The Following is a guest contribution from Charles Ngo.  You can visit his site at The Blog of Charles Ngo

I get asked on a daily basis by people on how to break into this industry. I don’t blame them; I love affiliate marketing. She took me to places I thought I’d never see, and gave me a passion to pursue when I was just drifting through life.

I’ve seen hundreds of people try to make it in this industry, and only a few handful can turn it into a career, and even fewer stay. These are some of the lessons I’ve learned the past few years; lessons I wish someone told me when I first started.

Get Rid of the Excuses

It really sucks to see people make excuses before they even start.

• I don’t know anything programming or making graphics
• I have a job & kids, I’m too busy
• I can’t concentrate on anything

I’ve seen people from all sorts of background succeed: people that didn’t graduate high school, 15 year olds, guys with 5 kids and a full-time job, people living in 3rd world countries, etc. Keep in mind that guys have succeeded who were in a way worse position than you.

Don’t complain about a problem. Work on finding a solution.

I thought I couldn’t do it because I had a full-time job, but I had to make it work somehow. I worked 9am-5pm, I rushed home, ate dinner…then it was time for my 7pm-2am affiliate marketing shift. I moved apartments right next to my job so I could save 1.5 hours a day from traffic.

Can’t design graphics? Neither can I. Go to Fiverr or oDesk and get them made for $5.

You have an amazing opportunity. Look at all those suckers that got the entrepreneurial soul sucked out of them by multi-leveling marketing. I’ve been spending the past 2 years living Asia. There are guys there that are working 16 hours a day for $.50 an account, and they’re going to do that for the rest of their lives. Your advantage is you know about one of fastest growing industries in the world.

If you want something bad enough you’ll find a way. People don’t wanna hold themselves accountable if they fail, so they look for something to place the blame on. I had a guy tell me he would’ve made it too if he started around the same time I did. I smiled, nodded, and thought to myself, “what a fucking loser.”

Failing and Losing Money

A lot of people arent built for this industry because they have low pain thresholds. It hurts too much to try something and fail, and it hurts too much to lose a few hundreds dollars trying something out.

Think about what happens in the real world. I see people graduate with $50k+ in student loan debt and end up working at Starbucks. What about the people that start restaurants? They get a 6-figure bank loan, they’re unprofitable for a few years (if they ever do see profit), and routinely work 16 hour days.

It doesn’t make sense to me when someone loses a few hundred bucks on a campaign, and they quit. So many guys started with just a few hundred dollars and turned it into 7 figures in a short time. When I lose money, I just view it as collecting data. It does get easier over time. I remember the first few hundred I lost I started thinking about what I could’ve bought with that money and questioning if I really wanted to do this.

It Only Takes One Campaign

No ones keeping score of how many times you failed.

I started in 2008. I spent 6 months, lost $5,000, failed at 15 campaigns before I finally found my winner. That first winning campaign is the catalyst and tipping point for your success.

When you feel like giving up, just know that you’re one campaign away from achieving everything you want.

Take Action & Be Relentless

I feel what makes affiliate marketing hard to learn is there’s no set blueprint to follow, and the failures hurt more than normal.

Brazilian Jiujitsu is one of my hobbies. My coaches are more than willing to teach me everything they know. I can pay for lessons. I can buy books and videos where world champions tell you their secrets & strategies. The blueprint for success is to basically just keep coming to class and training more.

With affiliate marketing no one’s going to tell you anything. You’re not going to learn much from forums, e-books, or blogs. No one’s going to give away too much information to help create their own competition, at least not for free. Yet people will spend years & money hoping to find that magic bullet that doesn’t exist.

Being able to make money with a campaign is a skill. With all skills it takes practice. Launch a campaign, learn from it, repeat. Over and over and over and over until you make money. That’s what everyone did. You will learn more spending $500 on a campaign than paying for any course.

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst,” said Henri Cartier-Bresson. That’s how it works with affiliate marketing. Your first campaigns will suck and lose money. But everyone that has been successful in this industry has gone through that point.

Wanna succeed faster? Then fail twice as fast.

Drowning in Opportunity

I find the biggest problem is not a lack of opportunity, but actually too many opportunities. You’re running one campaign, and then an affiliate manager tells you about this “hot” campaign. A friend from back in the day wants you to invest in his latest hustle. You’re halfway through launching a campaign, but you quit because another one looks like it’s more potential.

