My First Affiliate Journey of learnings, failings and earnings

Hi,

In short, I’m here for the same reasons everyone else is here. I’m doing it to motivate myself. This will be an Instagram/Pinterest marketing attempt into growing by affiliate revenue. Thank you for coming and hopefully you’re having a great day.

-----------Short version ends. A long(er) version begins---------------

Hi, again.

Long time no see, huh?

Why an affiliate website? I love writing but the fact that I’m directly exchanging my time for money bugs me a bit. If I don’t write, money stops. Affiliate marketing done right, (hopefully) will help me earn whenever I’m not at my computer. But I'm way ahead of myself.

I have plenty to learn so I’m not setting monetary goals yet. As long as this journey is educational, I’m happy even if it doesn’t end in success (although, I hope it does).

What?
Social>Website>$$$

Steps:
1)I have started manually growing two social accounts – on IG and on Pinterest.I let them sit there for around a month while by site was being built and now I follow around 100 people on each of the platforms every two days.

2) I have built a website and got a few CPA/rev share deals from Online Affiliate World. I had account with them for a while, earning a few CPA's. But my methods were not, shall we say, sustainable. So, it was either quit or get better.

Next:
○ continue following/posting on social channels and growing accounts
○ continue growing the website by adding more offers and content.
○ Track/Report/Improve/Repeat
○ Potentially, a Youtube channel in the future.

Goals:

Track and LEARN about the way people discover my social profile, how often do they come to my website, how much time they spend there and when do they register for my affiliate offers.


-?- Do I need a landing page to use my affiliate links in IG and Pinterest or can I post my offers there? Or maybe just send them to my website?

-?- When/how much can I start unfollowing people?

-?- Why does IG not register my following? Say, I click follow 50 times, but only 20-30 are added?


Anyway, thanks for sticking by. Leave comments, questions, suggestions, anything. Highly appreciated.

By the way, this post may seem a bit rushed. It’s mainly just to self-kick-ass to finally start this accountability-motivation-learning journey.

See you guys soon with reports from social.
DWC

Good Luck man!

Stonersky said:

Good Luck man!

Click to expand...

Thank you.

Today I'm continuing to grow my social accounts and work on the website.
As a beginner, I was a bit worried how my accounts will grow, but hopefully it will all be fine.
Pinterest:
5 Pins
0 Likes
33 Followers
123 Following

Instagram:
0 Posts
11 Followers
158 Following

To do:
1. Add a new review to the site
2. Follow 100 people on IG and Pin.

Has it been a week, already? Man...

Aaaaaanyway, we continue our journey on the cash train . Well, there is no cash yet, so I guess it's just..train.


1. Added a new review (Total 7)

Pinterest: had a temp account suspension but got reactivated. Either Pin made a mistake or one of my followers thinks I'm posting spam. Ok for first, sad for the second.

2 Boards
10 Pins (+5)
0 Likes
57 Followers (+24)
359 Following

Instagram:
1 Posts (+1)
50 Followers (+39)
293 Following

If you have any advice on what to focus on more, what to aim for (like follower/following ratio?) what not to do, how to track and analyze this progress, I can only encourage you to share your thoughts. Thanks for following and see you all very soon.

Hello, everyone

We are moving forward. Slowly, but surely. The good news is that Analytics already shows some traffic coming in from social media, but the account barely grow by themselves, yet.


2 Boards
15 Pins (+5)
0 Likes
61 Followers (+4)
511 Following

Instagram:
2 Posts (+1)
76 Followers (+26)
238 Following (+45)

Have you tried using facebook as one of the platform for you to gain traffic

brandedsg said:

Have you tried using facebook as one of the platform for you to gain traffic

Click to expand...

Hey, no, not really. TBH, as inexperienced as I am, I just don't like Facebook. Seems they have sort of mood swings that might cut all your efforts.

Another Update:
After a temporary ban on my account, I'm still taking things slowly.

