hey everyone this is Stefan James from
Project life mastery and I'm here right
now a steve rakin from rakin profit
steve is an incredible youtuber and
affiliate marketer he's actually one of
the members and students from affiliate
marketing mastery and he just had his
record month with affiliate marketing
did a hundred and eight thousand dollars
during a launch in one month and we're
gonna be talking about that here today
so he's gonna break it down for you guys
and share with you some nuggets that can
help you guys get started to build your
business your brand create content and
succeed with affiliate marketing so
Steve thanks for taking the time and hey
appreciate you having me here Stefan and
super excited to share a lot of value
with the viewers because I'm telling you
I've got some gold nuggets to share and
it wasn't long ago I was only making
fifteen twenty-five thousand dollars a
year serving table tables I was working
at a restaurant called the Cracker
Barrel and it's just amazing like fast
forward five years like I did a hundred
eight thousand dollars and my profit
margins are probably like that's like
ninety percent
I spent very little unpaid traffic so
it's just crazy that like I was able to
go from like watching your videos when I
was working at like a restaurant and
make it like 100 dollars a day to like
having a six-figure launch like profit
margins like over ninety percent so
super excited man to share cool man
excited excited for you excited to dive
in so how did how did you get started I
know you started your YouTube channel I
think was it five years ago now or when
did you start that in kind of what was
the progression since you started so I
started about five or six years ago like
I said I was working at the Cracker
Barrel serving different foods biscuit
Sid it's like a breakfast place and
started watching YouTube videos about
how to make money online so I started
selling on eBay and Amazon and stuff
like that and I started have success I
ended up quitting my job and I started a
YouTube channel essentially just sharing
my journey of like the wins and the
losses the ups and downs and you know
five years later I've got like eighteen
hundred videos now and over a hundred
thousand subscribers so it's been crazy
it's awesome man you're making a huge
impact what would you say are some of
the the keys to building your channel
building your audience and has been
YouTube in the main folders yeah so
YouTube's been the number one thing for
me
and I feel like a big mistake people
make is they try to like be everywhere
so they're like on Instagram Facebook
snapchat YouTube and like they never
really like into building a following so
like I've always focused on YouTube like
that's been the number one thing and I
would say the biggest thing to build an
audience and this is where like a lot of
people get it wrong is like they're just
creating content just to create content
but at the end of the day it's about
adding value you've got to add value
what are people struggling with what are
their issues what are their challenges
and you know Gary Gary Vaynerchuk talks
a lot about this like a lot of people
think that they that you have to be the
expert you don't necessarily have to be
the expert just share your journey share
the wins and losses share like your
experiences like when you screw up and
you mess up share that when you find
something that works share that like
transparency is key in 2019 yeah it's
all about being authentic and you don't
have to be the guru or anything you're
just someone even like myself just on
the journey sharing showing us
passionately the things that work and
don't work and not being afraid to put
yourself out there didn't ya do you want
to comment on that yeah I wanted to say
something that the crazy thing about my
journey like when I talked about my
hundred eight thousand dollar launch and
I have like another evergreen affiliate
product that makes like anywhere between
like five to fifteen thousand dollars a
month it's been around 10,000 a month
steadily for like the last ten months
the affiliate products that I'm making
the most money on this is crazy I'm not
even an expert in it and I don't even
pretend to I don't lie stuff and I don't
tell people all I'm an expert in this or
I'm an expert in that I serve my
audience with their needs in terms of
like thrifting hitting Goodwill's and
buying and selling on ebay flipping from
garage sales flea markets like that's my
expertise but guess what people want to
learn about the next step the next level
like not everybody wants to make one to
two thousand dollars a month
which is a lot of stuff that I teach
some people want to learn how to
automate their business they want to
learn how to travel and make money live
the laptop lifestyle so my audience I'm
always listening to what my audience is
struggling with in their challenges and
when you have an audience whether that's
on Facebook YouTube or Instagram you
could bring other experts onto your
channel and this is something that I've
seen you do and I've learned a ton about
in affiliate marketing mastery so this
has been huge is like leveraging your
audience to bring on experts in the
sharing their story and you could like
build amazing relationships and even
like affiliate promotions out of it
totally so with affiliate marketing
essentially what you're doing is you're
finding other products that are
beneficial for your audience it's
obviously meeting their needs and
benefit them and and you're sharing it
with your audience on YouTube or through
your email marketing and what's kind of
the strategy that you've been
implementing for that yeah so the
biggest thing and again thank you to you
because I just watch him you guys I just
watch him and I just model exactly what
you do it's so funny I got a success