You can’t keep throwing shit at the wall and hope something sticks. The majority of campaigns lose money initially. You run some split tests, collect data, and keep making adjustments until you’re profitable. That’s how it works.

You need to set a plan and stick with it

• Choose a Traffic Source (ex. Facebook or PlentyofFish)
• Choose a vertical (ex. Dating or Gaming)
• Set a budget, time frame, and goal (ex. $2000, Launch 10 campaigns in 30 days, hope 3 are profitable)
• With each campaign, keep a journal of what you learned.
• Set specific goals. “Tomorrow I’m launching 5 ads and hoping one gets above a .15 CTR”

Stick to your plan and learn to say no.

Who’s in Your Circle?

You’re the equivalent of the 5 friends you’re closest to. Choose friends that are themselves living at the edge, facing their fears, and pushing themselves far beyond their comfort zones. Constantly give value to people without any ulterior motives.

In this industry learn to recognize the people that know their stuff and you can trust. Nurture your relationships. Make friends with other affiliates and learn from each other. There’s enough money to go around.

You also gotta watch out for the toxic people

• Negative people that discourage you. Fact is, some people can’t compete and they know it. It’s easier to bring you down than to bring themselves up. Cut them out of your lives.
• People that are trying to fuck you over. There are guys out there who make their living scamming people whether it’s creating offers and not paying, or selling Facebook ad accounts and not delivering. The key to reducing risk is to get recommendations from trusted friends. Also use some common sense. Run with affiliate networks that have a proven track record instead of a 18 year old affiliate still living in his mom’s basement.
• Cockroaches. When you start having some success, people will start showing up. It’s like how lottery winners have everyone trying to be their best friend all of a sudden. They will try to take advantage of you. Whether it’s asking to borrow money (and never paying back), or trying to steal secrets about your work. Just remember who your real friends are, the ones that have been with you from get go.

“I’m All In”

This is what I told myself over and over. Once I decided to get into affilaite marketing, I was going to give it everything I had: my money, my time, and all my energy. Nothing else in my life mattered.

I sold everything I didn’t need on Craigslist. I cooked every meal and rarely ate out. Every dollar I saved meant I could buy a few more clicks to my campaigns. My car died on day on the highway. The bank approved me on a $50,000 car loan, but I ended up getting a very cheap car. As much as I wanted a nice car, I knew I didn’t earn it yet. I’ll buy it when I can pay it cash.

I spent Saturday nights setting up Facebook campaigns instead of going to the club. Instead of playing Xbox, I researched keywords.

Half-ass effort gets half-ass results.

An Obsession with Learning

If you’re not learning, you’re dying. I’ve read a few hundred business books the past decade. The other week I wanted to learn about the science behind motivation. It amazes me that for $10 and a few hours, I learned what it took the author a decade to research. I wouldn’t even be where I am right now if I didn’t read Rich Dad, Poor Dad in high school and the 4 hour Work Week.

Ask questions, network with people smarter than you, get a mentor, form a mastermind, attend conferences, etc.

I also believe in learning everything about this industry as well. What’s the affiliate network’s margin on this offer? How does the advertiser make money on this offer? Are they running traffic internally?

Do you know everything about your demographic? Lets take the weight loss niche for example. I did focus groups with fat girls to see their reactions to my landing pages. I read weight loss forums. For ad copy inspiration I read weight loss magazines and watched infomercials.

Outlearn your competition.

Rigorous Testing

There’s always something to test; there’s always something to improve.

Traffic sources, angles, offers, images, headlines, landing page styles, landing page copies, the colors of buttons, pop ups, countdown timers, bidding prices, web hosts, etc. Being able to optimize properly means you’ll always be able to make money. You don’t need to jump on the latest trends or hot offers.

Being able to make more than the competition on the same offer means you can outbid them for more traffic, you can still be profitable if the offer payout decreases, you can run traffic on places with high CPC’s, & you can survive months after they’re long gone.

In any given niche, 20% of the guys will make 80% of the profits. Rigorous testing will help you get in that 20%.

Where’s Your Money Going?

A common scenario I see is a guy hustling and finally getting a profitable campaign. Next thing you know his lifestyle increased by 10-fold: leasing new car, buying a new house, vacations, been had Louis Vuitton, etc.

