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How This 45-Year-Old Left Her Pharmacy Career to Build a 6 Figure/Year Food Blog

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How This 45-Year-Old Left Her Pharmacy Career to Build a 6 Figure/Year Food Blog

When Mahy Elamin studied pharmacy at university, got her degree, and started working in the field, she was really unhappy. Her true passion was food.

Unable to stay away, she enrolled in classes to learn more about food science, recipe development, and food photography. She started out as a freelance culinary teacher but quickly realized that she could reach more people if she took her expertise online, so she created Two Purple Figs.

Today her food blog receives millions of pageviews and brings in 6 figures per year. She has no regrets about leaving behind that pharmacy degree to follow her heart. 

Keep reading to find out: 

  • Why she pursued a degree in pharmacy
  • How she got into the food industry
  • Why she created her food blog
  • Her approach to brand growth on social media
  • How much she’s earning
  • Her top marketing strategies
  • Her thoughts on SEO
  • Her keyword research and link building strategies
  • Her content creation process
  • Her favorite resources and tools
  • Her greatest challenge
  • Her biggest accomplishment
  • Her worst mistake
  • The advice she offers other entrepreneurs

Meet Mahy Elamin

I grew up in 10 different countries because of my father’s diplomatic job, and that exposed me to so many different cultures, people, and foods! I grew up loving food and trying new flavors and experimenting with the fusion of spices and cooking techniques. 

Finding a career in the food industry wasn’t an option in my family culture, as academics were the top priority, so I went on to study pharmacy at university and worked for a few years in the pharmaceutical field. 

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I then realized that I couldn’t continue a career away from food, so I studied food science (that’s where my pharmacy background came in handy), recipe development, food photography, and food styling. 

I started to teach cooking and baking classes at different cooking schools as a freelance culinary instructor as I grew a passion for teaching about food. At that point, I was teaching 60 people in person and thought about having a website to attract more people to my cooking classes.

After creating my website with detailed information, quality food photography, and unique food styling, I realized that I was reaching more and more people online than at the cooking school. 

That’s when I decided to grow my website, make it a business, and continue doing what I love!

Why She Created Two Purple Figs

I created Two Purple Figs initially to be an online portfolio for my cooking classes so that people could read more about me, see my food, and sign up for my freelance cooking classes. 

I soon realized that I could grow my traffic online and reach more and more people than ever in person! I immediately knew I had to focus on growing my work online which included learning SEO and social media.

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In terms of traffic and website growth, there’s no doubt that SEO is the most valuable tool that I learned and I’m still learning! I’ve gone through a few audits, re-writing many old posts, carefully selecting the content I create, and updating videos on nearly every post on my website to make the recipes easier for everyone to try. 

Applying what I learned has made a huge impact on my traffic, on subscribers to my email list, and my website rankings. 

Mahy Dives into Social Media

Social media was very overwhelming to me as I tackled all platforms at once, so I decided to focus on one at a time, which was the best decision I made! 

Instagram was the platform I chose to start with and I grew it with lots of sweat! It challenged me to improve my photography and to start to learn videography and reels, to show up on Stories, and much more! 

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It took years of work and consistency, being able to change my strategy as the algorithms change constantly, and being really connected on a personal level to my audience. 

Facebook followed, and learning/testing how to market my work on FB was another tool that helped me grow tremendously. 

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Pinterest is another great platform that I started on a little late, but it’s absolutely worth it and I’m gradually working on TikTok as well.

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After 3 to 4 years of working exclusively on my own, day and night, between creating content, the website, and social media work, I made the decision to hire a team. 

It was the best decision for my business, as it allowed me to grow and focus on strategies and learn more. Today I have 9 people on my team and we each contribute differently to the business.

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I found most of them online through Facebook ads or on Instagram. A couple of them I know personally and asked them to work with me.

Mahy’s Social Media Tips

At first, I got lost with so many platforms and algorithms, so many do’s and don’ts for each platform, so I decided to work on one platform at a time to master it. I started with Instagram as I enjoyed scrolling through it. 

I started by following friends and people in the same industry as myself, followed my favorite brands in the food industry, and then I followed some of their followers because I figured they would be interested in my content as well. 

Lucky for me, they did in fact follow me back. I then started tagging brands I genuinely use each time I share a recipe that uses their products. I became visible to many large brands in my industry and, eventually, my work was recognized. 

Some of these large brands requested to work with me and some re-shared my work with their followers, bringing lots of new people to my account. 

I continued to work around algorithm changes when videos started becoming popular, so I made the switch to video, then Reels took over, and I went along as well. I check my insights and notice which days and times of the week my followers are most active, and I share during those times only.

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Most importantly, I was very consistent. This is a huge factor for success on social media. I showed up every day, even if I wasn’t in the mood or had personal issues going on–I would show up even with a cup of coffee and say good morning, and that’s it. 

I answered my DMs and I shared personal stories, travels, failures, successes, and everything with authenticity. 

