Deep down you know you need an internet marketing plan.
But how can you create one that you’ll stick to rather than a pipe dream that ends up languishing on your hard drive?
Yes, I know that sounds trite.
But the number of people I come into contact with who are clueless about their internet marketing destination is scarily high.
Affiliate cookies are used to track who sent a lead or sale and therefore who to send the affiliate commission to.
But how long do they last?
Well – as you might expect – there’s no one size fits all answer. So you may need to delve deep into the small print to find out what applies to any given affiliate program.
For instance, an Amazon affiliate cookie lasts for 24 hours. And like a lot of affiliate programs, Amazon won’t give you credit for buying through your own link so you can’t use it as a way to get an extra few percent discount on your purchases.
Affiliate marketing is one of those areas of internet marketing where you don’t need many skills and those you do need can be quite rudimentary.
You can get away with being the proverbial jack of all trades and master of none so long as you can pick some products and find ways of getting your affiliate links in front of people.
In approximate order and with no definitive skill level other than basic or beginner, you’ll need at least several of the following skills to start making your affiliate marketing a success.
It could even be a case of less knowledge is better in some areas as you’re less likely to overthink them.
As you start getting your website and content and squeeze pages and promotion and all the other stuff that makes up internet marketing worked out, it’s worth remembering that there’s rarely one single correct answer for most of the questions that will crop up.
Some things will have their staunch supporters – WordPress seems to do that for website design, Apples for phones and computers and don’t get started on the browser wars between Chrome and Firefox and Internet Explorer (or Edge as Microsoft now want to call it).
Other things will be more open with a “horses for courses” response.
If you’re just starting out in affiliate marketing or need a quick crash course to check that you’re still up to date, follow these simple beginners tips.
It’s easy to just leap in and think “that seems good”.
But it pays to do at least a bit of due diligence before selecting an affiliate program to promote.
A lot of internet marketing posts and products promise that you will get results. If you believe most sales letters, results are available almost at the click of a mouse.
But what actually works in real life?
Is it really push-button easy?
Or do you need to do more to get the results you’re after?
On September 23rd 2015, Clickbank decided to implement an intrusive header on all pages generated by their affiliates.
On September 24th 2015, they decided to un-implement it due to the amount of negative publicity it was getting.
In the process, I think they’ve lost a lot of trust in the affiliate marketing arena.
Internet marketing is very much like one of those almost impossible jigsaws of an ocean scene.
You get a big picture but it all looks almost the same – complicated and confusing.
And you get a few clues (the corners if we keep using the jigsaw analogy) that give you a start and some hope.
The other complication is that, much like the ocean itself, the picture itself is constantly moving.
Additional note on 24th September 2015:
Clickbank have currently removed the header.
They now claim – contrary to the email they sent out – that this was merely a test, not an ongoing requirement.
Personally, I’m removing any products I have on Clickbank and reducing any promotion I do of Clickbank products – I don’t trust them not to do something equally hare-brained in the future.
Clickbank are about to change how they treat affiliate clicks.
There is now an extra Clickbank header at the top of every page, screaming advert.
This is the header that will be shown at the top of every page you send an affiliate click to:
The marketplace link (which wasn’t in their original mockup) goes through to the Clickbank marketplace but doesn’t track the affiliate link so if anyone goes there, the vendor gets the full amount or the customer gets the option to promote the products they find.
Review pages work nicely for internet marketing.
People like reviews – preferably honest ones and reviews that are helpful.
If you’re not sure what that means, browse Amazon for a while.
You’ll see reviews with “does what it says on the tin” headlines where even the headline isn’t useful.
You’ll see reviews where people downrate the product because the box was damaged in the post (but the product was unscathed.
And you’ll see genuinely helpful reviews where the person has put in time and effort to fully review the product.
It’s that last option you should be aiming for!