 AffiliateFlash caught up with Colin McDougall at Affiliate Summit. He was in the audience for Rosalind Gardner's presentation: "From Benz to Beater." She introduced Colin and they met for the first time. Collin agreed to tell us his story.
July 15, 2006
How did you Get Started as a Super Affiliate?
I got into affiliate marketing about 5 years ago. I started by "Writing search engine garbage" (keyword-stuffed articles) for a friend. I built, I hesitiate to say, a "business" online. I created a "thing" that generated a lot of money online is all I did. I essentially created a job that happened to pay a lot of money at the time. Within two years I was making $60K a month.
November 15, 2003 - A Fateful Day
I just purchased a new house, new luxury house, custom built. I spent $30K on new furniture another 15-20K on new appliances because I make all this money. I'll pay it off next month. That was Friday night. His income dropped to $7K. Saturday morning I woke up. Why am I not making money? What happened here? I should be living ok at that level but I bought stuff that you wouldn't believe.
Google did not like my content. In 2003 they changed the algorithm (named the Google Florida update). I wrote purely for the search engine with no interest in my end visitor.
How did you Recover?
I realized what I'd been taught was absolutely wrong and I needed to do something different. Fortunately I did have some money in the bank. I was able to return that furniture and buy that furniture again later. I cancelled the order on the $25K home theater system. I grew up awfully quick.
I needed to change. What do I need to do? I phoned Rosalind Gardner and said look I need help here. I hear you do very well, please help me. She did, she said, just market to your list. I replied, I don't have a list. there was a lengthy silence on the phone. then a gasp of utter shock and dismay. Wait a minute, how many visitors have passed through your site? Oh, millions. Not one email address captured? Not one. Do this, tweak that.
Rebuilding with Email Marketing
Today it's about day 20 of the campaign I launched. I have 20K subscribers now. It's getting about 1,500 subscribers a day. I'm working diligently to get that to 2,000 subscribers a day. I prove that I'm an industry expert. I get the email address, and I tell them what I told them I would tell them. Quite often what I thought they wanted is not what they actually want.
The Short Road to Success
I wasn't sinking for long. I'm quick to act and I refuse to go back to a job. I realized I latched on to something that wasn't working. Just the very nature of purely trying to earn money from search engine marketing is not a wise thing. I wrote the VEO Report a guide to rank on Google and get the free search engine traffic. The goal of my site is to get people to sign up with their email address.
What is the difference between trying to make money online and building a business?
Just making money online - you make a lot today, which is nice. If you see one of those opportunities don't ignor it, but know that it's going to be very short lived. If you can one of these quick and easy things and get a squeeze page up rather than monetizing the Adsense. It's the sustainability of a list. You go to any store they likely have a list of customers. When you buy something they ask for a name and email list. They want to get you back. Can we send you a flyer. It really comes down to the list, the list. If you don't have a list you don't have a business.
What Tools do you Use for Building your Business?
I use aweber for my email list management. I've done the research on it. They have got deals with all the ISP to show they are CAN-SPAM compliant.
There are a lot of great squeeze page generator tools out there. I know the game. A few pointers from Rosalind is all I needed to get me on the right way.
My
VEO report is written for a newbie who doesn't have money for a paid search campaign. I'm pricing it accordingly, because I know the newbie doesn't have a lot of money.
Colin's online business continues to grow surpassing what he did even a few months ago. Lesson learned: Build an email list. |
