So, following my fist part about Affiliate Marketing Secrets, where I discussed my approach to internet marketing and the customers, I’ve actually did some more thinking and came to a conclusion that there is no secret.

A lot of the things are not secrets at all, and are available if you know what to look for. Knowing what to look for comes with experience, or if you have someone point you in the right direction.

It’s like when I was starting out over a year ago. I was thrown from one way to make money online to another. I was so thrilled by the fact that there are so many way to make money online, at first, that I was pretty much sure that I was going to be stinkin’ rich in two months. Three months at best.

I’m not stinkin’ rich and many months have passed since. What went wrong?

Simple, Not Easy

Most of the ways to make money online are simple. But there’s a big difference between the simplicity of the method and the ease of making it work for you.

The major obstacle that rises in front of a beginner when he realizes that he’s going to have to pay for stuff. Most think that everything is free on the internet, and those who pay for services are suckers.

Well, most beginners are ok with paying for hosting (which would also give them a free domain name). But that’s where it ends… They would try to get everything for free and are going to spend 6 months threading water. Most will quit not too long after.

Let’s take mailing lists for example. The simplest of schemes.

You get people to opt in to your list by offering them something in return, that had to do with a certain niche. That way you will have a list of people who are interested in a particular subject.

The next step would be to take suitable CPA offers and gently pitch them to your list, while trying to establish a strong relationship with the subscribers.

Simple? YES! Easy? NO!

First of all, enter our major obstacle; a beginner would probably not sign up with Aweber, or any other autoresponder service in the first place because there’s a monthly fee involved.

“What’s the point of singing up and paying monthly fee if I’m just starting out?”
Sounds familiar? How about:

“I can’t justify the cost of the autoresponder because I’m not yet making money…”
Duh!

Drum roll please… The secret of part 2 is:

Have a Plan

A beginner would not have a plan. He would typically go on and try a new technique every once in a short while. Is that because of the lack of a plan or the other way around? Who cares…

You have to have a plan. You have to know what you are going to do today, tomorrow, next week, next month.

You better sit down and write:

  1. I want to reach 2,000 subscribers on my mailing-list in the red widgets niche within the next mont. I will do that by doing a, b, c, etc…
  2. I will make profit by mailing to that list the following offers: a,b,c etc…
  3. The expense is going to be X, but the potential profit is going to be Y.

Now ask yourself a question:

Am I prepared to take a risk and enter this venture?

You see, this is a beginning of an online business in affiliate marketing.
Having a detailed plan will show you how to start making money today, even before you spent a penny.

- Alex

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