right model success and I learned a lot
of that from Tony Robbins but I think
the biggest thing that's worked for me
has been interviewing people so what I
like to do is I like to build
relationships in various niches so I'm
in the you know make money online
e-commerce niche particularly eBay and
Amazon and you might think like eBay and
Amazon's like very small and while is
kind of big picture small there's like
so many subsections of that like with
Amazon alone there's private label
there's wholesale there's online
arbitrage there's retail arbitrage so
what what I do is I build relationships
in with people in those various niches
and I really like built like I come from
a place of value like I'll never message
somebody and you even know in it like in
our relationship I've never like message
you like asking for something I'm always
trying to add value especially when you
start like trying to reach out to people
of like large audiences never just ask
for something always add value
so I come from a place of adding value
whether that's hey I just want to let
you know Steph and I shouted you out or
hey I remember I hit you up one time and
I was like I just made a video about you
like that's how we started it so like I
do that with a lot of people in
different influencers in the niches and
when you build a relationship like an
authentic relationship and you're coming
from a place of value people want to be
your friends and they want to come on
your channel and they want to you know
they want to interact with you and
engage with you and that's how I build
my relationships I interview them and a
lot of the times I'm like interviewing
people and I'm not even I don't even
want anything they don't even have
anything for sale but I'm just looking
to add value but every now and then you
find somebody who has a course or they
have a digital product or something and
then you could kind of build that
relationship so interviews has probably
been the biggest thing for me but
there's much more but I'll you don't
have to be the expert yours leveraging
them and putting them on your channel
asking them questions and that in an
interview you can share with your
audience your affiliate link or the
product they want to check it out great
and then that's how you you can make
money you know as an affiliate do so I
want to share my secret this is gold
right here so I promote a I'm in the
like the my core audience I have like
120,000 subscribers my core audience are
like eBay sellers they do thrifting
garage sales flea markets and whatnot
but one of my best affiliate offers
actually has to do with drop shipping
which is completely different and I
didn't even think it was going to be
successful but I brought on a good
friend of mine who I built a
relationship with and it's like it just
started taking off so this is my secret
recipe for YouTube this is exactly what
I do so I'll create content on the front
end on YouTube so just adding value
talking about the business model just
sharing tips and tricks strategies
interviews and what I do is I Drive
people to a landing page like an opt-in
page so like during the video we might
be talking about dropship and I'll be
like hey guys I just want to let you
know if you want more information about
drop shipping we've got a free workshop
just click the link down below in the
description and we got a bunch of videos
this exclusive videos that you can only
get here and when they opt into that
they get opted into this email sequence
so what you can do is you can quit
create like I've got like 50 or 60
emails that go out over like a year
period it's it's the the jab jab jab
right hook strategy so I'm not like
bringing them on the email list and just
like destroying them like sell sell sell
I'm adding like 9 out of 10 times value
value value value value and then hey
check out this course or hey opt-in to
this webinar and that course or I
probably have like 20 videos that have
to do with like this particular niche
and every day I get anywhere between
like 20 to 40 emails and each day
anywhere between two to five people end
up purchasing the course so it's content
email pitch through email and if you
have someone who knows what they're
doing when they hit the landing page and
they don't buy they should be pixeled
which is a way for them to like retarget
so like it's very simple free content
email list email list will sell and
nobody nobody thinks you're pitching
it's all behind the scenes yeah and I
thought when you're just adding value
like that you know
people love it they love it and you
don't really have to sell because you
know then when you mention something
they're excited they're like you know
oftentimes people are like Stefan do you
do you have something can you recommend
something you know they're coming to me
you know asking me this you know to buy
something right and that's the fun part
about it is that you don't have to be a
salesperson you're just trying to add
value and help people and then you share
with something something with them that
can further help them if they want to go
deeper with it I'd love to hear how is
the feeling marketing mastery how does
that helped you it's been awesome and
like affiliate marketing mastery it's a
it's a course that Stefan put out and I
love how like you share everything from
like start to finish
a twosie so I've learned so much one
thing that I actually just thought of
that I learned from you and this is huge
like if you go through this his course
definitely be sure to go through this
section but bonuses who I had affiliate
products that like we're doing okay and
I don't promote like a lot of stuff I
like I get asked every day to pro like
20 different things and I usually turn
them all down but when I find something
that works if you want to amplify your
