Ah, the wonders of the internet. Allowing us to build connections, build affiliate marketing businesses, trade financial markets, barter, show off our bling, find partners and of course, use it for general trade and commerce….
In this article, I’m going to be diving into the top 3 affiliate marketing myths & why you need to do the opposite to succeed.
Before I dive into all that, I’m going to digress for a moment…
No, I won’t spend too long here, but I think it’s an important component of our story, so you understand how I came to find these myths…
In the beginning…..
Ok, I’ll spare the biblical reference and the lengthy back story….
Here’s the rub on how I came to recognise these affiliate marketing myths.
When I got started in affiliate marketing in 2011, I decided to take my day job online. My ‘day job’ at the time, was working in the financial markets.
I worked in derivates to be more specific. The company I worked for was the largest provider of retail foreign exchange, contracts for difference & swap markets in the world.
Needless to say it was a stressful role and my day job involved teaching people about our trading platform. I also helped clients understand how to trade, as well as things like risk management and general financial market information…
Anyways, this is what I did for a day job, so it felt pretty natural to try bring that whole idea online and replicate what I was doing via blogs.
To this day, I still can’t tell you why, but I decided to set up four blogs at the same time.
Over the next 7.5 years, I’d go through hundreds of methods, hacks, systems, processes, ways and more to make money online.
I don’t say this lightly, but I (feel like) tried everything to make SOMETHING work.
I even went through a bankruptcy in the midst of it all.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to play victim, or insinuate that my journey to success was super super hard..
I mean, it was, but that’s not the point of this article.
Anyway, now that I’ve mentioned that, I think it’s a good time to bring up the top 3 affiliate marketing myths and why you need to do the opposite to succeed.
Now you have context as to why I feel I’m qualified to comment on these, let’s dive into them….
Affiliate Marketing Myth Number 1:
You NEED a website to make money online.
Look, I get the irony (see exhibit A below)…
No, turns out you don’t even need a funnel either (Look, don’t tell Russell okay. I get the irony)…
“So what gives Jamie? I mean you’ve even won an award for a funnel!”
You’re right.
I’m a hack.
A fraud and a philistine.
Sigh.
Or am I?
Here’s something most folks won’t tell you…
You don’t actually need a website or a funnel to get started.
Wait, whaaat?
Na for real.
Now as you’re reading this, you maybe wondering…’Well hang on a sec. You’re literally writing this on a website. I mean, caaamon man!’
Ever heard of Occam’s Razor? The idea that the simplest option is more often ‘the best?’
Crazy to think about really, when you’re thinking of affiliate marketing myths.
What’s not so crazy is that I’ve been able to help over 700 students understand this premise.
In fact, many of them have finally found success online after years of struggling.
Sound familiar?
So what gives?
Alright, fine, I’ll let you in on a secret relating to affiliate marketing myth number 1.
You can build an audience on social media, connect with them and make them offers that help. A simple call to action on the bottom of a post, or a quick message to those who are new to your audience is literally enough to get the ball rolling.
Many of my students will hit their first $5k-$10k months online and not even contemplate a funnel.
Crazy, right!
Here’s how you can start WITHOUT a funnel or website;
- Pick ONE product to promote that pays $500 – $1000+ per sale.
- Pick ONE social media platform you feel comfortable using. My suggestion is Facebook™ as it allows you to connect with people on a 1-1 basis and also on a 1-many basis (That is, you can chat with people and also put out content that gets more eyeballs).
- Pick ONE method to convert leads into sales. This could be as simple as a messenger conversation, a google doc, or a zoom call.
Although these seem simple, most people overcomplicate them.
Remember how long it took me to get going?
Well after I simplified my process and did exactly what I mentioned aboove, it would take just 7 days to crank out my first $1,000 day online.
I had another the next day and would go on to hit my first $10,000+ month.
Literally 7 days. Imagine if someone had told me that in the beginning of my journey!
Sheesh! I wish they had.
Once you start making consistent sales, you can add more layer to your business.
Affiliate Marketing Myth Number 2
‘The money is in the list.’
Now again this may come is a bit of a shock, but the whole ‘money is in the list’ isn’t the full picture.
For context, at the time of writing, my list provides around 40% of my monthly income (approximately $12kish).
Now here’s the kicker – my list is tiny. I have less than 900 subscribers at the time of writing.
When I calculated my earnings as a direct response from my list, I worked out some crazy stats.
I had 672 subscribers on my list and hit $12,000+ in revenue from my list alone.
So that works out to be around $17.85 PER SUBSCRIBER on my list for the month. As in, each one is worth over $17 per month in revenue.
That’s crazy to consider.
Given that they say the average is around $1 per month, per subscriber.
So this has been a long-winded way of saying that affiliate marketing myth number 2 is needing a big email list in order to make any decent income.
This is far from the truth. In fact, I would say you don’t actually need a list at all when you’re starting out. There are many ways to slay a dragon as they say, but don’t buy into the myth that you need a list to get started..
Which brings me to….
Affiliate Marketing Myth Number 3
You need a big audience to make money!
Nope.
Far from it.
Here’s some interesting things to consider.
I had less than 500 people in my Facbook™ group when I had my first $10k month.
At the time, I had deleted a list of 12k subscribers because they were crap. Never opened, never went to the primary tab and were built from solo ads and other garbage traffic strategies.
Other assets I currently have;
- A podcast – less than 10 listeners
- A Youtube Channel with around 2k subs
- A Facebook group which currently has a few thousand folks in it
- This blog
- A presence on Quora (haven’t done much with it lately)
Anyway, the point being is, my audience is absolutely tiny, yet it’s made millions of dollars.
Crazy to think of!
Now, I’m guessing you may be wondering…
But, but how though?
Well, in simple terms, I’ve managed to figure out how to extract value from tiny audiences.
I’ll give you a couple of hints on this affiliate marketing myth…
- Sell high ticket – Your lifetime customer value needs to be big enough to allow your business to grow. Perhaps an additional affiliate marketing myth is ‘passive income.’ A lot of people think they can do the work once and get paid over and over again….The economics usually don’t stack up due to the attrition rates of the products being sold.
- Positioning – I’m seen as the leads in my group. It’s my little slice of the world and I rule it as such. I also talk of my accomplishments and student success which naturally elevates me. This elevation makes the sales process far simpler.
- Offer creation – I have a well-dialled in offer. I don’t mean my affiliate link, I mean the ‘gift wrapping’ when I present my offer to my audience. This may be a topic for another time, but I would encourage you to learn this skill as it will serve you immensely well. In fact, I’d say if you nail offer creation, the rest fall into place pretty well.
So there you have it.
A few of the biggest myths in affiliate marketing.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but I thought it was worthy of mention.
Stay tuned for more tips as I unveil what to do and what NOT to do in growing your online business.