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In the next few weeks I am going to cover some basics of affiliate marketing. Today, I am going to give you a bit of a history about me and share with you my favorite affiliate marketing ebook: Super Affiliate Handbook! This is the book that changed everything for me in business online and it happened over six years ago.

Super Affiliate Handbook, the affiliate marketing ebook!

I have always had the entrepreneurial bug!  I was never great in school and I didn’t finish college but I always felt like their were great things ahead for me.  I got married and had my first two children in the first two years of being married.  All along I was always thinking “What can I do to make money?”.  In 2003 I started an eBay business.  I made money but it was a lot of work! Work that I didn’t enjoy.  After that I found my first affiliate marketing ebook by Rosalind Gardner.  I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.  I was really clueless that anyone did such a thing.  I thought it was great that you could get paid when people clicked through a link on your website and bought something.  I also thought it wasn’t going to be a lot of work.  Boy, was I wrong (it is work I love though)!

When I purchased the Super Affiliate Handbook, I learned how to set up a affiliate marketing business, step by step.  To be honest this is one of the first ebooks I had read all the way through!  Not only did I read it all the way through but I made my husband read it too!  We were on board.  I purchased a domain and I used site build-it to create the website.  We created a few pages and then we did nothing more.  I am not sure what happened maybe self-doubt set in, but in 2003 that was then end of affiliate marketing for me.

Super Affiliate Handbook was always in the back of my mind.

After my experience with my first try at affiliate marketing I went onto some other businesses.  Ebay again and a company called Melaleuca (I still get a check from them each month).  Last year I got the bug again.  I decided I am not going to try to make money fast.  I want to make money consistently and have a business to last forever.  My mind immediately went back to affiliate marketing and the Super Affiliate Handbook!  That is when I started this blog and I started looking over the ebook again.  I still had that copy from 2003 on a CD.  I decided to go ahead and purchase it again to get the latest version.  Rosalind Gardner is the author and she has done a fabulous job of keeping it up-to-date and covering all the bases!

Once again I began to learn all about affiliate marketing and all the changes!  I also found Lynn Terry and the Elite group to answer questions I have had. Since last year I have made some money.  I am not making nearly as much as I would like but I am learning so much as I go.  I also know that this business is a snowball business.  It will grow and pick up speed!

Affiliate Marketing is a business that will last.

I have felt from the first time I read the Super Affiliate Handbook that affiliate marketing is a business that I would enjoy and that would last.  Just like all businesses you must stay on top of the changes in the industry but it is possible to make consistent money, pay-off debts and save for the future.  This is why I have chosen this business to focus on!

If you are not so sure about what affiliate marketing is, how to do it or whether it is for you keep following this blog for my blog series on affiliate marketing.  I am not an expert but I do know a lot.  If you want a comprehensive view of affiliate marketing get the Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner!

Until next time,

PS. My last two post I have written about the Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop.  This workshop was focused on how to run an affiliate marketing business.  You can still purchase a flash drive with power point presentations and audio of the speakers here.

My last post I talked about the top 4 things I learned at NAMS3.  NAMS (niche affiliate marketing system workshop) was such a great experience for me.  In my last post I barely touched on all the things I learned.  I must say I learned a whole lot after hours.  I am so grateful that I stayed in the hotel!  I had some great room mates Kelley Denz and Kristen Arnold (pictured at the right, Kristen on the left, Kelley on the right).  We spent some time together but it was mostly mingling with everyone.  I have shared in that past about the brainstorming group I belong to.  It is Lynn Terry’s Self Starter Weekly Tips Elite Group.  I spent a lot of time with elite members at NAMS.  We had such a good time and spent time helping one another!

What is the Value of a Brainstorming group?

To me the value of a brainstorming group is huge, maybe even invaluable.  When I went to NAMS I knew I was not alone.  I felt like I knew all these people.  The reason why was because I am on the forum with them and at least once a week we get together for a brainstorming webinar.  Now when I found the elite group I wanted to join right away but I couldn’t because the membership was closed!  So I waited and watched the tweets coming in about brainstorming hour “the best hour of the week”!   In July the membership was finally opened again.  I jump on it!

Why?

