My friend Vlad asked me to answer 3 questions about affiliate marketing. These days I’m always on the run but I couldn’t wait to answer them. I’m so passionate about affiliate marketing and internet marketing. I get all obsessed with it and this came tumbling out of my brain.

This is my opinion and you may or may not agree. However, I loaded it with things I’ve been learning. I love to read and understand new ways to make money online and just to report on the internet. Underneath this passion is a way for people to make money in a way that gives them more time with family (in my case my son) and to make a contribution to something bigger. This is my hobby, passion, and occupation.

Here it is an Interview with Newspapergrl on Affiliate Marketing.

Thanks Vlad for asking me these questions. I left off a lot of affiliate marketing blogs that I read. However, I have a link to my Bloglines in a post (use the search bar to find it) so you can see every blog that I read.

This is a hot tip from a colleague of mine, Dan Patterson who just started a very helpful blog called eCommTips.com. You’ll learn a lot about starting an online store.

I haven’t had enough sleep in over a week so forgive my funny mood. I’m not on drugs although the symptoms may mimic those of a drug addict. Paul Wilson decided to enter a contest for Yahoo 2 days ago. I was phoning Libya through Skype all night to get the domain servers changed (still no luck). That is part of the explanation. And I hardly did anything except some writing!

The name of the game with internet marketing is to get links to your web site so you can rank higher in search engines for keywords relating to your business or products. So you want links that use keywords. Links from web sites related to yours and more important than yours (or if you are important - you have a good Google PageRank one comparable).

Making comments on blogs are A GREAT WAY TO GET QUALITY LINKS to your web site! Here is the tip…make up a “handle” for yourself that is a keyword. The comment section asks for your name - use a keyword. Then it asks for your URL. If possible use a page on your web site that has that keyword in it.

So if one of your keywords is “internet marketer” you can put that as your name. Then if you have a web page or blog that has “internet marketer” in the domain name, link directly to that post or page.

I’ll next blog about NOFOLLOW and how Wordpress uses this as a default. I’ll reference a plugin that makes it into a DOFOLLOW and link to a page that has a list of blogs that have DOFOLLOW.

Here I am with Phil801, Matthew Reinbolt, and Richard K. Miller. We’re at the Rio Grande in Salt Lake City. I don’t usually post pictures but all the flurry of photos on other people’s blogs has inspired me at last.

I wrote an entire post about this but it mysteriously disappeared. I’ve never been recognized in a book before. The author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR is David Meerman Scott (I love the middle name).

He’s a very gracious man (thank you!). He mentioned a long list of bloggers who’s blogs he says rock. Newspapergrl was on the list! It’s probably funny that I got that excited about it, but I really am. I love the community that are bloggers.

Everyone on the list who emails David gets a free copy of his book and an audio CD. As promised I got a copy, signed with a kind inscription. I wish I had about 4 days off just to read it, outside in a hammock under a tree, along with some other books I want to read. With no interruptions.

I would read this book and Seth Godin’s books (Paul Wilson and I bought one of each one they had for sale at Seth’s talk today). I’d also finish the book on Einstein that I’m reading.

Incidentally, David recently blogged about Seth Godin’s new book.

Here’s a list of other posts from friends, please let me know if I missed any:

Phil Windley
Phil801 - the man with the mission - he’s who began the effort to bring Seth Godin to Utah. While he did get Seth to Utah, he almost didn’t get him home on time. BTW, I think this is an article, not a blog post.
More from Phil, this time with Seth Godin pictures of the heads being shaved (which Seth seemed to really enjoy)
Chris Knudsen - who wrote a pretty funny satire on the event too. He doesn’t mention he saw me there (I’ll get over it)
Buzz Boosters - with a picture of all of us on the Wordmob team with Seth Godin
Carolyn Duncan has some good closeups on the head shaving!

Men Outnumber the Women (as usual)
I think there were maybe 10 women in the audience of almost 400. I saw Erika from StopDirt (she’s an inspiration - I tell her story to my students to illustrate finding suppliers for products. I saw Laura Moncur of Pick Me! (her blog is a .org).

I saw Lorri Randle from Copper Rain productions.

Friends Buzz Boosters Shahar and Nashlah Boyayan were there. I hoped to see Cyd Tetro.

