Best Way to Learn AF

[NoHypeType]

Hello everyone,

If you don't mind, I have a few questions. Where are the best places to start looking to educate myself more about AF? Who out there has good quality information that someone like me can learn from -- reliable info, not hype?

I need to be able to start with the most basic information -- what kind of site is best (not content but for example, wordpress blog okay or ??), getting traffic to my site etc. I know very little html and nothing about generating traffic -- if that tells you anything.

I've thought about getting into it and put it off for so long. I have decided I just can't put it off any longer.

Thank you!!

[Laura B]

When you say "AF," I assume you mean affiliate marketing (AM)? There are several good forums and training programs out there where you can find knowledgeable people. Shoot me a PM if you want me to send you a list of the places I have gotten good information.

[MikeF0421]

One of the absolute best places I can recommend for free information is the Warrior Forums. It's a goldmine of information. Just Google it and you will find it. Their free forum is great. They also have a membership section. I believe it is $37 for a lifetime membership. Worth it, but you can find most everything you need in the free area.

Probably wouldn't hurt to pick up a book to learn some basic HTML. It can really help. You don't really have to get one of those 800 page HTML Bibles. Even something simple like HTML For Dummies would probably be ok.

I would probably stay away from any of those programs that promise to teach you all the "affiliate secrets that nobody else knows" for $100. You can find all the information contained in those reports for free. There aren't really any secrets to affiliate marketing. It just takes time and hard work.

Feel free to message me if you have any other questions.

[MikeF0421]

I shouldn't have said to stay away from affiliate marketing courses altogether. And I didn't mean to sound like I was lumping everyone together who might be selling such a program as a group of people that are ripping people off. There are some truly excellent programs out there.

What I should have stated was just to be careful what you get into. There is a lot of hype out there and people selling stuff that is not worth what they charge. Until you have been around a little bit, it can be tough to distinguish the hype from what is really a good solid program.

[Laura B]

I agree with Mike (both posts). The "secret" is time and hard work, as he said. That's one of the things I make sure my students understand before getting started. If you go into this with realistic expectations, you'll do a lot better.

And it definitely does take a while to distinguish hype from reality. Do your research, ask questions, and then go for it!

[Yuliya Mironova]

Originally Posted by MikeF0421

What I should have stated was just to be careful what you get into. There is a lot of hype out there and people selling stuff that is not worth what they charge. Until you have been around a little bit, it can be tough to distinguish the hype from what is really a good solid program.

I have a couple of friends who "went into affiliate marketing" about a year ago, knowing almost nothing about it, and both making a full-time living from it now. They would certainly both agree very much with exactly what Mike says here. The problems they both encountered in the early stages of their learning-curve were that there's too much available information around, most of it for sale, and quite a lot of it either mistaken, inappropriate or ill-advised. It really can be very difficult to distinguish, when you know almost nothing, between good, solid reliable information for the beginner and things that are recycled, unreliable, second-hand information that's been hyped up out of all proportion. (Exactly the same's true in my field of networking marketing, now I think about it ).

A good and reliable tip seems to be "don't spend any money until you know exactly what you want to do". Information on internet marketing in commercially available e-books is also available free, if you look with patience. Specifically, there are no "magic formulas" and the people purporting to sell them should be ignored. The Warrior Forum, mentioned above, got my friends started (and they didn't need the "paid membership" until many months after they started earning real money.

Good luck!

[happygal]

I couldn't agree more. Play around, try things out and learn along the way. Just don't spend any money until you need to (and even then you might not need to spend any money).

[LilBlackDress]

I would say to pick up one very good affiliate marketing plan and follow it. I started off knowing nothing and learned it piece by piece. One excellent course would have saved me a lot of time, energy and effort.

No course is going to teach you everything but having a blueprint is a good idea. There are very good free and paid courses out there. You do not need to purchase a monthly training plan. To select a course it helps to decide on the type of model you want to follow for your first site ie adsense, affiliate marketing, etc.

Because there is massive quantities of information out there, I would suggest going on the WarriorForum and/or DigitalPoint reading, reading and reading and selecting two or three mentors to learn from. Subscribe to their emails etc. Otherwise you can easily get overwhelmed.

[NoHypeType]

Thank you all for the information. It can be overwhelming to try to take it all in at once. I think I'm ready for some babysteps. I'm a hands on learner.

Which websites/hosting do you recommend the most? I'm not ready to pay (pay much at least) at this point. I just want to stick my big toe in and see if I can grasp some basic concepts.

Thanks again!!

(And yes...AM not AF...don't know what I was thinking there)

[Yuliya Mironova]

Hi again NoHypeType,

It's just possible that you might be interested in this post, which is kind of what you're asking about here - but be careful too, because all the "information" in it is second-hand. Just an idea!