Affiliate Programs

For some time I was interested in affiliate programs and sales. Indeed this is an area that has grown exponentially over the last 10 years. Affiliate programs or sales can be a great way to market, sell, and even make money for the creator of the product and/or the affiliate marketer.

There are a couple of ways to cash in on being an affiliate marketer:

1. Building a list: Smart marketers build their contact list. This can be done in many ways including direct email marketing, website "catch" pages (to catch their interest and email before sending them to your product), writing an interesting blog and more.
2. Hook up with the most popular affiliate checkout gateways. Start with these:
   
1. Clickbank
2. Commission Junction (Once you get really up and running)
3. A great (not good) product or service
4. A really good guide to affiliate marketing.
   

Affiliate marketing can be frustrating at times. Sales can storm in at times and then all of the sudden just dry up! You have to constantly test the most effective marketing techniques like adwords, search engine placement companies, direct email campaigns, blogging, and more ideas to assist your affiliate campaign.

Don't get fooled into buying into just any affiliate product. It must be legitimate. Honestly, I have tried (sadly) probably over 60 products or services that underdelivered and underperformed. Also, PAY ATTENTION to these "gaurantees" that are offered out there. Most of them aren't worth a pile of s*it! I have requested refund over 30 times and not even received a response email from the "company." Be careful.

There are well intentioned, good products and services out there. I can only steer you to the ones I feel confident about. If you don't like them and find some affiliate programs that work better, please let me know in the comments here. I am happy to review them.

Right now my top programs can be found HERE. They typically bring in about $1,000 per month for me, but some months are lower, some higher. Anyway, if you feel like experimenting, check them out.

Don't forget to sign up at clickbank, you'll need to if you are serious about promoting products. You can find tons of products and services there also to promote from your site.

Experiment Update

Here's an update on Experiment #1 for wealth building. It's no secret that a content rich blog or website can produce some handy semi-passive income.

The Blog: Florida Gulf Coast has produced already $3.71 in ad revenue. This is pretty amazing given the fact that it has such limited posts (3 or 4). I project that there is a lot of room for growth here expecially as I intend to add some more adspace as the content grows on the site.

I will keep updating the site as much as possible with quality content. The great thing is I am making more contacts in the Coastal Region of Florida as I do this, which enriches my experience when I travel to the region.

Money Isn't Everything

It really isn't.

But...we all know that having enough money to care for the financial stressors in life can be a major relief, and, consequently lead to a greater sense of freedom. Afterall, money is not one of our basic psychological needs as a human being. Freedom, on the other hand, is. Along with Power, Love, and Belonging, and Fun they make up the core basic psychological needs. These were described by William Glasser in his classic writings on Reality Therapy and Control Theory.

But how do we attain freedom in our adult lives? Well if we have been conditioned to live beyond our means then financial freedom cannot exist. So unless we make a significant change in our behavior regarding spending/saving then we can't expect things to improve without some external force.

Conditioning:

If we are conditioned from a young age to be mindful and respectful of money we are much more likely to attain a sense of financial freedom. Having loads of money does NOT make one financially FREE. I propose that most of it hasn't anything to do with how much money one makes, but how they behave with the money they have.

So in part this relates to the "Starting Early" article from my last post. I hadn't connected it in this way until now but I can think of several friends of mine who are certainly not experiencing financial freedom yet they make an annual income that would make 5-10 families content.

Experiment:

It's too late for me to be conditioned from a young age (I'm nearly 38) but it's not too late for me to influence my own children's mindset regarding money, wealth, and freedom. I would love to hear from others about your experience regarding financial freedom.