I will tell you why because that is access to Lynn Terry!  Lynn has fourteen years of business experience online.  She knows how to make an income and do it right!  She has integrity and is one of the “what you see is what you get” kind of people.  I really found that out at NAMS.  That was the main reasons I joined the Elite group but it has become much bigger than that since then.  In September I found my accountability partner in the elite group – Angie Newton.  You can see her pictured in my last post.  We talk and text over Skype several times a week and we keep each other on track.  At NAMS we really helped one another and stuck together.  One of the best compliments I got at NAMS from my room mate Kelley was that Angie and I were so much a like we are like the same people! Read more »

I am back from NAMS3 and am ready to get to work and work my tail off!  If you recall last week I wrote about my goals for NAMS 3. I wanted to get certain things done and I learned most everything while I was there I wanted to.  What I wanted to do today is share the top four things I learned at NAMS3.  I learned a whole lot more then four but these were the top four!

Top 4 things I learned at NAMS3:

I was already on the right track

Not until the first day and I listened to Lynn Terry and Jeff Herring did I realize that I already knew what they were teaching and I was following a plan to get it done!  That was a great feeling.  Don’t you ever wonder if you are doing things the right way?  I do, ALL THE TIME!  So day one was very much review but it was also clarification that I need to focus on getting content out there on the internet and use long-tail keywords and so forth!

Affiliate Marketing is really so simple.

Now I didn’t say easy but it is simple.  If you choose a product, get a keyword, write a post and do link building “They will come”!  I make things complicated!  I get into information overload and don’t know where to start because I am looking at every one’s methods.  It is very basic!  Have a product, get long tail keyword, write a post and link build.  Simple, simple, simple!!

It is ALL about WORK.

Yes, I said work!  Those pictures of people sitting on the beach with their laptops can be true. What you don’t see in the hours and hours of work that they spent building a business.  Remember it is simple but affiliate marketing is work!  It is work that I love to do.  So if you are reading this thinking that working at home or working on the internet is easy, don’t fool yourself!  It is work!

Other people care about you succeeding in business.

I loved the hours I spent away from the workshop in the hotel.  These were hours spent mingling with the instructors, Elite members and others just trying to build a business online!  I have been to other “seminars” and found that those making all the money stayed away from the beginners.  This was not at all the case at NAMS!  Everyone was accessible.  I learned just as much “after hours” as I did the workshop itself!  One thing I never felt was that I wasn’t “good enough” or “not worth their time”.   Not only did the instructors care but there were others that helped out as well.  Erin aka NetKickStart helped me out with redirects which I have been having issues with for a very long time!  Traci Knoppe helped me figure out how to use the tweetdeck with multiple accounts. There was always someone to reach out to and get help from.

NAMS 3 was about action.  Making sure you applied everything you learned.  I am doing that now.  I have a plan and I am working it.  I have a schedule to keep with my blogs and I am taking action right now!  If you want to learn the details of NAMS don’t hesitate to purchase the NAMS 4 U jump drive.  I will tell you a little secret…this will be the last year that they will sell the information they used in NAMS1 & 2.  So get it while you can!

NAMS 4 will be coming up in August.  I plan on attending this event as well.  Keep watching and you will be able to sign up as well!

PS. If you want to learn from all the instructors from NAMS 1, 2 and 3 your can purchase a flash drive with audio, ebooks and power point presentations. Purchase the NAMS4U flash drive here.  One more thing.  This will be the last time you have the opportunity to get access to NAMS 1 & 2.  David Perdew is putting them in a vault!

Today we are going to celebrate Give a kid a Smile Day!  What a great day!!  I can’t imagine what life looks like from my kids point of view sometimes.  What if we were just able to tell are kids “You make me Smile.” ?  What a difference that would make in the life of a kid!

Growing up in my family whenever we got together with extended family there was always laughter.  I am not exactly sure where that came from but what a blessing it was to always here the adults laughing.

I guess it was after that, that I made an observation.  We would often go to Seattle for hockey games when I was young.  I loved it but as we walked down the street I watched people.  When they made eye contact I would always smile.  I felt like people always needed a smile and I felt so good when I approached smiling people.  It is an amazing thing when you share a smile.

What a simple gift!

A smile is a gift to others.  Even now I love to see smiling people.  It says something about them doesn’t it?  It says for just one moment all is good in my life.  For just one second I want to share that goodness with others.  So in difficult times smile!  When things aren’t going well at home smile.  Most importantly smile at children!  Don’t they deserve it?  Even when they are “naughty” they need to know they are loved.  You can share that when you smile at them!  Read more »