Image courtesy Alex E. Proimos /via Flickr

I recently received an email via the contact form here on this blog. The author had some questions regarding affiliate marketing, sparking thoughts which I haven’t had the luxury of dwelling on in quite some time. It was a nice and refreshing change of pace from my typical day, so I thought I’d post their inquiry and my response since I think it may help a few of you newbie affiliate marketers who are basking in the daydreams of clicking a button and having money funnel into your bank accounts.

Enjoy. And thank you, sir, for the email which sparked the first blog post in quite some time.

The Email

Hi Nate. I came across your blog while searching for advice on direct linking
affiliate marketing campaigns. I’m just starting out and not having much
success. Of course, the post I saw was from 2008, and it looks like you’re into
a lot of other interesting things, so I was hoping you can answer a few
questions for me.

Do you still do affiliate marketing, and if so…any fresh advice for a beginner
to build a few profitable campaigns?

What is your primary form of income nowadays?

If you were just starting out on the path to self-employment, passive income
generation, etc. today, knowing what you know now, where would you start?

Thanks! I’ll continue reading through your blog, but since some of the posts
are kind of old I figured I’d check in and get a fresh perspective. It seems
like we share a lot of similar life goals. I currently still get just about all
my income through my standard job as a software engineer, but at least I found a
position that lets me telecommute…which does provide SOME of the freedom I
seek, though not enough.

Thanks again.

My Response

Hi [redacted], nice to meet you. And thanks for the nice email.

Yes, I’ve been into a lot of different things here and there, and affiliate marketing is definitely my crack. It’s addicting, and very difficult to get out of the system. Perhaps it’s much like a “gambling addiction” I’m thinking now. :) Has similar effects.

Anyway, I do still dabble in affiliate marketing here and there, but I haven’t been that serious about being the marketer lately. There’s a lot of folks and a lot of different roles in the chain, from the marketer all the way up to the person who actually operates the product/service being sold. So, being as I’m a web developer (not just HTML, but the more serious stuff… like if you wanted to build the next facebook kinda thing) by trade, I worked my way into a few different industries that had a problem I could solve. So, in a way, I’m still in the industry, but just in a different role now.

To be completely honest, my current primary form of income is still web development – I run Perfect Space and we have a pretty nice list of clients. However, the other thing I mentioned above generates about [redacted] of the income per month for our agency, and climbing quickly.

Enough about me though….. let’s talk about you. :)

“If you were just starting out on the path to self-employment, passive income generation, etc. today, knowing what you know now, where would you start?”

This is a fantastic question. Good for you for being smarter than the average bear (affiliate marketer) and (a) networking and (b) asking the right questions.

My answer is I’d probably start by doing exactly what you’re doing – get in touch with people who are in the industry and have made a living out of it. That’s the first thing. As for tactical suggestions, that’s a hard one to answer. There’s a few different ways to go at this if you want to be the marketer: (1) Take a campaign – any campaign – and keep hammering it, split testing, getting in the head of the buyers, etc until you win. Or (2) find the hottest thing on the market and ride the wave like everyone else.

Personally, I did #2 and did well for a time. But what frustrated me about this process is those types of campaigns came and went so fast, it ended up influencing me to make poor decisions – namely I would think I found the magic bullet and the income was going to keep coming in. So I counted my chickens and gave up on other things that were making money (a job, a contract, other forms of income, etc).

Because of that experience, now I suggest people do #1 above, and just work super hard on one campaign until they make it work. The reason is this … the hardest part about affiliate marketing is getting into the heads of the buyers. Once you really know what makes them tick for one product (and you can almost always find that product in different places, so don’t worry too much about the campaign going away unless it’s an exclusive one), you can always find something to pitch at that buyer. Tweak the product, the offering, or whatever, but you’ll know that buyer like nobody else. You’ll automatically be creative in attracting that person, how to get them to take the next step, etc. Rather than having a really superficial knowledge of buying trends in the marketplace (the #2 way of doing things), you’ll have knowledge of a subset of the population. That’s invaluable. And if you’re really smart, you’ll start capturing these people’s contact information and delivering value to them on a regular basis. Once you have their trust, you have an asset that will follow you forever (or until you lose that trust).

