Since my main focus has been on affiliate marketing for close to 2 years now, I thought it would make sense to conduct an affiliate marketing poll.

So here then are 17 questions for all you affiliate marketers out there. Please vote honestly and accurately!

As you answer them, the results of what other people have voted so far will show up as well.

Just a warning – the rest of this post may not show up if you’re reading this in an RSS reader or via e-mail, so be sure to go to http://www.tylercruz.com directly so that you can see the results of the poll questions below:

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And that’s it! Thanks for filling out the survey, and I hope you enjoyed it.

I can’t wait to see how you guys voted!

Despite having access to CPVLab, custom-built Excel macros, and other tools at my disposal, I still find myself doing the same types of calculations and optimizations every morning. It is a lot of micromanagement to keep my campaigns fresh and at a healthy ROI.

So far, it seems to have been working well for me. I am currently on pace to do $400,000 net profit in 2013, and it takes me roughly 1.5-2 hours every morning to sustain that. But when you factor in that my other work time is spent on e-mails, blogging, and working on my other projects, it seems like I’m just treading water with my campaigns – not really going anywhere.

Yes, my affiliate marketing income has gone up by a lot over the past 6 months, but I can’t see that continuing for much longer; I feel like I’m pretty much near the peak at where my current campaigns can go.

As I continue to get rid of more side projects, I’ll have more time to dedicate to my campaigns, but the fact remains that there is a fixed amount of time that my campaigns require from me.

Hiring a virtual assistant is definitely out (I will never trust anyone with my campaigns – there is absolutely nothing stopping them from copying my stuff and being my direct competitor), and I have automated things decently well, although I could work on building out more tools for this.

Perhaps this is normal and just what is to be expected as an affiliate marketer. But I can’t help but feel that I’m spending far too much time micromanaging and maintaining my existing campaigns rather than launching new ones or handling bigger ones.

Micromanagement

I would definitely classify my current style of affiliate marketing as being a micromanager: I have a ton of campaigns, multiple traffic sources, and do a ton of bidding analysis.

I analyze data at a keyword level daily, checking virtually every nook and cranny of all my campaigns. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t know exactly what is going on with every single one of my campaigns on a granular level. It’s like I have a microscope on every square inch of my campaigns.

And it is beneficial too – I constantly make small adjustments to bids and targeting here and there, and adjust funds as necessary and pause and resume campaigns for dayparting and weekparting. If I didn’t do all this, I would definitely see a big drop in profits.

But it takes time, and I am not really getting to the next level as a result.

Macromanagement

Recently, I’ve been reflecting on my current need to micromanage, and have pondered if it would be better for me to consider macromanaging campaigns instead.

Unlike micromanaging, micromanaging is doing things on a larger scale and looking at the bigger picture. There is still optimization and split-testing as will always be the foundation of affiliate marketing, but there are less constant small tweaks involved due to much higher volume and numbers overall.

A good comparison would be AdWords Search and Media Buys.

AdWords Search is an example of a micromanagement traffic source. Sure, you can do massive volume with it, but it requires a lot of fine-tuning and adjustments due to its keyword targeting and highly competitive bidding.

Media Buys, on the other hand, is a great example of a macromanagement traffic source. There is far less targeting options with media buys, and as a result, less elements that need constant monitoring and adjusting. However, it is also riskier as it requires a ton more money, as the minimum budgets are tremendously higher, and you’re often competing against a lot more brand advertisers who don’t even track their ROI.

What a macromanager loses out on in ROI, he makes up on with sheer volume.

Which would you rather have?:

1. 64% ROI of $14,000 ad spend
2. 31% ROI of $39,000 ad spend
3. 20% ROI of $82,000 ad spend

Think about it for a minute.

This is actually a good scenario because this type of cost-benefit analysis is very important in affiliate marketing and is something that you should always be honing in on with your campaigns. Every campaign has it’s perfect sweet spot where you can maximize the most amount of net profit.

You could be generating a massive $480,000 a month with your campaigns, but if they’re only generating $460,000 in revenue, then you’re really only netting $20,000. I’m sure that if you took a lower gross but higher ROI, that you’d profit more with the same campaign, just by bidding less.

Anyhow, I was just writing those 2 above paragraphs as a buffer so that you wouldn’t immediately see the correct answer from my question above.

