Business and Education tools for affiliates?? (18)
As most of you know I'm a huge advocate of education and becoming better ahead of making money. Money is just a by product of being good and working hard. So we're looking at building some business and education tools for affiliates.
As some of you may or may not know to serve this we've built out a whole video game platform that is going to teach the basics of media buying in a virtual environment.
But I want to do more... so some ideas I have that I'd like feedback on. Also, any other ideas you think would help you turn your affiliate money making into an actual business would be greatly appreciated.
Idea 1: Affiliate business plans - as a most of you know I've done just about everything in this business. Therefore I know the good, bad and the ugly of how to approach things and how to grow them into actual businesses.
I think a lot of us getting into this business "just wanting to make some extra money" and some of us are here 3, 4, 5 years later still operating under that premise.
No business plan
No financial plan and projections
No thought into where we're going to be 2-5 years from now
And I know some of you are thinking well this is all so unstable I don't know this or that. This could happen that could happen, blah, blah, blah.
But you can still take all that into account and build a plan around it.
So we're thinking of building out 10-20 different affiliate business plans based on whatever your end goal is.
Do you want to have employees?
Do you want to have an office?
How much money do you want to make?
Idea 2: Some pre-campaign processes and calculators - I think a lot of times as affiliates we just try something without building a small projection idea from the start. What is your aim for a ctr, click price, conversion rate, epc.... etc.
Everyday I'll get an affiliate hitting me up saying things like my campaign isn't working. And the first thing I ask is tell me the numbers you're seeing at each step in the process. Then the next thing I'll ask is what were your projected numbers before you started and where are you off? Ctr's lower? Click cost higher? Conversion rate lower? Etc.
And I find most people don't think about things in advance they just do them and see what happens. I know it makes sense when you're doing it but step back and think for a second, would any other business do that?
So I want to build some simple pre-campaign checklist and calculators out so people know in advance what they're expecting. This is what we do internally when we run campaigns and it works really well.
Idea 3: Systematic testing processes and budgets - A business is nothing more then systems and in order to have a good business you need to have good systems. Therefore I was thinking about mapping out a good process for testing new offers. If you're doing this business right I think you should be testing at least 1 new offer a week and that should take around 20% of your time. If we're going to test one new offer/vertical a week we're going to need a system and testing budgets allocated to it. So I was thinking about building some stuff around this.
Idea 4: Scaling processes - Same idea as above.
What do you think of these ideas?
What else could we build you in order to make you more successful?
Thanks for your feedback in advance.
Decision making on the data we accumulate on large scale, I'm still having difficulties to analyze my data more effectively, especially with Mobile.
Secondly, as you mentioned above, a systematic plan. I think a general and solid plan catered for the testing phase in this game is crucial. There are so many approaches used by every single one of us, but I'd really like to see a more general and solid plan used by the big guys like you in the testing phase, details on what would you always split test first, offers? Ad Copies/Creatives? Landing Pages? Traffic Sources? etc.
Great to hear about this initiative 
I like idea 3 and 4 the most, because they are very affiliate business specific.
Idea 1, I think doesn't apply to AM beginners (that includes myself), they need to see consistent results first for 6+ months before they worry about a business plan. + how many business mindset and business plans courses are out there? A lot. I don't think this is where you can add the most value. The guys who are good enough to get results and actually need to worry about this, will be able to get this info elsewhere.
Idea 2, sounds good, but from what I understand even guys who have been doing this for years never really know what to expect in terms of CTR/CR etc. So why spend time projecting? You obviously do and find it valuable, would love to hear your thoughts about this.
More ideas: http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...to-see-more-of
Sounds cool and I look forward to seeing some of these. I especially need to work on items 2 and 3. I am very much guilty of the 'throw shit at the wall till something sticks' method of AM. I think I would definitely benefit from building out a process that I follow when setting up and testing new campaigns.
-Aaron
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Yeah I say Maynzi's post and that's awesome. i read through a lot of it.
I think the main distinct difference between what he is building and what we're looking to build is that his is more about tricks and tutorials for running campaigns and making money.
The stuff I want to build is for a lot of us that have already figured out the basics of all that, we're all still learning all the time of course.
But you get to a point where you know most of the basics and you come to cross roads.
Most people think being a network or an advertiser is moving up the food chain. Honestly I don't know that I agree with that. Growing an affiliate media/social buying organization can be just as powerful. A lot of the strongest affiliates in the space are companies that run lots of campaigns. They're built like real businesses and not just some guy running a few campaigns trying to make some money.
So the goal with what we want to create is how to make a real business out of being media to CPA arbitrager. Not just how to do things but rather how to build a business and systemetize.
Time lines for growth
Financial goals
organizational structure
budgeting
basic training framework docs for outsourcers and employees
These kind of tools. Things to build a business.
Make sense?
Makes sense and sounds interesting. What's your timeline to get this show on the road?
Hired a full time writer to document internal processes. She's building and documenting for us internally. Then her next thing is to start on this project.
looking forward to this
This sounds right up my alley! While I love robust tools, and blueprints on how to build a company, I do think execution is critical. Learning how to do this is not so easy, and I think is what I struggle with most. Education directed towards fundamentals and why the tools work as well as big picture industry knowledge are things I lack and search for. I think this desire is also the difference between an aff that's happy makin good $ on the side vs. someone who wants to build a long-term asset of out it.
Are there ways to get involved with your project? I have tons of questions and would love to share my perspective of where I'm at.
Looking forward to this Jason, sounds like it will be an interesting read
Heck yeah! I'm really excited for this, do you have some kind of email list I can sign up to get updates?
I think you'll be on to a winner with this - particularly in stressing the importance of a business plan.
I think there's a lot of affiliates 'winging it' on a profit and a prayer.
Originally Posted by Finch
Finch, you have covered some of these topics in your premium posts: managing cashflow, mindset, planning, personal life etc.
Not to mention this awesome post: finchsells.com/2012/09/18/these-5-moonlighting-tips-will-rescue-your-sanity/
Finch, you are impressive when it comes to connect with your targeted reader.
I'm the guy you're describing in a lot of your posts.
For me, still in a day job and looking for the best moment to jump on the AM train without this "securing" revenue, I really need to have a better vision of my business.
I'm not sure I want a complex business plan for years, but this is something I should really be able to do.
Thank you Smaxor for the proposal, this is very interesting, and I think it adds up some professional look to an industry which looks like the far west to me
this sounds great.
here are 2 great examples of kinda doing something similar but around learning to code
http://www.codecademy.com
http://www.codeschool.com
it be great to adopt similar concepts in the business and education tools for affiliates!
This is awsome. I really like the idea of creating a real business out of affiliate marketing...
Awesome stuff indeed, especially looking forward to 3 and 4.
I know 1 is very desirable but with the current way I'm doing aff stuff
I have no idea how to start at all and how useful it could be, but what
do I know, I'm just a small-time aff
Look forward to the series!
Hi Jason,
This is really a fantastic project.
I'd be really interested by ideas #2 and #3, if you need a beta tester just let me know.
Affiliate marketing is such a short term based business though, it's almost impossible to plan for the future - or not? Show us the way!!
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