5 Star Affiliate Blogs

A guest post written by Joseph Ratliff

There are a ton of ebooks and courses being sold online covering many topics important to affiliate marketing.

From one proven system, to another proven way of doing things…you can learn a lot by investing in the right ones, and implementing what they teach.

Except I’ve noticed that many of these courses and other information sources don’t focus on one key missing ingredient that is more important to success than any system, method, or tactic.

Skills.

How can you be expected to implement a Google Adwords secret if you’re not skilled at writing copy first?  Salesmanship?  Persuasion?

What if you’re not a skilled writer at all?

Unfortunately, these courses leave the “learning the skills” part out, because if they explained what you need to possess in terms of skills set beforehand, you might not buy their course or ebook.

Contrary to what’s marketed out there, you absolutely should focus on developing the skills required to succeed as an affiliate before venturing out and starting an affiliate business.  Can you succeed learning on the fly?  Sure…it will just be more challenging is all.  Some of the most successful have overcome the challenge of learning these skills on the fly, but you have to wonder…

Why do such a small percentage of affiliates truly succeed?

You’ll find that successful affiliates have well-developed skills in their toolbox:

• Selling skills.
• Copywriting skills.
• Persuasion skills.
• Interpersonal skills.
• Business building and development skills.
• A thorough understanding of the marketing process.
• An understand of how business systems work together.
• And on, and on…

This is not meant to discourage you from starting or continuing to build your own affiliate empire.  Instead, I hope to shift your mindset to developing the skills that, in the end, will help you to really process one thought…

“Do I need to learn more systems, or another set of tactics?  Or do I really need to learn an underlying skill that will allow me to create a system for doing things on my own?”

Some books that I recommend to get you started, which are fairly inexpensive (or can be picked up at the library, which is another treasure box in and of itself)…

• Influence – Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• Scientific Advertising/My Life In Advertising by Claude Hopkins (one book, not two)
• The Copywriter’s Handbook by Bob Bly
• Ebook: “Need To Know” by Paul Myers (subscribe to his ezine TalkBiz News to get a free copy)

Do some research, and you’ll find tons of other handy resources to learn what you really need to learn, the missing ingredient to success online as an affiliate…skills.