James Martels Affiliate Marketers Handbook

James Martel is a Canadian businessman who took advantage of the de-regulation in Canada’s telephone industry to make himself a good living. As the industry died, he thought it was time to look to the Internet to find an alternate source of income. And so he did.

James Martel is one of those guys who had the right idea at the right time. Using only affiliate programs, James built himself up a little company that grosses over $50,000 a month. Now, let me make sure you understand me here…When I say “Grosses” keep in mind that this means the total money that his affiliate web sites made him. Now, consider for a moment the overhead that he has for these sites…

There is, well, the cost of his domain names. Let’s call that $50. Then there is his hosting. Let’s say $60 for that for 3 sites. Okay, how about an ISP-we’ll assume he has DSL or a Cable modem, so right around $50 a month. Coffee? Could we factor in Coffee? Nah. Pencils? Oh wait; this is an INTERNET BUSINESS…right. Gas?

Fine…so after paying a one-time fee of $50 for registering his domain names, he shells out an amazing $110 a month to make about $50,000. James Martel probably spends more money on wealth management than he does on acquiring his wealth. Sign me up!

So here is what James did. He went out and found 3 of the fastest growing consumer products in North America and created an affiliate web site for each. They are:

James simply finds affiliate programs of In-Demand Consumer products and offers little web sites that contain 5 or 6 of the most popular Credit Cards, Satellite TV Services and Cellular Phone Deals out there.

For the consumer, it’s VERY convenient. I remember when I was looking around for a Low interest credit card and I ended up going to about 30 sites until I decided on NextCard, which went out of business last month (Lucky Me…) And just a few months ago, I got a chance to Edit a Commercial Spot about DirecTV and saw how much money these companies are throwing at promoting their product.

My point is James cornered a tremendous market. Not only that, he offered a REAL service to his audience – Web sites where folks who are short on time (who isn’t?) or not willing to do a ton of research (guilty) can go and get Free, Deeply Discounted, or Highly rated products, and have a choice to boot. James is one of my new Internet Hero’s.

James decided to write a book about his adventures and sell it to folks who are looking for a Home Based Business. Sound familiar? Well, here is James Martel’s unique selling proposition. Amidst all the theory and history of Affiliate programs, James outlines 8 steps to building your affiliate web site. Nothing-new here right?

Let me illustrate the difference between what James Martel does and what some other (unmentionable) authors do when they say that they will teach you step by step.

Doesn’t sound too bad…and of course, every author will give you some in-depth information about what each one of the categories entails. But James Martel and his Affiliate Marketers Handbook is a bit different.

The Affiliate Marketers Handbook is so detailed that it’s like you’re following James Martel's every mouse click. And standing by the old “Teach a man to fish…. feed him for a life” adage, he will then spend a fair amount of time telling exactly why he (an presumably, you) is doing what he recommends.

For example, James uses Front Page to create his web sites. He also recommends that you use a pre-designed template in order to facilitate quick construction of your site. He goes a step farter by actually showing you screen shots of how to install a Front Page Template onto your computer.

Folks, let me tell you that just about every critical operation that James has you execute is delivered in as much detail as this. So, if you have ever wondered where to go to get information about Affiliate Programs, James not only provides you with the URL, he SHOWS YOU A SCREEN SHOT!

Now, I am a HUGE proponent and advocate of visual learning. And visual learning has never been more important than now when it comes to teaching folks about how to use the Internet. Couple that with James Martel's method of illustrating how to build an Affiliate Site and market it, this system is POWERFUL indeed.

James covers what he calls “8 Critical Steps” to starting your affiliate web site. And when he says steps, he means it. Once you complete, go to the next-in order, no skipping around.

James believes (rightly so) that search engines are KEY to a successful affiliate business. So he wrote a good amount of material about how to optimize your keywords, your Meta tags, your title tags, your description, etc. Again, I want to emphasize that he illustrates a lot of these techniques so even a dolt like me can grasp their importance.

Search engines thrive on content. Content, Content, Content! Nowadays, keywords play an ever less important role There used to be a time when you could spam the same keyword in your keyword meta tag an get high positioning on a search engine. Not only are those days long gone, many search engine specialist believe that keywords play a very small role in search engine ranking. James believes that the key to getting high search engine positioning is to use a combination of carefully researched keywords with content that REFLECTS the subject matter of those keywords.

Ta Da! According to James, having consistent relevance like this is the first, best way of getting highly ranked in the search engines. Now this is a simplified example with NO explanation, but in the Affiliate Marketers handbook, you will find information about what you just read, but in large amounts.

Link popularity is also one of James Martel’s commandments, as they are becoming more and more important with the search engines these days. He describes a way to create link popularity WITH IN YOUR OWN SITE! This, I have to say is Gold information. It’s not that complex, but it’s beyond the scope of this review. Trust me, you’ll want to read this material.

During the reading of the Affiliate Marketers Handbook, I had one of those “Ah Ha!” moments. As my faithful readers will attest, these moments don’t happen too often, so I find it important to write about them. This particular revelation was about a simple search engine characteristic that I had no idea existed.

Did you know that most search engines would ignore words less than 2 characters long? So, if you wanted to have a web site called www.lordoftherings.com, but that domain was already taken, you could simply call your site www.A1-Lordoftherings.com Accordingly, your content can still be geared towards Lord of the Rings and not A1 Lord of the Rings. James uses this to great effect by naming his Free Satellite sites www.1st-free-satellite-tv.com AhHA!

Okay, so I’m a fan of James Martel's Affiliate Marketers Handbook. But it has some warts.

The first one is the price. Generally, people will pay whatever they think a product is worth, but in the industry of Home Based Internet Business, that threshold seems to be less than $100. James charges almost $170 dollars for his product. Is it worth it?

Let me fall back on what I have always said about Home Based Internet Business and the purpose of this site. If you don’t waste money of crap, you can afford to spend more on 2 or 3 GREAT products that will take care of most of your needs.

The simple truth is that there is an acute shortage of systems and information on Affiliate Programs in general. Sure, they are everywhere you look, but a condensed and focused product is very hard to find.

So, James is in a Niche position and is taking advantage of that. Fine. I have also said that his Visual Teaching Style is unique and VERY effective. There isn’t any fluff, and most of the material is straight “DO This, then DO That!” which I love. It’s worth the cash, but…I wish it were half that price. Not because it’s not worth it, but because more people could get it at that price point.

The second wart? James has already taken the best affiliate idea that I never had! Rats!

James Martel gets a Thumbs Up from me, with the qualification that it’s a little on the pricey side for such a niche product.

Affiliate Marketer's Handbook by James Martel