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The Sky’s The Limit ... Making Money From Home
GotDot.com profiles Alan
Zunec a former insurance agent now making money from home, far surpassing
initial financial goals and achieving life work balance on his terms, not the
boss’s. He is the boss. Most people take traditional jobs to earn a living. It’s a by product of
the industrial revolution, when people were pulled off farms, and sent to
school. School prepared workers for the routine of a 9-5 workday. But somewhere
along the way, people found the courage, to make the jump seeking their own
fortune, their own business. For most people, like Alan, that dream, the
quintessential American Dream, came in the midst of working for someone else. Dissatisfaction, diminishing drive and passion, limited income, and loss of
opportunity are all factors leading to the dream. With some dreams you wake up,
the lucky ones, you get to live: experiencing the sweet joys of seeing a dream
blossom into reality. To put things into perspective let’s go back to the 9-5 scenario. When you
have a job, there’s a set salary, the earning potential is limited. It’s
like the old saying, if you have a roof on your house, there’s a restriction.
Remove the roof and the sky’s the limit. Alan says, “If you believe there is
a limit you’re cheating yourself. You’ll lose 110% of the opportunities.” In Alan’s prior profession as an insurance agent, he gave the job 100% but,
reached the point where passion and life balance disappeared. Without that, no
amount of money mattered. Alan realized, if you don’t own it, or sell it, time
is someone else’s, but, when you find something you love you’ll give it a
110%. At 30 years old Alan set a goal for obtaining work life balance and found it.
With affiliate marketing, the sky’s the limit; the income potential is that
phenomenal. As a former analyst at first Alan didn’t believe it, he needed
proof. He found out, that proof is in the pudding and in the process discovered
a whole new way of life. Now Alan has time for the good things in life. Like
Alan says, “I’m Peter Pan, a big kid. Now I have time to play golf, go to
the gym, walk on the beach, watch a hockey game and visit with friends. I have
the financial independence to do it all.” Anyone can make a success with affiliate marketing. Listen to Alan’s story
and you’ll learn how. As Alan says, “Most people get stuck in a job they don’t
like. You don’t get time back, it creeps up on you, and before you know it, it’s
gone.” What is affiliate marketing? By now most people have heard all about the success of Amazon.com.
What they may not know is that Amazon spawned an Internet industry in 1996, by
allowing independent website owners to earn commissions by referring paying
customers to them. This is known as pay-for-performance-advertising or affiliate
programs. With affiliate marketing it’s important to remember, that there are three
primary roles consisting of the merchant, the affiliate (publisher) and the
third party (Commission Junction). The merchants (advertisers) pay a commission
on sales generated by customers, which the affiliate (publisher) sends to their
sites. Commission Junction (third party) pays affiliates on behalf of the
merchants and provides a tracking system. The merchant handles all order
processing, shipping, and customer service. Visit
Commission Junction to see a partial listing of their top-notch merchants offering
affiliate programs. The first thing Alan did was find mentors, whose messages resonated. He read
Bill Gates’ book Road Ahead, and Henry Dent’s, the Great Boom Ahead and
Roaring 2000. Those visionaries talked about global changes and the new wave of
doing business on the Internet. And Alan discovered James Martell, an
entrepreneur, and successful affiliate marketer with over 70 specialty shopping
sites, and the author of the Affiliate
Marketers Handbook and the host of the Affiliate
Buzz, a popular audio newsletter for affiliate marketers. At first, Alan says he was a bit skeptical, so he did his homework and
contacted affiliate managers asking such questions as: if it works for everyone,
can it work for me, what is the potential, what is the life span, how long will
it be around? He got the answers and heard nothing but accolades about James
Martell. As Alan says, “James is a real doer, a lot of people walk the talk,
not walk the walk, but with James it’s the truth. The amazing thing with
affiliate marketers is that, there’s a real sense of community. What ends up
happening is, you want everyone around you to succeed, you help them and, they
help you.” How Alan got started in affiliate marketing Alan not only read James Martell’s handbook, but also attended his training
