Super Affiliate Wannabe

John Chow posted a great tidbit about how he implemented Google AdSense on his site.  Since John is a “real” super affiliate, I follow his lead.

Step 1
Go to Google AdSense and apply for an account.  It will take 2-3 days for them to approve your application.  I was denied at first because my site had no content and was under construction.  Once I got some posts up, I reinitiated the application.  Finally I was successful.  You’ll be able to choose your ad units and generate the code for each.

Step 2
Go to the Acme Technologies website and read about their plugin called AdSense-Deluxe.  As stated on their site “AdSense-Deluxe is an easy-to-use plugin for WordPress 1.5+ (including WP 2.0) for quickly inserting Google or Yahoo! ads into your blog posts, and managing when and where those ads are displayed.”  After you install the plugin, you will be able to manage your AdSense codes from the Options menu in WordPress.  You can give each code a name and description.  The default name is this: <!–adsense–>.

Step 3
Insert the code anywhere within your post by typing <!–adsense–>.  Make sure you use the Code tab instead of the Visual tab when typing it in.  After you save and preview you will notice a Google advertisement in your post.  What’s cool is the plugin helps you not break and Google guidelines by limiting each page to 3 ad units (the max by Google), so basically you can insert <!–adsense–> as many times as you want in your posts, but the page will only show 3 at the most.

Step 4
Say you want to have Google Ads in the same spot on each page, post, etc…. you may want to embed the AdSense code in the templates.  On the AdSense-Deluxe management page, you will see instructions on how to do this, but I was a bit confused.  “If you want to use the ads defined in Adsense-Deluxe within your WordPress templates, place the following code where you want the ads to appear: <?php adsense_deluxe_ads('Ad_Name'); ?>.  Calling that PHP function without a parameter will return the default ad unit.”  “Without a parameter” means it should look like this. <?php adsense_deluxe_ads(); ?>..  That’s exact;y what I use on this blog. I edited single.php, index.php and search.php.

 So there’s my first how to.  Let me know what you think. 

In case you haven’t noticed I added Google AdSense to my blog.  It’s really just me experimenting because I have never had a site to use it on before.  Since my goal is to be a Super Affiliate with a bunch of high traffic sites, I have to learn all about Google AdSense and how to use it wisely.  I wannabe one of these guys who can take a picture of my huge check from Google.

I guess this also means I have officially “monetized” my site.  That is a word I never used before getting into this affiliate marketing stuff.  Seems to be a basic buzzword in the Super Affiliate community.  My original intention wasn’t to monetize this blog, but why not.  If people (like you) are reading this blog, then maybe you’ll click on some other advertisements pertaining to affilaite marketing.

My next post will explain exactly how I added Google AdSense to my WordPress blog.

As stated earlier, I have a full time job, a family and other interests besides affiliate marketing.  This poses a problem because a true “wannabe” would do everything to be like the big guys.  I’m not there yet unfortunately.  Two posts ago I mentioned moving on to WordPress themes.  Well I tested out a few only to find myself wanting to go back to the default.  The only adjustments I made were a couple header colors and messing around with the sidebar a bit.  I am spending most of my evenings reading and ever since Zac Johnson posted the “The Super Affiliate’s Guide to PPC Marketing“, which has every affiliate marketing site buzzing by the way, I have been trying to jump on the bandwagon and get my crap together, following Zac’s suggestions.  I’m sucking at it because even his guide is over my head.  I’ll post about my pathetic attempt to follow Zac’s guide soon enough.

Zac Johnson has once again inspired me to really get into making money online.  He recently posted his first installment of “The Super Affiliate’s Guide to PPC Marketing” on his blog and I’m all ears.  Unfortunately I still think its over my head a bit.  Do I try to do what he says and take a risk or is there some other fundamentals I try first???

I have been absent from posting because I’m spending so much time scanning the web and passing out at my desk earlier than expected.  I keep finding more little things that I should add to my blog, but I’m also learning more and mroe each day how I have no clue what I’m doing.  I will prevail and become a super affiliate, it may just take a long, long time!

Forget about last night’s post. I could just delete it, but I need to remember the goal of this site and that’s to record my attempt at becoming a Super Affiliate. Posts like that will come every now and then, but since I just started this attempt, that post was ridiculous.

So onto bigger and better things like customizing my theme. I like the default WordPress theme, but I need to brand myself here. I want something cool at the top. I want a wider page. I know you’re thinking, “go download a friggin’ theme and get on with it”, but the truth is I’m a web designer and it would be nuts not to make this site look cool with my very own theme.

