My journey as an affiliate marketer started as a site owner

A snapshot value add to the discussion

Way back in 2002 I stated a Paid to Click site called Clicks for Pay – this was actually quite a successful site and in the first year saw a growth up to 22,000 members. One thing this site taught me was that the majority of people were all about penny clicking and getting something for nothing, I did find this a hard to take journey but persisted with this site for 8 years. It was paying for itself and some, so there was no loss made only profit. However, the mentality of PTC Users became just a tad too much and I sadly closed the site in 2012.

Then one day in 2008 I was looking for places to promote my site, I had previously been designing and developing websites and had come across a few Traffic exchanges that I had used to promote sites, but hadn’t really taken them too seriously, so when I was looking again I came across a site called fairtradetraffic run by Kurt, who was a really committed and responsive owner. I really enjoyed using this site and immediately thought, yep I want one of them, I purchased a Ventrino script (Fair Trade was on Ventrino) and Xchangetraffic.com was born. This was in 2008 and Xchangetraffis is still going strong, although it is now on an LFMTE script.

In 2010 I discovered a site called clicktrackprofit and became very active in the programs and training that this site offered, I decided at that time to launch another Traffic Exchange and cupoftrarffic was created.

That’s when the joining of other Traffic Exchanges snowballed and I became a member of many many sites, upgraded in many and started seeing commissions coming in. The community was very vibrant, and people were very prepared to upgrade in sites and it became quite a prosperous little community.

Cupoftraffic has paid out in excess of $4,000 in commissions to its members since it was created, and this is a testament to the value that people place on affiliate income and residual commissions.

Of course, like most people, I have dabbled in this and dabbled in that, I have made commissions from multiple sources and have squandered many dollars on what seemed to be good programs at the time and demonstrated to not be.

I have upgraded in many sites that have come and gone and will still upgrade in sites that I believe are enjoyable to use, deliver great results and are sites that I believe others should use.

If you don’t believe in the site, then don’t upgrade, and don’t promote, because the pennies that you will get will never amount to a commission payout.

If you are genuine about a site, then upgrade, believe in it, promote it and promote the benefits it has had for you, promote the benefits it can have for others and you will start to see results for your advertising efforts. You will start to bring in members under you, they will upgrade because you have used you as an example, and you will start to receive commissions.

Paypal, which was the mainstay for just about everybody, did a turn around and pulled the accounts of anybody associated with an affiliate program. I personally lost 2 accounts as a program owner and just recently had an account closed because I received $29 from another owner as a commission payment.

Owners and users alike have been searching for valid payment processors so that they can kick off again. With the introduction of crypto currencies and the ability to direct pay with credit cards and the soon to be payments using CTP tokens is an absolute bonus and will, I believe, start the ball rolling for many oldies and newbies to really start earning from their affiliate programs.

I recommend that you give affiliate marketing a go, stick with it, decide on a handful of programs that you really believe in and stay the course, promote them today and stay promoting them ten years into the future. They will, if you believe in them, become profitable programs for you as your business.

I would also like to add - that it is essential to start building your list, after all you are the product storefront and you can sell your products to a captive audience.

Besides my main two sites, which I use as a personal promotion tool, as well as providing great value to my site members, I also place a lot of focus on building my lists and promoting what works for me through those lists. This has been a very productive and profitable process and am fortunate to have been building lists for over 10 years now.

Below are the links to my websites a coupe I really think that if you are serious about affiliate marketing should join and a link to my list as well as a link to a really great autoresponder which I highly recommend

• My very first Traffic Exchange - Xchange Traffic
• My second Traffic Exchange and great fun to be a part of - Cup of Traffic
• Click Track Profit - Affiliate Marketing Training for us all - Click Track Profit
• One of my main List Buidling capture pages for Making Money with Programs that work - Programs That Work
• Building Yor List to Generate Leads - Email Marketing Autoresponder

PS: Here is me working in my Office