Guest Post by Dean Holland
“I was sat in Seattle airport sinking my second mojito whilst awaiting my flight back to London.
It was busy in the bar with no tables free near where I was sitting.
“Hey there, you mind if I take this seat” asked a random guy who wanted to sit down on my table
“Sure thing” I replied.
Little did I know that this chance meeting would lead to the biggest realization I’d ever had about affiliate marketing and go on to change the course of my life forever.
Over the moments ahead we got talking, various topics came up, like what we were both doing there, where we were heading next, that type of thing.
Joel was his name, I’d say he was a 40+ year old guy and as I learned he had a daughter who was back at home. Before long he asked what I did for work. This is always a topic I tend to avoid as most people just don’t get what I do, but he’d asked and so I had to respond..
Eagerly awaiting that blank stare, I said, “I do affiliate marketing online” You can guess what happened next, I’m sure… “What’s that?” he asked. , I laughed, but spent the next few minutes explaining that I promote products on the internet via online advertising and I was paid a commission for the products I sold.
He seemed to get the concept, but nevertheless I swiftly moved on and asked more about himself. “I’m a janitor” he explained.
Moments later he shared a big concern about his life with me. What transpired during that part of the conversation would spark a trigger in my mind that would allow me to go on and discover the biggest secret in the affiliate marketing industry today.
“You know what scares me Dean? …For several years my pay hasn’t increased much at all, but pretty much all my bills have gone up”
“How do you manage” I asked. “Well, it’s getting tough I won’t lie. If things continue like this I really don’t know what I’ll do, my income barely covers my outgoings now”
It was there, at that moment without actually standing up and walking away, my mind left that conversation.
Suddenly it hit me. It became clear to me what was so wrong with affiliate marketing today, and why nearly all those that try, fail.
Soon after I said my goodbyes and headed to the gate to board my flight back home. I couldn’t rest for hours on the plane with my mind racing about what I had realized.
Fourteen hours later I walked through the door of my home, went straight to my computer and began to research deeper into my idea. Could it be that affiliate marketing has reached a ‘tipping point’ and it’s practically impossible to start from scratch and build a successful business for the average person?
My suspicions were confirmed. I found numerous reports online where researched had been done into the average cost per click in online advertising. The figures showed that in the past 10 years, the average cost of getting someone to click an affiliate link through online advertising has multiplied by up to 8X. One such report published by Hochman Consultants found that in 2005 the average cost per click was just $0.38 but by 2016 that same click costs $2.14!
This was it! This was the big problem no one was talking about. If we’re paying that much more today to get traffic to affiliate offers, then the profit we can make has been reduced to a point of non-existent.
Just as Joel had said to me in Seattle, his income no longer covers his outgoings. And just like Joel was going to be in trouble if nothing changed, so are we as affiliate marketers. The money we have to spend to get people to an offer, has reached such a high point that the sales we generate and the commissions we earn no longer covers that cost.
Think about it. If we spend $200 to get 100 visitors to click our affiliate link, and 1 or 2 of those people buy a product and we get paid $20 for each sale, we’ve made $40 but lost $160! Heck, even if we only paid $100 for those 100 visitors and got paid $40 per sale, we’ve still lost money!
So what is the answer?
Well, I’d love to hop in a time machine and travel back to a point in time 10+ years ago where traffic was pennies a click, but I guess that’s not an option. The only other option then is we have to make our traffic worth more to us, it must earn us more money so we can produce a profit.
The good news is, I’ve spent years learning how this is done since that day I met Joel. I’ve shared this on stages around the world, and even at a TED Talk
But, I want to get the solution into the hands of as many people as possible because you can succeed, but not the way people used to.
So, I’ve just put it all into a new book called “The Affiliate Marketers Playbook and I’m giving away copies for FREE
Click here and tell me where to ship yours
I truly believe that day I met Joel by sheer lucky, I was fortunate enough to stumble on the solution to all the struggling affiliate marketers problem, and if right now you’re not getting the results you desire then I’d like to give you the solution too:
Get your copy of the Affiliate Marketers Playbook here today
Thanks for Reading, I can’t wait to help you get better results online
