* Affiliate should be coder. (good post)

Debunking The Myth That Affiliates Are Coders

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Dylan Benson. Posted in Featured Articles, Landing Page Design. Bookmark the permalink.

Have you ever come across any affiliate marketing myths at forums or on industry blogs? There’s a ton of them out of there — like it’s easy to get rich quick online, or you don’t have to do any work to make a fortune.
Well, now you can add another myth to your list. There’s a perception that affiliate marketers are actually coders, people sitting at a computer and punching out HTML and PHP code all day, making themselves millions in the process.
Of course that’s simply not the case, and in this post we’ll briefly discuss why.
Affiliate Marketing Requires Business Expertise
MYTH: Affiliate marketing is purely a technical discipline that only requires coding and technological skill.
FACT: There’s a lot more to affiliate marketing than technical aptitude. Affiliates are first and foremost marketers. They anticipate market trends and identify new business opportunities. They conduct market research, isolate target consumers, and then pick the best strategic touch-points to deliver an impactful sales message that will generate the highest possible conversion rates.
Affiliates also have the ability to navigate the intricacies of campaign management including: keyword bidding, campaign budgeting, negotiating media buys, split testing to name a few.
Coding is a Nice to Have (not a must have) Skill
MYTH: You have to be able to code to run your own campaigns.
FACT: Coding is only one aspect of running an affiliate marketing campaign. Admittedly it’s a very important component that every campaign has to have in order to function, but it’s not a skill that you necessarily have to have yourself. There are solutions available that will do the coding for you, so you can focus on the higher-level strategic parts of your business.
Website and Landing Page Creation –– It’s easy to build, launch and test websites and landing pages without writing code. Some of the resources worth checking out are:

• WordPress — the most well known in the business
• Squarespace — designed for ecommerce, $20 per month for unlimited sites
• Wix — great customer service, drag and drop interface, and it’s free
• Breezi — another free tool, the interface is a little more restrictive than Wix but worth checking out

Outsourcing — Outsourcing is a great option to get the your coding jobs done accurately and efficiently. Like any type of hiring, it takes time to find the right person for your business. Many affiliates have found that 90% of the time, the guy they thought was the perfect fit for the job doesn’t work out. So a great way to start is to outsource a trial project to several contractors and see who is the best fit.

• Odesk
• Easy Outsource
• Elance
• Guru

Learn Coding Basics
If you are interested in learning how to code yourself, the more power to you. Even if you choose to outsource your coding, having an introductory level of knowledge will help you work with contractors effectively.

• Virtual Training Company (VTC) — An online training school that offers over 1,000 classes. Access to the classes is just $30
• Lynda.com — Provides more in-depth training than VTC and memberships start at $25 / month
• Code Acedemy — Classes focus on HTML, PHP, Java Script, Python and Ruby, best of all it’s free!

Do you agree that affiliates aren’t coders, or do you have any additional resources you’d like to share with other affiliates? Please comment on this post with your thoughts. I’d love to hear what you have to say!
–Dylan