Affiliate Marketing Programs

As I shared at length in my personal story, I have spent the better part of the last three years looking for someone I could trust to tell me how to “make it” as a home-based entrepreneur on the Internet. (click here for "My Story").

Yes, it’s true that there are a lot of “snake oil salesmen” and “smoke and mirrors artists” out there trying to get rich on the back of the average Joe(Josephine) who is willing to work hard for just a tiny sliver of the billions of dollars of e-business conducted on the Web. On the other hand, there’s lots of good stuff out there too.

My efforts to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, intensified in late 2000 when I realized that if I didn’t soon take a stand and get into my own e-business, the e-world was going to pass me by very quickly.

In fact, I could see that if I didn’t do something in a real hurry, well then (horror of horrors!), I would soon have to get a “job-job” just like the one that I left behind quite happily over three years ago.

Accordingly, I stepped-up my efforts, and my focus crystallized over the final six months of my research, as I spent many hundreds of hours online finding out what is really out there in e-businessland, in terms of what appears to work, and what doesn’t seem to quite cut it.

(Whew…all that research was just like doing my MBA all over again, except in 6 months instead of 24!).

Here are the key overall lessons that I learned during my research into how to become a successful small entrepreneur on the Internet:

• The dot.com crash of the year 2000 has had little or no effect on the average Internet entrepreneur, since they remain essentially unaffected by what happens in the stock markets. In fact, that corporate high-tech downturn created more opportunities for many small e-businesses.

• There are thousands (who knows exactly how many?) of average Joe’s and Josephines making an excellent income running e-businesses from their own homes, and it would seem that a substantial number of these people are becoming wealthy.

• Incredible opportunities still exist for the small business person who wants to succeed on the Net and, in many areas, the opportunities are increasing.

• The Internet that was once ruled by “techies” is now being proliferated by small time “netrepreneurs” who work from their homes and you don’t need to understand “cyber babble” anymore to get around the Net and be successful.

• The only three common denominators for success I am able to identify among e-entrepreneurs are: the strong desire to be successful, the willingness to learn from others, and the passion to work very hard at it.

• There are indeed many shady operators and scam artists working the Internet, just as there have always been in the offline world, so one must be wary and use good judgment.

• There is also a solid group of legitimate Internet marketing experts with integrity who have really “been there and done that” and who are now willing to share their experience and knowledge with those who e aspire to follow in their footsteps.

• The "affiliate model" is by far the most exciting Internet business opportunity that has yet come along for the small “netrepreneur”, and it is still in its infancy! (Although in Internet time, it could be all “grown up” in just two or three years).

Granted, the above observations are not based on a scientific survey. But they are founded on literally hundreds of hours of focused online research and offline reading, after which I would have had to have been in serious “denial” to not see the obvious.

So, what’s the bottom line, you ask? Well here it is.

For anyone interested in learning how to build a successful small e-business of their own, and profit from the affiliate model using either their own or someone else’s products/services, here are my top four "tried and trusted" internet marketing programs and their gurus, that I am willing to highly recommend to anyone.

I won’t pick favorites here. I'll let you judge for yourself. (Anyone who took the time to read “My Story” knows that I do have my own favorites, but that doesn’t mean that the other options aren’t worth checking out).

I’ll just give you the links to their Web sites and you can go there and check out their offerings for yourself. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Active Market Place - Patrick Anderson and Michael Henderson make up the dynamic duo of e-marketing gurus that host the very successful AMP.

Higher Response Marketing – Marlon Sanders is the master at developing, packaging, and marketing high quality e-business-building products.

Internet Marketing Center – Corey Rudl is one of the true online e-pioneers, and has operated the incredibly successful IMC since 1995.

SiteSell.com Inc – Ken Evoy, M.D. is a multi-talented e-commerce guru who has developed a line of products for the home-based e-entrepreneur that has set new standards for the industry.

A brief word of advice. Take a close look at each program. They all use slightly different approaches, and each one is worth considering in its own right.

Print out the pages that contain the key decision-making information that you need to fully understand what they are offering. Then settle into your favorite chair and take the time you need to study the material carefully. Be sure to be comfortable with your final decision.

Choose the program or product that “fits you best” in terms of your approach, goals, aspirations, and your life situation.

Whatever program you embrace, if you follow the advice of its guru, and work hard and passionately at it, I have no doubt that you will succeed.

By the way, when you reach that point, please send me a quick e-mail so I can have the pleasure of congratulating you and saying “I told you so!”

Happy e-business building!