If you answered 20% ROI of $82,000 ad spend, then you chose the highest net profit choice.

Here’s what the net profit numbers work out to:

1. 64% ROI of $14,000 ad spend = $8,960 Profit
2. 31% ROI of $39,000 ad spend = $12,090 Profit
3. 20% ROI of $82,000 ad spend = $16,400 Profit

I’m getting a little side-tracked here, but my point is that a macromanager will sacrifice not just ROI, but constant campaign perfection, opting instead to build campaigns that bring in big numbers.

I think the perfectionist in me and my insane attention to detail OCD is holding me back from getting to the next level.

For example, the $40,000 net profit I made last month wasn’t made with 1 or 2 super campaigns. That was all spread across literally 40-50 small campaigns, with 4-5 of those being medium ($50-$100/day) to larger medium ($300-$400/day) campaigns.

Perhaps I should find bigger campaigns that have the potential of doing large numbers with less daily adjustments required.

It’d sure be a massive time-saver to have to manage 1 big campaign rather than 50 tiny ones.

Anyhow, this is just some stuff I’ve been thinking about lately. I’d love to hear feedback from any successful affiliate marketers lurking about.

I put it on my list of blog topics to write about and now finally have time to address it.

It’s a common question, and a valid one at that. Unfortunately, you guys probably won’t like my answer:

You Can’t… or Shouldn’t Anyway…

While some people may say that you can technically start without any money such as relying on search engines, using free traffic methods such as Craigslist and forum signatures, etc., those aren’t really viable ways of getting anywhere meaningful.

In my opinion, the best way to get started in affiliate marketing is to jump right in, spend money, and learn from hands-on experience.

Risky Business

First off, you need to understand that affiliate marketing is a very risky business and that in the beginning, everybody loses money. In fact, the majority of super successful affiliates who are making millions still lose money when they first start campaigns.

As a result, you should only be using money that you can AFFORD to lose, and be okay with it (in fact, you should expect to lose most of it when first starting out). Don’t put money on your credit card if you can’t pay it off immediately.

If you’re in debt (mortgage is okay), you should not starting doing affiliate marketing until you fix your debt problem. Affiliate marketing requires a person to have reasonable money management skills, and if you’re debt, chances are you need to work on that first. Fix your debt, get some extra spendable cash for affiliate marketing, then jump in.

Okay, so let’s say you currently have $0 in funds that you are able to risk and lose with no problem. You’re not in debt, but you don’t have that extra cash to "invest" in your campaigns.

Get a Job/Save

And here’s my main point: If you don’t have the cash, the best way to get started in affiliate marketing, in my opinion, is to get a job if you don’t have one, and save until you have the money to do so.

Despite what so many people say, making money online isn’t easy, and your time would be better off spent by simply working a "real" job and saving until you have that initial seed money, as opposed to trying to spend $5 here and $10 there on traffic or building an e-mail list by spamming Twitter or Facebook.

Affiliate marketing is all about spending money, and so you need a half-respectable amount. You will get nowhere fast trying to spend $50 a month.

I recommend saving up to at least $1,000. That should last you around 1 month. For the very first month, I’d recommend at least $1,500, as you will have some added costs so that you can purchase software and services.

For example, I’d definitely recommend getting CPVLab, a membership to a private affiliate marketing forum such as StackThatMoney, a SSL license, private domain registration, private webhost, and a few other things as well. The bigger ticket items such as tracking software will be one-time costs.

This will allow you to spend around $30/day on your campaigns, which is a healthy amount. That would give you plenty of data to work with, since you’ll have a lot on your belt from just starting out and learning the ropes.

You could spend less, but I feel that anything less is not enough traffic to do a whole lot with.

I don’t really know how much the average person makes, but it’s probably around $130 a day. $1,000 is only 7-8 days worth of work. Can you imagine how long it’d take to try to earn that from the Internet from nickel and diming gigs on Fiverr or from your website’s AdSense earnings?

If you’re already working a job and that money is still leaving you with $0 in extra cash, then perhaps think about getting a second job for a while, or else consider cutting down on some of your luxuries. Cutting out your TV bill and restaurant/drinking bills could save you $300-$400 a month right there. Three months of that, and you have your $1,000. It just depends how bad you want to get into affiliate marketing.

