Category: Web Development

How Do Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?
Have you ever wondered how do affiliate marketing programs work? I bet you do.

If you want to read more about affiliate marketing programs, here’s a good article to start with: What is an affiliate marketing program?

What you need to know (as a start) is that affiliate marketing is a great way to start making money. And I seriously mean a massive amount of money!

To give you an idea on how much you can probably earn, here’s a screenshot of my earnings with a company I am currently working with:

Now, that’s a good amount of passive income, isn’t it?

If you are wondering how you can make money through affiliate marketing, here are some quick tips:
- Find a niche
- Leverage social media accounts
- Start a blog (even if you hate it)
- Write posts and upload videos
- Constantly perform marketing on social media
Yes, that’s really simple. You can also sign up for my free affiliate marketing course where I go deep into affiliate marketing and the steps you can take (right now) to make money from it. [thrive_2step id=’6496′]Sign up here (it’s 100% free)![/thrive_2step]

How does affiliate marketing programs work?

Let’s put it in a very simple explanation. Brands engage in affiliate marketing simply because they can:
- Reduce manpower
- Increase sales
- Have a wider range of ‘influencers’
Now let’s take an example of buying a GoPro (these are purely assumptions but they are important for you to understand the concept).
- Selling price of one GoPro: USD $100
- Commission for affiliate marketers (like you) upon successful sale: USD 15
- Nett profit for the brand: USD 85 (100 minus 15)
- Nett profit for the affiliate marketer: USD 15
Now, take a moment to think about this. From the standpoint of the brand, a fee of USD 15 is relatively small to pay a seller simply because there is no fixed cost. The brand does not need to pay the influencer monthly just like a full-time salesperson. Instead, they are only required to pay once a sale is completed.

How about the affiliate marketer point of view? It is also a win-win situation because he or she would probably just need to spend a few minutes a day (or in a week) and have a good chance of closing a sale.

You might think that USD 15 is a relatively small profit for the marketer but do your math with the assumption that the marketer is able to sell 100 pieces of GoPro in a month. Not only that the affiliate marketer is able to make USD 1,500 easily, the company may even increase his commission rate!

Summary

If you are a blogger or looking for some work-from-home opportunities, affiliate marketing is the best way you can earn some decent money legitly.

Want to learn more about affiliate marketing? For a limited time only, you can participate in my ultimate affiliate marketing course for free by clicking on this link.
March 20, 2024
How Do I Start An Affiliate Marketing Business?
Affiliate marketing business is one of the most popular work from home opportunities in the world. By now, you would have probably heard how bloggers around the world are making hundreds if not thousands of dollars through affiliate marketing.

I’m sure the thought of passive income got you fired up already, right?

In this post, you will find simple steps to start an affiliate marketing business from scratch and with no experience required.

1. Choose a niche or topic

This is the most crucial part of starting an affiliate marketing business. Everyone can start an affiliate marketing business but not everyone can be successful in it.

More importantly, not everyone will make a lot of money from affiliate marketing.

Choosing is not only purely importantly, it is going to affect your success in this highly competitive industry.

When it comes to choosing a niche, always go for topics that:
- You are passionate in (passionate is the key)
- You are highly interested in
- You can probably talk about it for hours and hours long
- You are 100% comfortable talking about
The reason behind this?

Choosing a topic that you are not interested in is just a pure disaster. You will lose the steam after first 10 or maybe, 20 posts later. However, when you talk about topics that you are interested in, that’s a whole different story!

2. Choose a social media platform

I know. Most coaches out there don’t tell you to choose a social media platform as the second step but for me, this another important factor for your success.

It doesn’t matter if you are going for Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram. Just choose one that you are most comfortable with and move on.

There is absolutely no right and wrong, or better social media platforms. Seriously.

