The Getting Started Post

It was actually a recent email from the WordPress Affiliate Guide notifying me about an update that got my attention. That email, though rather unremarkable, was like a wake-up call. I’d spent money all those years ago, but never took action.

So I downloaded the updated ebook, dug out my copy of the Super Affiliate Handbook, and read them both from cover to cover.

Now I will go through them again, this time taking action at each stage in the lessons. Since I’m in the early stages I’ll be relying on the Super Affiliate Handbook to get the ball rolling since it goes into topics like market research, keyword selection, and planning.

This is also where I admit to having a tiny advantage–and I do mean tiny. I intend to use a domain name that I’ve had for 5-ish years. It’s not in a researched niche, though, so tiny. I also have a hosting account through HostGator, so I’ll just be adding on the domain there rather than incur an additional monthly expense.

And that’s where I’m at.

Tomorrow I’ll start tackling the market research and keyword selection so I start planning the site.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes…

Goodness gracious, it’s been a dog’s age since I’ve updated this site. I don’t know what happened there, but what I do know is what I plan to do in the here and now.

Build my affiliate business up properly.

Years ago, I invested in two products designed to help me build a proper affiliate business. The books were the WordPress Affiliate Guide and the Super Affiliate Handbook.

Both of these books are fantastic in my opinion, but the proof is in the pudding, as the euphemism goes. Unfortunately, I got all my ingredients to make one helluva pudding, but never mixed them up. They sat on the counter and spoiled.

It’s time to try again.

For the next several months, I will write about my experiences as an affiliate marketer starting with a super-strict budget. This case study will ultimately double as a review for the products I mentioned earlier, too.

I plan to disclose everything–except maybe my niches and my websites–as I go along. I’ll disclose the methods I use, my web stats, my income and expenses, all of it. Consider it a crash course in affiliate marketing.

This time around, I can’t afford to let my ingredients spoil.

WP Affiliate Guide Review

Last week, I came across a new product. New to me, at least. It’s called WordPress Affiliate Guide (also called WP Affiliate Guide or WPAG for short — and no, that’s not an affiliate link).

The product claims to help someone build an affiliate website using WordPress and does it ever deliver. I had no problems buying this product because I’ve purchased products from Teli in the past and never had a problem. In fact, it’s always been a pleasure. My questions get answered, even the stupid ones.

Since I’ve been using WordPress for a while, some of the beginning information was basic to me. (It goes over how to install WordPress and some basic locations for settings and stuff, which I already knew.) But where it shined for me was the little nuggets like how to remove the word ‘category’ from the links when someone’s viewing a product category. Yea, you can find that kind of info online for free, but for someone who doesn’t even know to look for it, that’s a damn good tip.

It also had a nice step by step blueprint to follow from start to finish. A complete checklist that you can print off and follow as you go along. I didn’t even need to watch the videos (I’m not a big fan of videos personally) to understand what she was saying. I just printed the ebook and had it next to me while I worked.

And since it’s now officially been 31 days, I happily downloaded all the bonus items she has up and some of them are kickass. Not too long ago, the Simple Link Manager plugin (it’s a light version, but it still more than gets the job done) and the WordPress Datafeed Import script (again, a light version, but still great) were both uploaded.

Another great thing about the WordPress Affiliate Guide is that it’s flexible. It doesn’t lock you into one click here, click there formula. When you feel comfortable enough, it teaches you enough to start experimenting and playing around with different styles of affiliate sites.

For only $35, it’s definitely worth the money. You get a lot more information than some of these reports selling for $97.

Now I gotta get on my review of the Simple Link Manager plugin, which I’m totally in love with, too. I already have the full script that I use for my static sites, but the plugin is awesome for my WordPress powered sites.

Good-bye Comments

For a little while, you won’t find any comments here although, previously, there were a couple hundred throughout the posts.

Because I’d been away from the blog for so long, the spam comments accumulated in my moderation queue — there were nearly 2,000. Instead of scanning through every one of them, I decided to delete it from the database.

Well, since WP marks the comments it thinks are spam as spam, I tried that first, but only a few were nuked. So, I got the brilliant idea just to delete all the comments…it didn’t occur to me while the query was running that I should only be deleting all the un-approved comments.

Needless to say, that was a really stupid move.

If you’re in the same boat, make sure you reconsider your database query before you hit that ‘Go’ button.

Underachieving Your Way to Greatness

I’m starting to love Frank Kern’s twisted sense of humor. He actually wins my ‘best line in a sales letter’ award this year for this gem:

…my results aren’t typical. I ain’t promising anyone a damn thing. I’m just showing you what’s working for me.

and, this one comes in a close second:

Here’s my vision of retirement. I’m on a beach someplace warm and sunny. A nubile young nymph brings me a drink.

I should mention, both of these sentences are taken out of context, but they’re just as funny in context.