Adam is a successful affiliate and we got in contact via the affiliate forum, PAL. He’s been in the industry a little longer than I have, but we are still both relative newcomers to the market. This article will give an aspiring affiliate a few great pointers into becoming successful via the form of a mentor who has been there and done that. Thanks for this, Adam. Great job! 

 

Advice for New Affiliates: Get a Mentor and Use their Sub-Links!

My name’s Adam and I’ve been involved in affiliate marketing for around 1.5 years now.

My memories are still fresh (a bit too fresh!) from when I was a complete newbie and didn’t know how to install wordpress, how to buy a domain, what is SEO or how to make actual money from a website.

So having been there and done it all, I can tell you that an extremely important piece of advice that really helped me out all those years ago: Find a Good Affiliate Mentor!

I’m not going to write another article about the difficulties of new affiliates trying to establish themselves.  That’s been done before.  But what I’ve noticed many of these “help yourself” or “make money online” blogs have completely missed out is the importance that mentors and sub-affiliates play in the affiliate industry.

Advantages of Having a Mentor in Affiliating

The advantages of having a good mentor in affiliating is that they play a crucial role in helping you make your first site, plan your strategy, find the best programs to promote and get the best deals.  In short, a mentor will reduce the amount of time it takes you to make your first $x,xxx/month profit.

When I say “good” mentor by the way, I’m not talking about a random person who has a blog or gives you a bunch of sub-affiliate links and you never see him again.  Instead, I’m talking about someone who’s on Skype or MSN 24/7 to help you out, to answer any questions you have, to help get your site off the ground, maybe choose some themes or throw a few links your way…That sort of thing.

But it’s not just new affiliates that should find mentors important.  Even experienced affiliates can gain huge help from experience affiliates in new niches.

For example, I’ve just moved into the Forex niche – a market that is notoriously competitive, complex and difficult to become established in.

My friend hooked me up with a super forex affiliate contact the other day, who’s been a massive help.  After having a 15 minute phone conversation with him to explain who I am; he’s providing me with the by far the best deals in the industry (having been there for 7 years with his own team of xx employees), recommending which programs to promote, which national markets or keywords have the best customer value, etc…

And what do new affiliates have to pay for all of this service?  Nothing.  It’s absolutely free, all you have to do is sign up through someone’s sports betting or bingo sub-affiliate link (which doesn’t cost you anything).

Advantages of Being a Mentor Having Sub-Affiliates

There are a number of advantages to having sub-affiliates working under you.

First of all, every affiliate that signs up a promotes a program using your sub-affiliate link will earn you money (usually programs pay you 5% of your sub-affiliates earnings however this increases to 10% in a number of industries).

If you play the numbers game and sign up lets say 20 sub-affiliates then the chances are that at least one a few of them will be making $5-10k/month a few months or years down the road.  This could mean that you’re making an extra $1-$2k per month additional passive income.  And if you build a successful network of sub-affiliates then you could live off that income or build a forum out of those contacts.

Secondly, helping out new affiliates increases your contacts in the industry, makes you feel better, and you can use those close contacts to gain leverage with affiliate programs.  If you’re regular referring affiliates to different programs then it’ll get you a lot more respect and credibility.  There’s also a ton of money to be made in setting up super-affiliate programs.  Launching a super-affiliate program would be a lot easier when you have a number of loyal sub-affiliate contacts.

Lastly, there’s the long-term investment and “I owe you on” mentality that you’ll get from helping other people.  I don’t think any affiliate operates alone – everyone has their special skills, which are maximised when people share their knowledge, expertise and resources with each one another.  By helping lots of sub-affiliates, you never know where they end up or how they’ll repay you.  You’re basically getting loyalty for life in my opinion.

I literally sent an email to my original mentor the other day, asking for some more sub-links for my mobile betting site.  FYI: I used to be his writer before he helped me set up my first website as a sub-affiliate.  I also asked him for more sub-affiliate links for programs, so he’s going to continuously be making more money from me.

Anyway, that’s the end of this article.  In conclusion, if you’re a new affiliate, and you’re hardworking, then try finding a mentor to help you out before you have a go at everything on your own.