Affiliate Marketing and Humanizing Relationships with Miles Beckler

Enjoyed this interview with Miles Beckler (veteran digital / affiliate marketer). Love his enthusiasm for what he does.

For me personally, this episode puts affiliate marketing in a new light. A far more value add way to diversify income. Especially for service based businesses.

The interview is not only focused on affiliate marketing and has some good discussion on content and building an audience for it.

Lessons learned

Affiliate marketing is a way to monetize a segment that many business owners neglect - the ones that don't want / can't afford the service, but want to learn to do it themselves. It goes like this:

• I use this tool
• I get great results
• Let me show you how I use it
• Click here if you want it too
• Fully disclosed affiliate link. No BS and nothing sneaky.

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• Affiliate marketing done wrong is thinking and acting like you're just a middleman.

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If you're using social networks for distribution, plan for them to pull back on organic reach. It always happens:

• In the early days they need content creators to help them grow.
• When they hit network effect there's enough content being shared so don't need to help boost the creators.

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• Always be building your email audience. It's the only one you really own.
• BUT... the money isn't in the list. It's in the relationship.

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For getting started creating content and building audience:

• Choose a medium - audio, video or written.
• Force yourself out of your comfort zone. Do a challenge for 90 days and stay consistent.
• Don't focus on too many learning curves at once. Focus on one.
• The process of doing something everyday will make it better and better (everyone's first podcasts, videos or blog posts aren't great. Yours will be terrible too. Own it and keep going anyway).

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• Simple frameworks and constraints mean one less thing to think about (Miles talking about his short, sharp YouTube intros)

Today's co-host is Miles Beckler. Miles is a veteran online entrepreneur with 17 plus years of experience and expertise in digital marketing and affiliate marketing. He started with MySpace back in 2003, then built an agency, and is now working with his wife full-time on their meditation business.

Miles is on a mission to help business owners focus on what matters most by sharing exactly what's working in internet marketing today. There's always money to be made somewhere, but that’s not what drives him; it’s being of service to others. He’s passionate about spirituality and mindfulness, which is what led to Ask-Angels.com - the business that he and his wife run together.

As the economic landscape continues to shift, we’re seeing many new opportunities crop up while other businesses and sectors completely disappear. Flexibility and a willingness to try new things have always been an important part of successful entrepreneurship, but it’s now truer than ever.

In this episode, we dive into feeling awkward about publishing, reflecting on your why,  and what that means for you when you get punched in the face.  We also talk about where, how, and why Miles got into digital marketing, why affiliate marketing isn’t just links, and how to figure out where to start creating content when you’re the face of your business.
“My first business all came crashing down because I wasn't building relationships, I wasn't being the main point of contact. I was just a middleman and I think that's affiliate marketing done wrong.” ~ @MilesBeckler
Main Takeaways

• Affiliate Marketing is a great way to deliver what you need to your high-end clients while still capturing revenue from a segment that isn’t ready to buy your services.
• If you’re building an email list, it’s important to remember the relationship you have with those subscribers and humanize them instead of treating them as numbers. When the time is right, they will look to you for expertise and/or recommendations in your specific niche.
• Affiliate marketing done right is, “I use this, I love this. It creates these results for me. Let me show you how I use this tool to get these results. And by the way, if you want it, you can just click right here.”
• If you’re getting started as the face of your brand, you need to determine your medium (writing, video,  audio, etc.) and then be dedicated to creating that content on a regular basis.

Links and Important Mentions

• Miles Beckler’s Site
• Miles’ YouTube Channel
• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
• Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M. Schwartz
• Jab Jab Jab Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuck
• Shure MV-88 Digital Mic

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