Get a Credit Card

The guy who requested this blog post also mentioned how to get started without a credit card.

Again, he probably won’t like my answer which is: get a credit card.

While it is absolutely and entirely possible to get started in affiliate marketing without a credit card, I don’t advise it. There are plenty of traffic sources out there which will accept PayPal, cheques, and bank wires, but these are not advisable for a number of reasons. Here are a few of them:

Limited Sources

Most traffic sources require a credit card for payment. Right off the bat, you’re eliminating yourself from the majority of traffic sources out there.

Slow Processing

Depositing into a traffic source without a credit card will leave you with slow processing times, ranging from a few days at best, up to weeks. Compare this to using a credit card which is instant.

Extra Fees

Many traffic sources will charge extra fees if you want to deposit using PayPal or through other means. Affiliate marketing is hard enough as it is – why make it even harder for yourself by paying extra fees?

Wasted Perks

I get 1% cashback on my credit card. Check out this post to see the Visa cheque I received for my 2012 year. In 2013, I’ll probably make at least $7,000 from my credit card.

By not using a credit card, you’re wasting on all these extra perks.

Wasted Credit History

No credit card? No gained credit history.

Get a Credit Card

In the end, there’s no good reason not to get a credit card. Just be responsible with it and don’t spend more than what you have. I actually always have a credit on my balance so that Visa and MasterCard owe ME, not the other way around.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is not a poor man’s game. You need some initial seed money in order to buy traffic.

If you don’t have the money, then save up until you do. Work overtime, get a second job, and/or cut down on your living expenses.

Only spend what you are able and willing to lose, and apply for a good credit card with good perks (I prefer cashback) if you don’t already have one.

Good luck!

In fact, I would argue that I may even currently live slightly below the average middle-class lifestyle.

This may seem a bit odd. After all, I profited over $40,000 in May, and my monthly average from the past 5-months is $32,500. It’s slightly higher when you factor in my other income sources and not just my affiliate marketing campaigns.

That means that I’m on pace, based on the past 5-months of income, to net at least $390,000 in 2013. But if you came over to visit right now, you’d never know it.

My Lifestyle

My Luxury Car

Which of the following cars do you think I own?:

• 2012 Infiniti G37
• 2013 Acura TL
• 2011 Audi A4
• 2010 Lexus ES 350

If you answered any of the above you’d be wrong, because I actually drive a 2004 Toyota Corolla CE. Talk about true baller status, amirite?

Clothes & Bling

I buy $9 T-shirts and $35 shoes from Wal-Mart, and I don’t wear a watch anymore because it broke and I just use my phone now. The watch I did used to wear was a cheap $30 Timex watch.

Jealous?

My Mansion

You should come over and check out my 4,000 square foot house. Its 6 bedrooms/4 bathrooms and has a pool with a slide.

Oh wait, I still live in the same 2-bedroom condo I bought back in 2007.

Vacations Left and Right

Thailand, Bahamas, Mexico, Japan… what do these places have in common? Oh, they’re all places I haven’t been to yet (but would like to).

In fact, that last trip I went on was to Orlando, Florida back in 2011, when I met up with PeerFly and AmpedMedia.

That was before I decided to give affiliate marketing another shot again. That means that I haven’t gone on a single vacation since I’ve been focusing primarily on affiliate marketing.

True Middle-Class

While I’m currently making a lot more than the average middle-class 29-year-old male, my lifestyle doesn’t reflect it.

Everywhere I look, it seems that everyone is driving a new (or newish) car, or at least a much better make and model than what I drive. It also seems that people are going on vacation or taking a trip at least once a year.

It kind of bugs me sometimes, because I’m working hard and trying to be responsible with my money, and then I see others getting new cars and going to Hawaii for a week while my weekend plans are to work.

But that’s not really the whole picture. Behind the scenes, there’s a very different story being told.

The truth is that most people with new cars don’t actually own their cars. They’re leasing them or are on some long-term financial plan for 84 months (7 years).

They struggle to meet their car payments each month because they couldn’t really afford it in the first place, but that doesn’t stop them from buying a new pair of designer jeans, which they can’t really afford either.

They don’t own a home or even an apartment. They’re renting, and even then they’re only 2 paychecks away from not being able to pay their landlord.

