My Dad Wants Me to Teach Him Affiliate Marketing

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SUP3RNOVA

SUP3RNOVA

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Mar 5, 2007
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Armageddon has come.

After finding out what I make, my father is going to sell his dental practice and give affiliate marketing a go and try to live off that income for his golden years. Of course I couldn't deny helping him out, after all he did raise me and support my decision to drop out of school. He's been planning on selling his practice for a while and just going to work for a bigger dentist, but he's going to give IM a chance in between. If it works, cool, if not, he goes back to work.

I can see this as either turning out not that bad, or really, really bad. In his defense he is extremely bright and I'm sure wouldn't have a problem making a couple hundred bucks a day.

This is going to be fun...
 


Probably everyone else is going to say this is a bad idea. I think, especially since he has a back up plan, that it's cool. Worse comes to worse, he'll do what he initially planned to do, probably with not many hiccups in the transition that was going to happen anyway.

But if it works out then you will have something in common and probably bond over it. I don't know about you but no one around me in my offline life seems to know what the hell I do or how to relate to me in conversation when it comes up.

The only thing I would make sure that he understands is you are in no way responsible for his success or failure....that might get a little weird if you can't establish that ahead of time.
 
The difficulty will come when you have to decide how many of your best "secrets" you're going to tell your dad about.

We all have a few things we do that we keep completely private or else everyone will saturate our niche and take our $$.



springer said:
When he asks about your URLs, keywords or niches, will you rick-roll him?
Click to expand...

LOL!
 
You are a lucky man, I wish my dad would quit his slave professional job and ask me the same :). It's the least you can do he is responsible for your life when it comes right down to it.
 
Well yeah. I've discussed and it is understood that I'm not going to be telling him everything, and that I'm not going to be telling him what makes most of my money. I'll tell him the mistakes I made, give him some suggestions as to offers (that I don't run but I know are profitable), and then let him chat away with all his affiliate managers.

It is probably a bad idea, but he said he can throw $10-20k into it to test some things out, and he's not looking to make as much as I am. He'd be content with 10% of what I make, so I'm sure I'll find something for him.
 
I think it will be a good thing as long as you aren't directly doing business with him.
 
Find him a high paying niche that doesn't conflict with your own and teach him every trick and secret that you have. Let him know from the beginning that you are going to show him the ropes and that after a couple of weeks, he's on his own. This way he knows that he can't lollygag and that he can't call you about every little issue from now until eternity. It might be a good idea to get him a couple of books on the topic, older people like to read about how to do stuff. And give him an incentive to succeed such as if he makes $20Ks per month you'll take him on a cruise or something :)
 
I'm going to suggest another path...

First, a quick note so you can place my comments in
context with my level of knowledge (and ignorance,
respectively). Affiliate marketing is volatile. I do not
know many dentists, but the few that I know here in
California have thriving practices, longevity, reasonable
job satisfaction and few headaches. I do not know any
dentists who work for larger dentists (the path your
father was considering).

That said, here is a path others may recommend you
avoid.

Teach your father everything. The tricks. The pitfalls.
The black hat PPC things that last a few weeks or
months. The white hat PPC things that will likely work
next year. Teach him keyword research, ads, landing
pages, testing, tracking, scaling, private label opps,
etc.

But, do these things with an understanding that you
and he should team up. The right partnership can
crush a competitor. You can leverage your strengths
and scale high-ROI projects more quickly. Obviously,
the wrong partnership can crush your productivity.

Just something to consider. He's your father. He may
make a wonderful ally. A perfect teammate. The other
alternative is a potential competitor, a less-attractive
option.

A couple disclaimers: the above is dependent upon a
few things (your ability to work together, accountability,
communication, his devotion and determination, etc.).

Again, just a thought.
 
Gah, I really hate when people write their posts
and do a hard line break for no bloody reason-
it reminds me of e-book websites.

Anyway, it could be a good thing for your Dad. He's a dentist- if all else fails he can always go back and get a job :). Just think, if YOU help him make $5,000 a month from home as an affiliate YOU are the person that gets the credit of being able to do it as well as the pride of knowing that you were able to in the first place.

SO long as you and your father don't go into business together I think this could be a great experience for you. Good luck, keep us posted!
 
kh1 said:
You are a lucky man, I wish my dad would quit his slave professional job and ask me the same :). It's the least you can do he is responsible for your life when it comes right down to it.
Click to expand...

You are giving me some ideas here. Except mine loves his job.

The part about bonding.... how sappy!



HH
 
Grafix said:
And give him an incentive to succeed such as if he makes $20Ks per month you'll take him on a cruise or something :)
Click to expand...

Umm...if he breaks $20k/month then HE'LL be the one taking ME on a cruise.

Demon said:
How long has he not known about the amount of money you make?
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He knew I made enough to easily support myself, but a couple days ago I told him what November's profit would be.
 
I'd get out of dentistry....

I hear they are always down in the mouth, their work stinks at times, and their customers actually DO bite sometimes...

:-)
 
Since he is a dentist, you could just teach him how to do lead generation and sell those leads to dentists. Here's a decent ebook from a guy that does it.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?e2ixyuo3ejf
 
imho, I'd say if he's got $10-20K to throw at it, have him buy a few small sites with established traffic and revenue... if you inspect them before he buys you can help make sure he doesn't get ripped off...

that way even if it doesn't work out for him, he can still sell off the sites and get some of his money back, maybe even turn a profit...
 
i just went through a fucked up year trying to work with my dad, which will never happen again. Be very clear on what works and what wont work. Yea, yea hes a dentist bla bla bla... just be direct on expectations frustations and what he needs to do and not do from the word "go". Dont sugarcoat anything cause hes your dad. If you do, you will fucking regret it.
 
springer said:
When he asks about your URLs, keywords or niches, will you rick-roll him?
Click to expand...

Please tell me you are going to do this at least once in a while.
At least ONCE when he aks "what are shortened URLS?"
and again when he asks: "What is a cloaked URL?"
and..
and..
and..

::emp::
 
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