sales like 10x right grant cardone style
10x your sales bonuses bonuses bonuses
bonuses I can't say it enough like I had
one product that was doing like a couple
thousand dollars a month and it like
doubled overnight when in my email copy
I said hey if you get this I'm also
gonna throw in all these free things and
that's one thing that I've learned from
you and in your course as well so don't
underestimate bonuses it's like it's
huge they're creating an irresistible
offer notice you're stacking the value
so it becomes a no-brainer for the
person because not only to getting the
product which in and of itself is great
and worth it you know worth the price
but you're giving it um more for that in
terms of the bonuses are you just mainly
thinking about what are some
complimentary things I can offer the
videos ebooks yeah so um you want to be
creative when you do this um some of the
things that I've done is I create a lot
of ebooks for my audience because my
main core audience they don't have a lot
of them don't have more than 500 dollars
in a bank account my main audience
they're beginners they're just getting
started they're trying to make a couple
extra dollars so I found that I ebooks
are really well selling ebooks for like
twenty to thirty dollars helps them to
get started so like in the
past I used to create them as like my
monetization strategy but now I create
them just to throw in free for my for my
promotion so ebooks works well
private coaching's phone consultations
done for you offers I know you do a lot
of that as well but yeah you want to
make sure that your bonuses are
congruent with what you're offering and
I've actually made this mistake in the
past where I would promote like an
Amazon course or something like that and
all my bonuses were eBay right and that
could work and that actually still will
work but the problem is when you get
into some like big launches and you're
promoting like I've had the most success
with high ticket offers so these are
products that are thousand two thousand
three thousand dollars you start going
head to head with big dogs like Steph
and our other guys like they're gonna
have irresistible offers that are like
laser focused that will actually help
you to like take your business the next
level in terms of what you're trying to
do so like if they're not relevant
you're gonna suffer but for the most
part if you know if you're not like
doing a huge launch really any bonus
will just kind of give them that
incentive especially if you use like
urgency and you're like this is only
gonna be available for seven days that's
one of those psychological things that I
mean it just works yeah and you're
giving them a reason to buy now so many
people they're on the fence oh they
procrastinate but when you have a
limited time offer and we see that all
the time with every business out there
there's a sale there's a an exclusive
offer that offer that you give people if
they're willing to take action that is
what gets them to actually take action
with it I love to hear you know what are
some mindsets or some key beliefs that
you think have contributed to your
success yeah so so one of the biggest
things is like consistency like when
you're doing affiliate marketing
sometimes you're not going to see
results and like for example like this
launch that I just had where I did a
hundred eight thousand dollars the first
day we did I think 17 sales or 19 sales
and I was like wow like this is awesome
like I'm gonna this is gonna be my best
launch like I'm so glad I you know I
studied the affiliate marketing course
I'm so glad I went to I actually went to
your mastermind in in California
recently I'm like wow like it all paid
off but then on the second and third day
I went zero and zero so this was a seven
day launch it's an open and closed model
it's very common with high ticket offers
I started to like it down I'm like this
isn't like my natural instinct was like
oh my gosh like it's over like I should
stop like sending my emails I should
stop doing that and I started thinking
about a lot of the things that you
taught in your course and Tony Robbins
and I'm like you know what like you
can't let temporary defeat take you down
you've got to trust in the process so
many people they they want to just get
results and they think they're gonna get
lucky like preparation and being
consistent and trusting in the process
is how you become successful so the
biggest thing for me the biggest thing
for you as well as its content content
adding value personal branding helping
adding value so I said to myself on day
three and day four I said you know what
if I wake up on day eight and I don't
get any more sales but I do everything I
can and I trust in the process and I
come from a place where it's really I
really want to help I really want to
make a difference I really want to you
know I want to give information it
really helps people to make that
decision then I'm not gonna have any
regrets
so I trusted in the process and things
took off man day four day five were
solid and then like day six and seven
like it's just everything went crazy I
passed a six-figure mark and I I saw you
here and I saw Tatiana I was like I
gotta let these guys know now I'm here
that's amazing man I'd love to hear you
know what do you think prevents people
from starting you know starting their
business YouTube affiliate marketing you
know I know you work with people as well
but what do you think is that sticking
point that stops people what do you want
to say to people like that yeah so I say
the biggest thing is like overwhelm they
look at you they look at me they look at
people who are successful and they say
wow they've done 2,000 videos or they've
got this team or look at all the work
that they have they had to do and they
