6 ugly truths about affiliate marketing that eager Malaysians should know

Malaysians are all eager to do affiliate marketing after April 2008

Holy cow!

All of a sudden, hordes of eager Malaysians are all eager to do affiliate marketing! I noticed that after observing a few Malaysian blogs and forums in the last few weeks. I guess this sudden interest to do affiliate marketing might has something to do with Clickbank’s decision to lift their long ban on Malaysian affiliate publishers and marketers back in April 2008.

Well, there is nothing wrong with that and I certainly welcome more Malaysians in the affiliate marketing world.

Welcome fellow Malaysians!

But I alas I do have one problem with you folks. I would like to know why you are so damn interested about affiliate marketing.

Is it because some no-good gurus told you that you can make lots of easy money by doing affiliate marketing?

Is it because some self-proclaimed experts told you that you can make lots of easy money through Clickbank?

6 ugly truths about affiliate marketing that eager Malaysians should know

Look, I don’t want to break your heart. I don’t even want to destroy your enthusiasm but I want to be really honest with you today.

I’m an experienced online money maker specializing on selling goods or products on eBay and many other online auction sites. I also have a few online stores selling unique Malaysian arts and handicrafts. I have been doing that in the last 3 years. I’m no millionaire but I’m doing much better than you common Malaysians. :)

However, I’m quite new on affiliate marketing. I only started toying with affiliate marketing about a year ago and let me share with you what I have learned so far:

1. Affiliate marketing is not at all easy! It takes lots of patience, trials and errors!
2. Affiliate marketing requires a lot of upfront investments. You need to invest good amount of money on SEO, keyword and many other tools if you really want to be successful.
3. You can generate more conversions if your name or nickname sounds like a Mat Saleh (you know la, sounds like Americans or Britons). I actually did a little test on this. I ran one similar affiliate campaign on three different mini landing pages, each with three different names. One is of course with my very own Malay name, the second with a Mat Saleh name and the third with a Chinese name. After 30 days of PPC campaigning with Google AdWords, the landing page with the Mat Saleh name made the most number of conversions (no surprise there). I made a few conversions from my Chinese name but I made nothing, absolutely nothing from my Malay name (sounds Arabic, perhaps they think that I'm a terrorist or something)! I think the message here is pretty clear. I leave it to you folks to figure it out.
4. One wrong move and affiliate marketing can really break you literally. I have gone through this couple of times with Google AdWords (undoubtedly the best weapon for any affiliate marketer). Do you want to know how much money I have lost to Google AdWords? The last time I checked and if my memory has not failed me, it was somewhere around $3,000! That’s in US dollars okay! It took me 4 months to recover it back!
5. One good affiliate marketing technique may work for someone else but it doesn’t mean that it will work for you. Perhaps it has something to do with luck. I really don’t know. I do believe that the best way to make money from affiliate marketing is by fine tuning and improving a proven system. Make it smells and sounds unique to you alone! That will take lots of time and patience. So please do not expect quick miracles after buying a proven system from somebody.
6. A lot of people have failed to make it big with Clickbank. Go and read comments and reviews made by those who failed miserably in promoting Clickbank affiliate products. You’ll be surprise to see that there are so many of them even though most of them are using some of the best tools and techniques around! I have been promoting Clickbank’s affiliate products (PayDotCom was my first affiliate marketing venture and I’m happy with the money that I have made there) for about two months now and so far I’m only making a little bit more than $140 (US dollars). That was not at all impressive but quite okay since it was achieved simply through article marketing and placing classified ads on sites such as USFreeAds. I will use the ultimate weapon, Google AdWords, and try my luck at Clickbank some time soon. :-)

Believe me, selling stuffs on eBay and any other online auction sites are much easier than doing affiliate marketing. But I’m not giving up on it just yet. In the mean time, let me wish you eager Malaysians good luck in the world of affiliate marketing! ;-)