The framework: six principles I am using as a guide
The six ideas from Evergreen Affiliate Marketing that shape this project, and why I will use them as a guide rather than a rulebook.
Ot Ratsaphong
Every experiment here needs a frame. The frame for this one is Nate McCallister’s Evergreen Affiliate Marketing. The book argues for long-term habits over quick tricks, and I’ve boiled its main ideas down to six principles.
The six principles
- One cornerstone product. Most of the income comes from one core offer that almost everyone in the niche needs. Recurring commissions are better than one-off ones.
- Own your audience. Build an email list and a website you control. Don’t rely on social media algorithms, and give more than you take.
- Evergreen content. Write for people at each stage of buying: the problem, the comparison and the buy-ready search. Keep updating old posts, and go deep rather than thin.
- Make the offer better. Add bonuses that other affiliates don’t offer, show how hard the job is without the product, and ask for custom perks.
- Write plainly. Use simple words, focus on the reader, name the drawbacks and never sound like an ad.
- Expect it to take work. Nothing is truly passive, and almost nothing works first time. Test, track, and scale only what works.
How I’ll use them
These are a guide, not a rulebook. I won’t follow every lesson, and I won’t follow them all the same way. Every project is different, and my situation has its own constraints.
Where a principle clashes with a decision I’ve already made, I’ll say so here rather than quietly drop it. The strategy is set (US market, Amazon.com links, organic SEO first, low ticket, no paid ads), and I won’t reopen it without new data. The clashes I already know about are the cornerstone question and whether the email list comes first.
Each post from here will say which principle it’s testing, if any.