Step by Step 
| Step by Step Guide to Reach YOUR Financial Goals |
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| Written by Jim Mitchel | |
| Tuesday, 30 June 2009 | |
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Introduction
If at anytime throughout this guide that you feel you need assistance contact your sponsor, if you cannot receive support from your sponsor please use the Contact form to let us know. You WILL receive the assistance that you deserve!
Affiliate marketing can be so confusing for someone who is beginning or has searched and read information for a number of months or even years, I know this because I was in your same shoes, sitting behind that computer screen for months on end just trying to figure out this thing called wealth on the net.
I know that it's extremely frustrating to purchase into an informational product just to feel like it wasn't enough or maybe even too much to comprehend that leaves you feeling more confused than when you began.
This guide is for a beginner but of course anyone at any level can find it useful, I have left out all the “stories” or “hardcore definitions”, my goal here is to leave you feeling that you know what you're doing without leaving you confused. If I don't succeed please let me know, at the end of this guide please go to the Forum and leave us your feedback. I have tried to make this guide as simple and easy as possible, I truly hope that I will accomplish this for you.
You must have the desire, I'll repeat this, you MUST have the DESIRE to achieve your goals. If you don't have the desire, then more than likely you will close this course and throw your hands up. So before you even start, do you have the desire? Do YOU have the DESIRE? Not your family, not your friends, not your co-workers...YOU.
I know it will be tempting to read over all the material first. DO NOT DO THIS. You will become overwhelmed, lose your momentum and maybe even lose your DESIRE. I know this, remember I've sat in that very same chair.
I'm trusting you to take this guide one step at a time just as I hope you will trust that I can teach you. If you feel the need then read each section twice, three times, whatever it takes, burn my words into your brain and remember them.
Why Affiliate Marketing?
What if you don't have your own product or you don't want to buy resell rights to sell someone else's product? Don't worry, it's not the end of the world. There is something for you and it's called Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate Marketing is one of the easiest and most effective ways for a beginner to earn very good income online. As a matter of fact there are many that make their living as affiliate marketers.
If you take the road of Affiliate Marketing you will be happy to know that you will not need to ship out products, take orders or even handle any customer complaints, unless of course they are complaining about the information you are giving them.
Are you wondering what Affiliate Marketing is and why it's so great? Well, let me tell you. Affiliate Marketers promote other people's products and earn a commission when someone purchases the product through your affiliate link or signs up as a referral using their unique ID.
These companies could do their own marketing instead, but it is more cost effective to put the their faith in you. After all, they do not have to pay you if no sales are made, unlike having their own sales people on staff, being paid whether they work hard or not. It also lets them have thousands of dedicated representatives in the field.
Unlike the old "Vacuum Salesman" style affiliate marketing, you do not have to sell. It is more like inform and point them to a destination (website with unique affiliate link) that will help close the sales for you.
As I mentioned above with Affiliate Marketing there isn't any shipping, order taking, customer complaints but this isn't the end of the benefits, here are just a few more:
Set Your Goals
The very first thing you should do before you ever start a project is to set your goals. If you have goals then you will have something to work toward. A lot of the so called experts will tell you to set your goals high: expensive car, mansion on the hill, $100,000 a month profit, you get the picture. Personally, starting out, I'm going to tell you to set your goals realistically.
II want you to know and realize that you can achieve your goals, not wonder if you ever will. Start out small, not too small, but realistically. Such as quit your 9-5 within 6 months or save $4000 for that vacation you want to take.
Once you have achieved your realistic goals then start to shoot higher, once you've achieved those, aim higher. So right now, I want you to list 5 or more goals you want to achieve. Write them in your notebook and then get a blank sheet of paper and write GOALS across the top, list these same goals. Later you will tape that sheet of paper somewhere you can see them to remind you of what you need to be successful. Do not tape this up yet, you will have one more thing to add to this sheet later in the guide. SO, please do not read further until you have written down at least 5 realistic goals.