3. Start a blog (even if you hate writing)

No, I’m not kidding. I know many of you who want to start affiliate marketing is either having a day job, work from home or even a student. So, the reasons could either be one (or all) of them:
- You hate writing
- You have no writing experience
- You have no idea what to write
- You don’t have the time
- You think it is hard
Now, the only way to succeed in affiliate marketing is to start a blog and there is absolutely no two-way around this.

You can also refer to this guide that I had written not too long ago: How To Start A Blog?

4. Sign up for affiliate program(s)

Affiliate programs are literally third-party channels that allow you to connect with big brands. Typically, you need to sign up for a membership (usually free) and apply to become an affiliate marketer for the specific company.

Now, this may sound complicated but do not worry about that. The registration often takes less than two minutes to complete and you should be an approved member within a day or so.

5. Start publishing blog posts

Publishing blog posts are the fastest way to get eyeballs and sales rolling in. The content does not need to be 3,000 words long (even though it is recommended) but anywhere from 300 is the bare minimum.

Not sure what to write? Consider these:
- {Product name} review
- {Product A} vs {Product B}
- What is {Product name}?
- Why is {Product name} popular among … ?
6. Do a video about it

Do you remember about choosing a social media platform? This is where it comes into play.

Doing a quick video is going to help you achieve better ranking on search engines and more importantly, it is going to drive more traffic back to your website.

Blog posts that have videos in them often rank better than others, and this is extremely important especially in affiliate marketing.

Want to start an affiliate marketing business?

What are you waiting for? Leave a comment below and tell me if you need any help with it.

[thrive_2step id=’6496′]Do you know that you can sign up for my exclusive 7-days affiliate marketing course for free?[/thrive_2step]
March 20, 2024
What Is An Affiliate Program?
If you are a blogger or involved in work from home opportunities, affiliate marketing is something you have heard about. You might have read about affiliate marketing, and you are wondering what an affiliate program is.

Well, worry no more as in this post, I’m going to give you a quick run through of what is an affiliate program and why is it so important to bloggers.

What is an affiliate program?

An affiliate program is an automated marketing program where advertisers (merchants or sellers) recruit freelance website owners, bloggers, marketers, and influencers to promote the advertisers’ products and services.

Why are affiliate programs popular?

Affiliate programs (or affiliate marketing) is top-rated because it is a great way to make money from home. Through affiliate programs, you can easily earn $100 a day using the Internet, and that’s just the beginning.

Influencer such as Pat Flynn makes over $100,000 a month through affiliate marketing. For advanced affiliate marketers like me, I make a decent leaving of around $5,000 a month through affiliate marketing simply because I have a day job.

[thrive_2step id=’6496′]FREE Training: Learn the exact steps I took to earn thousands of dollars (in just 7 days)![/thrive_2step]

Affiliate marketing is popular because it allows you to make money either on the side as a freelance, hobby or as a permanent job.

What makes affiliate programs highly sought-after? What makes affiliate marketing important for bloggers?

The answer is reasonably simple, to be honest.
- It is easy to setup
- It has extremely low start-up cost (under $10)
- It has high profitable ratio
Anyone can join an affiliate program in just a few seconds and it doesn’t cost a dime. The rewards generated from affiliate marketing is just too huge NOT to be missed.

Moreover, who would say no to an extra $500 a month (on average) while still keeping your day job or studies, right?

What are the best affiliate programs now?

Here are the top ones that you participate today:
How much time should I devote myself to promoting the affiliate program daily?

I would say 5 to 10 minutes a day should be sufficient. Start by using social media to share your blog posts or content covering the advertiser you are promoting.

On average, I see my students are making sales at least once a day for those who are devoted to making affiliate marketing for them. For beginners, they often make their sales under two weeks on average (with proper strategies).

Want to know more about affiliate programs and affiliate marketing?

[thrive_2step id=’6496′]Click here to sign up for 7 days exclusive affiliate marketing training for beginners. For a limited time only, it’s free![/thrive_2step]
March 20, 2024
Why Most Affiliate Marketers Fail (And What You Can Do About It)
Affiliate marketers fail a lot. Yes, that’s true.