They do go on vacation, but usually only stay for a few days, and rush everything and stay at the cheapest motel they can find. They can’t stay too long because they need to make their car payment.

Oh, and I almost forgot. They just bought a brand new 55-inch TV. That’s on credit. In fact, they’re $6,000 in debt spread across 2 credit cards. The same credit cards that the vacation was paid with.

Delayed Gratification

I am a firm believer in delayed gratification. That is, only spending money on luxury items (cars, vacations, etc.) when you can afford to do so.

The average person does not practice this. This is why the average person is in debt.

While I am not living in luxury at the moment, my plan is to work and be reasonable with my money now so that I can reap the rewards and benefits later.

The middle-class will stay in the middle-class, as long as they don’t get laid off or fired, and even so, their debt will eventually catch up to them and they will have to cut back.

Meanwhile, one day, hopefully, my hard work and sensible spending will have paid off and I’ll jump to the 1% and live in luxury while everyone else will whine and complain how life isn’t fair.

My Salary

I don’t make $40,000 a month. I make a middle-class wage. My corporation makes $40,000 a month.

From 2011 through to March 2013, I was paying myself a salary of $2,847.03 net a month. That’s only $34,164.36 a year.

In March and April, I increased that to $3,395 since I saw a big jump in my income throughout the year which proved to be consistent.

Then, my latest payroll sent to me on June 1st, 2013, was increased again to $3,853.35. That means that I increased my salary by $1,000/month since February 2013.

This is my "reward" for continuing to bring in high numbers, and actually increase my corporate earnings.

I will not be increasing my salary again anytime soon though, even if my affiliate campaigns skyrocket. If I manage to net an average of over $40K/month over the next 6 months or so, then I’ll probably reward myself with another increase, but until then I’m going to sit tight on my extra $1,000 a month.

Since I’ve been living off of $2,847/month for around 2 years or so now, the extra $1,000/month is actually a dramatic increase for me.

Roller Coaster Industry

Affiliate marketing is such a volatile industry that you can be making $300,000/month profit one month, and literally $0 the next.

Offers can go down, traffic sources can ban you, and competition can change at the blink of an eye.

That is why it is so important to scale things up and make as much as you can as fast as you can.

It’s also why I am being so frugal with my money. My campaigns have been doing well lately – so well that I could be buying a brand new car every month if I wanted to. But that would be incredibly irresponsible.

Since I’ve sold off a lot of my website portfolio, especially my largest money maker, my income now comes primarily from affiliate marketing. It’s my bread and butter currently. It takes a lot of time, effort, and MONEY to find a winning campaign, and so I need to make sure I have enough money in the bank that will let me stay afloat should all my campaigns die tomorrow.

As it is now, all my campaigns could die tomorrow leaving me earning $0, and I’d still be able to keep paying myself my current salary for years, and that’s factoring in taxes and everything.

The Rewards Will Come

I won’t be living my current lifestyle forever. In fact, it will be changing soon.

I’ve actually been actively selling my condo for a very long time now, but the condo market here is insanely dead. Once it sells, I’ll be buying a nice house. I’ll be sure to post photos and give you guys a video tour when I get it.

After I have a house and have bought some new furniture and all the stuff that goes along with upgrading from a condo to a house (lawn/gardening equipment, for example), my next toy will be a new car.

I don’t plan for anything too fancy though, as I’m definitely not a car guy, so there’s no point in getting anything real special. I just have a car to drive from point A to B. I’m thinking of possibly a 2012 Camry or maybe a 2012 RAV4 if I get a dog or two. You may notice that I said 2012 and not 2013 or 2014 – I’ll never buy a brand new car. Don’t feel like losing 11%+ of the value once I drive it off the lot (check out these (car depreciation reports).

I’ll be paying for it all in cash too – no finance plan for me.

And once I’m settled in my house, the vacations will come. My house mortgage will be my only debt, so it’s important I put as much down as I can.

I Need To Get to the Next Level

So there you have it. This is why I keep talking about how I need to up my game and get to the next level.

I’ve been working hard and have been fairly responsible with my money, so I want to enjoy some of the fruits of my labours soon.

Hopefully I can continue to increase my revenue so that I can do exactly that.

It’s actually been a while since I’ve had one. My previous one was made back on January 27th, 2013 for the amount of $2,883.89.

