Sep 22 2008
Affiliate Marketing Outrageously
I’ve just finished reading ‘Marketing Outrageously’ by Jon Spoelstra
It was an interesting read and while it does focus on selling tickets to American sports events and working with teams of sales people I’m sure some of the elements can be applied to affiliate marketing as well.
Here are some of the main points I took away
- What’s it going to take to be the best – In the book there is an encouragement to ask this question and I think it ties in with what people like Doug Scott & Chris Clarkson have been saying recently. Don’t limite yourself by thinking all you can do is the same as everyone else. Or that you need to think small and niche at all times. Set yourself a big target and work out the steps you need to get you there.
- Focus on Domination not Reach & Frequency – sounds a bit wordy but is basically making the point that advertising that focusses on reach and frequency is for big brands with money to burn. Instead you should work out where your target market are most often and dominate all the advertising there. It’s mostly written to apply to TV & Radio ads but I’m sure it would apply to web advertising too.
- What have you done today? – at the end of each day ask yourself what you did to make your business a success. Reading blogs & forums or chatting on MSN isn’t work that’s going to have a return but it can suck up so much time. I’ve spent many hours in the last couple of weeks moving websites from one host to another and updating domain registrations etc but I don’t earn anything from that. Make sure you know what actually gives a return and spend most of your time working on that.
So that’s just some of my notes from the book. As I said it’s pretty focussed on US sports but overall it’s worth a read.
If you would like my copy to read and you live in the UK then just leave a comment below and I’ll pick a winner at the end of the month.

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Sep 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm | #
Can I get the book please:)
Doug
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 am | #
The last point strikes home for me. I think it is important to work feverously towards a goal even if you are unsure as to exactly what the outcome is going to be, as even a high tempo work rate can bread ambition, progress and education.
I would caveat that reading industry related news, blogs and stories can help increase your passion, drive and excitement so provided it is relevant I would not rule this out unless you are gong overboard. I mean how else did we all come to read this post!
Sep 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am | #
Agree, “What have you done today?” hits a nerve. It’s easy to work hard all day… on the wrong stuff.
As for reading blogs, I time box it to 30 mins per day – I don’t always keep it down to that but the principle is to focus my time on tasks that directly improve my business.
Sep 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am | #
I think the last thing you took away is very important, being financially productive, you can get caught up and start focusing on the wrong things unless you monitor what you are doing.
Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm | #
My random number generator had to spend a while going through all the entries!
Send me your address Doug and I’ll stick it in the post