You may be brand new to this affiliate marketing stuffs and what is the first thing you discover? Bloggers make a lot of money through affiliate marketing. And that becomes the fuel to your quest in making money online.

This post will share some of the most common mistakes done by affiliate marketers and those are the reasons that contributed to our past failures.

1. Everything is about M-O-N-E-Y

Money drives a lot of people and it definitely drives us to become affiliate marketers.The truth is, no one will want to become an affiliate marketer if that wasn’t for the money.

Reality check.

Being an affiliate marketer myself, let me tell you that there is absolutely no problem for you trying to make money online.

But the trick is to have a strong understanding of what you can do and what you will do. Let me give you an example.

You make $100 when selling or promoting a product

You can either:

Promote it just for selling it, or

Promote it as if you are using the product yourself

And this makes all the difference.

Most of the time, I’m able to close a sale when I share my personal experience using the product. Do I make sales when I am promoting a product I’m not using? I sure do, but just not that many sales.

I know this sounds confusing but trust me, it is true. We are always better salesmen when we are promoting products we are currently using or trust.

2. Not having a real plan

You can’t just be successful in affiliate marketing by chance.

What does having a plan means?

It means that you need to know what you are doing, from the first step to last. And it will cover the whole 9-yard such as content marketing, getting on social and winning on search engines.

Starting affiliate marketing but have no plans? Don’t worry.

Here’s a quick checklist for you (for a kick start):
- Using the right web design to boost affiliate sales
- Choosing the right affiliate network or program to promote
- Layout your search engine optimization strategy
- Writing and crafting the best content
- Planning your social media marketing
- Using email marketing automation to double your sales
BONUS: Click here to sign up for my FREE, 7-days affiliate marketing course which I’ll cover all the topics above!

3. You are promoting EVERYTHING under the sun

Promoting everything isn’t going to increase your earnings. What you should be doing instead is to create an authority figure within the topic, before moving to the next topic.

It may well sound confusing but believe me, this is the best way to be successful as an affiliate marketer.

Have you seen an affiliate marketer who achieved his/her first success by selling everything? Unless you are working for Amway, the answer is “No.”

Most affiliate marketers achieve their first (ever) success by selling a specific product or within an industry. Pat Flynn made his money through teaching people how to start an online business.
- Pat Flynn made his money through teaching people how to start an online business.
- Matthew Woodward made his money teaching search engine optimization.
- Spencer Haws made his money teaching about creating niche websites and finding niche keywords.
You have to be specific and this means that you need to find a topic to talk about. The best way to start as an affiliate marketer is to teach others on things you are mastered at!

4. Going cheap all the way

You need to spend some money before you can actually make money through affiliate marketing. I even talked about this topic in my latest post, 4 Things I’ll Do If I’m Starting Affiliate Marketing All Over Again.

You can start an affiliate blog in just minutes with today’s technology but can you really make money if you have an awful looking website?

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that you should buy all the expensive stuff, plugins and themes but at least, don’t be too stingy as you’ll lose out in the rat race (if you opt to go cheap).

When it comes to decision making, consider the opportunity cost. Opportunity cost means the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.

In this case, going cheap may be a good option to save money but it may well affect your chance of closing a sale. On the other hand, going for a much reliable product (that costs more) may be hard on your financials but may just well be the best investment you could do.

Failure as an affiliate marketer is an option

Anyone can be a successful affiliate marketer if they want to and vice versa.

“How to not fail as an affiliate marketer” depends heavily on you, on your motivation to success even when the odds are against you. You have to decide right now to understand why affiliate marketers fail and what you can do to avoid that at all cost.

Are you ready to make a better living today?

