Update
After months in the making, Jeremy Palmer finally released his Black Ink Project 2 course to the public. Get all of the details on the Black Ink Project 2 Homepage.
Jeremy Palmers Black Ink Project: Review of Week 1
Even though I’m not completely through my action plan for this week, I wanted to make a post about the most important thing I took away from it.
What is it?
Why Do Most Affiliates Fail?
I have set up a few affiliate sites, done article marketing, pay-per-click campaigns, blog commenting, directory submissions, social media and others too numerous to mention.
Have I had success? In a word, limited.
What’s the problem? Am I stupid, lazy, unrealistic or any combination of the three? No!
Then why?
It all goes back to what I did at the beginning. I saw an opportunity that somebody was promoting and took a quick look at the numbers and determined the potential was there.
What I didn’t ask was “who does the potential exist for”? Anybody who throws up a site, runs a PPC campaign and then waits for the money to roll in?
NO
The opportunity was there. The problem is it wasn’t there for somebody who had no experience in that market, no website design skills, no budget for outsourcing and didn’t realize the huge amount of savvy marketers that would be my competition.
Within a few months, I realized that something was wrong but had no idea what.
That brings me back to The Black Ink Project and the most important lesson I’ve learned about why most affiliates fail-Lack of Research.
The work that I’ve been doing since starting this course has been positively eye-opening. It’s one thing to have some hot shot guru tell you to “do your research” and another to be walked through the process. Being able to look at any potential project with an objective view is priceless and required for any amount of success in this industry.
In particular, I found the sections on Finding Your Niche and Developing A Rock Solid Business Plan the most informative and engaging. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see it’s not just me who hasn’t been doing this work. I also feel a little bit better knowing I haven’t been doing it because I haven’t been trained to do it.
I’ve spent many hours in the last couple of days analyzing my strengths and weaknesses for niches and deciding if they are right for me. I have whittled them down to three niches that will eventually become web sites.
Three you say? I thought we were only working to get one?
The reason for this is I have a license for the Build A Niche Store tool that allows me to set up unlimited sites on niches that I believe I can move forward with. Because it is a website building tool that takes data from the ebay network, I don’t have to arrange website design or find merchants. This allows me to get these sites up quicker after I have evaluated the niche. I will use this tool to set up two of them and move forward with the other niche as my official Black In Project site.
I also have an established site that I am using what I’m learning in TBIP to revamp and refocus.
A Quick Word Of Warning
For everyone who has jumped on Jeremy’s pick for our project site and registered a domain to sell ultraportable notebook computers…or any of the niches he has discussed.
You still need to do your research. These are not tips from a bookie. Remember that Jeremy says you’ve got to determine if the niche fits you and your strengths and weaknesses. He can’t pick a niche for you any more than somebody can pick one for him.
Don’t start out this course on the wrong foot by repeating mistakes you’ve made in the past. Follow his lessons, do the work and you WILL see a difference.
The Live Webinars Resume Monday, May 19th With: Architect A Bullet-Proof Site
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Best,
[tags]jeremy palmer,high performance affiliate marketing,affiliate marketing,black ink project,quit your day job[/tags]
Jeff, your link to the build a niche store is not working.
Richard
Richard,
Thanks for the heads up. Tinyurl was having a problem.
It appears to be fixed now.
Thanks,
Jeff