Before you know it their main campaign dies out and they’re unable to resurrect it. Now with all these bills from an inflated lifestyle, they gotta go back to a 9-5 job. It’s like these guys score one touchdown and they spend the rest of the game doing their touchdown dance.

Affiliate marketing is very psychological. One important principle is what I call “money momentum.” Lets say you’re making $1k profit a day. If you test out a bunch of traffic sources and lose money, it doesn’t hurt too much because you’re still profiting overall. When money’s coming in, you can afford more risks. And some of those risks are going to pay off.

What if the same guy didn’t start launching new campaigns until his old ones die and he has no $ coming in? He’s going to get more emotional with the money loss.

When I launch a campaign, I’m going into a battle. What’s my weapons and allies? My laptop, my hosting, my virtual assistants, my lawyer, my accountant, my tools, etc. Spend money so you get the best. Come on man, don’t buying $400 belts when your campaign’s on a $10/month HostGator account. Frivolous purchases like travel, nice dinners, bottles, etc. comes after you get your money right. What matters more is what’s in your bank account, not impressing people you don’t even know.

Imitate, then Innovate

A great learning technique is Modeling, which is basically imitating success. When I wanted to improve at Starcraft 2, I copied some of the strategies of the Professional gamers since they have so much more experience than me. I also observed and asked, why did they do this and that?

A few years ago I started learning email list building. I didn’t know much about it, so I signed up for David Dangelo & Truthaboutabs newsletters. I looked at the tone of their voices, the writing style, how long the e-mails were, what the ratio of value/offer emails were, etc.

I’m not telling you to straight up jack someone’s ads and landing pages. I’m telling you to look at them for inspiration, and improve from there. If someone’s running an ad for a while, chances are they’re making money.

Once you understand the basics, then it’s time to get creative. Innovation pays. If you hit on an interesting angle, you have first movers advantage and can reap huge profits.

Adapt or Die

The industry is always changing. A year in our industry is like 3 years in another. Some landing pages that worked a few years ago, are now not compliant. Offers that were huge before, are now gone. It’s the nature of the business.

The most important thing you can do is a heavy focus on the fundamentals. At the end of the day, affiliate marketing is just combining an angle, with a traffic source, with an offer, and split testing until profitability. New media and offers will emerge, but the fundamentals will always remain the same.

Conclusion

Internet marketing is my craft – I dedicate everyday trying to improve my skills and knowledge. I don’t know where it’s going to be a few years, or a few decades from now. But if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

This guest post is brought to you by The Blog of Charles Ngo

The following is a guest contribution written by Gary Simon.  You can visit his site at http://www.wisebanner.com

My name is Gary Simon and I’ve been a designer for well over 10 years. I’ve recently launched a Photoshop based product: WiseBanner Banner Maker. WiseBanner makes it easy to rapidly produce beautiful banner sets, up to 15 of the most popular banner sizes within minutes. Here’s a video I created that showcases the use of WiseBanner to create an OfferVault banner set:

In this article, I’m going to outline some of the key aspects of effective banner design, with each aspect depicted as a golden rule.

Golden Rule #1 - Split Test Like No Other

If you’re a successful affiliate marketer, you likely already know this rule. If you’re new to AM however, it’s probably the most important rule when it concerns your success. Split testing your display advertising (whether it be text based or image based) is absolutely crucial. Designers particularly have a hard time with this concept because of ego, “This banner is awesomely designed, let’s stick it up there and it shall convert.” This is rarely the case.

When we’re talking about banner design, your efforts to maximize ROI are dependent on your willingness and persistence to discover the absolutely best banner design. The only way to do this is to test, test and test. This includes testing the colors, copy, call to action, position of elements, etc..

Golden Rule #2 - You Don’t Need a Visual Masterpiece

This is another thing that a lot of designers have a hard time understanding. Sometimes ugly banners that look like they were designed in the 90’s outperform banners that are much more visually appealing. There are two reasons for this.

(1) Visitors do not care about your graphic talent. They’re usually preoccupied, and their decision to click on a banner has little to do with the use of the latest design trends and fancy effects.

