What to do with your Affiliate Marketing Skills? (6)
I didn't make the trip out to ASE, but from what I keep hearing, more and more affiliates are choosing to diversify and keep some of their eggs out of the CPA basket.
What's really interesting about our industry is just what an eclectic mix of individuals we have. Some of us are ex developers, others ex corporate marketing, and others simply ex minimum wage labourers that grew sick of the lack of job opportunities out there.
There are 3 areas that I've noticed affiliates moving in to:
Building their own products and services, both in and outside the affiliate industry.
This is common sense. Many affiliates are looking at ways to aid other affiliates - either through creating networks, tools to make life easier, or even forums like the one we're posting on now. Servicing other marketers can be a lucrative business, so long as you target those who are making a decent fist of a living online - not the Warrior Forum breed.
Many of us are taking what we've learned through the business models we've encountered in day to day CPA and using it to design our own products and services outside affiliate marketing. That's something I'm doing personally with one very intensive project, sport related, that is swallowing up a lot of my time (and hairline).
We learn so much through the business models we see in practice every day. Even if you are not ready to give up affiliate marketing, it still makes sense to be looking out for moments of inspiration where you can port what you know to a product of your own. Owning the product and leveraging other affiliate marketers is widely seen as the 'business end' of where big money gets made.
Using their lead generation expertise to drive customers to local businesses.
Become a conversion expert. How many hours do you spunk testing every last detail of your campaigns to milk a few extra percentage points on your ROI? The information that you glean - the methodical testing process that you hone - is priceless to small local businesses that have budget but no experience in the online game.
The knowledge is just as priceless to large companies with a national or global presence, but you'll find it harder to convince them that you're exceptional in your field. It's easier to target the low hanging fruit. Think professionals who can afford to charge their customers a stiff rate (dentists, surgeons, physiotherapists etc). A customer is worth a lot to these people. The rewards are much greater than your average CPA payout.
I've also noticed that professionals in these careers tend to be well-connected. The neighbourhood dentist might just pass your name on to the local lawyer with high acclaim for your work. By competing online, we are competing with each other. By competing locally, we can massively reduce the expertise available in the marketplace. That makes our knowledge more valuable to the right people.
Angel investing their money in the search for the 'Next Big Thing'
This is the area that I have explored the least, but it could potentially be one of the most lucrative. If you have the funds at your disposal from affiliate marketing, and you don't want to get your hands dirty with projects of your own, there's always the opportunity to invest in those who require funding or start-up help.
Most people who make it in affiliate marketing will do so by adopting a good eye for opportunity. But there's only so much we can work on at any given time. Investing our money and less of our time is one fix for this.
You can invest for a share of the future profits. Find the next Facebook and you'll be laughing your arse off all the way to the bank. Let's be real though. It's risky business and you can easily get it tits-up.
Investing, in my opinion, should be the 'end game' for anybody who is serious about generating lasting wealth in to the future. And there are many places you can invest - bonds, the stock market, real estate, online assets, private loans.
The least appealing of these investments to me is real estate. I think I would rather stab my eyes out with a steak knife than deal with tenants and property repairs. The 'middlemen' who supposedly make this task easier can be some of the biggest money leeches you'll ever come across.
What do you guys think? Have you found any awesome inventive ways to monetize your affiliate marketing skills outside of affiliate marketing
All great things to do.
I'm doing all 3 but the Lead gen we're not doing just Local we're doing world wide. Finding buyers all over the world typically not local based.
Being a good affiliate you learn to be a good direct response marketer. The base level skills really should transition to anything.
On my end, I still do a a bit of affiliate marketing, but I'm investing 80% of my time and money into building our own IPs and products.
I built an agency based here, in Quebec, and we are now building 2 greats products for mobile platforms. One of them is a mobile social game that will be shipped in January, we are trying to profit from the popularity of Tower Defense games using the virality of social games, the goal is to get a great RPU combined with millions of players 
. Plus, I'll use my experience as an affiliate to gather as much players as possible.
Our second product is a Gym tool created to optimize the productivity of people who trains at the gym. Most people waste around 25 to 50% of their time at the gym and our tool will eradicate that problem. We should ship this one in about a month.
Basically, my goal is to create a solid business with great processes that will permit us to ship products quickly, test the traction and gather feedback, then scale as much as possible if we see potential. Sounds like something ? 
We are now opening the valve to get new investors to diminish the risks and, to be honest, my work has never been that motivating.
If any of you guys are interesting in learning more, PM me!
Yep, products (physical and info) and lead gen is where ive personally gone. And apps.
Wohooo ticking your three boxes here! Nice post Finch.
I did kind of a hybrid of this, I took my marketing skills and started promoted a friends local small business (auto repair), and then used my savings to invest in his company and allow him to take a more managerial role where he opened up a shop in another city and so I'm helping him with the investing / scaling of the physical part of the business as well as the marketing / lead generation aspect. It's not the kind of instant return / huge ROI that you get as an affiliate running a campaign, but after I hopefully recoup the initial investment, it will be nice to have a stake in a non-affiliate business that is more long term. Either way, it's a very exciting process to get out of your comfort zone like this.
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