Adman and Racquetball Champ is Winning the Game with Work
from Home Opportunities
GotDot.com profiles Bob Buckham, an
advertising salesman and Canadian racquetball champion, who in the midst of
looking to market a coupon book, found a whole new revenue stream with
affiliate marketing. When Bob first learned about affiliate marketing,
otherwise known as “pay for performance advertising” Bob was actively
exploring ways to extend the reach of his full color coupon book, Advantage
Coupons. In the advertising business, Bob focused on traditional advertising
as a vehicle for selling clients products and services. That’s the way
things had been done for years and years.
Three years ago, when Bob first heard that his neighbor,
James Martell, who is an entrepreneur and successful affiliate marketer,
the author of the Affiliate Marketers Handbook and the host of the Affiliate
Buzz, an audio newsletter for affiliate marketers was making money with
affiliate marketing, Bob thought it might be a way to market the coupon
book.
A curious thing happened along the way, the more Bob
learned about affiliate marketing, work from home opportunities, the less
and less attractive the coupon book became. Why? The answer calls up the
very whole notion of traditional advertising vs. affiliate marketing.
In traditional advertising (i.e. newspapers, radio,
television, and coupon books) the advertiser pays in advance for the
advertising and hopes to bring in customers. However, the advertiser loses
money if there are not enough customers that come through the door and make
purchases. For example: At the going rate of about $10 (U.S.) for every
thousand people who see a ad, the advertiser needs to spend $1,000 to
acquire roughly one customer and 99 window shoppers. That’s not a winning
proposition.
Affiliate marketing works the other way around. The
advertiser pays a commission to an affiliate only for customers that make a
purchase. It’s a win-win for the advertiser and the affiliate vs. a losing
proposition in traditional advertising. Pay-for-performance” advertising is
a much better way to go for companies looking to advertise their products
and services.
Advertisers are flocking to affiliate marketing
It’s no surprise that traditional advertisers are flocking
to the emerging affiliate marketing model -- very low risk to the advertiser
– only pay a commission for actual sales. No sales, no commission.
Affiliates love it too
Affiliates who understand the affiliate marketing business
are earning huge incomes – even those who are playing around are earning a
few hundred extra dollars each month.
Jeff Pullen, President of
Commission Junction
,
a third party provider of infrastructure and tracking told the crowd at a
recent conference held in Santa Barbara that, “Commissions we’re up 80% over
the previous year”. And, according to the Affiliate Summit, held in early
November 2003 in New York City, affiliate marketing is already a $14 billion
industry. (Source: Marketing Sherpa)
Online shopping booms – the future is bright
Affiliate marketing is working because the pay for
performance model makes sense. Plus, people are flocking to the Internet in
droves to shop online. According to Forrester Research, a
Massachusetts-based research firm, nationally online sales are expected to
total $96 billion this year and climb to $229 billion by 2008.
How Bob Buckham got involved with affiliate marketing
About five years ago Bob started an Internet based coupon
book for Abbotsford, a client in his advertising business. The project did
well and Bob considered licensing or franchising the coupon book. A mutual
friend told him, “Talk to James Martell he’s into this new thing. I can’t
really explain it, but he makes good money.”
James was a neighbor of Bob’s, living just a few blocks
away. Bob knew that James Martell’s telephone business had its ups and
downs, not unlike the advertising business. Bob got real curious about
James’ new venture. At the time, James was transitioning from the telephone
business and had just started affiliate marketing with two or three sites, a
credit card, long distance phone site, and a few others. Bob remembers
asking James how he knew affiliate marketing was going to work. James told
him, “I didn’t, I just saw other people making money and had faith, so I
jumped in and gave it a go.”
James recommended Bob read
Ken Evoy’s book on the basics of affiliate marketing. This was before
James wrote his book James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook. Bob says,
“Ken’s book wasn’t into optimizing the site, but was more of an overview
about affiliate marketing. James’ book, on the other hand, is all about what
you need to do to make money with affiliate marketing and includes a proven
8 step system™ to get you up and running.”