(2) Banner blindness. If you design a really nice banner, there’s a chance it also might be conventional. Just because your banner(s) make effective use of white space, typography, position and colors, does not mean it’s not conventional. Ugly banners can perform well because they break design trends, thus becoming noticeable.

Ultimately, it’s a great idea to test varying styles of design.

Golden Rule #3 - Site-Target Design When Possible

If you’re running a campaign that’s targeting a specific site, always design your banners based on the website’s layout. I personally like to screenshot the website I’m about to advertise on, bring it into Photoshop, and design my banners in the exact location in which they’ll appear.

This allows you to do all sorts of things to maximize CTR and avoid banner blindness. You can (if the site’s admin allows you), attempt to make the banner design a part of the actual website’s layout. You can choose your colors, copy, font and white space intelligently when you know your banners are going to be shown on a specific website.

Golden Rule #4 - Break Conventions

Don’t be afraid to do something completely off the wall, whether it concerns colors, position, copy, white space, etc. The worst that can happen is you discover it performs poorly against a baseline version. The reward however can be enormous. Sometimes it’s difficult to think outside of the box, but it’s at least worth a thought or two when you’re conceptualizing a banner design.

Golden Rule #5 - More or Less? Test

It’s the same as with landing page design, short copy vs. long copy? You don’t really know, so you need to test. Sometimes we have a willingness to include a lot of information, but that’s not always effective. More information means more clutter, a potential for less CTR, a potential for more banner blindness. But more information can also mean higher conversions as you’re sending more informed visitors. On the flipside, very simple banners can yield a higher CTR but with fewer successful goal completions. This is why testing both is a necessity if a highly optimized campaign is your goal.

In the end, effective banner design occurs when you’re willing to test and experiment. As a designer, it can be quite tedious designing a range of multiple banner sizes along with split test variations. That’s why I created WiseBanner. It cuts out nearly all of the tedious work involved in banner design. I hope you enjoyed this article!

Thanks for the great article Gary!  If you liked Gary’s tips please visit his site at http://www.wisebanner.com

let’s face it, landing pages are nearly essential in affiliate marketing. Almost all of the top level affiliates use landing pages in one way or another. If you aren’t using them it may be that one missing piece of the puzzle for you.

While no one will be able to tell you they have the best landing page format ever created, there are design traits that make some better than others. For example it’s long been known that the headline is an absolute essential aspect of a great lander. Could you imagine a landing page without a headline? It’d be awful.

So today we wanted to share with you an infographic that covers 7 (nearly) fundamental aspects to a high converting landing page. Swipe these design tips at will! You’ll most likely find your next set of landers convert better because you did.

This handy infographic is brought to you by Hubspot’s article called 7 Key Design Tips For High-Converting Landing Pages

It’s not often than you get to write a headline like that. Fortunately the folks over at Volkswagen employ some incredibly creative online marketing experts.

So what’s up with the headline you ask?

Not too long ago Volkswagen pulled off some stunning SEO tricks. We’re talking epic marketing foresight made possible by some genius SEO. Here’s what they did.

1 – Acquired 5 separate top level domains
2 – Optimized 1 image per site for the phrase “Ultimate Business Car”
3 – Got each image to rank in the specific order they wanted.
4 – Achieved a banner ad at the top of image search (made up of 5 separate images) for their vehicle Passat.

Here’s the campaign video showing off their work

While the SEO trick they used for this campaign is clever – the real trick was the viral snowball it created. Volkswagen has been on the tip of SEO’s and business folks tongues alike. It’s a viral hit. And guess what else – those folks fit very nicely into their target demographic for that particular car.

It’d be silly to think that wasn’t the goal all along. That’s marketing at the highest level. That’s some seriously Don Draper-like stuff.

Volkswagen isn’t done by any stretch. A recent Youtube campaign has been released. It too is receiving the viral treatment. It utilizes Youtube’s built in controls to connect with the viewer in a way that hasn’t been done before.

Check it out here

source

These are two examples of how we as affiliates can think bigger. There’s so much swiping and ripping of ideas in our industry. It’s the creativity and brainstorming behind campaigns like these two that make marketing fun.

Give it a shot sometime. Get creative and test it out. Who knows, it may be a viral hit.

You hear it all the time. 99% of the folks that get into affiliate marketing fail. They get beat up, pushed around, abused, and financially taken to task. You’ll also hear a lot of theories as to why that happens and an offer of “secrets” to solve the problem (for $47).

