Journaling To Make Money In Affiliate Marketing
Writing a journal is not just fun, it's an awesome marketing tool! Admittedly, it does take time to write in a journal, but it is not 'lost' time.
Why a journal? How else can you organize your thoughts? How else can you remember that process that you wandered through to make that last thousand dollars online? Where else would you store all of those great ideas you don't have time to follow up on yet, today? How can you keep track of all of those strong passwords you use in all of your systems? I admit it; I'm not a memory guru. I cannot remember more than 7 numbers in a row, not to mention the 20 or more tasks necessary to start a campaign in affiliate marketing.
What do you put in a journal? The affiliate marketing project takes a lot of memory. You have to sign up as an affiliate. You have to remember the user logon, the password, the affiliate number, where you stored your URL, and what promises the marketer gave you (such as the 30 day trial, you know, just in case everything falls apart and you want your money back). You have to set up your autoresponder messages. You have to test all of the connections (trial clicks on all of the links). You have to update your traffic generating sites (free traffic trading sites; your viral market tool; your blog, your favourite forums' signatures, and especially your directed list). You need to remember if you have devoted a domain and site to this campaign. You have to remember the rules of all of your systems so you don't inadvertently get slammed. You have to track the results of your campaign. You have to do your optimization for the search engines, if you are into that. You need to remember this campaign exists and track the cost/benefit analysis.
How big is the journal? In the last campaign I started, so far, I have joined 10 different programs that I was told are necessary to manage a campaign, remembering to monetize everything by becoming an affiliate in each program, each with associated benefits, rules, trial dates, costs, and duties. Admittedly that campaign was a start in a different subject, so the number of things was a bit larger, but figure that you will be running a number of campaigns and projects over the year, and you want to keep track...
How do you manage a journal? Well, you may be different than I am, so this may not help, but think about it. I use a loose leaf binder. Why? Because I maintain my journals by subject - online marketing, trading, lifestyle, soccer coaching, J.O.B., etc. A loose leaf binder allows me to journal many different subjects in the same book. I tried a bound book, but then I had to allot different spots in the journal for different things I was working on, and I ran out of pages in the busy subjects. With loose leaf, you never run out of pages; you can photocopy a newspaper article for references and include it in your journal; you can photocopy your tools and services list to allow you to generate a checklist; you can print off your ezine articles for editing, storing them in your journal; you can store your passwords in a 'protected' place, not taped to your monitor; and you can archive your notes, from your journal, to your safety deposit box if necessary.
I thought this article could be short and to the point, but I see it's just an overview. Maybe this can become an eBook? I am writing a blog directed to that campaign, and to other things while wandering through life, at http://brianeger.wordpress.com
For more affiliate marketing tips, and to watch my wanderings, visit my blog at http://brianeger.wordpress.com Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box