in Vancouver. Alan says, “The biggest thing about James’ training is how
easy it is to understand. If you follow what he tells you to do and look at the
examples it works. James provides the vehicle with his 8-step-system for
affiliate marketing. It’s up to the affiliate marketer to keep the engine
running. It takes work, but the payoff is there.” In the beginning Alan set a target for making money in six months, but by
three months, the business proved itself as a viable financial entity. Alan
says, “The learning curve was very difficult at first, partly, because my
internal skeptic prevailed. I spent weeks with four hours of sleep a night, just
building the sites, and wondering how is this working, and getting blown away by
the visitor numbers. In the early days of the business, I just didn’t
understand the power of search engines. But the light bulb went off and there’s
no turning it off. The sky’s the limit. And the checks keep rolling in, they
really do.” The convincing factor proved to be search engine optimization. By following
James Martell’s formula for choosing keywords, visitors came to Alan’s
website in droves, verified by reports from a tracking program, known as
Hitslink. Keywords as explained in James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook are
the search engine building blocks. Marketing on the Internet is all about
placement and being seen. To be successful you need the keywords people use for
queries on the search engines, that’s how your web site will be found. Alan’s niche markets are credit cards, cell phones, and satellite TVs.
Monitoring the number of visitors coming to the site is critical. You need
traffic and conversion to make affiliate marketing work and to make money. It’s
like sales’ law of averages the more people you talk to, the more are going to
order. Commissions paid on average are 7-10%. Credit card companies pay $30-50 for
an approved application. Cell phones companies pay $20-70. The satellites
companies pay $35-70/satellite. Here’s an example of the money making
potential, let’s say: you have three web sites with a 100 visitors a day and a
1% conversion (equivalent to 3 conversions a day), that’s equal to $110 U.S.
per day ($30 cell + $50 satellite + $30 credit card). By the end of the month
that’s a return of $3300. Alan follows the same methods for web site construction developed by James
Martell. These principals are incorporated into Alan’s successful series of
specialty shopping featuring: mobile
phones, DIRECTV
systems and payday
loan advances. Got Dot: What kinds of financial goals did you set? In the beginning, Alan set a goal of making 300 Canadian dollars per site,
which is equivalent to ten dollars a day. In no time at all Alan surpassed that
target, and moved up to 50 a day, then 100, and more. The bar keeps getting
raised. Got Dot: What’s a typical day? Alan’s days start early before 7AM and are divided between writing
articles, building web sites, talking to merchants learning what’s new, and
examining new web partners like Commission Junction, LinkShare, and any
affiliate program offering a good fit. Alan says, “Any time I get tired of looking at the computer, I step
outside. In Vancouver it rains a lot. I love the smell of rain. Sometimes I play
golf in the middle of the day, take a walk on the beach or catch a hockey game
and there’s no boss questioning my priorities. The time is mine and I love it.” Got Dot: In these recessionary times, what advice would you give someone
looking to make a change? The first thing Alan says is, “What recession? With affiliate marketing,
the door is open twenty four hours a day. James Martell provides the vehicle,
learn how to drive it, and you too can make money. Take the plunge, move
forward, and don’t be afraid. The only person holding you back is yourself.” Here are Alan’s tips and techniques for success: Alan says, “With affiliate marketing you can earn more than the average American three fold or Canadian and that’s making money from home: forgoing the corporate grind and achieving life work balance. You have to work for it. There will be countless hours where you just keep revamping and fine tuning the vehicle, but if you want to drive and be your own boss, that’s what it’s all about. The sky’s the limit.” Alan followed a simple 8-step-system™ for affiliate marketing created by James
Martell, entrepreneur, successful affiliate marketer, and developer of over 70 specialty shopping sites with topics that include weight
loss programs, fluorescent
lights and skate
bearings; and is also in the business of helping those people interested in making money using affiliate programs. Related Resources: |
