Ahhh, Where do I start?

[Ray]

Hi,

Well, I have finished reading Roslind's Super Affiliate Handbook.... I am all revved up with nowhere to go....

Weird as it sounds, the only problem I have is the book appears to have everything you need and I am stuck. Information overload I guess.

If you were to make a check list of how to start from Zero... What would it look like?

ID Niche
Test keywords
ID Niche again
Just Join CJ and Clickbank and throw a dart
Then design website / find host
Begin throwing small non fragile items against a wall
Forget the niche, just pick something not being sold at Wal-Mart
Stare at blank Website template till it is finished....

This about what my list has become. I keep telling myself, it is only an elephant... one bite at a time, just one... ok two

I am not very focused here... Can you tell?

Is there a general flow for the process or does it matter? It seems to me there is a logical progression that could be followed without getting buried in the details.

At this point I am interested in just actually seeing money coming in. I know that is the whole point of marketing. But I am saying for my own sanity, set up a product, just one. If $10.00 squeezes its way to me I will have a clue affiliate marketing could work.

I am probably being too cautious, but have jumped in to many things with both feet only to get burned in my enthusiasm. I can't afford to buy all the nifty tools in the book. I do have excel and rudimentary spreadsheet skills.

More like nibbles on the elephant....

Where do I start?

[barberic]

In MHO the first thing you'll want to do is decide if there is an area which interests you. You know the saying "Find a job you love and you'll never work another day in you life"; something that you're the 'go to' person for now. Is there something you know quite a bit about now or are have been wanting to learn a great deal about.

Then begin looking at keywords. There are lots of free tools out there so don't think you have to spend a lot of money. During this process you'll be looking at the number of times a particular phrase or keyword was searched for. So by the time you get through your keyword research phase you'll have a pretty good idea if there is a market out there for any products you want to sell or develop.

As you do the above and from then on you'll want to keep a running list of the things you want to do and/or implement in your business. Then you prioritize your list. That way you always know what you want to do next. You don't have to accomplish everything right away. Just focusing on one step at a time will keep you from feeling overwhelmed.

Hope this helps.

[larissa]

[Rosalind Gardner]

Hi All,

Larissa - don't take up motivational speaking, OK?

Ray, Joyce offers you a good place to start - just like the Super Affiliate Handbook does.

I always recommend that you read the Handbook through completely first to get the 'big picture', then go back and work it one step at a time.

Yes, it's a learning curve.

BUT, nothing worth doing is 'easy', otherwise everyone would be doing it.

Cheers,

Rosalind

[Ray]

Well, I am stumbling my way through but making progress.

In the process I am finding interests in things I hadn't considered at all. So the niche processing continues. I have put the darts away

Hi Ros, I pretty much have the 50,000 foot view. I am very interested in the whole affiliate concept. My roughest plan for now is to pick one single product, something with legs that can be related to other products or markets. But first develop a single website (page) just to get a feel for the whole targeted traffic thing. That is where I really stumble. With billions of mice busily clicking away 24/7 the how to get some of those clicks my direction has me fascinated with possibilities.

Joyce’s comments hit home, I see big pictures easily. But the details of the painting, the individual brush strokes are not visible to me..... Perhaps I should buy some paint, Adwords? Not ready yet... just one bite at a time....

As for Larissa's comments she is not completely off base.... years ago my Mother was helping me with some English grammar homework and amazed me by just pointing out things without looking at my book to see what I was looking at. She said keep working at the "rules" till you can forget them and you still will know if it’s right even if you can't always explain why.... So Larissa I do hope to consume sufficient bits from Ros's book to forget it and just do what it says.

Well Larissa, what we need here is a target for success. Hmmmm

How about when I make my first 10.00 you send me a coffee, a virtual one is fine..... A bit of cream, some sugar and just the right temperature to make me say Ahhhhh.... Oh yeah, a coffee would be just fine....

[larissa]

[Lowell Rieger]

Ray,

To add to all the advice here: do something small to start, but DO IT. Taking action is the hardest part. Focus is another difficult thing for newbies. I speak from experience.

Fear of failure gets in the way too. But every failure brings you closer to a success. When you actually start doing something, you find out you need to read a lot less. I think you have all you need to know in Rosalind's book to get started.

You could start with a blog about a topic that REALLY interests you. Hopefully it will correspond to a niche that is also profitable. If it doesn't interest you then you will have trouble writing about it. Write something every day for it. Fix it up as you go along. Add afiiliate recommendations. Add Adsense. The content is the hardest part, you can always make it look better later.

Blogging lets you fix and change things on the fly. Resist the temptation to have a perfect site from day 1. There's no such thing. Don't try to do everything at once. Like someone else said here, swallow the elephant in small bites.