Affiliate Marketing Business Blog

Do you ever wish that you could look at a successful online business and find out what they do to generate traffic?

Well, that is what this article is all about.

After looking through my Google Analytics I decided that I wanted to share my top traffic sources for 2008-2009 (well, March 2009).

Ready?

Traffic Source #1 - Affiliates and JV Partners

I decided to lump these together, although really the JV Partners is the larger aspect of this.

The BBO Institute has paid out over $112,000 in commissions. That is a hefty advertising cost, but one that I would love to increase (how often can you say that).

JV Partners were the glue that held my Internet Marketing business together in 2008, and will play a fundamental part in this year as well.

If you aren’t spending a good portion of your time developing relationships with potential (and actual) JV partners and affiliates, then you are losing out big time.

Traffic Source #2 - Google and Yahoo

In my non-Internet Marketing business (i.e. the one where I don’t teach Internet Marketing), the search engines bring in a LOT of traffic.

Google brings in 11 times more than Yahoo, but Yahoo is still there plugging along and helping build my business.

If you are running an info-marketing business (i.e. you sell e-books) it is a lot harder to do search engine optimization, mainly because you need a lot of content on your website for it to work.

If you run an ecommerce store (i.e. you sell physical products online) then SEO is definitely an avenue you are going to want to explore.

Traffic Source #3 - YouTube

Video marketing is awesome. It has allowed us to engage our customers, build fanatic loyalty, and sell a lot of products.

We have mainly focused on YouTube, growing our subscriber base to almost 10,000 viewers.

We are now expanding to many of the other video sharing sites, which will hopefully help us to substantially increase our traffic.

Traffic Source #4 - Word of Mouth

We get a surprising amount of word of mouth advertising. I define word of mouth advertising to be when people post about your website on forums or on their websites without you asking them to.

I have found that the more unique high quality content that I post (either as videos, articles, or pictures) the more word of mouth traffic we get.

Future Traffic Sources

In the next few months we are going to be working with other traffic methods even more, including:

-Google Adwords
-Banner Advertising
-more Affiliate Marketing (in our e-commerce business)

I’ll probably post a report later this year to let you know how these have gone (not that I haven’t done them before, just not extensively in the other business).

Matthew Glanfield

Recently I took a step back and looked back at the past few years of my life.

In April 2005 I officially registered my first business with the Government of Canada. Three months later I quit my day job, and I have never worked one since.

Next month marks four years since that point (and coincidentally four years since I got married to my wonderful wife). These past four years have been a roller-coaster of success and failure.

In my first year we grossed over $150,000. In our second year we doubled that to $300,000. In our third year we almost doubled that again to $600,000.

Yet throughout these four years I have struggled greatly, sometimes even financially.

No, it isn’t because I have lived outside my means. I don’t own a mansion or a fancy car (I have a 2002 Oldsmobile that needs some body work done on it). I don’t eat at fancy restaurants every day or have servants at my beck and call.

The reason for my struggles has been simply learning how to run a business - a true, bonafied business.

You see, “making money online” is not a business. If you think that simply putting up a website and selling some sort of product or service is a business, then you are in for a shock.

When you buy an e-book on the latest Adwords tricks, or on how to get more traffic through SEO, or on how to make membership sites, or the “Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing,” what you will almost never learn are the simple business practices that will allow you to stay in business, such as:

-bookkeeping
-hiring (and firing)
-budgeting
-marketing (no, not traffic generating, but overall marketing)
-legal stuff
-and more…

I would love to stop at this point and say “Until now… You can grab this e-book that teaches you all of these things for only $19.95!” but I have yet to find a resource like that.

Besides, every country (and sometimes state) has different laws as to how to handle all of these things.

The real way to learn all of this is simply through experience, which completely throws off a lot of people trying to make money online mainly because it never really crossed their mind that they would have to learn how to run a business.

So as you strive to “make money online,” remember that sometimes your biggest difficulties will not lie in the Internet aspect of it, but in the business aspect of it.

And remember, if you are truly an entrepreneur, you will find ways to overcome all of these, whether from seeking advice from other business owners, taking a course (or courses) at college, or even through the occasional e-book.

Have fun!

Matthew Glanfield