Join The Income Team
Now that you have your goals, you will need to join The Income Team (if you haven't already). It is free to join and provides all the legitimate programs and some excellent reference information.
On The Income Team site, Go to the profile of the person that sent you there ( http://www.theincometeam.com/usersname/ ). On this profile page, near the center, you will see a link labeled "Click username's Income Team Affiliate Link to join for free". Once you have clicked this link you will come to a page that will have you register for the site. It is best to use a Gmail email address because their SPAM filters never delete any emails. If not using Gmail, make sure to whitelist theincometeam.com in your SPAM filter. Once you have clicked “Join” and completed the sign up steps, come back to me and we will continue.
Become an Expert
You must be prepared when someone begins asking questions? And yes, you will be asked questions. Don't be afraid, just be prepared. If you can't answer a question being asked then simply say, “Wow, I'm glad you asked that question. I don't know the answer but I will find out and get back to you. Would this be OK?”
At this point you need to stop reading and look at the pages of The Income Team Forum website and skim the info. You can also Post a hello in the "Introduce Yourself" forum. Do this now and then come back to me.
Have you looked around? Good!
No go to your profile by clicking on "Your Profile" in the User menu on the left. Near the top of the page, you will see an "Edit" button. Click on this to see the option to update you profile and to update your image. If you have a picture, you can browse for it and upload it to the site. Now select "Update you Profile" from that Edit button. Here you will see a set of tabs that chenge the info on your profile.
Now...look at the upper left of the site when logged in. This is where the magic happens. In the box labeled "Upline Affiliate Links, You will see a list of The Income Team's supported programs. The links listed here are the links from your sponsor. If your sponsor has not joined a particular program, the link is from their sponsor, or the one above, etc.. The links follow the chain of sponsorship to create a better TEAM approach.
The biggest benefit to this is that if one of your referrals does not join a program, their referrals will see your link. This is not a way to steal links, The person chose not to join a program. This allows your referral efforts to be acknowledged. This allows you to better support your downline, knowing that it will benefit you in all of the programs that you have joined. You are never competing with your downline because their hard work will benefit you in each of your programs.
At this point you are only making yourself an expert. If you notice I will not insert hyper links in this guide for you to click to go directly to the area you need to be. The reason for this is to make you familiar with the layout of the The Income Team Site. You'll thank me for this later.
OK...Are you an expert? If not, go back over this section and redo the steps. Go ahead, I'll be right here waiting when you're done.
Be Organized
Before joining programs go to “Be Organized” link. On this page you will find techniques for organization and links to records and logs that can be used to organize your business. Click on each link to save the documents to your computer for use.
In the remainder of the guide it is highly recommended to insert your information into the records and logs.
Now that you have saved each of the documents onto your computer, lets get down to business. Join Programs
Here comes the second beginning (the first beginning was when you joined The Income Team) to your financial future. Are you feeling excited? Do you feel comfortable with what's going on so far?
You should have already visited each of the programs to get yourself familiar with each one. During that time you probably already gave yourself a pretty good idea about which programs you would join. Some of these programs require a small monthly fee. This probably doesn't sound too appealing but let me ask you this... Would you pay someone 5 bucks if they told you they would give you 20 bucks back? Of course you would! This is the same thing, same scenario.
Of course, if you don't have the money to join programs like this right now, then don't. Start out with joining the programs that has a low one time payout such as Work For 3 Dollars, after all this only cost you $3 and that's it!
For those of you who do join the programs with monthly fees, get the most from these companies. Use their products for your business or whatever your heart desires!
Before asking you to join your selected programs I would like to make a recommendation. If you plan to join Global Domains International and you don't already have a website in mind to create, I would suggest you create a domain name that will accommodate your work from home business. After joining GDI, you can then set up your new domain name to forward itself to The Income Team. This is an excellent way to market without using your IT (Income Team) referral id.. When marketing IT, all you will need to give out is your GDI domain, this will also make your business appear to be yours before your link is clicked.