At the end of that post, I predicted the following:

"While my last 3 posts have all been about setting new records, I’m pretty confident that you won’t see a new one from me for quite a while. If I had to guess, I’d say at least 2-3 months, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it took an entire year."

That prediction turned out to be pretty accurate, as it took me just over 4 months before setting this new one.

New Daily Net Profit Record!

A few days ago, on June 1st, 2013, I set a new daily net profit record on my campaigns for the amount of:

$3,099.99

(Spare a penny, anyone?)

While it’s a new record, it’s not significantly higher than my previous one – just $216.10 more – and it did take 4 months to reach.

That being said, I shouldn’t complain. Hell, 2 years ago I was making literally nothing from affiliate marketing.

For those wondering, the daily gross number was $6,151.00, which wasn’t a new record gross for me, but is definitely in my top-10. That works out to an ROI of 102%.

Not The Average

Remember, the $3,099.99 that I netted a few days ago was a new daily record for me and isn’t the average I make on a day-to-day basis from my campaigns.

If we look at my numbers from May, we’ll see that my daily average last month was $1,296.

While June has started off absolutely awesomely so far (the past few days have been very good too!), I still stand by the prediction I made in my previous post in that I believe June will be fairly low for me – at least in comparison to how May performed.

Next Record Prediction

The record I made on Saturday was a little bit of a fluke in that the stars had all aligned for me on my campaigns. Without going into any details, everything just went right for me – I ran some new offers which were doing fantastic and my conversion rates were higher than usual.

So taking that into consideration, along with the fact that I predict June will take a fair bit of a drop in profit, I don’t think that I’ll be setting a new net profit record anytime soon. If I had to guess, I’d say no sooner than 1 month, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it took another 4+ months.

Hopefully I can break it within 6-months though. We’ll just have to wait and see how long it takes!

This is now my fifth post in this monthly post series, and I’m going to keep up with them as long as I’m active in affiliate marketing. I just wish other affiliate marketing bloggers would do these as well, as I seem to be the only one that does anymore.

Now before I continue, I want to quote what I ended my previous income report with, in the "May Predictions" section at the end:

"Hopefully I’m wrong, but I don’t think May will come anywhere close to how March or April performed. If I had to guess, I’d say around $25,000 sounds about right."

So far, I’ve been wrong in every single one of my predictions to date – always fairly confident that my earnings would be far lower than they actually ended up being.

May proved to be no different… as I set new personal records for both gross and net income from my affiliate marketing campaigns!

Below are my affiliate marketing numbers (not inclusive of my other revenue sources) for the month of May 2013:

May 2013 Affiliate Campaign Income:

$104,600.50

This managed to just slightly set a new personal record gross month for me – my previous best was back in February 2013 at $103,961.00.

This is now the 2nd month in which I’ve grossed 6-figures.

Expenses:

$64,402.12

Traffic Source Breakdown:

• Traffic Source #1: $34.93
• Traffic Source #2: $25.50
• Traffic Source #3: $1,000.36
• Traffic Source #4: $660.00
• Traffic Source #5: $1940.05
• Traffic Source #6: $34,165.20
• Traffic Source #7: $26,576.08

Thankfully, I didn’t break my previous record on this number

Net Profit:

$40,198.38

Woohoo! A new monthly net income record on my affiliate marketing campaigns – and by a big margin too!

My previous record was $33,883.66 made back in March 2013. May beat that by over $6,000!

In addition, my ROI saw quite an improvement over the previous month, beating it by 10% at 62% ROI.

Year-To-Date Affiliate Marketing Results

2013 has continued to be an absolute fantastic year for me so far.

Here’s a monthly breakdown:

Wow.

I am so happy to have had such a great month. May’s net income was close to double that of January’s, which is crazy growth.

For some reason, the "4" in $40,198.38 just seems so much larger than the "3" in $3X,XXX.XX to me. More than $20K to $30K or $40K to $50K.

I’m so happy I made it too, because yesterday I was fretting that I’d come in just under the $40,000 mark.

What’s crazy too, is that I’ve grossed $464,569.30 from my campaigns this year so far, and we’re only 5-months in. That means I’m still on pace to hit (surpass actually) the $1M mark this year.

Net-wise, I’m on pace to do $390,000 profit for the year.

That’s a nice number, and I certainly don’t want to jinx it, but I still really need to get to the next level, or at least continue to grow.