don't even they don't even plant the
seed they don't even get started so it's
like you've got to almost have the
mindset that like it's gonna be a
journey like Stephan myself we don't
teach get-rich-quick schemes like what
we do is like probably the farthest
thing from it like like making money
like let me take a step back making
money the way that I do it and you do it
where we're like mostly organic and
we're not paying for paid traffic like
it takes a while like it could take
three to six months I started having
some results so I feel like people they
have this mindset where it's like if I
don't see results like within the first
week or two then it's not worth it or
I'm not smart enough or
so that's the biggest thing I feel like
it's not the strategies it's not it's
not the information it's it's a mental
game inside it's the mindset of
believing you want to know what as long
as I take a couple steps each day as
long as I keep improving as long as I
trust in the process I think that's like
the theme of this talk trust in the
process when you go through affiliate
marking master or you go to one of his
meetups oh you watch one of his free
videos take action on it and Trust in
the process like what we're doing isn't
rocket science at the end of the day it
might look complicated but it's actually
very simple yeah yeah and the way I look
at it I always use this metaphor that
you're planting seeds right you're
planting seed every video you've created
and and you had the patience and you
went through the process of that you
nurtured it and not every video does
well you know at the beginning is slow
you don't really get any results but
because you're consistent with it you
start to see some of those seeds such as
sprout and grow and blossom and then
before you know you've built something
and you're able to have a successful
launch like what you just did yeah and
all it takes sometimes like especially
if you're using YouTube all it takes is
that one video you've got that video
where you and Tatiana did oh how many of
it uses that over 25 million views so
it's crazy like I've got one video and
in terms of the dropshipping course that
I'm selling I think it has like 200,000
views it's not anything like crazy but
like once that one video took off I went
from like a couple thousand sales up to
like eight thousand to like nine
thousand that consistently so don't beat
yourself up if like you're publishing
videos that are not getting a lot of
views a lot of traction like don't beat
yourself up if like you're not having
success like I know it sounds kind of
corny but it's true
all it takes is that one video to kind
of get your head above the crowd like to
get you to a thousand subscribers or two
thousand subscribers or that one amazing
video or one thing I want to talk about
as well when it comes to affiliate
marketing that one product that's right
yeah you can do everything else correct
but if you have bad products or the
people you're working with they don't
really understand how to launch products
or retargeting or marketing like one
product could change everything and
sometimes you got to go through a few
right and that that's the benefit about
affiliate marketing is that yeah you can
you can promote one if it's not seeing
results you can just move on to the next
one versus if you're accreting the
product yourself as we both know you can
take a lot of time effort energy to
create that product and if it doesn't do
well then
just wasted a lot of that time and money
yeah so I mean it's it's a process kiss
a lot of frogs tried try a bunch of
different styles of videos try different
topics try adding various value
proposition to try different bonuses try
different products it's it's one of
those things where you're just throwing
it against the wall to see what sticks
and then but the cool thing is if you're
coming from value in a place of like you
really want to help your audience and
make a difference like it doesn't matter
how many times you throw it against the
wall it doesn't stick because people
they can tell if you're really coming
from a place of love and you're being
genuine yeah I love it
now you attended my mastermind you
alluded to that in Los Angeles I put on
it twice a year and it's more for not
for everybody but it's a small exclusive
group that we work with people I loved
it how did that benefit no I loved it
it's it you know first of all I was
fanboying out a little bit cuz I've been
for so many years it's when you get
around people who are on the same
trajectory in the same path as you it's
different than just being like in a chat
room or like messaging via email like
you learn so many amazing things like
the stuff that we covered like the big
thing that I learned from you at that
mastermind I don't want to spoil it was
the dabbler mentality and that's one of
the biggest things that have been
holding me back if you want to be
successful you've got to go all-in on
something now at first it's gonna take
you a while to figure out what that that
one thing is but that's how you actually
started the mastermind and you spent
quite a bit of time going through it
because it's a lot of this stuff is
psychological it's it's mental its
mindset and so many times like and I was
a common theme at the mastermind most of
the people they wanted to do private
label and they wanted a YouTube channel
they want to blog and like you were like
you guys you got we got have we got to
calm down I know we're all excited but
like that's the dabbler mentality so I
mean just being around like-minded
people and just figuring out like what
it is you actually want to go after we
spend a lot of time like going over our
goals and obviously a lot of tips and
strategies that I can't spoil it for you
guys I'm sorry right now but like if