Thus, I suggest finding something you’re interested in even in the slightest, and then run the campaign on a traffic source that’s cheap so you can learn fast with as little money burnt as possible. Your goal is to learn, not to make profit at the beginning. Once you’ve learned enough, the profit will come. Just know that you’ll lose for a while. There’s absolutely no way to play the affiliate marketing game and not lose money until you learn – and that’s the thing most newbies don’t get. They think it’s all magic, and it’ll be amazing and easy once you know how … and it is … but it’s the “knowing how” that costs you. It costs money, and tons of time working on the same thing over and over again.

Anyway, I hope this helps… and actually, thank YOU… because I think you just gave me the next blog post.

The beauty of this plugin is in it’s simplicity.  Brandon did a great job of putting it all together, and I just couldn’t help but give him props for his great work on it.

As of this writing, he’s had over 1600 downloads and it’s been a great success.  We’ve even come up with a little spin-off that he may build which we’re dubbing “Perfect Testimonials”.  Of course we’ll write about it when/if it becomes available.  But if you’re interested, feel free to leave a comment below or on our blog post about the plugin itself.  Feel free to thank him for his awesome work too, while you’re there.

One interesting fact Scott Shane mentioned recently was the “Top One Percent” (in the US) own businesses. Honestly, I’m not surprised.  But, it is nice to bring it to be explicit and have this knowledge at our the forefront of our brains.

Think about it.  There’s all these people who are running around ticked off (with no particular common reason, which is a different post altogether), and nobody is at work. Either they are out of jobs, or think their particular job is inconsequential enough to ignore for a few days, weeks, or months.

Regardless of the things they’re rallying against, one thing is certain.  Hopefully everyone can now put two and two together and figure out that owning your own business is truly the only way to have any possible control over your own financial security.

Screw the banks.

Screw the bailouts.

Obviously there are macro-economics in play here which matter also in the long run. But, from the standpoint of the individual, voting with your jobs – perhaps by not having one – seems to continue to be the epicenter of change.

Trust me, there’s a movement going on.

It’s not Occupy. Occupying is passive.

It’s Become.  Becoming is active.

Become a business owner.  It’s tough, but you need to be tough.  The days of taking what people give you (a job) is over.  Jobs aren’t secure.  The only person who’s secure is the owner.  Become an owner.  Become the bourgeoisie.  You can be what you want to in this country, so Become.

Stop Occupying.

Please feel free to submit any others you think are cool in the comments below.

The List of Portfolio Themes for WordPress

My Resume (less like a portfolio, but still kinda cool)

Deep Focus – Elegant Themes WordPress Portfolio

Phazed

Creatic

FolioWay

MediaReel

Architectos

Perfekto

Minim

Yin & Yang

Awesome Portfolio Theme

Conclusion… too many to list… go here

After looking around at so many cool portfolio WordPress themes, I have to suggest you check out this site for a whole huge list of truly inexpensive possibilities for a new portfolio site.

Update: Here’s my Pinterest Board where I’m going to collect a bunch more portfolio themes.

Just for fun I figured I’d throw together all the angel investor groups/programs I know of located (at least partially) in San Diego.

In no particular order, here we go:

• Imporium Angels
• Aztec Venture Network (apparently no longer around as of 1/14/2013)
• Bill Payne & Associates
• San Diego Launch Lab
• Connect.org
• Keiretsu Forum San Diego
• Tech Coast Angels
• Hamilton Bio Ventures
• Mission Ventures
• San Diego Band of Angels
• Timeline Ventures
• Enterprise Partners
• PCN San Diego

If you have any other resources of angel networks, groups, or incubators that I should add to this list, please let me know in the comments.

Thanks.