When it came to brands, I refused many offers from brands that didn’t feel authentic to me. I never pushed sales or did commission-based work. That’s why you’ll notice when I share a certain brand, there’s a sense of trust between my audience and myself, and that’s why my organic posts and sponsored posts perform just as well on social media.

As a big thank you, I always run giveaways on my page. I ask my favorite brands to give away a valuable product in exchange for social media promotion. Sometimes I purchase gift cards myself and offer them as a giveaway. 

Either way, I always find ways to say thank you. I also find that my audience increasingly loves to share the giveaways I offer with their friends and family, so I end up with a couple of thousand new followers each time.

How Much Mahy is Making

My business is currently making six figures, which has been a dream for me! I watched it grow over the last 7 years, and I’m excited for more growth.

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My income is broken down through different revenue channels, mainly website income and social media income. 

The website income comes primarily from ad companies that run ads on my website and I’m paid for every visitor that clicks on my site to read a recipe. This accounts for nearly 50% of my income. 

Social media income is from brands that want me to create content for their products and share that on my social platforms. This helps the brand reach my targeted audience, helps them grow and promote their products, and increases brand awareness or sales, or both.

Other income sources include companies that require exclusive copyrights to quality photography and videos made for their products and for their website and social channels. This improves their appearance online, creates appealing social media channels for companies, and also increases their sales.

Her Top Marketing Strategies

My number one strategy both for my website and social media is choosing my content carefully, selecting brands to work with that I genuinely love, and consistently showing up as who I am. 

Having a real connection to my audience and gaining their trust is one of the most valuable assets to my business. 

Aside from that, I pay for online ads and offer valuable content and amazing giveaways to my audience, which helps me reach their audience as well, and this would be my second-best marketing strategy. 

With regard to the paid ads, I’m referring to Facebook Ads. I create ads using my videos/reels/content with a link back to my website. 

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I write compelling sentences to excite the reader to try my recipe, and then I target a demographic that would indeed want to read more about the recipe. 

So if it’s an easy dinner recipe, I would target busy professionals in their mid-20s to mid-40s, mostly women, moms included, and target the location as US with an interest in quick, easy, 30-minute meals. 

If it’s a baking recipe, I would target an older generation or a teen generation whose interests include food, baking, recipes, etc.

The Importance of SEO

SEO is extremely important for my website because it’s my tool for ranking on search engines and reaching new people. I’ve learned it through many courses and audits, and I’m still learning as it evolves very quickly, but it is always my priority for growing my business.

I learned a lot from Jeff Hawley (creator of Hashtag Jeff). He has an intensive course on SEO, a community of people, and he offers one-on-one coaching, audits and more.

Keyword Research

My keyword search strategy is based on many factors. 

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To start off, I check my search engine rankings daily. I build an ecosystem of keywords around my top-ranking keywords and topics to expand on the topic and cover as much of it as possible.

If I’m starting with a new topic entirely, I gather as many keywords and related recipes to that topic. Then I estimate how much time I’ll need to cover as many of the topics as possible. I usually always have keywords that complement each other and build on one another.

Another strategy is I cover my niche topics very well. I post about 70% of my niche topics, while the remaining 30% are usually trends or entertaining or seasonal topics.

Once I know the keyword I am targeting, I start testing out many recipes and variations using that keyword. I pick my most successful one, preferably if seasonal and then I start writing all I know about the topic. I make sure to answer any related questions about the topic and to provide tips, make-ahead options, storage options, and more

The ecosystem is based on my Google Search Console and Semrush. I observe my monthly search and which words are escalating, so I reinforce them by creating posts with related topics. 

For example, I started to rank for “mussels,” so I created posts about mussels marinara, green mussels, seafood garlic sauce, how to cook mussels, etc.

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All of these reinforced the initial post and each post individually ranked well on their own as well. I eventually became recognized for seafood recipes, so I continued with other topics, picking one large keyword and then building an ecosystem of keywords around it.

Link Building

Link building is absolutely important for my website to gain authority. It’s an indication of success and helps my rank tremendously.

Here are a few strategies that I’ve done for link building: 

– Networking: Sharing other food blogger’s work, and having them share mine has been a great strategy that benefits both of us.

– Facebook groups: They’re a great place to find website owners, food writers, editors, and contributors looking for quality recipes to post as part of rounds-ups, seasonal topics, entertaining, how to’s, tips, and more! 

Usually, many bloggers will share links to the related topics and the editor/writer will choose from those links. If you offer quality articles with quality photography and video, chances are your link will be chosen.

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– Recognition: While this is a very reputable way of building links, it’s definitely the hardest and the one that requires the most time. This is when a reputable site recognizes your work and decides to share it.

– PR agencies, brands, sponsored work: If you’ve worked with any PR or brand that appreciates your work and decides to share it on their site linking back to yours, then you’ve got another way of quality link building.

What definitely hasn’t worked for me is accepting links from random sites for a fee. You’ll find lots of online sites asking for a paid link on your site or asking you for a fee to insert your article link on their website. 

Either way, this is the worst thing you can do for your website, as eventually these sites don’t last too long and end up being spammy or abandoned sites. Websites that rely on paid links don’t have a way of continuing and this ends up hurting your site eventually if you’re in any way connected to them.