2 Boards
17 Pins (+2)
+10 Likes (+10)
129 Followers (+68)
819 Following

Instagram:
3 Posts (+1)
107 Followers (+31)
398 Following

First of all, I completely understand that it's not a 'sexy journey thread'. No promises to shoot for $2000/day or anything like that. I should post more screenshots, develop a better format, etc. But I'm still grateful that you follow my journey. I'm just learning but I promise, it's going to get better.

Moving on:
Manual labor is starting to p*ss me off. At the moment, I go to Pinterest, follow/unfollow a bunch of people, then go to Instagram, follow/unfollow, make pics, transfer to Dropbox, go to my mobile app, upload the pics... Not changing anything yet, but the time is coming. I tried using gramblr, then someone said it's unsafe, then somebody else said it's safe to use. I liked it but I really don't want to risk anything, maybe try android emulators?

Pinterest
2 Boards
19 Pins (+2)
+10 Likes (-)
255 Followers (+126)
1,1k Following

Instagram:
3 Posts ()
128 Followers (+21)
472 Following

All in all, Pinterest is growing, Instagram no so much. The journey continues.

I am keep watching
Keep going mate!!!

leonlism said:

I am keep watching
Keep going mate!!!

Click to expand...

Hey, I'm happy you're here. Any suggestions or comments regarding the journey?

Overall, nothing major to import. Site is growing, but it is hard to estimate how much because, as you may already have experienced this, GA stats are messed up due to bots, "vote trump" language, xyz referal traffic, etc. I hear they don't do any harm but seeing a spike in traffic just to see most of it is spam.

Anyway, accounts still growing:

Pinterest
3 Boards (+1)
26 Pins (+13)
+10 Likes (-)
313 Followers (+58)
1,3k Following

Instagram following has barely moved up:
3 Posts ()
132 Followers (+4)
621

Good luck, you could also make a twitter account

JasonGraham said:

Good luck, you could also make a twitter account

Click to expand...

I thought about it but I slightly doubt it has potential in my niche. But I'm not saying no. Especially because Twitter is easier and safer to handle when you have multiple accounts. At least that's what I think.

A tip from a beginner, hope it helps
On Instagram, try targeting followers from a bigger account in your niche. By targeting I mean going from acc to acc and liking one, two or more photos on their profiles. I'm doing that myself and get a handful of followers every day.
Good luck man!

Zabitcoinz said:

A tip from a beginner, hope it helps
On Instagram, try targeting followers from a bigger account in your niche. By targeting I mean going from acc to acc and liking one, two or more photos on their profiles. I'm doing that myself and get a handful of followers every day.
Good luck man!

Click to expand...

Great tip. Thanks

These were a few hectic weeks. I’m overwhelmed by work at my day job. Also it’s all been a bit chaotic, demotivating at home. Maybe because of the holiday season, maybe not. And to be completely honest, not seeing much results from my project hasn’t provided much confidence, as well. Thus, the lack of updates recently.


But one thing I want to make clear, I’m not giving up. More like taking a step back, re-adjusting and going twice as hard.

One of the reasons that made my journey a bit chaotic, was lack of focus. I know I want people to come to my site and spend time there. Hopefully, then I’ll persuade them to sign up to my offers.


Step 1 – Get traffic.

Even though I will still post and follow on Instagram, my primary focus for 30 days will be Pinterest. I’ve taken the Pinterest strategy guide from Side hustle nation website and will follow it until January 30.

• Business account with rich pins
• Make 10 boards, 15-20 pins each.
• Better images via Canva and PicMonkey
• Find 5 group boards and automate pinning

Step 2 – Better website

What I mean is, a nicer-looking website with better content.

Personally, I couldn’t code or design a page if my life depended on it. So, I asked a friend to help me with that. The new review page should be done around New Year, which is perfect.

As far as content, this is what I do best. So, before January 30 I will write 5x 1000w. articles.

That’s that for now. I’ll get on it now, post an update after the holidays and see whether I start getting any results. Then, I might focus more on Instagram.