Tuesday night, Tilly and I met with some of our closest friends – a husband and wife who we’ve been blessed to live life with.  Both are leaders and visionaries. The husband is a close friend with an amazing heart and powerfully driven entrepreneur, and the wife is one of the most inspiring, leadership-driving, beauty-loving person I’ve had the pleasure of spending a dinner with.

In our conversations, our personal lives naturally mingle with our professional and Tuesday was no exception.  One of my takeaways from the evening was the following:

Entrepreneurs create.  Everything else (even the money) takes second seat to the act of creation.  It’s one of the biggest pleasures we get out of having the freedom to do what we want, how we want.

But the number one problem with entrepreneurs is being able to say “no” to things. It’s what breaks up marriages, ruins friendships, and makes us unhealthy while we work at our desks all day.  Many of us understand the power of saying “no”, of focusing.  We don’t, however, understand what this kind of inherent trait does to us.

It means we’re in a perpetual state of reaction.  And, the irony of it all, is that reaction is not creation.

The solution is this one tiny phase.  “Create your life.”

Notice, it’s not “create your lifestyle.”  That’s a given. We all work towards that.  But creating your life is a different thing altogether. It means creating a structure, a foundation, by which we will choose to live our lives on a daily basis.  Not because we want more structure, but because we want to be free to live our lives the way we want.

Seriously, what’s the point in being an entrepreneur if you’re simply reacting to everyone else all day long.  Create boundaries.  Create the life you’ve wanted.

It’s been over a year since I wrote anything substantial.  I feel the need for change.

Perhaps it’s the crisp chilly winter which propels me to become more introspective.  I’m not sure.  Whatever the case, it’s time to write again.

I’ve been watching my wife become a dedicated and talented blogger in her own right over the past year. It’s inspiring, to say the least.  Of all people, she has less time than most – taking care of our freshly minted son, our home, and my own stressed out body and mind when I return to our sanctuary of a home from the less-than-stellar day or week on the job.

As our business continues to grow (doubled growth), I continue to find ways of pressuring myself into letting go. It’s a difficult chore, but worthwhile when it works.  This coming year will only be different in that I plan to push myself harder than I’ve ever gone before.  My business partner and I plan to take a real vacation next December – the entire month.  Not only that, but we plan on doubling this year’s growth, again, but this time in 11 months instead of 12.  We plan on hiring no more than one additional person to manage this new load too, if we have to.  So, it’s going to be an interesting ride in 2012.

I don’t pride myself on being busy, as I had in the past.  In fact, I consider it a failure.  If I’m busy, that means I’m probably taking on too much responsibility that someone else should be doing.  And if nobody else can do that job, then I’ve pushed us into the wrong business.

So, this coming year will be defined in how efficient I/we can be.

This overarching goal is why I’ve started writing again.  Mainly, because 2011 was the year of working hard, excruciatingly pushing everything without breaking it, and not saying no.  It was all about doing, and less about thinking.  I had a plan. I just needed to work it.

That was 2011.  It was exciting and exhausting.

After writing the previous post in Nov 2010, I also decided I didn’t want my (often divisive) opinions to be out there in the world.  I’m not sure why, but I pulled back quite a bit.  Perhaps out of fear (which is a rare feeling for me) of retribution or hurtful words which seem to be easy to throw around and are common on the web.  Whatever the reason, though, I didn’t want to share.

This year, I’m going to try to write more insightful, thought provoking posts about the things I care most about.  I hope by writing more I can consider my arguments in more depth, study and research more, and consider other valuable points and perceptions.  I hope it’s even self-inspirational – prodding me to a more full life, with more meaning behind it than to chase the almighty dollar.

And in the end, I actually hope that I could be so bold as to do the same for you.

Enjoy your holidays, friends.  Cheers.

Really?

I heartily disagree. I seriously doubt there is an actual plan to get people not to vote.

Perhaps the politicians are not the winners in the advertising race, but I don’t think that means the politicians would rather have less people voting. There’s no benefit for them in such a result.