Learn how to make $5,000 a month through affiliate marketing in this 7-days course.
March 20, 2024
Thrive Leads vs OptinMonster – Which Plugin Is The Best Plugin For Building An Email List?
Thrive Leads vs OptinMonster.

There are many plugins for email list building but nothing comes close to what Thrive Leads and OptinMonster can provide.

Let me share with you a simple fact:

Email has 2.6 billion unique users worldwide. Moreover, that number is expected to exceed 2.9 billion by the end of 2019.

ExactTarget had quoted, “Email is not only alive – it’s the number one direct channel in terms of daily use and consumer preference for both personal and marketing communications.”

Building an email list is no longer an option. It is a necessity for business survival. Regardless it is for affiliate marketing, blogging or business, email marketing is a very powerful tool if you use it right.

The first step in building an email list is to select an email marketing service provider, which I’m sure you already had.

The second and most crucial step is to find a WordPress plugin that will drive your subscription rate off the roof. After all, having the best email marketing service provider isn’t going to give you much assistance if you aren’t converting visitors into subscribers.

To help you on this step, I’ve compared two of the best list building plugins on the market so that you can build your list in the most efficient way possible.

Thrive Leads

Introduction: Thrive Leads is the complete list building plugin for WordPress. It has every type of opt-in form including Sticky Ribbon, Popup Lightbox, Slide-In, Opt-in Widget, and Screen Filler.

Summary: Thrive Leads is a good choice if you want to have complete control on how the plugin works. It allows you to tweak everything under the roof, without any coding skills.

Thrive Leads is one of the most popular list building plugins for bloggers nowadays because there is just so much hype around this plugin. What I love about Thrive Leads are:
- Multiple opt-in forms which can be set to trigger and appear in multiple places
- Perform numerous A/B testing (split test)
- Availability of shortcodes
- One click sign up links
- Sign up subscribers directly to webinar
- Ready made templates and boxes to choose from
What makes Thrive Leads an awesome plugin for list building is the ability to do anything with just one plugin. As for the record, ThriveBoxes is one feature that no other list building plugin had ever integrated and it works like LeadPages’s Leadboxes feature (sorry LeadPages).

For the record, Thrive Leads is included in the Thrive Membership and no separate purchase is required.

1. Configuring Thrive Leads

Love the basic setup? No worries. Here’s the common setup you can choose with Thrive Leads:

There are many ready-made templates you can choose from when you use Thrive Leads. Here are some examples:

Now, that’s really a lot of templates, right?

The guys over at Thrive Leads understand the challenges faced by bloggers and marketers. Not many of us are design-driven and therefore, having different types of ready-made templates and drag and drop builder helps us to create better forms to build an email list.

Disclaimer: My favorite is still ‘Scroll Mat’. Just saying 🙂

2. A/B testing with Thrive Leads

Apart from that, Thrive Leads comes with the awesome A/B testing which is godly. With this feature, you can literally any testing such as:
- Different Form Types: A lightbox popup vs. a slide-in form or a widget vs. a ribbon.
- Different Triggers: Show a popup after 3 seconds, once the visitor scrolls 50% down the page or when the visitor is about to exit your site.
- Different Design & Content: Change the headline, add a new image or switch colors.
- Different Offers: Download a checklist vs. Participate in a webinar
You can start and stop the A/B testing at any time, as well as the ability to select the winner (either manually or automatically).

3. Precise targeting using Thrive Leads

Advancement of technology allows us to do a lot of things and one of them is to show relevant popups to the right type of audience. With Thrive Leads, you can display specific forms with just a few clicks:

4. Powerful features that made Thrive Leads super powerful

Want to know why Thrive Leads is powerful? Here are four things you should know (if you are dead serious in list building using Thrive Leads):
- Exit Trigger: Show your opt-in the moment a visitor is thinking about leaving your website.
- Time Trigger: Choose between showing your opt-in form instantly or after a certain amount of time (in seconds) has passed.
- Scroll Trigger: Choose between showing your opt-in form when a user scrolls to a specific part of the content, after passing a defined percentage of the content, or after reaching the end of your content.
- Click Trigger: Show your opt-in when a user clicks an element (like a button or link) in your content.
5. What didn’t I like about Thrive Leads?