The truth is that there is no one good reason why this happens.

One thing I can tell you from my experience coaching and teaching since 2007 is that most struggle internally. It’s typically not a story of “I tried my best and I failed.” That happens too but it’s much more rare.

No the typical story goes more like this… “I tried for a little while but I didn’t get anywhere.”

What that really means is that they built a half assed site and got no traffic. Or they ran some traffic and saw no conversions.

There’s an epidemic of the lack of perseverance in our industry.

The other day I was reading a post from Finch called Me, Myself, and Affiliate Marketing. It’s a well written introspective piece.  Go read it.  It’s relevant to our conversation here.

There was a quote from a book that really caught my attention. Here’s what it said

Imagine that you are 100 years old and on your death bed with one minute left to live. Your great-great-grandchild asks, “Before you die, tell me, what should I do with my life?”

Pause for a moment now and try to honestly answer the question immediately within the next minute. You have just one minute, start now and then when the time is up and you have worked out what you would say to them, continue below.
…
Many people will answer with statements such as, ‘it doesn’t matter what you do’, ‘be happy’, ‘don’t worry’, and ‘make the most of it’.
Whatever your advice was to your great-great-grandchild is really the advice to yourself. If you are not living by this advice, which is the essence of your existence, you are living a lie.

Thought provoking isn’t it?  It comes from the book called “The Chimp Paradox”

I haven’t read it yet. But I’m pre ordering it tonight. That quote and the description speaks to what I believe is the most overlooked aspect in affiliate marketing. The mental game. The internal struggle that so many people go through when attempting to “make it” in this line of work.

In order to succeed in this business and every other is to get over yourself.  You have to remove your fears, your doubts, your personal excuses, and do the work.  You’ve got to get over it and you’ll be able to kick ass.

If you’ve ever felt like you sabotage your own work

If you’ve struggled to succeed in affiliate marketing no matter what you’ve tried…

Then this may be a book for you to check out. It comes out at the end of May. Hopefully it’ll help you get over you so you can start achieving everything you know you deserve.

In an effort to widen Youtube’s main advertising revenue stream Google is set to launch paid channel subscriptions this week. The move puts them on a direct collision course with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon streaming video services.

According to the Financial Times, Google could launch the new service as early as this week, with up to 50 YouTube channels offering subscriptions to video content from $1.99 a month
source

At the start the channels available will mainly be occupied by higher end producers. When the model proves itself it will most likely become available to all publishers.

If the subscription option catches on, it could herald a huge change for the online video industry, which has subsisted almost entirely on advertising revenue. It could give producers of Web video series a second source of revenue, analogous in some ways to the flexible pay walls that some newspapers and magazines have adopted. It could also put more pressure on the cable television industry, which is fighting off fresh competition from the Web.
source

Youtube’s plans to expand their revenue streams should turn out to be a positive for publishers and advertisers alike. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out on the publisher side. Will there be new revenue share models? let’s hope so.

And let’s not ignore the potential for new advertising opportunities as well. When the subscription model proves itself the advertising angles will soon follow.

So what do you think? Is this the final nail in the coffin for old school TV? Are you excited about the potential opportunities with this new model? Let us know in the comments below.

Promoted tweets and profiles on Twitter have only been available to larger agencies and a select group of small businesses. Until now.  Twitter announced their ad platform is generally open to all advertisers!

If you’re in a hurry to check it out you can go here to do that.

It’s been a slow roll-out process for Twitter ads over the last year. Thankfully for you and I that means the version of their ad platform that we get to play with today has been greatly improved.

Over the past year we’ve listened carefully to feedback from the thousands of businesses and individuals who’ve had access to the self-serve tool, and made enhancements based on their suggestions, including more targeting and reporting in the UI.
source

If you’re curious how you might use Twitter ads in your own business there is a section of case study success stories here

You can look at those case studies in a lot of different ways. Breaking them down by “tactic” reveals a direct response section where you can see how people drive more leads and sales using the self serve platform.

Personally, I found the Marketo case study interesting, found here.

Twitter ads could be a huge new opportunity for those that test it. It’ll take time to figure out what kind of promotions that Twitter followers engage with. The case study section will be helpful in figuring out a campaign plan.