While my corporation is making nice money at the moment, I actually only pay myself a small salary in comparison, as I’m not the type of person to blow everything on expensive cars and bling, only to have my campaigns die and then have no seed money to get things back running again.

I actually have a blog post planned which will talk about this in more detail, but my point is that my lifestyle hasn’t changed despite my recent affiliate marketing success, and I want it to.

I actually gave myself a (relatively) large raise via my salary a week ago as a reward for my increased numbers, but I won’t give myself another one until or unless I continue to IMPROVE my numbers.

And so, until that happens, I’ll be stuck at a personal salary of what is probably considered to be average middle-class (according to this website).

Therefore, when I "complain" that $40K+ a month in net profit isn’t enough, don’t mistake that for greed (and definitely not bragging), because chances are you are likely living a better standard of living than me at this moment.

So to reiterate, I really want to get to the next level or continue to improve my numbers. As I’ve said many times before, I’m a small affiliate compared to so many others – which is great, as it means that there’s plenty of room for me to get my numbers up.

May Recap

My plans and goals for May were actually to continue to reduce my side projects and distractions – namely to get caught up with my e-mail and finish my corporate taxes.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make much progress on that. Instead, I found myself spending the majority of my working hours continuing to maintain and optimize my existing campaigns.

I also spent a fair bit of time testing a few new traffic sources and offers. While this worked out in the end (new income record), it left me stressed due to my e-mails piling up and my side projects still nagging away at me – namely my corporate taxes which very badly need to get finished.

Basically, May was mostly spent maintaining and optimizing my existing campaigns as well as trying some new traffic sources and offers.

June Plans

In June, I am absolutely determined to get caught up with all but the most time-consuming of my e-mail. I am currently at 869 unread e-mail as I write this, and I want to get down to 0 unread and maybe 20 "starred" e-mail that I will put on hold.

I am also determined to finish my corporate taxes. I hope to get both of these done within a week.

After those, I will continue to work on reducing side projects and side distractions, hopefully by selling at least one more site or a handful of domains.

Affiliate marketing-wise, when I have actual time to do so, there’s this one particular offer on PeerFly that I really want to try on Facebook. I just need adequate time and energy before I can work on it.

June Predictions

As I wrote at the beginning of this blog post, I’ve been wrong in every single one of my predictions to date – always fairly confident that my earnings would be far lower than they actually ended up being.

Even so, I’m going to once again predict that this month will be far lower than the previous month’s. In fact, I believe June’s results will be half of what May did, so around $20,000 or so.

This isn’t a blind prediction – it’s  based on hard numbers and trends on my campaigns.

Obviously I hope I’m wrong, but this is what I’m expecting.

As always, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in another month from now when I write June’s report. Wish me luck!

How much of your shopping do you do online? Do you find that it’s just so much easier to hop onto your computer, navigate to your retailer of choice, add a few things to that virtual shopping cart and check-out, all from the comfort and convenience of your desk? It’s no surprise that e-commerce continues to be on the rise and more and more stores are making the jump to online. It also helps when there are tools like Shopify that make the process that much easier.

As an Internet marketer, this could present a monumental opportunity for you to rake to capitalize on this rising trend. As more retailers and traditional brick-and-mortar stores opt to open up online storefronts, they’ll also be looking for the right solutions to power their online stores. And that’s where the Shopify Partner Program can come into the picture for you. We’ll start with a brief overview of what Shopify is all about and then we’ll jump to the affiliate program to see how that can put more cash in your pocket.

The Shopify Online Store Builder

While it was originally founded in 2005 as a snowboard company, Shopify has now grown to become one of the most popular engines for powering a varying of online shops. Today, there are over 50,000 active online stores that are using Shopify with an additional 2,000 being added each month. There are customers in over 100 countries and, in 2012, Shopify stores processed an impressive 9.9 million orders with over $750 million in gross merchandise volume. They’re projected to process over $1.5 billion in 2013.

A big part of this is that Shopify is designed to be a comprehensive solution for e-commerce. Companies that use Shopify gain access to over 120 different themes, but they also have full control over their store’s design. You can see some of the examples above. They look really professional and, with so many different templates available, each online store can rock its own unique look.

