Fullstaq Marketer Keala Kanae has a free downloadable PDF called Freelance Marketing Secrets. When you sign up to get it, of course, he aggressively asks you to sign up for a two-hour webinar so he can pitch you the first of many info products. Which, once you start buying, go up steeply in price. No, thanks. But I will dig through my email, peep the PDF, and see if it’s any good. I’m not holding my breath, I’ll tell you that much.
It opens with two reminders to go register for that long-winded webby. Ugh. Then goes into his story—the same one you’ve heard a bazillion times in his ads. Y’know: 29 years old, still living with mom, making minimum wage at a coffee shop, hits rock bottom, decides he’ll do whatever it takes to turn his life around. Fast forward a few years: he’s making millions, working out of a McMansion, driving a Lambo, and taking all sorts of vacations with bae. Claims it all started with the following three step system.
Step 1: find an audience that either has a problem that needs solved or a desire that needs fulfilled. If you’ve got a Google Ads account, you can use their Keyword Planner to brainstorm. For example, you might type in “weight loss.” Google spits out a bunch of related keywords and tells you how many people are searching for those terms each month (along with some other stuff). Anyways, find something that has a lot of volume (aka demand) that you think might bring you buyers.
Step 2: now find an affiliate network that has a product you can promote to these folks. In the guide he shows ClickBank, which has mostly digital products (like eBooks) that cater to all your basic problems and desires. Weight loss, muscle building, getting laid, getting paid—all that. Look for the one in your niche that’s selling the best, click Promote, and grab your affiliate link. That’s what you’ll have people click on to go over to the sales page for that product; and if they buy, it’ll be tracked back to you.
Step 3: create a sales funnel to maximize dollars earned per lead generated, writes Keala. It’s a bit techie, but basically, you’ll drive traffic to a squeeze page, right? You’ll ask ’em to enter their name and email to get a free report or whatever (same as Keala did). Now they’re on your email list. You’ll load up an email a day that’ll get sent out, automatically, to everyone who opts in. Each email will have your affiliate link in it, so you’re constantly pushing ’em back to that sales page. As more go out, more sales will trickle in.
That’s the idea anyway. And the more people you get on your list, the more commissions you’ll make. The guide comes to an end without mentioning how to get traffic. And without that, nothing happens. Bummer. Guess you’ll have to circle back and suffer through that webinar after all, huh? Not that I’m surprised, but yeah, in case you were wondering, this guide has no “secrets.” It’s nothing more than bait for Keala’s courses and coaching and live events he wants to sell you.
I personally wouldn’t do that to people—like waste their time like that—but none of these gurus seem to have a problem with it. They’ll say whatever they need to say to get your contact information, then spam you with emails and stalk you with retargeting ads until you buy or die. And that’s how they afford their mansions and Lambos and luxury vacations. But you’re not supposed to connect those dots. You’re supposed to assume that every “freelance affiliate” lives like that.
