Affiliate Marketing

[LikeASurgeon]

Hi! I am new here. I am a general surgery attending, employed full time. My husband is non-medical and currently laid-off from his finance job. While looking for new jobs he stumbled across an internet ad for Project AWOL and is now convinced that he can do affiliate marketing as a way to supplement our income. To me this looks like a scam or pyramid scheme. Do any of you have experience with Project AWOL or is affiliate marketing a legitimate way to make money? I am trying to convince my husband not to devote any more time or money to this and have him focus more on his job search. Thanks.

[Zaphod]

the second result and beyond for a google search are all complaints and websites about how the company is a scam and such. I would simply do the search and show him.

[LikeASurgeon]

Thank you for the quick reply. You would think that would deter him, but right now he's the perfect target for their BS and vulnerable to their sales tactics. He's normally so sensible, but seems fixated on the idea that he can bring in extra income by doing affiliate marketing...

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

I have no knowledge of Project AWOL.

I do know that affiliate marketing can be an income source for someone who has established a popular website and recommends good products.

[Kamban]

LikeASurgeon wrote:

Hi! I am new here. I am a general surgery attending, employed full time. My husband is non-medical and currently laid-off from his finance job. While looking for new jobs he stumbled across an internet ad for Project AWOL and is now convinced that he can do affiliate marketing as a way to supplement our income. To me this looks like a scam or pyramid scheme. Do any of you have experience with Project AWOL or is affiliate marketing a legitimate way to make money? I am trying to convince my husband not to devote any more time or money to this and have him focus more on his job search. Thanks.

Click to expand...

The reason he is falling prey for such schemes is a loss of self esteem after losing his job and he wants to prove his worth to the family. The people who market such schemes prey on such mentality.

As far as devoting time - that may be OK since he has time but he should not waste money since you are now a one income family.

[childay]

Yes a quick google suggests this is one of many so called "multi-level-marketing" schemes, basically a pyramid scheme.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing

 

[chrisCD]

There are people that make an income from Affiliate Marketing or buying selling ad space on their website.  WCI and POF are just a couple of those.  But, it isn't easy and is not a way to get rich quick.  WCI puts a lot of time into the site and it took a number of years before it was making a decent income.  I don't know about Project AWOL, but if there are a ton of complaints about them, there is usually a good reason for that.

Have him do some reading here and on POF.  Both sites will also lead him to finding some other successful sites or sites of those hoping to be successful.  No matter what, diversification is a huge factor.  I spent 6-years building up our sites "reputation" only to see a few changes made by Google drastically alter its findability.  Thankfully, my income did not depend only on the website.

What is great about the web is you can get started for almost $0, but that is also a problem because you might not feel very invested in the site.  But, any company asking you to shell out a bunch of $ to get started is most likely a scam.  Starting web hosting: $14.95/mo or less; domain name: $15.00 or less per/year; site template:  not needed, but great ones can be found for $200 or less; Logo design: $5 on fiver or $100 to $500 from someone local to you;   Finding an affiliate program: usually $0 cost to you, they pay you when you make a sale for them.

You don't need a template to get started, you don't need a logo.  For less than $30 you could be up and running tonight.  Start writing and see if you can gain some traction.  If you do, then work on the other stuff.

cd :O)

[LikeASurgeon]

Thank you. Do you know how an amateur would educate oneself about affiliate marketing? Is this something that an amateur could undertake successfully? If you don't already have a successful website, it seems hard to believe that you could fabricate one and then become good at affiliate marketing to make it all pay off.

 

ETA: I see that somebody already answered this. Thank you!

[LikeASurgeon]

Exactly. I tried to gently imply that he was exactly the kind of prey that such scammers look for - without trying to insult his intelligence. Part of why I went into medicine is because I never wanted to be subject to corporate whims, buyouts, etc that might leave me suddenly jobless. I know that my self esteem could not handle the corporate world. So I would encourage him trying to find a way to contribute if it actually could work that way, but I am extremely skeptical. The AWOL people tried to convince him to spend $10,000 on their materials!! I would rather burn the money than send it to scammers!

[chrisCD]

I absolutely believe an amateur can do it and will hopefully point to WCI and POF as examples without offending them.  As far as I know they were amateurs at the web when they started.  There is tons of free information.  Read all of the free info you can and get started.  I would not buy any programs at first.  Most free info will usually lead to some sort of sales funnel so you have to be resolute about not buying every program you find.  But you absolutely must realize it takes time and may take a lot of time and a lot of hardwork.  POF seemed to pull it off faster than many I have seen, but of course he had some good mentors out there.  :O)

Just remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.  Keep that in the forefront of your mind as you begin this process.  I believe you do have to love to write.  Because no matter what, the site needs content and you will need to write it.  Taking short-cuts doesn't usually end well, even if everyone else seems to be doing it.  And that is basically what happened to our sites rankings.  Even though I did a lot right, I also played many of the ranking games and Google and other Search Engines certainly have a right to not want to be gamed.  :O)

[chrisCD]

LikeASurgeon wrote:

Exactly. I tried to gently imply that he was exactly the kind of prey that such scammers look for – without trying to insult his intelligence. Part of why I went into medicine is because I never wanted to be subject to corporate whims, buyouts, etc that might leave me suddenly jobless. I know that my self esteem could not handle the corporate world. So I would encourage him trying to find a way to contribute if it actually could work that way, but I am extremely skeptical. The AWOL people tried to convince him to spend $10,000 on their materials!! I would rather burn the money than send it to scammers!

Click to expand...

I received a free lunch for a similar program done under the guise of a free SEO seminar.  I was almost suckered in.  My wife who I called had a much cooler head.  Friends did buy in and they never recouped the investment and matter fact kept getting hit with different upgrade options.  Run away, as fast as you can.  :O)

[EJ at Dads Dollars and Debts]

Good info in this thread and thanks for starting it LikeaSurgeon. I hope you can convince your husband otherwise.

[The White Coat Investor]

Don't know anything about the firm. Make lots of money on affiliate marketing.

[Hatton]

I think WCI is successful because he writes well and posts well researched articles.  I think POF targets a different subset of readers and quickly became successful because he is funny. Can your husband write well?  Is he funny? Financial samurai has some good how to posts on how to start a blog.  I would tell your husband to do it himself and save the $10k. If he starts his own business and writes well then he can attract the affiliate marketing deals.

[Ben]

The website should always come first, not the marketing. The information to start a good website is readily available and completely free. It's one thing to spend a few bucks for an eBook or an online course if one really wants, but that's where it stops.

On the internet, content is key. You can't make real money without a foundation of content. And that takes time. Your husband can start a website about something he's passionate about or some niche he thinks is underserved and grow it from there. He can get a nice template and hosting from squarespace if he's not web savvy and doesn't want to learn. They even throw in the first year of the URL free. I myself use Wordpress, and it took around four years for my site to start really helping out our finances. You can always upgrade the design and get faster hosting in the future when you have traffic, but nothing is going to make the time investment to make a site worth visiting go away.