Marketing The Income Team
One of the great things about this system is that you only have to market one link, one system. You don't have to worry about writing articles and classified ads about every single program you join. I know your anxious to get this done so let's get started.
I will list each marketing technique that should be used in order to build your business along with an educational piece. If we come to a technique that you just absolutely don't want to get involved with at this point then pass it up and come back to it later.
To get the very best results from your marketing efforts you will need to utilize all marketing avenues at some point. The worst thing you can do is procrastinate.
There will be some marketing techniques that you will be better at than others, you'll have your own niche. Don't let this discourage you, it is normal. Don't quit if you feel that you haven't succeeded in a certain marketing area. Most people will become experts in certain areas and not so much in others. The areas you are the most comfortable with work the hardest and build your expertise in the other areas. The most important thing is to get started and continue to work at it.
Marketing is something that you should make a part of your every day life. Even when you're not thinking about it, you should be marketing. Such as word of mouth or automatically start talking about your business and handing out a business card. You will quickly find how marketing can take a hold of you. Don't be afraid of this, grasp it! Brag about it! It's your business, take pride in it.
So start with the first technique, go to the Marketing page in the IT site and work it's magic. After you have completed this technique move to the second one and so on.
Marketing Techniques
Of course, there is owning your own website, if you didn't follow my recommendation with GDI above.
Don't forget about the Banners and Text Links that you can use on the IT site. Banners are good for adding to your blogs and website. Text links would be used when you are writing a classified ad or and article. It is recommended that you check out all the IT has to offer and their Forum. You will find loads of information there. Managing & Maintaining YOUR business
Congratulation! You have completed all that needs to be done to get your business off the ground. Are you hoping the work ends now? SORRY, but NO! Now you must keep it going.
By using the Daily Task Log under “Be Organized”, you can be sure to not miss anything that should be done to keep your business going. See more information on this further in this section.
You must be signing into your social networks (especially Zenzuu to become an Active Rep, which by the way did you sign up for this feature?, if not go back and check it out) every day to check for new members, join clubs, write blogs, check your network email.
You must keep track of your classified ads to see when they expire so that you can post new ones. This can be done using the Classified Ads Log under “Be Organized”. Of course, if these ads did not benefit reword them and try again.
Keep thinking of new acquaintances to send emails to or mail a sales letter. Keep a record of your acquaintances in the Email Log under “Be Organized”.
Continue to talk about your business and pass out business cards.
Once you have proof of your success, create your own video and show people what can be done.
You must keep going...don't stop...once you have enough marketing out there to where prospects start showing up several times a day, every day. Then take a break...take a vacation...at this point your business will work itself. BUT, when you get back from vacation, back to the grinder you go.
You will have to work hard for a few months but then you will be able to relax again. And of course you'll be at home so there is no one who can tell you that you can't go to school to eat lunch with your child or any of the other things that come up that needs attention. You will be well on your way.
Don't give up...keep pushing yourself...step outside of your comfort zone...treat this business with respect and hard work and you will reap the rewards. Daily Task Log
This log will layout a simple to use check off format of the following:
Articles: you should try to write at least 2 articles per week, your articles does not have to be just about IT. You can write about any aspect of marketing or if you would like to pick up other affiliate business, create a Clickbank account, find a product that is in demand, write an article. Remember, your articles will work for you for many years to come.
Business Cards: do your best to hand out at least 10 business cards per week. Flyers: hang up or hand out 10 flyers or more per week
Classified Ads: write at least 10 ads per week, make certain you keep up with when your ads will expire, so they can be renewed if they are effective.
Email: send out emails as you are in contact with new acquaintances. You will also be sending emails through your social networks which should be done daily, but your social network activity will be marked under the “Social Network” section.
