I’ve been a successful Internet Marketer for “Bricks and “Mortar” businesses for over ten years. Making profit using the Internet is what I am good at. But what about doing it for my own “businesses”? Specifically, Affiliate Marketing?

It’s tough. REALLY tough. It’s the very definition of a dog-eat-dog world. The big, self-styled “Gurus” (who no-one has ever heard of!) present you with the latest, greatest product, that will make you gazillions of dollars a second and…all for just $ 97! What a bargain!

So you go round and round, looking for the latest product or system, all hyped beyond reason. You buy it. You fail. You get a refund. You move on to the next big thing and the cycle of misery continues.

So, you’re wasting your time, money and effort for no cash. This is the reason that 90% fail.

Think of that number again – 90% fail. Yet, in the UK at least, 95% of home businesses succeed! What is the discrepancy between successful “bricks and mortar” home businesses and online businesses?

I think the answer is three-fold.

1) People don’t think for themselves. They are blindsided by the latest $ 97 wonder product from ClickBank and think that will make them rich. When they see time, money and effort needs to be invested they panic and move onto the next big thing. You need to put in the hours to get a return – you have a job, right? – so stick to it! Even a modest product will probably arm you with the basic knowledge to succeed. You now need to implement what you have learned, rather than doing nothing and moving onto the next product. Break out of this cycle and you are half the way there.

Home businesses are generally centered on a niche that the business owner understands. Thing about what you are good at, what interests you. It will make choosing a business niche much easier and give you much more hope of succeeding. If it’s something you know about, you’ll probably find the work interesting too.

2) Understand these basics. You need a product, or a product to promote. You need a means of promoting it – be it a blog, website or other advertising method (which could even be Twitter, YouTube or Facebook). You don’t need to spend a fortune on a flashy site, or even have to have much technical knowledge. But if you never even end up promoting anything, is it any wonder you aren’t getting anywhere?

Home business owners generally have a product or service that made them start a business in the first place! Sit down, make a list of what you are knowledgeable about and start researching products in that genre that you can promote. Or even think about a product you can create.

3) Plan your Trade and Trade Your Plan. This is the old stock traders mantra, and it is also the underlying basis of all successful businesses. If you don’t have a plan, how will you know what to do next? How can your business be a success if you don’t know what you want to achieve? Right down a plan and try and follow it through. You’ll get a sense of relief and who knows, you might have made some money at the end of it!

Home business owners will probably want a business account from their bank. The bank manager will want to see at least a basic business plan before they will offer an account. Sit down and plan what you need to do: build a basic website, populate it with your content, start promoting it. Fill in the gaps as to what you are missing. Write down the time involved and the costs. Update this frequently.

Also, don’t be afraid to set your goals further down the line. Where do you want this business to be in three months time? Write this down then work your plan to meet this target by this date.

The most important thing of all, having taken the above points on board and changed your behavioural patterns is to get traffic. If your business is going to make money, you need a constant supply of new visitors to your site.

I believe this is something that most people fail at. This is partly due to the fact that the latest “wunderprodukt” promised them a million dollars an hour and never mentioned that traffic is king and partly because these guides never mention precisely that you need traffic in the first place!

Think about it. If I open a cafe in the middle of a village, will I make more money than a cafe that’s in the middle of a business centre with 10,000 employees? Most likely not.

You need to try links, online advertising, developing partnerships with other websites, viral marketing techniques, dispersing your message on other people’s networks, creating multiple websites for different niches, affiliate programme, getting listed in directories, launching an email marketing campaign, building a following on Twitter and being as proactive as possible to get your message out there.

90% of people will give up after a short period of time (if they ever tried at all). Stuck in the same patterns of behaviour, and with no traffic, they are bound to fail.

Will you be one of them?

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