www.affiliateconfession.com

I finished up the Harsh Realities of Affiliate Marketing series a few days ago but wanted to write a short review and have 1 single post where you can find all 7 posts in the series and get a quick summary of what each one is about.

I did the series to let mainly new affiliates know that as much as the ebook pimps want you to think how easy affiliate marketing is, it takes lots and lots of work, there really isn’t any shortcut. But as long as you are willing to put in the time, it can be very rewarding and can give you the freedom from a job that so many look forward to, you just may want to be aware of the obstacles in the road ahead though.

The post titles and a short summary of each are listed below:

Harsh Reality 1 - Ranking For Keywords That Get Zero Traffic Means Nothing
Don’t make the mistake of spending time getting your blog or web site to rank for keyword phrases that don’t bring you any traffic.

Harsh Reality 2 - You Will Lose Money Starting In PPC
If you are going to try your hand at PPC, be prepared to lose money before you make money. Set a budget you can afford to lose before you get started.

Harsh Reality 3 - You’ll Never Make A Living With Banner Ads
We’ve all seen those websites plastered with nothing but affiliate banners. If you own a site like that, I can guarantee you aren’t making enough money to buy yourself a decent dinner once a week, probably not even once a month.

Harsh Reality 4 - There Will Be A Major Setback In Your Affiliate Career
If you don’t get slammed at least once in your affiliate marketing efforts and have a disappointing setback, you aren’t trying hard enough.

Harsh Reality 5 - No Risk Equals No Reward
If you’re going to make money at affiliate marketing, you will have to risk time, money or other goodies until you get the whole thing figured out. Even when you start making some money, you’ll have to take risks to get to that next level.

Harsh Reality 6 - Those Who Analyse The Most, Do The Least
If you’re stuck in the perpetual cycle of over analysing and planning, the only way out is to actually do something. Ultimately it is the action part of affiliate marketing that earns you the money.

Harsh Reality 7 - Don’t Count On Your Blog Making Money
If you are blogging about how to make money online, it’s probably a good idea that you go out and make some money first.

The real harsh reality of affiliate marketing is that you can make some very good money having an online business, you just have to watch out for the lazy work habits, stupid mistakes, bad advice, deceptive marketing and false dreams that can end up hurting you in the end. However, some of these trials are a good thing to work through, that way you know what not to do. The better perspective you have on the truth about being an affiliate, the better chance you have of making a living at it.

I hope you enjoyed and benefited from the Harsh Reality series.

If your affiliate marketing business is based on plastering your blog or web site with nothing but banner ads, just close up shop now and go back to whatever you were doing before you heard about making money online. The harsh reality is that banner ads died about 2 weeks after Al Gore invented the internet, long before he started trying to re-freeze the polar ice caps.

Even though banner ads have come and gone as a way to drive serious traffic to merchants, advertise your products or earn a living online, it is amazing the amount webmasters that still think people are going to spend any time shopping on a website that looks like a bad tile job from Home Depot. While the major search engines have done a pretty good job weeding out sites like this, if you spend any time on Entrecard or social sites, you’ll come across lots of affiliate sites that aren’t worth more than a 2 second look.

Who really enjoys shopping on a site that offers travel services, discount baby supplies coupons, iPods, digital cameras, plus size clothing and advice on making money online all on the same site via the glorious banner ad? You may use your site to get discounts from your own affiliate programs, but the sad reality is that no one else is doing so. I examine the question about buying from your own website a little deeper in this post.

The contrast between being able to find sites like this on Entrecard and search engines should tell you something right there. If you can’t find your site or blog through a search engine for any relevant keywords that actually get traffic, you probably aren’t getting enough free traffic to keep your affiliate business alive. Yes, that’s pretty much a no brainer, but if you read the first post in this series by clicking on the link above, you’ll see that for some, that reality hasn’t sunk in yet.

But wait a minute, you’re probably saying, “Don’t I see banner ads on your site Mr Affiliate Confession and frankly just about everywhere else. Somebody must be making money with these things!” We’re talking about two different things here. For the average affiliate marketer starting out, the money isn’t going to be made in banner advertising. Well established blogs with thousands of visitors per day can make money by selling banner ads and less well established, but still on the rise blogs such as Affiliate Confession can be a good place to brand yourself and possibly get a few sales. I even advertise on some blogs and have used Entrecard as a means to brand this blog and let people see my name on various blogs they may visit.

The big difference is that I’m not making a living, buy either selling ad space on my blog or buying it from others. Making money in affiliate marketing is made from utilizing many different tools, niches, products, advertising mediums such as PPC and other connections and ventures. The more you diversify, yet still have a focus, the better chance you have of finding a few niches that will bring you some good income.

If you have a blog or two, plastered with banner ads and aren’t making any money, it’s time to start writing some decent content, stop relying on the chance clicks that earn you $6 a month and venture into a different arena with your marketing efforts.