Have you used Twitter ads yet? What did you think of the platform? Let us know in the comments below. The only thing left to do is to start testing!

Thanks to Ricky Ahuja for taking the time to sit down and do this interview with us!

[Mark] – What do you see as the up and coming traffic source for affiliates?
[Ricky] - The buzz word over the last couple of years has been primarily mobile and to some extent pay per call. However, in running my network for the last 4 years and having spoken to literally hundreds of affiliates, you can take any traffic source, learn it inside out and all its subtle nuances and make it successful. Some affiliates swear by search, some by mobile, others by email and others by media. It is evident certain types of offers work better on certain type of traffic/media so test and retest.

[Mark] - From a trend point of view what’s different this year over last year?
[Ricky] - As they say, cream rises to the top. A lot of the shady networks are gone and the ones with substance have carved out a name/niche for themselves. Gone are the days of Epic, Copeac, EWA and a host of other off springs – affiliates and advertisers are now starting to ask question, checking references, doing their research before making a commitment.

[Mark] - Which affiliate shows do you like to attend? Why?
[Ricky] - Some shows I religiously attend are the Affiliate Summit, AdTech and Search Engine Strategies. These events are great for networking, catching up with existing clientele and to get an idea of upcoming trends and technologies. It is crucial to go to these shows with an actual agenda rather than just seeing what develops.

[Mark] - What advice would you give to yourself starting out as an affiliate?
[Ricky] - Do your research on what you’re passionate about. Find out what others are doing to run a campaign. Improve upon it. Find out what ESTABLISHED and legitimate network has the relevant offers and start the process of developing a relationship with them. Not worth the headache of jumping around from one network to another for a nominal higher payout. Time is valuable and should be used wisely.

[Mark] - Is it possible to build a long term business as an affiliate?
[Ricky] - Very much so. There are no shortcuts to building ANY business. It takes time, patience, research and dedication. Always best to do things the right way from the start and not cut corners.

[Mark] - Would you ever consider taking an apprentice?
[Ricky] - I have been doing that for the last 4 years. Many of the individuals I have mentored are now successful AMs for many other networks and making a nice living. If you have anyone in mind – be sure to let me know.

[Mark] - What do you see as the most important traits of an affiliate manager?
[Ricky] - Anyone can be a “affiliate manager” but if you want to be at the top of your game here are some traits that are crucial: 1) knowledgeable about trends in the space 2) informed about the offers within their network 3) availability 4) insight about the various traffic types and 5) treating others with respect and dignity

[Mark] - How closely do you interact with the affiliates of your network?
[Ricky] - It gets difficult to interact with all of your affiliates obviously – but it is always good to know who you have, what they want and what you can provide for them. There is nothing holding them back from jumping to another network that is paying a nickel higher on the same offer – so at the end of the day it is about the relationship you build and the trust they have in you. We make it a point to interact with as many of our publishers as possible and working with them to meet their needs.

[Mark] - If you had a choice of buying an awesome car, watch, or vacation – which would you buy?
[Ricky] - Honestly – life has been good so do not have the need to purchase any of the above. We do work closely with a lot of charities close to our hearts so if anyone is interested in donating to the cause – feel free to reach out.

[Mark] - Of all your business accomplishments what makes you the most proud?
[Ricky] - That’s easy! Building this network from the ground up for our investors, buying it out from them and then getting it ranked as a Top 10 network two years running. There are a lot of good people in the industry and we try to do good by them. Treat others as you would want to be treated. One of my favorite quotes about accomplishments is by Henry Ford – “The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right, Which one are you?”

[Mark] - Why do you think so many networks are going out of business?
[Ricky] - There is no one answer for this. Some are in it to make a quick buck, others let greed get in the way, some looked the other way when pubs and advertisers were non-compliant. Karma is a most certainly a bitch.

[Mark] - How important is outsourcing to your success?
[Ricky] - It is an integral part of our success – so important in fact that we have now opened a local Indian office in Jaipur and looking to open one in the next 3 months in Delhi. The talent pool is enormous and AM is at the infancy stage.

[Mark] - If you had to do it all over again would you enter the CPA space or go with big brands?
[Ricky] – Who is to say you can’t do both? We represent some leading brands in the finance/investing verticals as well as some leading Indian offers. Get to know us.

