Mark Joyner and Simpleology have released the Online Affiliate Income training program to help people to make money from the Internet by using affiliate marketing. It has been released with a very special offer - the One Million Dollar Challenge which gives you the chance to build a profitable website and have your training costs refunded, but it only applies if you buy before the end of August 2009.
I am therefore under time pressure to get this Online Affiliate Income review completed in time for people to make a sensible decision to buy it.
I will therefore be writing the review in stages.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?In the first training video of Online Affiliate Income, affiliate marketing is defined and explained.
Basically affiliate marketing is earning money by being the link between someone looking for a solution to a problem and a supplier who has a potential solution.
The affiliate earns money by introducing one party to the other - a bit like a recruitment consultancy firm does with people.
If you stop to think about it, retail shops and stores do something similar.
If you went into a specialist cutlery store, the shop owner has put together a range of products from suitable suppliers for you to take a look at in one easy, convenient place. The retailer makes money by providing a service to both customer and supplier saving one time (can see the alternatives) and the other money (no need to set up their own retail store).
What Is Online Affiliate Income?It is a multi-media training program put together by Mark Joyner and the people at Simpleology to teach you how to make money online through affiliate marketing.
Mark Joyner has been a pioneer of Internet Marketing and is even known as the Godfather of Internet Marketing.
Four years ago he created Simpleology which has become a leading Internet based training company for a wide variety of business and non-business courses. (take a look at the Simpleology Programs menu over to the right).
I will tell you much more about the Online Affiliate Income program further down my review, but in essence, it is a 16 module multi-media training program using videos, written materials and audio recordings combined with quizzes to take you through the step by step process to make online income with affiliate marketing.
Some people get so good at it that they earn much more income as an affiliate than they would as an employee. Others use affiliate marketing to create an extra income, perhaps to pay for the special things in life.
How Much Money Can Be Made With Affiliate Marketing?At the very top, affiliate marketers can make millions while others make much less.
In many ways, affiliate marketing success depends on what and how much you know and what you do.
My first affiliate income was about two years ago on a Jay Abraham product I had put on my website and not really thought much about. Then I woke up one morning (literally and figuratively) when I received an email confirming that I save had been made and I had earned about $198.
I don't know about you but for me, to get that sort of money before I had done any kind of work, made it a very good day.
These days I earn four figures every month, some months better than others. My best time was an hour on a big Internet marketing product launch when I earned about $5,000 in an hour.
But I still get excited when I receive those emails, "you have made a sale and earned..."
How Online Affiliate Income Can HelpOnline Affiliate Income has been created as a beginner's course to teach you how to create a website - or more than one website - to promote affiliate products.
It takes you through the process, step by step on a daily program.
First you watch the video for the day and then take the quiz to make sure that you have picked up the key points. Then you move on to complete the assignments in the Online Affiliate Income course checklist so that you take action as you learn.
Then you are ready to move on to the next day.
Who Is Online Affiliate Income For?It is not for well established affiliate marketers but for people who want to start earning money through affiliate marketing and want to learn how do to it systematically and effectively.
While I have learnt stuff from Online Affiliate Income, much of it covers stuff that I know works.
This is a gentle introduction to affiliate marketing.
Usually with Simpleology courses, it is Mark Joyner taking you through the lessons but in Online Affiliate Income, it is a voice that I don't recognise. He sounds like a professional speaker with a very clear voice and good inflexions.
The videos are short anyway so you are not going to get bored and drift off.
You arev introduced to the idea of affiliate networks where people with products go to promote their products.
You have to find your own niche and day 2 of the program tells you how to find a niche with a good profit potential since you don't want to spend your time in an area where there are few buyers.
The video sets out the criteria and then recommends some broad categories where you can look for your special area.
You are then encouraged to search for particular products to promote.
This is a critical area of all Internet marketing and I suspect that it is something that even successful Internet marketers, don't do enough of.
The great thing about the Internet is that you can find out what people want because search volumes are available if you know where to look.
I do have one quibble about the training in this area, since I encourage my clients to look at specific searches rather than general searches but it is a minor point since the proportions are usually similar.
Online Affiliate Income Review Day 4 - ContentThe idea is that you will write content that attracts people, they read and feel encouraged to follow your recommendations.
Day 4 tells you how to get that content on your website and gives you four important guidelines for how to put the content together.
Online Affiliate Income Review Day 5 - Your Space In CyberSpaceThe day 4 video helps you to choose your domain name (website) and gives some important guidelines together with seven factors to look for when choosing your web hosting.
The checklist has you recording your user names and passwords. It sounds obvious but I spent ages looking for my hosting details recently and I have one important domain name that is in limbo because I can't find the details.
Online Affiliate Income Days 6 to 16Day 6 looks at the issue of designing your website and uploading content. It goes through the options from learning to do it yourself to outsourcing to an expert. This isn't my strong area but I was intrigued by the recommendations and agree with the reservations about one popular solution. (Try XsitePro which is easy to use and packed with extras).