I got to sit next to Kelly from Startup Princess who gave Seth a cookie decorated like the cover of his book. Always bearing gifts, she had jeweled rings for us (thanks Kelly! Mine broke, need another one).

I stopped by the brand new Ikea store on the way home. Marketing genius. I loved the sign in the elevator and it summed up Seth’s points well. Customers talk about you rather than you spamming them when you are remarkable. They do your marketing for you.

There was a sign about how family friendly the store is - they have baby food, changing tables, and even a playground in the store. A young punk rock mom was ahhing over it -telling her baby about all the attractions and how exciting it was to be at Ikea. I got a kick out of it.

Just in case you wondered from the number of posts on the subject today I’m not obsessed with Seth Godin, I just like him. And today’s event went better than expected.

Many thanks to the Wordmob team and Steve Spencer from Twelve Horses for their work.

Someone asked Seth Godin what books he recommends. Here’s a list of books recommended by Seth Godin: (I haven’t heard of a single one):
1. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson calls advances 10 years before they are manifested.

2. Crossing the Chasm - about marketing technical products.

3. Before and After Page Design - Learn how to design your web pages…Seth talked about how everyone sees what you do online and you should have a good online presence (I certainly need help on this!). This book will get you on your way.

4. Citizen Marketers

Oh, and if you need a designer, a writer, an assistant, or even part-time accountant (as in 2-5 hours a week), I recommend posting an ad for your city on Craigslist.
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If Seth Godin was a teacher he’d tell you not to get an MBA. Then you’ll spend your time and money learning what is already outdated. Professors spend 20 years trying to master something that by the time you hear is obsolete. Save your money and if you’re not going to make money anyway, get a job at a nonprofit for two years (work for free) and learn how things work.

If Seth Godin taught your high school class he’d tell you 3 things:

1. No one cares about you at all - so GET OVER IT
2. Go start selling things on eBay (he really did say that - students if you’re reading this - eBay is a safe, easy place to learn marketing. It really is.).
3. Get good at telling stories. Tell stories about who you are. What you do. That is how to market - by telling great stories

Seth Godin did teach a college class. Here’s how it went: your grade is 100% on class participation. He had students stand in front of the class, use their cell phone and call someone to sell them a magazine subscription. In a completely safe atmosphere. Some couldn’t do it. 1/3 of the class failed.

So here’s my story: I’m a teacher. I teach old farmers in the midwest with dialup connections how to make money online. And most of the time it’s pretty inspiring.

The picture in my head - and I wish I had an actual picture - is Seth Godin, dressed in a suit pulling up his pant legs to show us his socks. It’s so classic. Both socks are black but I think one has multi-colored polka dots and the other has stripes of all colors. This man doesn’t take himself too seriously and he’s a very creative thinker.

“The people who are succeeding are thinking about how to GIVE SERVICE to others!” When we intend to make a contribution it helps us too.

Here are some of my impressions:

• Who decides who is best at something? WE do. It’s all by agreement. Once it’s decided that someone or something is the best there is, it’s tough to change the consensus. We go to Facebook to see what other people think of us. We read the NY Times bestseller list to see what other people are reading. Then we read the same books.
• We often make people who quit into moral failures - but winners quit all the time - to play different games. The people who don’t quit when they should are afraid of failure so they stay mediocre.
• The last thing the world needs is more noise, more clutter, or more sales pitches. “The problem with infinity is there’s too much of it and there always making more.” The world will reward the unpredictable that it can’t duplicate cheaply. The world needs superstars - people or businesses that are the best in the world at something. There are plenty of superstars in the entertainment business but not in other areas. There are so many different niches out and opportunities to push through the dip and be the best in the world at something.
• “The dip” is when you face the difficulties you always encounter on the path to greatness. Life is a series of dips (or perhaps challenges?). You can either choose another dip or keep pushing through. How do you know you’re in a dip? You PANIC (I get that!). Quitting isn’t a moral failure it can be an opportunity for transformation and is always part of the journey to being the best.
• In any market only about 1% of the people actually contribute and that 1% drives most of the business.

Someone asked Seth about his personal dips - a compelling question - he said he had lots of them. Yet he didn’t want to talk about himself. Earlier he said he had ADD and is just really lazy.