Bob remembers when he built his first site, James told
him, “Just do what I do. It will work. It takes six weeks to two months
before anything happens; the waiting period is where faith comes in.” By the
third month Bob made $.15 and the next month he made $21.00. James told him,
it should triple every month. The next month he made $300. Motivated by the
numbers, Bob built more sites averaging $500-1000 a site; equivalent to
$8000/month in mortgage related sites.
To this day, Bob still follows the same methods for web
site construction developed by James Martell.
Got Dot: What was it like working with James a pioneer
in the affiliate marketing movement?
Bob met regularly with James and others involved in
affiliate marketing, for power sessions where they’d talk about techniques
to make more money, the search engines, and new opportunities. Bob says,
“James was the catalyst and invited him to participate in seminars as an
affiliate marketing success story. At the seminars James would get asked
tons and tons of questions. That’s why he wrote the Affiliate Marketers
Handbook to help people, like he says, “Just do, what I do.”
Got Dot: Can you discuss some of the cycles you’ve seen
in affiliate marketing?
Bob mentions how James had sites on ISPs affiliates back
in 1999-2000. When the ISPs offered it for free, there was less traffic, a
downtime. The same thing happened to Bob with mortgages. During the downtime
they bought keywords to boost the traffic. Once the traffic went up, they
stopped buying the keywords. Bob remembers asking James about his success in
buying keywords.
James said, “If I spend a hundred dollars I make a hundred
dollars.”
Bob responded, “If that’s the case why not spend a million
dollars and make a million dollars.”
James said, “I’m into optimizing my sites without spending
money.”
Bob adds, “This is the heart of James’ affiliate marketing
manual. It provides everything you need to know about starting affiliate
marketing and making money.”
Got Dot: What’s the biggest wow for you with affiliate
marketing?
Bob says, “It’s the same thing when James and I started
off, two years in advance of James’ manual. I get that wow feeling whether I
earn $.10/month or $1000. Its being part of something that works and that I
enjoy. And what’s great is that now I’m in the position to help others too,
like James did for me.”
Recently Bob has been helping his friend
Chris, who spent 20 years working for a rock crushing company, in the
freezing cold. Bob made a deal with Chris’s wife, that if she wrote the
articles, he’d make the websites. Well as luck turned out, Chris’s company
closed. Bob told Chris the same thing James told him, and now Chris and Bev
are making money with affiliate marketing. Bob says, “It’s so rewarding to
be able to help a friend. If I am helping a friend I don’t look at the gain,
that’s the way James is, it’s just so nice, that’s his nature and it just
rubs off.”
Got Dot: What is the unifying factor connecting your
success in affiliate marketing, advertising, and racquetball?
Bob says, “Discipline. If you want to be the best, you
have to be disciplined, just throw yourself into the game. It takes a
certain type of individual to have a home based business. You have to be a
real take charge kind of person, a self-starter. It’s a part of me, whether
I’m helping a client in my advertising business, becoming number #1 in the
40+ range in British Columbia in racquetball, making money in affiliate
marketing, or coaching baseball for my son.”
Here are Bob’s tips and techniques for success:
- Just do it. Eliminate procrastination. As James says,
“either you are in it or you’re not.”
- Be disciplined. Work on affiliate marketing everyday
and don’t get side tracked.
- Be balanced. Need to prioritize and balance work and
family needs.
- Have faith in the process.
As Bob says, “James system works. You can make a nice
living working out of your home and spending time with family. If you work
hard and work smart, you’ll do well. It is a true formula that works. You
can win the game and keep winning with work from home opportunities.”
Bob Buckham 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 range from
radio
controlled airplanes to
exterior window shutters; and also educates people interested in
starting a homebased business using affiliate programs and the Internet!
Got Dot is a freelance writing firm profiling
affiliate marketing success stories.
Related Resources:
-
James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook
-
James Martell's Affiliate Buzz
Got Dot is a
freelance writing firm profiling successful affiliate marketers.
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