Day 7 deals with how and where to put your affiliate links. It is interesting to hear what is said in the course and I agree with the comment that banner ads are often screened out (those over to the right).
At this stage, you know have your affiliate income engine and the next few days are focused on attracting traffic to the website.
Day 8 looks at how to get rankings in the search engine and in particular the SEO secrets for on site search engine optimisation but if you follow the best practice guidance in the earlier days, much of this will have already been done.
Day 9 of Online Affiliate Income explains how to use article marketing to improve your traffic. This is one area where I seem to have a mental block. Silly when I know how effective it can be.
Day 10 deals with links from major content sharing sites like Squidoo and HubPages. Five are recommended and while I particularly use Squidoo, two of them are new to me.
Day 11 looks at the role the hugely popular social media websites can play in sending you targeted traffic as well as building relationships with people interested in your niche.
I will update this review and report back what I think when I have gone through the remaining videos and program.
Day 12 is focused on using the power of video to both share content and to attract traffic from the video sites. This is one area that I really must start doing, even if I don't want to appear on the screen myself.
Day 13 looks at the essential topic of tracking, tweaking and testing which is essential for the affiliate model being recommended in Online Affiliate Review. From my own experience offers don't convert as I expect and I have delivered significant traffic to some very well known marketings with products that I know are good - and not made one sale. Other offers keep on converting time after time.
Day 14 takes you through the process of moving past your first golden niche into others and repeating the process so that you have more little affiliate businesses earning you money. It's on the principle of "what's better than having one website earning you $200 per week?" - the answer of course is two or more websites bringing you money.
Day 15 moves the affiliate marketing model forward into list building and building a series of affiliate offers through autoresponder emails.
Day 16 offers the opportunity to partner with Simpleology in their marketing program which is closed to the general public. Even though you have gone through the course, you will still need to be vetted as suitable as Simpleology maintain high standards.
I like what I see in Simpleology's Online Affiliate Income program.
Even as a well established affiliate I am learning little bits as I work through the videos and the work sessions.
The course, as with all Simpleology courses, is very well structured and it leads you into taking action very nicely.
If you have tried other Internet marketing courses and been overwhelmed by the volume and complexity, then I can assure you that this will not be the case for Online Affiliate Income.
What I like, is that it keeps the lessons short and straightforward with no unnecessary fluff. That way you watch the video and have the time and energy to take the recommended actions.
And as you take action, you will start seeing results.
Just remember that affiliate marketing is competitive and don't expect to achieve too much by targeting a very popular niche. For example I work in the make money online niche which is probably the toughest since everyone knows what they are doing.
If you are new to Internet marketing and want to make money on the Internet I strongly recommend that you look at Online Affiliate Income. At the moment the Million Dollar Challenge means that you can get this great training for free.
There is no risk, try it and if you don't like it, Simpleology will refund your money, no questions asked.
Click over to Online Affiliate Income and see how this training can help you to earn extra money.
When you agree to buy, you will meet a series of what are known as upsell offers. If you are serious about affiliate marketing, I also recommend that you take offer 1 on the cashmaps/traffic explosion club.
If you are an experienced Internet marketer and in particular a successful affiliate marketer, you will find Online Affiliate Income interesting and, like me, you may pick up a few ideas. However this is targeted at people who are new and what I learnt came from my technophobia and my reluctance to get into the nitty gritty of creating websites.
Online Affiliate Income is for people who are just starting in affiliate marketing.
To really open your eyes about what is achievable with affiliate marketing, take a look at Jeff Johnson's video on how to become a super affiliate.
http://businesscoaching.typepad.com/online_profits/2009/08/affiliate-marketing-in-5-easy-steps-vide-jeff-johnson.html
Posted by: Paul Simister | 08/31/2009 at 09:07 AM
Update on Online Affiliate Income September 2009
I have received an email from Simpleology overnight announcing that Online Affiliate Income will open again on September 28th.
Simpleology want only 500 people who will have a chance to take part in the $1,000,000 challenge.
The bad news is that they already have a waiting list of over 2,000 so you can expect Online Affiliate Income to be open and closed very quickly again.
My advice is to join the waiting list so that you can be sure of first notification.
http://www.simpleology.com/p/oai/ypc/
Posted by: Paul Simister | 09/23/2009 at 09:36 AM
In full disclosure I should make it clear that I bought Online Affiliate Income with my own money and then asked for and received a refund.
As I have tried to make it clear in the review, Online Affiliate Income is designed for people who want to get started in affiliate marketing and not those who are already earning a good income.
I certainly learnt from Online Affiliate Income but it was in areas which I don't use.
I remain a technophobe and my affiliate marketing will remain centred around my Typepad blogs and the use of content creation websites like Squidoo.
The reason is simple, my Typepad blogs are now a huge asset (currently in the top 77,000 most popular websites in the world according to Alexa) and it doesn't make sense to start creating lots of little websites that I need to work to get ranked.
My strategy does have risks. Changes at Google or Typepad could knock out the website so I can't take risks in the way that I could if I had independent websites.
Posted by: Paul Simister | 10/07/2009 at 11:26 AM