calmighty

I’m a relative newcomer to affiliate marketing from scratch. My day job has allowed me to monetize a well established site in a very specific niche — a niche we dominate. I’ve never really had to build from the ground up on my own. I have all of the requisite skills both from the publishing and advertising side of the game. Yet, it’s still daunting to start afresh and do something completely new.

Like everyone else trying to make money online, I read every worthy MMO blog out there. Some are well established such as John Chow and others are relative newcomers like Neil Turner.  Unfortunately, just as Monika at Easy WordPress expressed her frustration with MMO blogs I’m also growing more wary of what I’m seeing out there.  As a result, I’ve taken down my “Who I read” section for the moment.  Over the next couple of days, I’ll be adding it back and reviewing each blog I ultimately include in my list of trusted resources.  The only requirement for inclusion is to truly add value to the Internet marketing and blogging community.

While many MMO bloggers are giving back, many are simply writing about MMO and getting paid by luring the uninitiated to click a “gozillian” affiliate links.  I guess that’s OK, but it’s too bad there isn’t more transparency.  Plus, outside of the “A-listers”, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.  There is plenty of wheat though.  For example, I almost fell over when Neil posted an actual Facebook MMO tutorial the other day.  It’s worth a read and the link I gave it because it’s actually informative.  Neil presents an actual offer, strategy and landing page.  Sure, the campaign may not have been a huge success, but it’s a great example of the foundation work needed in order to build successful campaigns.

The truth is, this is a hard business and a wide variety of resources and skills are required to survive and flourish.  Sick of the MMO scene?  Tell me about it in the comments below.  In the meantime, I’ll be working on my own campaigns and looking forward to sharing my failures… and successes with you soon.