Apart of all the goodies that Thrive Leads can offer, there are still things I wished they could be improved.

Thrive Leads doesn’t play well with CloudFlare: I use CloudFlare to speed up my website and I have specific Page Rules to make my website blazing fast. The problem is Thrive Leads visual builder (WYSIWYG) doesn’t work well when those options are turned on. Of course, there isn’t much Thrive Leads could do but if you want to use Thrive Leads with CloudFlare, make sure you turn off the ‘Rocket Loader‘ on CloudFlare (temporary) while setting up forms using Thrive Leads.

What is Rocket Loader?

Rocket Loader improves page load times by:
- Decreasing the number of network requests by bundling JavaScript files, even third party resources, to avoid slowing down page rendering
- Asynchronously loading scripts, including third party scripts, so that they do not block the content of your page from loading immediately
- Caching scripts locally (using LocalStorage, available on most browsers and smart phones) so they aren’t refetched unless necessary
Just too many customizations and made it confusing: Thrive Leads comes with so many customizations which it is really tricky for beginners. Sure, they have videos but let’s be honest. Who views the videos unless you are desperate, right? The options aren’t really direct and idiot-proof if you know what I mean.

6. How much is Thrive Leads?

There are three different pricing structures you can choose from (each comes with one year support):
- 1 Site: $67
- 5 Sites: $97
- 15 Sites: $147
Alternatively, you can choose Thrive Membership which costs $19 per month (with all plugins included for unlimited sites) when you pay annually.

When it comes to pricing, I would say that it is definitely worth the money because of the features that Thrive Leads provide.

7. Is Thrive Leads worth it?

Here’s the biggest question. I’ve been using Thrive Leads since the beta stage and I would say that it is pretty well done. If I would comment, I would say that their finishing isn’t as smooth as OptinMonster but apart from that, they are pretty much awesome to say the very least.

8. My verdict for Thrive Leads

Thrive Leads is best for advanced users who want to double their email list in just a short period of time. Plus, it is also a great tool because you get everything you need under one roof.

With the amount of features that comes packing with Thrive Leads, this is definitely one of the best list building plugins I had used for a long time. Highly recommend anyone to use this!

Click here to try Thrive Leads today!

OptinMonster

Introduction: OptinMonster is not just a WordPress plugin. It’s a complete web-based app that’s available for different platforms including WordPress.

Summary: OptinMonster is very smooth and easy to use. An absolutely beast that helps you build an email list fast, minus all the challenging configuration and hassle.

Just like Thrive Leads, OptinMonster had evolved a lot … from a humble beginning to a massive email list building for WordPress users.

OptinMonster comes packing with a huge list of features which include:
- Lightbox
- Sidebar
- Floating Bar
- After post / In-Line
- Slide-in
- Mobile
- Full Screen
The best part? Each of these forms can be customized according to your liking through drag and drop.

1. Display rules on OptinMonster

Anyone who is serious about email list building knows that display rules feature is critical. For the record, OptinMonster is the first WordPress email list building plugin that offers Exit-Intent feature.

Let me give you a quick example.

If you configure your campaign to load after a 7-second delay and set a 50% scroll value, then your visitors will have to be on your site for 7 seconds AND scroll the page 50% or more to trigger the campaign.

The next step is to choose your intended audience who will see the form.

Note: You can easily setup more display rules to further customize your forms on OptinMonster. This gives you more control on what your forms can and cannot do, thus giving you more precise audience targeting.

2. MonsterLinks

What is MonsterLinks?

MonsterLinks is the name of the 2-Step Opt-in technology from OptinMonster. MonsterLinks can turn any link or image into a 2-step opt-in process. When a user clicks on the link or an image, a popup opens up asking them to subscribe.