Thanks a lot Ricky!  So much great info.  For more great affiliate marketing tips click this link.  You can also check out his affiliate network Affiliate Venture Group.

The Following is a guest contribution from Charles Ngo.  You can visit his site at The Blog of Charles Ngo

When you picture an internet marketer, what do you imagine their day to be like?

Some gurus will paint a picture of a guy working a few hours a week from his laptop on a beach in Thailand. On the other hand, if you follow the updates or tweets of some guys, 4am bedtimes and 18 hour work days seem typical.

I went full-time in this business around late 2008. Very busy time period and working long hours, 7 days a week was the norm. I didn’t understand productivity or outsourcing – the only way for me to get more work done was to put in more hours, at the expense of my health and sanity.

When I started traveling Asia 2 years ago, I was living the 4 hour work week lifestyle for a few months. I had some crazy ROI placements and just spent my time traveling and partying. I had to tone that down because it’s hard to stay competitive working that little, and part of my happiness does come from work.

Anyways what we have now is what a day in my life is like. Keep in mind that it constantly changes according to what my goals and priorities are for the year. Right now I enjoy work and going to the gym. When I’m traveling it looks different. Once I start having a girlfriend or kids it’ll be different. Instead of looking at this as a template to follow, just see if there are elements you wanna add into your day.

Typical Day

7am – 8:30am Morning Routine

• Roll around my bed for 5 mins asking why I wake up so early
• Drink 12oz Water
• Hygiene (Shower, Brush Teeth)
• Breakfast (Scrambled eggs, microwaved oatmeal)
• Walk Dog
• Meditate (15 mins)
• Make tea or coffee
• Light some incense for my ancestors
• Look over schedule / tasks for the day

I don’t wake up and immediately start working. A strong morning routine gives me direction and energy for the rest of the day.

I try to avoid social media or checking my emails as soon as I wake up. We all know once you check your Facebook, you have to check 10 other things. Next thing you know that’s an hour gone.

8:30am – 2pm Work Power Hours

Your willpower and strongest after you wake up. Spend that time working on your most important tasks.

2pm – 2:30pm Power Nap

I take a power nap everyday at 2pm for 25 minutes

2:30pm – 6pm Work

Work again.

6pm- 8pm Gym

I workout 4 – 5 times a week. Actual training takes around an hour depending on my routine. I add in an another hour to account for driving back and forth, taking protein shakes, showering, dinner, and laying around in bed exhausted.

If it’s a rest day, I’ll spend those 2 hours working or add it to my leisure time.

Lets do some math: 5 days a week, 2 hours a day is around 10 hours a week I’m spending in the gym. That’s 10 hours a week I could be spending doing more work right? Not really. I’m a better worker because of exercise. Some of the benefits I get include socializing, becoming sexier, stress relief, setting goals outside of work, more gray matter in my brain, etc.

Don’t say you don’t have time. 3 times a week, 30 minutes at home. Do some pushups, situps, burpees, get a pull-up bar, go jogging, etc.

8pm – 10pm Leisure Time

My mom always told me no video games or TV until my work is done. Same rules here guys.

Work comes first, then dates, friends, video games, TV, etc.

10pm-11:30pm Work

I do another hour and half of work before sleep. I need to do this mainly because that’s when me and my virtual assistants are both awake. I use this time to assign them tasks and check over my campaigns before I head to bed.

11:30pm-12am – Evening Routine

• Clear my work area
• Plan my day tomorrow
• Brush teeth

Weekends

I pretty much work 7 days a week. However my weekends are flexible. If there’s not a lot of work to do then I’ll just take the day off.

Sundays is where I’ll focus more on personal things like errands and grocery shopping.

Principles of an Efficient Day

Sharpening My Mind

I think of my brain like an axe.

A dull axe could take 10 hours to cut down a tree. That same axe could cut down the tree in 4 hours, if you spent an hour sharpening it. 10 hours vs 5 hours to do the same amount of work, but the different is the sharpening.

What sharpens my brain? Planning my day, meditating, getting enough sleep, exercise, having a distraction-free work environment, reading, routines, eating a healthy diet, etc.

I feel 2 of my hours with a sharpened brain is equivalent to 6 hours of of working when I’m dull. I’ve gone days before with 4 hours of sleep and I’m like a zombie. I don’t want to make big decisions when my mind’s not at its best. Shitty decisions can cost me thousands.