The engine is complete, handling payments, inventory and all the other things needed to run a successful online store. And you don’t need to be a huge multinational corporation to have an online store, as 98% of Shopify’s members are SMBs and entrepreneurs. You’ve got home-based businesses graduating from Etsy and you’ve got “brick-and-mortar” migrating to “brick-and-click” for the first time.

Here’s a great example. Forty Ninth Parallel is a local Vancouver-based coffee company that has built quite the presence here in the local community, but they’ve also expanded to the online world thanks, in part, to Shopify. The website looks great and they’re now able to reach customers all around the world. Shopify is meant to be both easy to use and robust.

Making Money as a Partner

Yes, it might be great that these entrepreneurs and SMBs are making an easier transition to their online stores, but what does this mean for you as the Internet marketer who wants to capitalize on this trend? Well, Shopify also has an affiliate program for you.

Shopify says that this is a very unsaturated affiliate program and niche, especially with so many new small businesses opening online stores each day. They are actively searching for the right platform and the right service provider, so you’ve got a fairly large demographic that you can target with your online marketing efforts. They say that you can approach people via social media, your blog or whatever else; it’s up to you, as all traffic sources are accepted.

And you can earn up to $358 per sale.

Two Commission Options

There are two payment options available through the Shopify Partner Program.

First, you can opt for 200% per sale. Under this system, you earn a 200% one-time commission for a referred customer’s subscription fee. The largest standard package with Shopify is $179 per month and that’s how you arrive at the $358 commission. The basic subscription and professional subscription are $29 and $59, earning you one-time commissions of $58 and $118, respectively.

Second, you can opt for 20% of each bill. Under this system, you earn a recurring commission of 20% of every referred customer’s bill every month. This includes the transaction fees that are charged to the customer and it’s a lifetime commission. In the case of the $179 unlimited plan, that means you earn $35.80 each month, plus a cut of the transaction fees. Which plan you choose is entirely up to you.

The Dashboard

The main dashboard for Shopify Partners is very straightforward and easy to understand. All of the main navigation is located along the left sidebar and the referral link, conveniently enough, can be found under the Affiliates section.

It is also here that you can take a look at the Dev Shops and Apps that are available within Shopify, but the focus for affiliates will naturally be under the affiliate section. I did find a lack of marketing materials here, as you won’t find anything in terms of banners, email swipes, pre-written emails, or anything like that. It would be nice to see greater support on that front, as it would help partners better promote Shopify to potential customers.

Payments are typically handled via PayPal, making it easy to receive your earned commissions in a timely manner.

Conclusion

There are tons of new entrepreneurs and existing small business owners who are actively seeking out the best possible solution for their online stores. They want it to be easy to use, but they also want it to be powerful enough to handle all their needs and they want their online stores to look good. Shopify seems to address all of these concerns.

Your job, then, is to promote the platform via the Shopify Partner Program and earn some pretty decent commissions. If they are adding over 2,000 new customers every month, it means that there could be some big upside and this trend continues to rise. You just have to know how to market it effectively.

But there’s one place that is quite a bit different than the rest, and that place is called StackThatMoney.

StackThatMoney is a private affiliate marketing forum that costs a monthly subscription fee of $99/month. I have written about and even reviewed similar forums in the past, and still highly recommend these places, but if I could only choose one private affiliate marketing forum, it’d be StackThatMoney.

20-Minute Screencast Tour and Walkthrough

In addition to this written post, I went ahead and recorded a 20-minute screencast tour and walkthrough of StackThatMoney as well, for those of you too lazy to read and/or who would like to see how it looks from the inside.

The screencast is available in HD:

(Note: You may need to visit the post directly at TylerCruz.com if you’re reading this via e-mail or RSS in order to see it.)

Why I Love StackThatMoney

If you used to wonder where all the big boys in this industry hang out, now you know. STM is full of true successful, experienced, and proven affiliate marketers – and if I tried to compare myself to them, it’d be like comparing an ant to an 800 pound gorilla.

But just because STM has a lot of ballers isn’t what makes it great. Here are a few reasons why I love StackThatMoney:

Positive Atmosphere:

Even though there are some guys there who will spend more on Facebook in a day than most people make in a year, there is no stupid posturing, put-downs, bragging, etc. Everyone is relatively modest and there to learn and help others.

It’s not a forum to brag about how much you make or make negative comments about others, but rather to share tips, ask questions, and learn how to make more money.