Brian Dean from Backlink uses MonsterLinks on the site to boost email subscriptions. Here’s how it looks like in action.

The concept of Content Upgrades is based on a psychology principle known as the Zeigarnik Effect, which states that those who initiate are more likely to finish the process.

3. OptinMonster’s Success Themes

In short, OptinMonster comes with a list of ready-made templates for you to choose from. Wonder why they use the name “success themes?”

Well, these are templates which had been tested out and prove to be extremely effective for your success.

I love OptinMonster’s success themes because I have zero knowledge in design. Yup, no joke.

4. What didn’t I like about OptinMonster?

I often compare both OptinMonster and Thrive Leads (Thrive Leads vs OptinMonster in my mind) and one thing I wished I had more are the ready-made templates.

OptinMonster doesn’t come with that many ready-made templates compared to Thrive Leads.

Another thing I didn’t like about OptinMonster is the campaign setup. Coming from Thrive Leads, OptinMonster seems to be very specific when it comes to campaign creation. While there is nothing wrong with it (generally speaking), it certainly felt like each campaign is dictated by opt-in type. And yes, in some ways that felt very annoying 🙁

5. How much does OptinMonster cost?

The pricing for OptinMoster is slightly different. For starters, each pricing plan comes with very different features.

Basic: $19/month or $108/year (save 25%)
- Unlimited Optin Forms
- A/B Split Testing
- Page Level Targeting
- User-friendly Reporting 1 site
Plus: $29/month or $228/year (save 25%)
- Everything in Basic, and:
- Floating Bar
- Sidebar Forms
- After Post / Inline Forms
- Content Locking
- 3 sites
Pro: $39/month or $348/year (save 25%)
- Everything in Plus, and:
- Exit-Intent Technology
- Referral Detection
- Mobile Specific Forms
- Yes / No Forms
- Slide-in Scroll Trigger Boxes
- Smart Canvas Forms
- Full Screen Takeovers
- Campaign Scheduling
- Unlimited Sites
- Priority Support
6. Is OptinMonster worth it?

I know, you are not pretty much undecided if OptinMonster is worth it. Here’s what I think.

OptinMonster is good and very intuitive. It is prior in the market and what makes it really good is that it is co-founded by Syed Balkhi, founder of WP Beginner. Now, this means that plugins created by him and his team are always very good and able to integrate to any WordPress themes without issue.

7. My personal verdict on OptinMonster

I love beautiful things (and plugins). Personally, I would say that OptinMonster is well created and deserve all the credits in the email list building industry. Being an active OptinMonster user, I would say that there is no doubt in my mind that OptinMonster is good and worth the money.

See OptinMonster demo here!

OptinMonster vs Thrive Leads

The real comparison for OptinMonster vs Thrive Leads is probably the pricing factor.
- $348 – OptinMonster (Pro’s package with all features included)
- $228 – Thrive Themes (10 themes and 6 plugins including Thrive leads)
Both OptinMonster and Thrive Leads are available as subscription-based service, which means that you’ll always have to pay either a monthly or annual fee to use them.

Comparing OptinMonster vs Thrive Leads on the smallest plan, here’s how it looks like:
- $108 – OptinMonster (single site with selected features)
- $67 – Thrive Leads (single site with all features)
Now, as you can see, it is actually more worth it (and you get more savings too) when you opt for Thrive Leads. Even when using Thrive Leads with the smallest plan of $67, you save $41 per year and on top of that, you are not limited to the features as of what OptinMonster offers for its smallest plan.

Overall, it is important to understand that while both offers very similar features, Thrive Leads is seen to be the best option since it doesn’t limit you for any of its features.

When it comes to email list building, you certainly wouldn’t want to be bolted down with restrictions, right?

