Baby Boomers Building Businesses
My mind is in brain over load.
I’ve been studying this whole thing called affiliate marketing. I understand the concept – you decide to refer people to someones product or program and you get a “referral fee” or commission any time someone buys via your link or referral.
It’s like networking – except online. I’ve been networking since the ’80s so I really do understand the concept.
It’s the online execution of the concept that I’m struggling with. I think I recognized this morning that the real issue is that I need to learn how to get traffic to my sites. That’s really the where it’s at.
Getting into affiliate marketing is simple. Just apply to get an ID either from an author directly (like we all did in the Cash Now training class) or go to Clickbank or Commission Junction and get a free account set up there and then choose from the millions of products ready to promote.
So I’ve done that. I have my ID’s. I know a bit about the product and it’s well written and so I feel it’s worthy of my recommendation.
Guess that makes me an affiliate marketer! I’m ready to see things happen in my Paypal account (oh yeah, you need one of those too so you can get paid your cut or commissions!)
I’m waiting….
While I’m sitting here waiting for action, I’m reminded of that lemonade stand from childhood. The table is up and the sign is up; the lemons are squeezed, well actually in the 70′s we only used frozen concentrate as we couldn’t afford the price of real lemons way up here in Alberta; and the lemonade is ready.
Every child’s first store. The dreams of profit … and sometimes it works and then sometimes it doesn’t.
As a child I never considered that putting up a lemonade stand on a road that only saw one or two cars a day (and one would be my dad coming home from work) would not translate into much or any profit. I do remember drinking a lot of lemonade though.
I’m a little older now and a little more experienced. I understand that just having up my lemonade stand or affiliate website will not mean profits UNLESS I figure out a way to get some traffic to the site.
Guess I better think about that some more.
It’s been a very full week. I spend so much of my time glued to the monitor as was in so many different webinars.
I also spent a lot of time connecting with people on Facebook. By that I mean I’m actually not just “lurking” and reading other people’s posts and visiting groups to see what’s happening, but I’m actually commenting and interacting with them. I’m doing this partly because I want to build a network of people I’ll be able to mastermind and brainstorm with so I’m working to build those connections that turn into relationships. And who knows, maybe someday down the road, because they now know me and trust me, some of them may eventually become my customer.
So … on Friday I was challenged again. This time to a whole new concept. It’s the idea of video marketing. Come on folks, I don’t even like cameras! Now I’m suppose to get in front of a video camera and market!
What a laugh! Who wants to watch an overweight, over self-conscious woman in her mid 50′s talk about anything.
That’s why I like the computer. I can interact with people without the fear of them judging me based on how I look. I have a lot of computer smarts and even some business smarts … but our society judges a book by it’s cover and people are put in categories based on their size and color … so I’m down before I even start when it comes to in person situations.
But places like Facebook or Yahoo groups or the many forums allow me to be me without the fear of judgement. People read my words and seen my wisdom or knowledge and we interact.
Now I’m challenged to think video marketing. It’s the wave of the future and 2011 is around the corner. Apparently, if I’m want real success, I’m going to have to think videos.
Oh, and did I tell you that our homework this week is to actually create a video, post it on YouTube .. and then get people to view it. They are actually turning this into a contest and the prize is a year long coaching program with Maria.
WOW, I’d love to win that! I’ve only known her three weeks, but I know she has so much depth to her … and she knows so much.
Guess I better figure out how to make a video. First step, figure out what I want the video to be about. Then I need to figure out how to make it. I think the getting it on YouTube will be the easiest part.
Time to do so more research.