However, one thing I do agree with Seth on is that “It doesn’t make you responsible for the outcome”. But, isn’t that what we want? And isn’t it wrong to have authority without responsibility or vice-versa?

When someone has authority to make decisions yet believe they should take no responsibility for the impact of those decisions, we put those people in jail after they break the law. Conversely, having responsibility with no authority makes for a disgustingly irate individual who is responsible for an outcome they can’t control. Both of these cases are wrong.

In voting, we have a few problems.

We believe we have the authority to put someone into office who can do what we want. I believe it’s not really “power” (as some people call it) if we can’t also remove the person if they’re not performing up to the standard they won the election on (promises). If we vote someone in, and they fail us while having no consequences for doing so (ie, we don’t have the responsibility for the outcome), what’s the point of the vote in the first place? And who cares if they don’t last another term. They have a full four years (in most cases) to screw up as much as they want.

And if that’s the case, why vote anyway?

People lie, cheat and steal. We have consequences for those people. When I don’t fulfill an obligation to a client, I have a fiduciary connection to them, so I probably owe them money. When someone steals from you, we put those people in jail.

But, when we put our trust in someone to reflect what we believe (or at least do what they said they’d do while on the campaign trail), and they don’t do it, even though we’re paying them to do so, there’s no consequences. None.

So, why should I vote again?

Should I believe that I have a duty to someone to do so? No. It’s not constitutional to force me to vote.

Should I believe that putting the least “evil” into power is better than the only alternative, which is not to vote at all? No. There is no power in giving someone else power when they have no accountability for their actions.

Should I believe that simply because it’s “free [and] fairly fast” that I should do it? Of course not. There are plenty of things I could do that are free and fairly fast which I should not do.

And should I vote so that I get the “right” to complain? Nope, I get the freedom to complain all I want, regardless of whether I participated in a system which seems fundamentally broken and ineffective. That, friend, is protected by my constitutional right to freedom of speech.

The system isn’t hijacked when people don’t vote. It’s hijacked when people don’t do what the voters asked for. It’s hijacked when there’s no accountability, no repercussions, no consequences, no law for a reduction in ethics upon which our country and fabric of society is built on. The reciprocity effect is broken in (federal) politics.

That’s why I don’t vote.

And I believe, it’s one big reason which explains why many voters are disenfranchised with the process as well. The media was pivotal in showing exactly how and when politicians did things they said they wouldn’t, and didn’t do things they said they would. If I’m not responsible for the outcome, how can you blame me for not voting at all? I have just as much of an effect on the outcome as those who voted. None.