I hope you like this OptinMonster vs Thrive Leads comparison. Which is your favorite email list building plugin?
March 20, 2024
4 Things I’ll Do If I’m Starting Affiliate Marketing All Over Again
Most affiliate marketers are often using the bootstrapping method. You know, spending minimum money and getting the biggest results.

I did the same years back, and I realized one thing. All my affiliate marketing projects were disastrous! I realized that I was only successful once I put in both money and effort into the projects.

And it didn’t take long for me to see the results. The first month was a couple of dollars followed by hundreds before touching thousands after six months or so, per project.

I thought it was just luck, economy and the way I targeted my keywords. I went into bootstrapping method again, and I ended up the rabbit hole. Sales dropped and my revenue sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

What the hell just went wrong?

This was the exact words I asked myself. I did research (oh hell I did), and I wanted to know what went wrong.

Seriously, this is not a coincidence. Every time I went into bootstrapping, I see massive failures even though I did everything similar to others.

Note to self: These are the 4 things I will do if I’m going to start affiliate marketing all over.

Heres a list what I found out.

1. Going for shared hosting instead of premium web hosting

This debate had gone on for ages. People talked about how good is A and how bad is B. You know the drill.

Here’s the problem. Most people don’t see the main issue, and I experienced that first hand.

The main reason why shared hosting isn’t working well for me in affiliate marketing was because of the freaking loading speed.

I mean, c’mon, would you wait for 5 seconds before the website loads?’

Probably not and that’s the whole issue. I see a lot of bloggers writing great stuff, but their bounce rate is off the roof! One of them was as high as 95% for crying out loud. Jesus!

Shared hosting is good because it saves you money. $4 a month is like a cup of Starbucks alright? Shared hosting is cheap, and each server could host thousands of domains at one time. You are not getting premium speed no matter what, as long as you are in the shared hosting environment.

So, what’s the solution? Premium web hosting like WP Engine and FlyWheel are top of the game. Often, you are expected to pay around $29 per month. I highly recommend these services ONLY if you are making enough from your blog to cover the expenses.

The solution to this challenge is simple. Get a better web host. Here are some great alternatives.
- CloudWays (Virtual Private Server) – $7 per month
- BlueHost (WordPress hosting) – $19.99 per month
- BlueHost (Virtual Private Server) – $19.99 per month
- HostWithLove (Semi-Dedicated hosting) – $19.90 per month
Take a moment to think about this. It doesn’t seem too expensive after all to have a good web host right?

Note: All of the above alternative web hosting provides 24/7 support as well as at least 30 days money back guarantee.

2. Cheap vs Premium WordPress themes

Bloggers are money conscious, and because of that, they often use cheap or free WordPress themes for their affiliate sites.

The results are devastating to say the very least. Their websites look bad, ugly and more importantly, exposing themselves to unnecessary risks of hacking and security breach.

Now, what do you think of the image above? Does it appeal to you in anyway that the writer is an influencer in the industry? Would you trust what you had read on the blog?

Seriously, I even doubt if the theme is mobile friendly!

Here’s a life fact: No matter how your attitude is in real life, you’ll still give a great first impression through your dressing. Make sense?

I often hear bloggers telling me this.

Reg, I know that Thrive Themes is the best in the market but I don’t have that much money to buy it. Furthermore, the monthly payment is going to kill me.

First of all, I’m a huge advocate to Thrive Themes, and it is one of the best WordPress themes for many affiliate marketers. Of course, unless you can afford $19 a month, there are many other options that you can choose from.

What you are doing is blaming your potential affiliate marketing failure because of not being able to afford for a premium theme. What?!

Let me tell you this. Thrive Themes is great and Thrive Themes is hot. But when it comes to WordPress themes, I still go for other alternatives because of the flexibility.

Alternatives that I use:
- StudioPress – $39.90 per theme (lifetime)
- Divi (Elegant Themes) – $89 per year (unlimited usage)
- OptimizePress – $97 per year (for three sites)
Here’s what you need to know. You might not have enough money to buy the best theme for now. So be it!