Hopefully tonight I will get something going in my head after reading through all the WordPress lessons.   It may just a take a few tweaks to get what I want, but knowing my luck, I’ll have to completely rewrite and all that.  Fun, fun, fun!

I don’t know what my problem is, but it must be lack of sleep. I’m getting discouraged already about this super affiliate attempt. I felt like it was the coolest idea a week ago, but something is telling me to give up. It’s like buyer’s remorse. My last post ended with me saying, “I’m going to keep on truckin”, but after reading and reading and reading blogs and comments, I feel like I’m wasting my time and everybody’s trying to be an online affiliate. As I type this I’m getting a little more inspired again because maybe I’ll do something better than the other guy. I keep finding posts saying this type of blog is dead, but I’m sitting here thinking… hey, I’m just tracking my attempt to become a super affiliate and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not one of these “Make Money with Joey Magz” sites, but I do want to make money like those guys. I know most of those guys made their money first then started a blog about making money. Well I want to make money online and I feel with my background I can do it in addition to my full time job. I just need to get it together here. Making this site was my first step because I wanted a journal of my progress. Also this site is my first experiment with blogging, so whatever I learn here, I’ll take with me to my other sites. I just want everything set up right first before I move on.

Sorry, this was a strange rambling, but I’m on to my next goal of figuring out how to customize my theme.

While reading ZacJohnson.com, I came across the name John Chow a few times.  After listening to Zac’s appearance on the Shoemoney Show, I had to check out who John Chow was.  He apparently has a site similar to Zac, but looks like it has been around longer.  These sites look different, but seem to have the same content and advertising programs.  I’m noticing a trend here in my attempt to be a Super Affiliate.  A lot of guys are doing the same thing, but I don’t care because they all seem to be making money.

John Chow dot Com inspired me even more, so I downloaded his free eBook and used it as a guide.  I was up until 3 am this morning installing plugins he suggested and doing what he advised.  It was overwhelming, but I was compelled to keep doing what he wrote about.  When I woke up today, last night was blurry, so I reviewed everything I did and finalized a few things.  Looked around on some other blogs and found everybody must have read John Chow’s guide.  I’m still not giving up.  I’m going to keep on truckin’.

You can’t have a blog without Google Analytics, at least that’s my opinion.  It’s free, reliable and super easy to use.  You set up a website profile and it spits out code for you to include on your site.  I have installed it on previous sites with no problems.  Just add a little javascript code to the bottom of your pages and your set. 

Well since I’m new to blogging I didn’t know how to add the code to every page.  Went to WordPress.org, did a little search and found a whole list of plugins to help me enter my code.  I chose Another WordPress Tracker Plugin.  In less than 2 minutes I downloaded it, unzipped it to my plugins folder, uploaded it and, Bada Frickin’ Bing, it was in my blog admin.  I entered the Google code in the text field provided, updated, then checked my blog’s source code to see my Google code on every page.  Now I just need some people to start reading my blog!

OK… so recently I overheard a discussion about affiliate marketing online and how this guy’s son has broken 7 figures doing it.  My ears of course perked up and I listened in a little closer.  I ended up meeting the guy and he showed me his son’s site ZacJohnson.com.  Zac is only 25 and has done extremely well for himself, doing affiliate marketing for about 10 years.  I skimmed through his site a little with his dad, and then did some more detailed reading when I got home.  I gotta tell ya, my juices were flowing because after reading his site I felt like I could do something like this.

Back in 2002, I used to work for a retail merchant and actually managed the online affiliates through Commission Junction.  I was responsible for approving the affiliates and providing them with banners to use on their sites.  I always wondered how well these people actually did.  Honestly, it got too difficult to manage and I never wanted to hear the name Commission Junction again.  I moved on from that job and haven’t been involved with online marketing since, but now I feel like I’m in a place where I can be one of these guys.  Why not give it a shot!  I’m a Super Affiliate Wannabe!

My goal is to do a lot of reading and experimenting, implement what I learn, and then hopefully make some money.  Most of these “Super Affiliate” guys give free advice on their blogs, so I’m going to take what they do and apply my own ideas to it.  I want to set up some sites and blogs (including this one) that will draw traffic and once I feel like I have a steady flow, I’ll start placing some ads.  I’m definitely going to start out slow, but I have time.  My first task was to set up this blog and I obviously succeeded.  I’ll keep filling you in to let you know what I’m doing and how I’m doing.

Wish me luck!