He did say that his company Squidoo is in a dip right now. They cut out the superfluous, focused, and will push through. Either be the best or stop right now or find other dips to push through and become a superstar. That’s what I got today. That and one more thing. If your a superstar - you don’t have to worry if your socks match.

Everyone in or near Utah - tomorrow Seth Godin is speaking about his new book, The Dip. It’s about beating mediocrity.

A lot of people have worked hard to bring Seth here - we welcome him to Salt Lake! Many Utah bloggers will be there. It’s going to be a great time and FUN.

Here are the details:

When: Thursday, May 24, 2007
Time: 1-4pm
Where: The Salt Palace at 100 S. West Temple in Salt Lake City
Cost: $50 Tix will be available at the door - cash, check, or credit card accepted. You will get free food, and 5 books for this price - incredible deal!

I don’t know what happened to me. I save up a bunch of ideas to blog about. Then I don’t get the chance to blog. By the time I write I start writing articles - instead of blog posts. This is a phase I’m sure. So you’ll just have to ride this one out with me. I have no idea how long it will last.

What is a Niche?
The word niche has many different meanings. It can be a small subset of a large market. Or, it can be a what you are attracted to, feel comfortable with, and are best fitted to sell online.

When people are new to selling online they often make a mistake that can be tragic. Actually, it’s the same mistake anyone just starting out in business makes. They want to be big. They want to sell EVERYTHING. They are opening up the next general store.

Or, they don’t care what they sell they just want to make money. This will almost guarantee that they will not make money. Instead they’ll chase ideas and probably end up LOSING a lot of money. Funny enough, this doesn’t stop some people, it only makes them more determined!

To start out you must find a niche - you must specialize. You can’t be a big box retailer selling major brands, unless you have some deep pockets. There will be some high minimum orders if you even get the time of day. Most people starting out online are bootstrapping. They have limited funds to invest and usually limited time. So they’re going to have to get pretty targeted and serious if they hope to make money. Sometimes we dream up large plans that we have no hope of accomplishing at the level we are at.

Most people start out trying to make money online the very hardest ways there are. Like affiliate marketing. It’s going to be a long road to making much if you have no web site or traffic. You have to buy that traffic (paid search is enormously expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s pretty advanced.) or create it (better start creating a lot of good, unique information that people want to know…again it will take some time). You’ll probably be making around 10-20% per sale. You’ll have to get a lot of people to buy if you’re going to succeed.

Offline this may be easier to grasp. This is from an article in USAToday about finding a niche: “A local hardware store has a hard time competing against home improvement big-box retailers, but if you specialize in unique knobs and fixtures, you can build a national clientèle.”

How do you find a niche for your online business? Here are some ideas (and I’m not in a creative mood or I’d come up with better examples):

• Focus on a specific industry. “Specializing in an industry gives you credibility with potential clients, an easy marketing focus (you can go to conventions and trade shows of your target market) and enables you to develop unique expertise and become familiar with that industry’s practices and lingo.”

• Focus on a demographic. Like children, seniors, Hispanics, higher income moms, etc.

• Focus on a specific place - if that makes you unique in some way.

• Focus on a specific part of the work you do. Such as “a graphic design firm that specializes in preparing annual reports for publicly traded companies.”

• Unique or specialized knowledge. If you know things about something that very few other people do, you have an advantage (assuming it is marketable in some way).

• A Specific Style. “Choosing a specific style of service or product is another way to specialize. You can sell only all-wood furniture, open an all-organic restaurant, or provide hand-wash-only car washing.”

When you focus on one thing and do it really well you can usually charge more than a generalist who does many things. You may be surprised at what people are searching for online. Thankfully there are free ways to see what people are searching for and may potentially pay for.

Amongst my colleagues there is a joke about selling tumbleweeds - when someone doesn’t know what to sell online, we use this as an example. You know how you say when life gives you lemons, sell lemonade? Well, what if your life is full of tumbleweeds?

The idea started out as a joke but turned into a legitimate business. I don’t think that she has to worry that Walmart is going to start carrying tumbleweeds. She found a niche. Read about it on my new favorite blog that I’m afraid to share with some people: The Unusual Business Blog. The blog is about people who have found successful niches.