you're interested in affiliate marketing
if you're interested in building an
online business you definitely got to
check it out it's I loved it it was
worth every penny and you know I'm
looking forward to going again for sure
amazing now one thing I respect about
you is how much you invest in your
you know you're committed to mastery
you're committed to learning growing
we're here at the traffic and conversion
so you know you go to the Tony Robbins
seminar you've invested in training
programs how important is that and and
how important do you think is for other
people to invest in themselves so that
they can grow get the knowledge skills
to get to where they want to go I guess
it just depends on the person like for
me like I've never been the brightest
bulb I never really got good grades in
school I got in trouble I got arrested
when I was younger I used to be 250
pounds smoking two packs of cigarettes
hanging out with the wrong people like
the trajectory of my life was headed
like no we're good I was never making
money I was always broke I was always
unhealthy I was always miserable and it
came to a point where I was like things
aren't gonna just change on the on
themselves like nothing's gonna change
unless you change like if you want the
outside world to change you've got to
change the inside world everything like
we don't realize it like every thought
every action every result we get is our
responsibility we created all based on
our thoughts and our actions who we hang
out with so I came to a point stuff and
and you motivated me a lot watching your
videos just seeing your transformation
over the years it's like if you want to
change the world or you want to change
the outside world you want to change the
results first you got to change your
mind and your mindset so I'm always
investing and I know like if I want to
get to the next level I always have to
get around people who are at the next
level I've got to get or I got to figure
out what other people are doing model
success I don't need to reinvent the
wheel a lot of times our ego gets in our
way and we think to ourselves like we
have to figure it out like we have to
learn how to do it on our own and you
don't have to there's other people here
could help you yeah and how you notice
the difference in terms of actually
investing in something compared to just
you know people say all this three
videos out there there's blogs there's
all that stuff it's out there you don't
take it serious yeah if you don't pay
for something like we live in a world
where everything is free like if you
want to learn how to do anything like
you could figure it out but the biggest
problem is how long is it gonna take you
to piece all everything together how
much time are you going to waste we also
live in a world where when you're
building an online business or
especially if you're selling at Amazon
this is like the biggest thing you make
one wrong mistake peace you're gone so
it's like it's very costly so by having
somebody who's already
gone through the path and has that kind
of blueprint you can just take it step
by step by step so that's the way I like
to do it for some people maybe you know
figuring out on their own is the way to
go but I've tried on my own and it just
it blows up in my face every single time
totally I guess the last question is
just what general advice would you have
for someone watching this someone may be
that just getting started they want to
create the laptop lifestyle they want to
build a business what advice would you
give to someone like that so I think the
biggest thing I would say is find one
person that you trust somebody that you
resonate with obviously for me the one
person was you and it's crazy because I
still remember five or six years ago
watching your videos from in your pin
house and everything and going from
three thousand a month to ten to fifteen
but um I found one person it was Stefan
I'm not saying that it has to be Stefan
for you and I'm sure you would you agree
but find that one person that you
resonate with and model them model them
start doing what they're doing like I'm
always like modeling you like I'm always
watching your videos and I'm trying to
figure out what are you doing what how
can I model that in my business how can
I put a spin on it but I think the
biggest problem is people are subscribed
to too many YouTube channels to
subscribe to too many they invest in too
many courses they hit their dabbling in
too many different businesses and at the
end of the day you've got to figure out
what do you want what's the main result
you want now that you have that result
let's reverse engineer okay who's
teaching that who do I trust who do I
resonate with because the way that you
teach things might get the result and
the next guy might be able to teach the
same thing and get the result but maybe
I don't resonate with the lifestyle
maybe I'll have the time or the desire
to do it the way that they did it so
you've got to find the person who you
resonate with most and follow them and
just don't give up it's gonna take time
being successful takes time it's not
gonna happen overnight
for some people it does but for me it's
been five years and things are starting
to take off but you know I start having
results after you know three or six
months but you've got to be patient I
love it
cool to bed check out Steve's channel at
rake and profit we'll link it to it for
you guys and if you guys want to learn
more about affiliate marketing mastery
go to affiliate marketing mastery com
will link to that below as well but
again thank you again so much appreciate
your this story thank you guys for
watching if you enjoyed it hit a thumbs
up leave a comment below and we'll see
you again in the next video take care
you
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