Have you ever heard the word neologism? It means a newly coined word or expression. And if you’ve ever seen an affiliate marketing course advertised, then you’ve probably read one of these neologisms.
An example would be ‘snapvertising,’ which is a neologism that means advertising on Snapchat. And if you’re wondering what this all means for you and how it can drive your affiliate marketing efforts, then I’ll explain.
A neologism is a tactic. A tactic is one way of executing a strategy. That means the strategy is the end goal and the tactics are the way you get to that end goal. For affiliate marketers, the strategy might be to rank organically for keywords, the tactics could be to purchase links to boost the power of the website.
Most affiliate marketers would say their strategy is to sell as many copies of a product as possible. And that’s a sound strategy. But there is a lot more to clarify about that strategy before we get into the tactics.
The strategy, then, is to put the products in front of as big a targeted audience as possible.
To find the audience, we conduct market research, which includes discovering where our target customer spends there time online. Is it Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, blogging sites, Snapchat, etc. Once we know that information, we can then say…
The strategy to sell as many copies of a product as possible is to gain a following of 50,000 targeted followers on Pinterest.
The tactics are what you do to get those followers. And when you start looking for tactics, that’s when you start to find courses with names like “Affiliate Bootcamp,” “Affiliate Secret,” and “Overnight Millionaire.”
Why New Marketers Often Fail When They Chase Tactics
Now, don’t get me wrong, we need tactics. Have you ever heard of anyone paying thousands of dollars to attend a ‘mastermind?’ Well, at that mastermind, a super successful person shares their tactics with the audience.
The only issue is brand-new marketers can find themselves unsure of how to implement the tactics, and then measure the success and make changes based on performance data.
When searching for an example to back up what I just said, I found an Amazon seller who published an article claiming that a simple tweak to the images on his listing increased sales by 209%. That sounds exciting, right? Well, what is a 209% increase — really, I mean interrogate that statement, don’t take it for face value, figure out what you need to do to implement that tactic while you ignore the mystical 209%.
I broke it down like this:
How to get better images for my Amazon listing
- Shoot the images myself…
- Do I have a camera or am I using my iPhone?
- Can I use Adobe Photoshop?
- Do I know anything about photography?
- Should I have people using the product or should I just showcase the product?
- Get someone else to shoot the images…
- What is my image budget?
- How do I recruit an outsourced worker?
- What if it all goes wrong and I spend my cash on a photographer and the images are rubbish, can I afford to find another person?
- Is free or paid traffic being sent to my listing?
- Yes → Great let’s test those images
- How do I perform those tests?
- No → Pay for traffic so I can test the images
- What am I testing against?
- How do I know my baseline?
- How do I know what to test for?
- Yes → Great let’s test those images
- Can I afford to pay a photographer, the running costs of my hosting, website, autoresponder… If the answer is no, then there is no point in looking at any tactics if we don’t have the budget to implement them. The strategy should be to build up a bankroll.
The point I’m attempting to hammer home is people who release courses that show you a new way of doing something assume you already know foundational principles and have a budget.
Why Experienced Marketers Win When They Use Tactics
Experienced marketers know that they will have more losers than winners. They accept this and budget for it.
They also know what they want to achieve before they look for a way to achieve it, and then they go and find the tactics that help them achieve it. Noobs tend to see an exciting headline which they react to by purchasing a course, only to feel ‘ripped off’ hours, days, weeks, or months later when no sales have been made.
New Marketers Can Advance Quicker If They Focus On Foundational Courses
Make no bones about it, if you don’t have a budget then your number one strategy should be putting a bankroll together.
One tactic to make that bankroll happen is to stay away from affiliate marketing sites that offer nothing more than neologisms and tactics that can only be employed if you have all the basics locked down.
For example, most affiliate sites will urge you to increase the load time of your website by purchasing new and expensive hosting. Yet, more than likely, attention has not been paid whatsoever to what is making the site slow. And that can be checked for free with https://gtmetrix.com/ and the only way to understand the information GTmetrix offers is to either study up on basic web dev skills or pay someone to sort out the issues for you.
That’s why we say, if you are new, the best way to spend your time is by learning marketing principles while building up your bank balance. We recommend only one foundational affiliate marketing course, and I’ll share that with you in a moment.
Is It Worth Getting An Affiliate Marketing Mentor?
The answer is an absolute yes. If you can get a mentor, then you’re way ahead of most other marketers. Of course, getting a mentor is not as easy as it sounds. And I’m going to write a post about this, but for now, I want you to think about this. When you ask someone to mentor you, what you’re saying is…
Can you give me your time for free so I can learn how to make money — worse still, asking someone to give their time for free and then telling them you have no budget to implement the advice they offer. That deal is not so fair, is it? There is only one way to approach a potential mentor, and that is to offer them money for their time.
Asking The Right Questions
The most important day in my marketing career was the day I accepted that I didn’t know the right questions to ask. That same day I started to join as many marketing forums as possible.
I wanted to find a forum that was higher than the level I was at, but not too advanced. Then I listened to what people were saying and asked them questions about what they had said.
Eventually, I started to learn to ask the right questions. That takes time… unless someone points you in the right direction. So, let me do that for you.
If you consider yourself a new marketer, and you feel that you don’t fully understand the principles that lead to a successful campaign, and want a mentor, or an over the shoulder experience, then the only course we recommend is Affilorama; but before I give you the link, here are some absolutely vital points to consider.
Do you have a budget? If the answer is no, then don’t buy the course, work on getting a bankroll together.
Do you have at least 10 hours per week to give to your business? If the answer is no, then don’t buy the course, work on figuring out how you can make more time each week for your business.
Are you stuck in a bit of rut and not seeing the results you want, and frankly feel nobody can help you? If the answer is no, then don’t buy the course.
If you have the budget, at least 10 hours per week to give to your business, and want to listen to advice from those who’ve gone before you…
Then go ahead and see what Affilorama offers new marketers.
