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How to Set Targets in Affiliate Marketing
Written by Charles Mburugu for Gaebler Ventures
Affiliate marketing is increasingly becoming a popular way of earning money online. However, many people get into the business with no idea of what they want to achieve and what it will cost them. What are some of the targets you should set as an affiliate marketer?
The following are some targets you should set for your affiliate marketing business.
Target 1: How much cash can I afford to invest in the business?
You should consider this carefully before you do anything else. Your business may not earn you a significant income for several months. Therefore, the money you invest should be money you can do without. You must consider things like cost of a good computer with broadband, cost of a domain name, cost of web hosting, and cost of educational material. You should realize that if your budget is small, you will want to find the best information at a minimum price. Even if you have a big budget, you need to limit the material you purchase or you will end up with a lot of unused and unread information.
Target 2: How much time can I put into the business?
When you find an exciting affiliate marketing program, don't quit your day job yet. You should first make the business profitable before thinking of quitting your day job. Therefore, if you have a day job, you should determine how much 'spare time' you can invest in the business. Then split that time into two; learn time and earn time. Learn time will be spent going through educational material and learning tricks which can make your business work. You should also research your niche topic and learn how to use new software. Earn time is time spent on the practical aspect of your business. This involves activities such as writing and publishing articles, writing and sending out emails to your membership list, writing ads for Google, creating products and writing e-books. These are the activities that bring in the cash.
Target 3: How much money do I want to earn from my business?
Be realistic and set a reasonable target. For example, if you want to earn $5,000 per month, you have to figure out how many hours you need to invest or how much you should be earning per hour so as to make this amount of money. For example, if one hour of your work generates about $50, then you will need to invest one hundred hours to reach your target.
Target 4: What is the time frame for your marketing goals?
You should expect teething problems, meaning you will not make money from the very beginning. It takes time to design a site, identify products to promote, attract traffic to your site and eventually make sales. If you do everything right, you could be earning a significant income by the third month of your business. If you don't, maybe you should reconsider your strategy. The other option is joining another affiliate program, finding a new niche, approaching your niche using a different angle, or optimizing your website.
Charles Mburugu writes for us from his home in Nairobi. He has a graduate degree in Business Management from Kenya Institute of Management. He is interested in writing about branding, CSR and intellectual property.
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