iPhone 4	HTC Evo
iPhone 4 Specs Review iPhone 4 Physical Dimensions Height: 4.5 inches (115.2 mm) Width: 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) Depth: 0.37 inch (9.3 mm) Weight: 4.8 ounces (137 grams) Screen Size: 3.5 inches diagonal (88.9 mm)	HTC Evo Specs Review HTC Evo Physical Dimensions Height: 4.8 inches (121.9 mm) Width: 2.6 inches (66.0 mm) Depth: 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) Weight: 6 ounces (170 grams) Screen Size: 4.3 inches diagonal (109.2 mm)
The Evo wins hands down in this category. The only way the iPhone would win in this one is if you don’t want to carry around a 6 ounce gadget. Being that it’s only 1.2 ounces more than the iPhone, if you care that much about weight in your pocket, drop a few keys off your keychain and call it a wash. Results: Evo wins
iPhone 4 Power Review iPhone 4 Power Specs Processor: ARM Cortex-A8 Apple A4 Memory: 512MB Graphics: (960-by-480) PowerVR SGX535 GPU (326 pixels per inch) Storage: 16GB or 32GB Battery: audio: 40 hrs video: 10 hrs Talk over 3G: 7 hrs Browsing over 3G: 6 hrs Browsing over Wi-Fi: 10 hrs Standby: 300 hrs	HTC Evo Power Review HTC Evo Power Specs Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 (Snapdragon) Memory: 512MB Graphics: (480-by-800) TFT LCD (216 pixels per inch) Storage: 8GB standard microSD card, upgradable to 32GB Battery: audio: 18 hrs video: 6 hrs Talk over 3G: 5.5 hrs Browsing over 3G: n/a Browsing over Wi-Fi: n/a Standby: 146 hrs
In this race, I’m torn. There are big benefits to be had with removable microSD cards (even though it only comes with 8GB standard, which is way way too low) and the award-winning Snapdragon processor. But the practicality of it is that the battery life on the Evo is horrible. It’s so bad, that even attempting to find these specifications took some work because HTC didn’t release them and doesn’t talk about them when they market the phone. It’s very unfortunate for practical use. Throw the great screen resolution on with the iPhone and we’ve got a winner. Results: iPhone 4 wins
iPhone 4 Cool Features Review iPhone 4 Cool Features Specs Camera(s): 5.0 megapixel rear-facing with 720p HD video at 30 fps and LED flash and an 0.3 megapixel front-facing one which takes 480p video at 30 fps Input: Multi-touch touchscreen display Dual microphone 3-axis accelerometer Digital compass Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor OS and apps: Apple iOS 4.0, about 185,000 apps at the time of this writing Buy the iPhone 4 now from Best Buy!	HTC Evo Cool Features Review HTC Evo Cool Features Specs Camera(s): 8 megapixel rear-facing with 720p HD video at 30 fps (which someone hacked to go up to 60 fps) and dual LED flash and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing one which takes video at 30 fps Input: Multi-touch touchscreen display Dual microphone 3-axis accelerometer Digital compass Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor OS and apps: Android, about 80,000 apps at the time of this writing Buy the HTC Evo now from Best Buy!
In this one, it’s really a comparison between the number of apps in the store vs the camera. My vote goes to the camera because with more than 80k apps in either app store, I can just about guarantee that any app I want probably exists. So, hurrah for 8 megapixel cameras. That’s more than some slightly aged point and shoot digital cameras still on the market. Results: HTC Evo wins

Final Results of this Review

In the end, the big kickers of practicality are the things which end up frustrating users the most. The largest glaring mistake HTC made in this phone was the lack of battery power. We might be able to blame the super-powerful Snapdragon processor for that, but regardless, when you can’t go a full day without a charge, it’ll start getting on anyone’s nerves.

The other features of the Evo far outshine the iPhone 4, so if you’ve got a plug at your cubicle or you can plug into your car regularly, the Evo would win. If you travel at all though, you might just stick with the iPhone and enjoy that super-high resolution screen.

For my money, because of my lifestyle, I’m going to stick to my iPhone 2G and save my money for the next gadget that has the best of both worlds in about 6 months.

What did you think of this iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo review? Love it? Hate it? Tell me in the comments, but be civil please. :)

Oh, and if you’d like to formally vote on which is better, you could win an iPhone 4. Enjoy.

A few days ago I wrote about a new project I’m working on which is going to be Gluten free guides for your city. I got to thinking though, and although I’m pretty quick at developing web sites, it still does take a little time to do. So, in the meantime, I’ve come up with a stop-gap solution and created a series of “Gluten Free in [x]” Facebook pages. I built three of them already for (San Diego, CA, Seattle, WA, and Boston, MA.

Those pages are done, and have Discussion forums on them which include Restaurants, Grocery Stores, and Recipes for each city. Please feel free to add your favorite places in your city. I’ll be using that information when we add the cities to Gluten Free Guides once it’s up and running.

The other cities I have pages for already, but there’s not much content in there yet. But, if you want to… feel free to go to one and start us off in the right direction. I’ll be there soon to put up the same format there. Here’s the list of cities…

• Boston
• Chicago
• Colorado Springs
• Dallas
• Denver
• Duluth
• Eugene
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Minneapolis – St. Paul
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• Portland
• San Antonio
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Reston
• Richardson

And please share and tweet these page urls out to your friends who are gluten intolerant or celiacs. We could use the support and we’d love to see their feedback on what is useful.

Thanks.