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By Les Scammell, January 21, 2010 12:53 pm

Sometimes I get some strange emails. Today I received one touting a franchise business that promised income of $75k-$200k with a total outlay of only $45k. I am always a little suspicious when the first thing they throw at you is the income. Carpet cleaning (and mattress sanitizing) is big business. The market is also pretty full.

The New Hot Franchise Sizzles! that appeal to me don’t involve cleaning or any intense sales. I would prefer a hot franchise opportunity that had customer coming to me – a franchise like fast food since it is always going to be popular.

I had an offer several weeks ago to sell a new range of toothbrushes that were set to revolutionize dental care. Now I know that Gum Diseases Should Be Identified in Time and that dental care is very important. But at $0.50 commission paid on every toothbrush sold, even in my humble town, if I could get everyone to buy one, I would still only make around $25k – and there are always expenses.

What I would like to buy into is an online franchise. With an online presence, you can have multiple income streams. Even with an online presence, I would be wondering – Can Small Businesses Earn Affiliate Money? I think they can if the affiliate program was related to your business in some way.

Really, what would please more than anything right now is not having to read silly emails that promise me the world.

Comments (6)

By Les Scammell, April 13, 2009 8:59 pm

Affiliate marketing can be a rewarding career – yes career. Some people make a good living by becoming good at affiliate marketing. However, before you go rushing out to start a career in affiliate marketing, be sure you are right for the job.

That is one of the most important keys – it is a job and like any other job, you either have the skills (or can learn them) and you have the attributes (or you can develop them – much harder).

From my observations, and from trying my own hand at it, affiliate marketing is not for everyone. There are several key areas that must be addressed.

Time: You need to be able to devote a lot of time, and the better you become, the more time it can take.

Dedication: You have to stick with it although having said that, you have to know when to move on with each affiliate program you run.

Organization: Don’t think you can get away with just one affiliate site. Some of the top affiliate earners are running 2-300 sites or more.

A Good Eye: The final attribute is to have that good eye for finding the best paying affiliate programs – not so much highest, but top as in good conversion rates.

Colin from FeedFlare is a good example. He is now making good money despite a humble start. With forty plus web sites and growing he is finding the time component difficult.

From my perspective, I find it hard to dedicate myself or my time. I am very much an instant now type person. With affiliate marketing, you build a site and work your SEO and article marketing to achieve a good search ranking.

For me, I want the good ranking yesterday and so tend to rush things. From my one attempt, I achieved a ranking of 15, page two of the results, two days later it was 95, page 10. I obviously overdid it and got a Google ping. It has climbed back to 33rd a few days ago but is on the drift out again.

My forte of course is writing, not marketing. Others can do the web design, the SEO, the marketing and the like. I am happy to spend my days researching and writing.

I have left the most important aspect to last. Desire. Desire to succeed, desire to make money and the desire to bury yourself – at least initially.

My problem is that I don’t have the desire to make ‘big’ money as in $10k a month. I would be happy to earn around the $1k each month. That is sort of no man’s land in affiliate marketing.

If you want to get into affiliate marketing, don’t think of it as easy money. It takes time and effort to succeed. Colin is a good example of someone who has dedicated both and is succeeding.

For me, I will stick to article writing and ghost writing. One day I will get to my target of $1K per month.