Forums: participate in your forums on a daily basis, this will keep you informed on what's new and if there are any post that give you the opportunity to tell about your business
Social Network: visit your social networks daily: check your email, send emails to contacts and new members (these emails could be about IT or just an email to say “hello”) accept new contact request, add new members as contacts, write blogs or comment to blogs, join clubs.
As you complete your task, make a note by check marking or enter a number into the date for that task.
What do you need to reach your goals?
Remember the goals you had wrote down in the beginning of the guide?
Put a dollar amount, if needed, for each of your goals and then total them up. Also determine in how many months you want to have these goals met.
For example say my only goal was to have $4000 of spending money for a vacation I'm taking in 6 months.
For our example we'll say that I've joined the following programs:
Global Domains International (GDI) Work for 3 Dollars Teamwork Revolution Traffic Wave
Also, I am going to base these on the easiest compensation to determine, these numbers will not include bonuses or fast track plans, so of course the number will be a little higher with these additional incentives.
OK...let's say that we will use a very very very reasonable number of affiliates. We will do our example based on me signing up 5 new affiliates per month, starting in the 2nd month my downline will begin signing up 3 new affiliates. Sounds pretty easy doesn't it. Although I will tell you that you can do much better. Now...let's talk numbers... Let's start with Month 1: With Work for 3 Dollars I sign up 5 affiliates = $3.24 With GDI I sign up 5 affiliates = $5.00 With Teamwork Revolution I sign up 5 affiliates = $5.00 With Traffic Wave I sign up 5 affiliates = $19.50 Month 1's total: $32.74 - cost of services for the programs ($41.65) = -$8.91 (this number really won't be negative because of the incentives you get from Teamwork Revolution, but we'll assume for this example that it is) Month 2: Work for 3 Dollars: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each = $2.40 GDI: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $20.00 Teamwork Revolution: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $20.00 Traffic Wave: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $20.00 Month 2's total: $62.40 – cost of services for the programs ($38.65) = $23.75 Month 3: Work for 3 Dollars: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each = $6.60 GDI: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $65.00 Teamwork Revolution: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $65.00 Traffic Wave: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $65.00 Month 3's total: $201.60 – cost of services for the programs ($38.65) = $162.95 Month 4: Work for 3 Dollars: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each = $20.00 GDI: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $200.00 Teamwork Revolution: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $200.00 Traffic Wave: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $200.00 Month 4's total: $620.00 – cost of services for the programs ($38.65) = $581.35 Month 5: Work for 3 Dollars: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each = $60.50 GDI: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $605.00 Teamwork Revolution: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $605.00 Traffic Wave: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $605.00 Month 5's total: $1875.50 – cost of services for the programs ($38.65) = $1836.85 Month 6: Work for 3 Dollars: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each = $182.00 GDI: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $605.00 Teamwork Revolution: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $1820 Traffic Wave: I sign up 5, my downline signs up 3 each + residual = $1820 Month 6's total: $4427.00 – cost of services for the programs ($38.65) = $4388.35 Total of 6 Months = $6984.34 Looks like I will have enough for my vacation!! :-)
Were you getting really worried in Month 1? I bet you were ready to walk away and never look back! As with any business, you could have a rough start and end the first month or two with a loss, but as you can see if you STICK WITH IT look what happens! It actually took the 6th month before I could have met my goals, but did you notice my goals where met in the 6th month itself. BUT I had to work all the previous months to get to this point. Now, from this point on the revenue will get higher and higher with the work you have put in.
One Final Task...
Don't forget to leave me feedback about this guide by using the forums. Let me know what you think. Is there anything that you think should be added or changed. I will strongly consider anything that you have to say.
We are a team, a family here at The Income Team. I will strive to make all members feel this and I hope all the members will treat each other the same.
Success Stories Please keep me posted about your success by using the forums. The same goes with if you feel that something just isn't right because your not succeeding, let us know, we are here to help.
Thank you for joining and help to grow The Income Team. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 30 June 2009 ) |
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