We are always talking about how affiliate marketing can be great if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to the cause and don’t mind being patient in the early stages. We all know it is easy to become disheartened when things don’t pick up instantly. As a result, here at Lammo.net we are also constantly attempting to offer advice and support to those who are new to the business.

Everyone who gets into affiliate marketing wants to know the tricks of the trade from the outset. They want to know which pitfalls to avoid, in which areas of the market to focus and how to build a successful affiliate career from scratch. However, because most people who get into affiliate marketing already have a day job and thus have to dedicate what little spare time they have to developing their new career, there can be something of a conundrum at the start.

Because there are so many forums and blogs such as this one with veteran affiliates willing to offer advice there’s a real temptation to spend a lot of your time asking questions. However, with such limited time available to you as a ‘newbie’, some may fall into the trap of spending 90% of the available time with this interrogation of experienced sources, consequently neglecting the ‘doing’ side of affiliate marketing.

Arguably the best way in which to get ahead in affiliate marketing and to learn valuable lessons is to flip that formula on its head. As a newcomer you’re almost always better off dedicating 90% of your time to getting stuck in to the ‘doing’ side of affiliate marketing. Reserve the other 10% for when you’re well and truly stuck and about to take a long walk off a short pier. The key point here is that you are likely to already know the answers to many of the questions that you may pose.

Even if you aren’t immediately sure then it will almost certainly become clear after a few weeks of attempting to run your own affiliate site. Particular disciplines such as the correct way in which to optimise a site for improved search rankings are regularly covered and discussed in great detail here and on various affiliate and SEO forums. However, at the end of the day, much is about experimentation and a dash of common sense. You should also recognise that a technique which works brilliantly in one sector may be all but worthless in another.

Although you may be an affiliate you’re also a consumer like everyone else. As you browse the web you’ll come across content that will either inspire interest and perhaps result in you clicking a link and making someone else some commission, or you’ll read something that feels synthetic, badly written and bland in an overly-salesy kind of way. Many affiliates start off writing all of their own content for their sites and it can take some time to arrive at the most appropriate writing style. The point is that you can only learn the techniques that work by getting out there and doing it for yourself. And then doing it again and again, improving yourself as you begin to build your affiliate business.

Another area with which new affiliates are always concerned is that of keyword choice. You may feel as though you need particular help with this and that asking about the right keywords is a good way to get started. However, getting out there and trying out various keywords, phrases and combinations to see what works will be far more informative than asking a question and twiddling your thumbs waiting for a reply.

It’s not only the best way in which to learn but may result in you stumbling across a gap in the market and exploiting it before someone else does. Again, it’s the ‘doing’ that results in learning and growth. Identifying when something isn’t working and knowing when to change tactics isn’t something you can learn by asking questions. This should become instinct as your experience grows.

The problem is amplified because so many places online claim to hold the ’secret’ to affiliate success or contain several important ’steps’ that you must apparently follow in order to make a living online. Strangely enough, the first step is often to purchase an expensive e-Book. We’re not for a moment suggesting that these are all bad: quite the contrary – there are many excellent publications out there. However, the truth is that there is no single path to affiliate success and no rule book to which you must blindly adhere.

The imagination, vigour and fresh perspective you inevitably bring to the table as a new member of the affiliate marketing community may or may not bear fruit the first time around . . .or the second, but by dedicating more of your time to trying things out you’ll be learning at the same time as actually building your affiliate business, rather than spending informative but less than productive hours asking others for advice. Perhaps more importantly, you may well chance upon an entirely new opportunity in so doing – something that is by definition unlikely to happen when simply following advice.

Hopefully we have made the point that whilst asking questions is useful and indeed essential in the early stages as you get to grips with the nuts and bolts of affiliate marketing, just trying things for yourself without too much prior advice or supervision is still the best way in which to learn.

This may result in a failure or ten, but life’s biggest lessons are learned from mistakes as we have seen from the profiles of so many entrepreneurs elsewhere here at Lammo.net. Attempting to understand an abstract idea from a forum or blog post just doesn’t measure up to having first-hand experience of it.

So, what are you waiting for?

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