Everyone is flipping out about the “new normal” due to COVID-19.
I won’t weigh in with personal thoughts on the topic, suffice it to say I think that the Government forcing businesses to close is a dangerous step.
People are now out of work. Unemployment claims are through the roof. Making money to pay for necessities is now the priority for many people.
I am concerned about how long and deep the economic impacts of COVID-19 are going to be, you should be to.
But what I am not flipping out about is having a job, or more specifically, earning money.
I have over 16 years experience writing sales copy, building affiliate websites, creating info products, and online marketing. All self taught from the early days, a lot of trial and error, and also a ton of reading to learn from the mistakes of others.
Here is an archive snapshot of my first ever first sales page from 2003. I wrote a divorce advice book I still sell today on Gumroad.
Here is my absolutely, no shit, number one, piece of advice for you right now:
Do NOT spend ANY money on ANYTHING related to making money online until you have done your research.
Take a breath, and relax.
I think it’s gross that there are total fucking scumbags lined up, chomping at the bit, ready to take advantage of you because of the times we are currently experiencing. These people are playing on your emotions and willing to take your last time. Even worse they are taking money you don’t have because you will be using a credit card to buy their bullshit.
I have an alternative path for you to follow and it’s free.
Here is how you can get started making money as an affiliate marketer.
You don’t need to pay for a domain name, web hosting, or any sort of “getting started with affiliate marketing” guide.
Here are two somewhat unfortunate things about affiliate marketing we need to get straight up front:
- It will take a while for the money to start rolling in, if ever.
- The amount of money you make will be between zero and something greater than zero.
Make sense? There are no promises.
Enough chit chat, let’s get down to the details.
The two big things to take care of up front is picking something to promote, and finding a place to promote your offering.
1. How do I pick something to promote? There are three “evergreen” topics that people will buy goods and services: health, wealth, and sex.
It all really about sex. You want to be healthy to have sex, make money to have sex, and have sex. If you don’t think this is true you are bullshitting yourself. But I digress.
Think about products and services you use. Go to the vendor website and see if they offer you anything for promoting their products. If so write about the product, how it has helped you, what problems it solves, etc.
There are sites that have products for you to promote, and also offer ways for you to get paid, track clicks, promotional products, etc. These sites are Clickbank, ShareASale, Avvo, and Flexoffers. Google them, go directly to the site, have a look around. Be careful with Clickbank, nothing wrong with the company itself, but some of the offers are a little sketchy.
The key to picking something to promote is finding something you believe in.
2. Where do I promote offers? I love Twitter. Facebook posts with a link work too. Instagram? Twitter posts with hashtags for local area’s and interests are a win. You don’t need a website, besides it will take forever to get Google to index your site, and ranking for targeted keywords can take forever. Facebook pages are pretty effective. You can create a group on Facebook targeting specific interests. The key is to not be spammy and only post bullshit that no ones cares about. Don’t try to sell things to your friends and family. They aren’t going to tell you that you’re being a pain in the ass, but you are.
Do your keyword research, look for long tail, low volume keywords.
When you’ve got your legs under you, you can create a blog to sell things online. Just take your time and do it right. There are no shortcuts that are safe over the long haul.
Be conversational. Be helpful. Create value.