailed (but concise) info on how to do everything from picking the right products & keywords, to setting up a decent website that looks professional, all the way to optimizing your campaigns.
If you don't want to shell out a ton of cash to get a nice overview of how to get that first successful project off the ground, the "Cash Bootstrap Method" is most likely your best bet. That said, I would not recommend it if you already feel like you know what you're doing as an affiliate marketer, and already have a lot of experience with promoting affiliate programs either through SEO or PPC advertising. There might be a few hidden gems in there for you, and it's nice to have it all in one place, but if you're a pro it'll be $9 down the tubes.
Ready to get your hands on a guide that walks you through the whole affiliate marketing process for only $9? Check out the Cash Bootstrap Method now!
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Commission Blueprint - If you're a complete beginner, this might not be right for you, as Steve talks (too long) about in the first couple videos. However, if you feel like you know generally what to do as an affiliate, but can't seem to get things moving, this video series will walk you through it. Similar to the Cash Bootstrap Method, the Commission Blueprint gives a nice overview, also including step-by-step checklists. However, the blueprint includes a LOT more material in video form.
If you want to decide between the two of them, know this: Commission Blueprint goes more in depth with the topics, and breaks them down in an easy-to-follow order with videos, meaning you can watch them (or just listen to them) while you're eating lunch or doing something else. This convenience and more detailed approach, along with other cool pieces of information like what you need to do to avoid tax problems with the IRS and how to scale your business, make it better overall...but of course, at a price: $88 more.
If you want to buy one product that will take you from casual affiliate to pro, the Commission Blueprint video series is a great choice!
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Affiliate Bully 144 - This ebook was written by my favorite affiliate marketer: Andre Chapron. He's insanely good at pre-selling people, which is the #1 best thing you can learn when becoming a successful affiliate, so I buy everything he creates. This ebook is an advanced strategy guide he gave to 144 people that bought a tracking tool through his affiliate link, but updated and made ten times better!
If you are just starting out, do NOT buy this guide, because some of these techniques won't even make sense, and I wouldn't want you to waste your $50. But, if you're already starting to make some money as an affiliate, get it now! Seriously, Affiliate Bully 144 is one of the best products I've ever bought, and...wait wait wait. On second thought, don't buy it. *heh heh, if they don't buy it, they won't be any competition for me...* Just kidding. =) Anyway, it comes with a killer checklist (that's more in-depth and easier to follow than the Cash Bootstrap Method, and includes specific strategies Andre uses), plus a boatload of amazingly-powerful tactics barely anyone knows of.
If you want to learn some cool little tricks that can breathe some life into your projects, Affiliate Bully 144 is the ebook for you.
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Lazy Marketer - Chris Rempel considers himself a "Lazy Marketer", but he actually works his ass off! I've purchased every single one of the reports he's released, because he knows his stuff. This is one of those guides that helps because it gets rid of the crap: tons of people out there still sell guides on Adsense for example, but Chris explains bluntly that you're an idiot if you're using Adsense as your primary source of income...and why (because affiliate marketing makes more money, duh!).
If you want to be a "Lazy Marketer", this is not going to help you at all. But, if you want to get rid of the myths that are floating around online and get a nice shove in the right direction with building a legit, long-term business you can count on to pay for your incredible lifestyle, Chris' reports will help you more than you can imagine. It's also cool that his guides are between $14.95 - $29.95 each.
Ready to learn how to build a liegitimate Affiliate Marketing business and crush the lies? Get the Lazy Marketer!
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Affiliate Commandments - This ebook was written by Chris McNeeney, the dude who wrote Affiliate Project X & Day Job Killer...two of the most successful launches in ClickBank history. This report is only 16 pages, so it's easy to read, but it packs a punch for only $9.97!
Chris included a 52-page guide called "Affiliate Marketing Beginners' Guide" along with it in case you don't know some of the basics, but the coolest part is the 6 rules, or "commandments", for Affiliates.
Covering everything from riding the wave of products/trends, to tracking & optimizing, to building a strong portfoilo of programs you're promoting, Affiliate Commandments has some really powerful guidelines to work within if you plan on making a full-time salary on auto-pilot with Affiliate Marketing online.
Since it's only $9.97, I'd recommend you read Affiliate Commandments as soon as possible...
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Beating Adwords - If you use Adwords or any other PPC advertising service regularly, and feel like you have a pretty good understanding of how it all works, do NOT buy Beating Adwords. It's definitely geared toward beginners, and though it's been updated over the years, it was made when the PPC afiliate game was very different.
In fact, since the "wealthy affiliates" wrote this guide, I highly recommend you just skip this $67 purchase and use the money to try out Wealthy Affiliate. That membership will teach you way more than what you'd learn from this ebook, and the info will be totally up-to-date. I included this ebook because it was the first guide I ever read about PPC advertising, and it helped me lay a strong foundation to build upon, but it's not worth it unless you need to learn the basics. Either way, I would join Wealthy Affiliate instead of paying for Beating Adwords.
If you're a complete Adwords newbie, Beating Adwords could help out. I recommend joining Wealthy Affiliate to learn waaaay more for less money, though!
UPDATE: Do NOT buy Beating Adwords if you plan on becoming a member of Wealthy Affiliate, because the 2nd Accreditation Course is $67 and Beating Adwords is a FREE bonus with it! So, you can get a whole course on top of the ebook (and Inside the List: $67) for the same price, with Wealthy Affiliate!
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Reverse Niche Selection - Many affiliates have serious trouble finding niches to promote products in. The problems really hit hard when you go through the whole process finding a market that isn't infested with tons of affiliates, you pick the right keywords, you build the site, then you only get $100/month from dozens or even hundreds of hours of work!
Chris likes to dispel myths, and in this report he does just that! Far too many people are being taught to look for those tiny, obscure niches with no competition. It's too bad they don't exist anymore, and the ones that kind of do aren't worth your time & effort. So, with the help of this report, you'll be able to look at things in a new way, and it's a bit more complicated than you think.
With Chris' help, it'll all make sense, and picking niches will be the easiest, most obvious, part of Affiliate Marketing!
If you're dabbling in markets that don't allow you to scale your business to six-figures and beyond, you're wasting your time: learn Reverse Niche Selection!
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