Use a premium theme that you can afford because that is going to differentiate you from the rest! Once you start making money from your blog, consider the option of upgrading.

BONUS: Discover how website design will impact your affiliate sales in my new 7-days affiliate marketing course. Sign up for free here.

3. Lead generation is dope, but expensive

We all know how important to build an email list. If you are not doing that yet, please do it right now. Start today.

It can be used thoughtfully to build loyalty and trust in your brand. Email marketing is important for building relationships with prospects, leads, current customers, and even past customers because it gives you a chance to speak directly to them, in their inbox, at a time that is convenient for them. InboundRocket.

Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn, and Matthew Woodwards all make money through their email lists. If you want to become a successful affiliate marketer, then you need to start building an email list.

But, here’s the challenge. You heard that email marketing is expensive.

My answer: WTF?!

Email marketing can be costly, but do you know that you can start for FREE?

Option 1: You can use MailChimp for FREE if you have less than 2,000 email subscribers and send out less than 12,000 email a month. And it comes with email automation for all accounts!

Option 2: If you are a serious blogger and trying to manage your subscribers, there’s ConvertKit that allows you to create cool automation with segmentation for $29 a month if you have under 1,000 email subscribers.

Option 3: Thinking of selling courses, having advanced segmentation and dope email automation? Consider Drip (I’m personally using it), and it gives you everything you need to monetize your list including landing pages. The best part is you can use Drip for FREE if you have less than 100 email subscribers and $41 per month for 2,500 email subscribers.

Confused? Read my latest blog post here:MailChimp vs ConvertKit vs Drip – Comparing The Best Email Marketing Automation Software 2017

It is NOT important to have a paying email subscription service if you are just starting out. It is also important to note that you can quickly start email marketing for free and I find no reason NOT for you to start at all.

4. Should I be using premium plugins?

I am going to bust another myth. There are many premium plugins out there, but I’m just using one that I always hear people whining about.

I heard that Thrive Leads is powerful and because I don’t have that, I am not going to collect my email list.

Yup, you got it. That’s BS!

I get it. Thrive Leads could cost a bomb. At $67 per year and for a single website, it hurts a lot. For affiliate marketers who are bootstrapping, you know what I mean!

Back in those days, there weren’t any fancy WordPress plugins to grow my email list. As a matter of fact, most of us were stuck with Hybrid Connect and that was it. Soon after, Hybrid Connect ended its product and Thrive Leads was born.

Now, not being able to afford the godly Thrive Leads is not a problem. The problem is you. You are not thinking out of the box!

Here are several ways you can solve this.

Option 1: If you are using OptimizePress or X Theme, you don’t need Thrive Leads (there are some features in it that you can use to replace Thrive Leads).

Option 2: There are many alternatives such as Ninja Popups on CodeCanyon that costs on $25.

Option 3: You don’t need Thrive Leads if you use email services such as Drip because they come inbuilt with email list building features.

Important disclaimer: I am not saying that Thrive Leads is not useful (I use it on this blog). All I’m saying is that there are many other alternatives to Thrive Leads if the price is an issue for you. Do not limit your options because of something you cannot afford. That is just giving excuses to yourself to fail as an affiliate marketer.

Takeaway – Things I’ll Do Differently When Starting Affiliate Marketing All Over

Going cheap or bootstrapping is an excellent way to save money. As a plugin and theme junkie, I save thousands of dollars yearly just by going the more affordable options. However, when I start spending money on my blog for affiliate marketing, I tend to make more money online (thousands of dollars) on a monthly basis!

I’m not saying that you should (at any time) increase your spending because it is going to help you close more affiliate sales. All I’m saying is that using premium tools could easily help you achieve your goals in affiliate marketing faster.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let’s discuss further!
March 20, 2024