Learn how the brain works with Brain Rules

Wake Up Early

I wake up at 7am every morning even though I don’t have to. Lets say you wake up at 12pm everyday. Most people in the industry go home at 5pm so that only gives you a 5 hour window. Waking up at 7am gives me a 10 hour window to work with them.

I use to go to bed around 2-3am every night. I realize from 12-3am I’m just wasting time. Instead I rather wake up early, and have more productive morning hours than more wasteful late nights.

Eliminating Low Value Activities

I use to spend a lot of time on Reddit and forums. It didn’t feel like much time because in my mind they were just 10 minute breaks here and there. It wasn’t until I actually started tracking it that I realized I was spending around 3 hours a day on average. I started thinking about the benefits of that time, and I realize it wasn’t worth it. I decided to just block time-wasting websites from my life rather than trying to moderate it.

If you cut out a low value activity that takes 2 hours a day, that equals 30 days a year.

Dealing with Routine

Some people can’t handle such a fixed schedule or routine life, but I love it. The more routine my life is, the more things get done.

Sometimes I do get burned out. When that happens I buy a plane ticket and go travel for a few weeks to reset myself. Know when you’re burning out and do something about it.

Small Changes

A pattern I see is some guys want to make drastic changes to their lives. It doesn’t work that way. My goal is always to make lasting changes and hardwire habits. If you’re surfing Facebook 3 hours a day, then focus on only spend 2 hours a day there instead of completely deleting your account.

Tiny, consistent actions snowballs into big results.

Keeping It Real

We all have 24 hours in a day. How we choose to spend it determines what we achieve.

When I was coming up in the game, I spent my weekends at home working. While other guys were going out clubbing, playing Halo, or watching sports, I was working on my dream of of becoming a full-time internet marketer.

We make multiple choices everyday and often times you’re having an inner battle. Should you do what gives you instant gratification, or should you work on something that won’t have a payoff for a long time? Most people think like a fucking fish and can’t see past tomorrow. I was dealing with this earlier today. This article took me hours to write, time I could’ve spent playing DOTA 2 or watching Netflix. But I know which one’s going to help me more in the long run.

What powers me is I want to live a life without regrets. I don’t wanna be an old Asian man one day and feel like shit because I didn’t live life to the fullest. I am my own boss because I put the time in. I can travel whenever because I put the time in. Accomplishing goals means I have to put the time and work in that most won’t.

Realize time and energy are our currencies, and how you choose to spend it determines your destiny. Everyday you’re either getting close to your goals, or getting further away.

This guest post is brought to you by The Blog of Charles Ngo

The recent bombings in Boston were tragic, sad, and another chapter in recent American violence. The whole event was absolutely abhorrent and one we all hope to never see happen again.

We live in a world where there are companies that look to leverage current events. Trending events can often be a good way to drive traffic. Unfortunately some companies don’t know when to just say no.

The uber popular food website Epicurious sent out the following tweets the day of the Boston bombings:

Then after immediate backlash they attempted to apologize for their insensitive promotional tweets with these tweets:

So… what’s going on here? Why on earth would they have thought it ok to promote their product in the same tweet as a message about the bombings? And then, as if to add insult to injury they send out boilerplate apology tweets.

We’re looking at a public relations nightmare. Let this be a lesson to any and all social media rockstars out there. This how NOT to do social media.

So what’s next for Epicurious? Is there a way to salvage their social media reputation?

Mr Media Training had this to say:

1. They can start by engaging with readers individually—and offering human responses instead of form ones.
2. They can learn from KitchenAid’s crisis example from late last year, when that company’s brand manager personally jumped in, stated that the person responsible for the tweets wouldn’t be allowed to represent their brand anymore, and offered on-the-record interviews.
3. They should pledge that they will provide everyone on the staff with social media training; and, if they don’t already have a social media policy, that they will create one immediately.
4. Epicurious should pledge a donation to victims of the Boston tragedy in an effort to make something good come out of this experience.

Conclusion

Brands, affiliates, and social media profiteers have responsibility to uphold on these sites. There’s got to be a line in the sand. Beyond this line you do not cross. Using current events in your marketing is a great idea…just not when it involves a national tragedy. Not now, not ever.