Guys making millions of dollars a year don’t think they’re too good to rub elbows with those newer in the industry, and you’ll regularly see them offering killer tips and advice to those very people.

Killer Tips and Knowledge

With so many truly successful affiliate marketers as members, there is so much killer information available that it easily pays for the subscription.

I personally believe that the "Follow Along" campaigns offer the greatest method for affiliate marketers to learn the game and turn their campaigns profitable. It’s like having a few dozen successful affiliate marketers over your shoulder as you work on your campaigns, telling you what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and what you should be doing.

STM covers so many areas that you are likely to find information that is conducive to whatever it is you’re running, whether it be Facebook, AdWords, CPV, mobile, media buys, adult, etc..

Active Community

Despite being a "private" forum and charging $99 a month, word has spread throughout the affiliate marketing community because it is an extremely active forum.

For example, as of one second ago, there are currently 288 members online on the forum. These are actual paying members – not bots, spiders or guests. Of those 288 members, 5 of them are site staff/moderators/admins.

If you create a thread, you’re going to get responses – quality responses.

Free Campaigns

It may sound crazy, as any sane affiliate marketer will never reveal their campaigns, but there are actual full campaigns revealed on StackThatMoney by some real big affiliates.

And when I say full, I mean pretty much everything you need to know including traffic source, targeting, offer, ads, landing pages, and angles.

Usually most of these campaigns will be campaigns that they used to run, but there are some that are revealed that they’re still actively running. And these are not $5/day campaigns either, but we’re talking about campaigns where they’ve netted anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000 profit from them.

They are a great way to see what works and to get ideas from, or if you want, to straight out copy (although you’d be best to make a few adjustments here and there).

Success Stories

In order to provide motivation and inspiration to its members (as well as good marketing material), StackThatMoney has a sub-forum for Success Stories.

Here is a screenshot I took of this forum. Check out some of the thread titles:

What’s amazing is that the vast majority of these threads are from members who weren’t making anything when they first signed up to StackThatMoney.

I’m telling you, StackThatMoney is breeding super affiliates.

Sample Forum Threads

Here are some forum threads that I copy/pasted from the forums, in order to give you a rough idea as to the type of content available:

• Best Places to Live for Affiliate Marketers and internet marketer communities
• Converting Landing Pages (round 2) PSD + HTML
• One Dirty Leadimpact Trick to Outbid Your Competition
• A Campaign That Made Me Over $80,000 In Profit!
• Here’s 1 of my Campaigns Making $800+/day on Average! (daily deals)
• (Newbie/Intermediate Guide) Complete Guide To Facebook Ads
• Make A POF Dating Campaign Profitable In 24hours
• $500,000 Profit – An Old Ringtone Campaign On Facebook.
• Finally 1k/Day: About Damn Time
• Reaching My Goal of $1,000,000 Revenue
• Is FB Asking For ID For Bumps On All Accounts Now?

This is the type of content you can expect to see on a daily basis.

Tools, Landing Pages, and Discounts

I left this section at the end because I personally feel that the community and informational content is what makes StackThatMoney so great.

But in addition to everything I already covered, a subscription to STM also includes free access to a wide selection of tools, landing pages, and discounts.

Tools & Services:

Available to members are a couple dozen affiliate marketing related tools and services (not including whatever is made available from members in the forums!) including (but not limited to):

• Adult Ad Spy – Brand new and something they’re proud of (competing adult ad spy alone charges $200/month)
• Plenty of Fish Ad Uploader
• Plenty of Fish Spy Tool 
• STM Mobile Tracker
• Various Affiliate Related Calculators
• Keyword Tools
• Domains Tools
• PPC/PPV Tools
• etc.

Landing Pages

Spread throughout the forums (search is your friend) are threads where people give away free tested and proven landing pages, some even complete with source PSDs.

Discounts

Also available to STM members are special unique discounts to various 3rd party tools and services such as CPVLab and WhatRunsWhere.

Conclusion

If you’re serious about affiliate marketing, I highly recommend joining StackThatMoney.

Whether you’re a newcomer struggling to find your first profitable campaign, or an experienced affiliate marketer who is making 6-figures a month, StackThatMoney is an incredibly useful resource that is easily worth the monthly subscription price of $99/month.