Affiliate Marketing System? What About It?

Since most people who know me know that I work 100% from home now, they often ask me how I do it. I have been getting a lot of those questions this winter, since John and I left the north country (northern NH) for the warmer climate of coastal South Carolina.

Except that it snowed here on the beach yesterday. And it's in the 20's tonight. Brrr! Old Man Winter wasn't letting us go without a fight! :)

Anyway, I guess the reason people ask us this question is because we don't fit the typical "snow bird" profile - which means we are not retired (yet!).

We assure people that we most certainly DO work! And we work hard. Well. "Work Hard" is a relative term. My back aches, but only because I'm hunkered down over the computer keyboard for work.

As you know, if you've been reading this blog, we work our online business opportunities. A couple of our internet marketing strategies are centered around products which are physically drop-shipped from our supplier, and yet another is an affiliate marketing system.

I know that some readers might ask what I truly believe the best affiliate marketing program is - and that is a difficult question to answer. Everyone is different, which means that different people will prefer different products. I've addressed this topic in other blog entries, wherein I advise people who are interested in business opportunities online to carefully review their likes/dislikes, how much time they have to devote, etc.

Also, when asked, I will typically tell folks that I prefer to represent a company that has a solid, stand-alone product. You've probably seen that in my writings, as well.

And an affiliate marketing opportunity may very well be different from an affiliate marketing system. At least in my eye.

Because the affiliate marketing opportunity you choose to represent may not necessarily have a marketing system to help you learn the ropes of online internet marketing.

So what to do?

Well, you've undoubtedly heard me tell my readers to do some due diligence and soul searching before joining up with anything. Because, I don't care how good the internet or affiliate marketing system is - if you are not going to put in the time to 1) LEARN the system, and then 2) WORK the system - and by work the system, I mean on a CONSISTENT basis, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Because nothing works unless YOU do.

So. That said, there are a few affiliate marketing systems out there that have good information, good educational products, and the type of training that - once you wrap your head around it - you can implement, and begin to see results in the following ways: 1) More visitors (aka "traffic") to your site, which leads to 2) more sales at your site, which leads to 3) more commissions in your bank account.

I like Mike Dillard's style - talk about "no nonsense." You can check it out and get some free information and see if this affiliate marketing system resonates with you.

Of course, it's no secret that I'm extremely fond of Global Resorts Network as an excellent affiliate marketing opportunity, since John & I love to travel and have been very impressed by the exclusive luxury travel club that we market (which really is a standalone product). For people who want to travel AND earn some money marketing a luxury vacation travel product, the GRN commission structure is impressive. For us, it's both an entrepreneur's dream come true as well as a vacationer's dream come true (Hey! That's our motto!)

As far as the affiliate marketing systems that we work, we've learned a great deal through the sites we've already mentioned - which you can visit at your leisure. They are certainly not the only affiliate marketing resources out there, but they're certainly a good starting point. The direct links are:
Presenting GRN (this gets right to the point of the opportunity)
Black Belt Recruiting (this is Mike Dillard's approach)
Truth To Wealth Online (this is a great GRN Team Building System - plus you can get a nice free eBook about dispelling the myths of working online)

But ultimately, it is up to you to discover what it is you enjoy doing, decide if you have the time to devote to learning an affiliate marketing system - and then, once you choose your particular affiliate marketing opportunity that "grabs you" - STICK WITH IT!