I’m sure you will agree that after viewing my drawing above, you are probably wondering why I even bother with affiliate marketing! And with artistic flare like that I should be spending far more of my time selling my paintings in art galleries right?
Or not?…. 
Anyway…. have you ever seen that show called The Deadliest Catch? If not then just quickly its about a Crab fishing fleet that go out and catch crab(obviously). But…. It shows you the ins and outs of their everyday crab fishing life.
What does this have to do that could help me learn affiliate marketing?…
Bait – General Idea – Find/Locate – Unload Everything
While watching the show it came to my mind that this is similar to what we do as affiliates. Take a captain of the crab boats approach to finding crab for an example.
Bait For Crab Captains:
Crab boat captains know what crab love to feed on, so they are aware that if they can find the right location where the crab hangs out, then the bait they have for them will do its job and catch tons of crab without any issues.
The reason they know what bait crab love may have been passed on through the generations, and is probably common knowledge anyway. But years ago they must have tested and tried everything in order to find the beat bait for the job.
General Idea For Crab Captains:
Before the captains set off they have a general idea from years of experience of where the crab just might be. They mark previous years golden spots on maps for future reference on where to go next time around.
Can you imagine having no idea of where to place your crab pots! The ocean would be an extremely large area to test that’s for sure.
Find/Locate For Crab Captains:
Even though they arrive on last seasons sweet spots marked on their maps, that is still no guarantee the crab will even be there. Like people, crab move around too;)
In order to get a good idea of where the crab my be, the captains launch what are called prospect strings over a large area that will cover some of the sweet spots from previous trips.
So they unload a couple of pots a few miles apart, and repeat this for several miles in order to let the first pots they launched soak for long enough to catch some crab. This enables them to test the waters without launching all there crab pots on just a guess.
Once they are done with that prospect string they then go back to the first post and pull it back up hoping for some crab. If that prospect pot is full of crab what do you think they would do next?….
Unload Everything For Crab Captains:
Now they have tested the waters and know where the crab are, they unload everything in that area in order to grab a huge payload of crab for the taking.
They do these steps over and over again, year after year. It’s the captains job to fill up the boat with as much golden crab as it can possibly hold. More crab = more money.
For Affiliate Marketers
For affiliates the steps to find profitable niches and products can be exactly the same..
Bait – General Idea – Find/Locate – Unload Everything
Bait – Product Type:
The bait(product type) for affiliates is not as set-in-stone as it is for crab fishermen. There is so much more scope and reach that we now have thanks to the Internet that our bait which is basically our product type can really be anything. We could create ebooks,vidoes,podcasts,blogs with ease, the list seems to be endless.
What helps us narrow this bait(product type) step down could be the next step..
General Idea:
Let’s face it, there are so many resources that will give you a general idea on what market/niches are profitable. You can use Clickbank, forums, Amazon and so on. This step is pretty easy at least to give us a general idea on what could make us a nice affiliate/vendor profit.
Find/Locate:
After our first two steps are covered and we are armed with a product type and a general idea, what we then do is launch our own prospect string.
As an affiliate our prospect strings could be things like dropping a few articles into that market/niche, maybe even a couple of blogs or so. We can even try PPC to test these waters. Again what we are looking for is a pot full of customers, or maybe I should say crab-stomers’)
Within my own article marketing and blog creation journey so far, it seems you can absolutely tell if the market/niche you are involved in will yield any paying customers at all. Although sometimes I wish it didn’t take as long to find this one out.
Indicators will obliviously be customers buying your offers, but it seems it can be as little as having them sign up to emails lists/newsletters. It all shows that they are keen to learn more.
Unload Everything:
If you are lucky enough to hit the big numbers then that’s when it is time to unload everything you have and concentrate much more energy on that particular area(market/niche). You now have proof that this is a profitable place to be, so why not milk it for all you can.
This is the time when we will place a mental dot on our own affiliate profit map, just so we are aware that this is a very abundant place to be right now. And maybe as we know what it takes to get to this stage, we can then repeat it all over again next time around.
The great thing about being an affiliate is the opportunity you have to do this over and over again, and in many different niches. But you are not limited to just one boat like the crab fishermen, instead you can have an entire fleet of your own. I think they call them people Super Affiliates?;)
Even though it may seem at face value there is a great deal of difference between crab fishing and affiliate marketing, the basic steps are pretty much the same thing. But as affiliates you don’t go home smelling like dead fish, because you are already at home smelling like dead fish;)
I think only I could link crab fishing to affiliate marketing! Do I need to get a life?…;)
Tags: affiliate profit, learn affiliate marketing, product type, super affiliates