Mahy’s Content Creation Process

My content creation strategy is usually heavily based on my SEO search and keyword search. I will often focus on trends and put a twist on them to make them unique to me and my audience. 

Other times I’ll just create seasonal recipes and enjoy them all season long, or entertaining recipes if we’re having special occasions. 

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Once I decide on the topic, I start the process of recipe testing. I’ll create at least 6 versions of each recipe, tweaking each version to reflect different flavors, techniques, textures, and more. 

I test for all the relatable Q&A on the topic, so I’ll test storing in the fridge or freezer, making in advance, freezing ahead of time, leftovers, reheating, etc. 

And once I have a favorite out of the 6 different recipes, I’ll make it once again and usually share it with friends, neighbors, or family to have their input. At that point, the recipe is ready and I have a good feeling about its success, so I start the process of filming.

There’s at least a day of grocery shopping and managing ingredients, preparing them for the photoshoot. Then my equipment is set up for photos and video at the same time, my studio is set up as needed, which includes the stove, oven, appliances, etc.

I start preparing the final tested recipe with video running at different angles and different zoom levels to have close-up and wider views. The camera is set up too and I make sure to take step-by-step images for those who don’t watch the video. 

How This 45 Year Old Left Her Pharmacy Career to Build a

Then I plate the final recipe when it’s ready and create a professional food-styled layout that’s appealing and lucrative for the reader to click on that recipe!

After the content is completed, it’s all sent over to my editing team, who starts working on getting those edits to maximize the appeal of the video and photos. I start writing the article with the help of my food writers incorporating all appropriate keywords and Q&A. 

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Once the editing and the writing are complete, I upload the article, images, and video to my website, carefully placing images where they belong in the article. 

I complete the process by writing the recipe card, calculating the nutritional table, and finishing off any lingering details for the post. It’s ready to be published and I get so excited to click that publish button! 

Now it’s time to boost the post through social media! With my social media team, the recipe is shared on all platforms. 

This is the process that goes behind each and every recipe you find on my site.

For each post, along with my team, the process takes us a minimum of 2 days of full work. It’s best to say three days actually! I make sure to upload a new recipe every 5 days at most. I aim for every 4 days. 

Her Email List

I have about 10k subscribers to my email list, which I’ve grown over the years. The easiest most obvious way to grow your list is by creating quality articles that will entice the reader to sign up and not miss a new post. 

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Another way is through offerings. I offer seasonal menus on sign-up such as: “Sign up to receive a full Thanksgiving menu that is foolproof and delicious to make!” I make sure to send over a beautifully aesthetic menu that covers many recipes in detail with videos, step-by-step images, variations depending on your preferences, and much more!

How Many Hours She Works on the Business 

My working hours are all over the place! 

I usually try to keep my hours to 40 hours a week, but they’re spread out so differently than most other jobs! There are times I work weekends, day and night, and times when I’m off for a few days with entirely no work!

Also, there are weeks when I work 60+ hours, while other weeks may end up being 20 hours. It’s a very different way of working, but I do try to keep my average weekly of 40 hours just to balance out the remaining aspects of my life. 

Mahy’s Favorite Resources

There are so many great podcasts, such as Food Blogger Pro, where you’ll hear stories from real bloggers who each have a unique success story. Food Blogger Pro also is a community site that has videos and step-by-step explanations on how to start and run a website.

Another great SEO resource is Hashtag Jeff. He’s an SEO expert with a community of bloggers, videos, audits, and so many other services for your SEO needs.

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The Bite Shot YouTube channel is a great learning tool for food photographers of all levels to watch!

And Semrush is a great membership website for all your keywords, website audits, writing tools, and more!

Her Top 3 Tools

Definitely, my team is one of the most valuable tools that I have!

Investing in myself has helped me gain knowledge and confidence, and allowed me to grow and expand in immeasurable ways.

I also love Semrush, as it keeps track of my keywords, rankings, website health, and more!

And finally, having up-to-date high-tech equipment is something that reflects on my business daily! Having quality cameras, equipment, props, editing software, and applications is something that is crucial to my business.

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Her Biggest Challenge

There are two major challenges that I’ve faced, one of them is quite obvious: the know-how. 

Since this business was relatively new when I started, I faced the challenge of finding information, understanding it, figuring out how to grow, and experimenting with so many different tools.

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My real challenge once all of the above was figured out was balancing work and life. As you can imagine before having a team, doing all of this work alone can easily consume your whole day! It can be hard to find time for yourself, your family, your kids, your social life, and more!

Her Proudest Accomplishment

My biggest accomplishment is definitely building an online community of like-minded people who trust me, value my work, support me, and continue to make me grow. 

In this new and raw online world of business, there could be plenty of talented people, great opportunities, and money to be made. However, none of it is possible on your own. 

Having an online community or tribe as some may call it, or audience, is crucial to any talent’s success and crucial for the opportunity and money to come your way! 

It took 5 solid years of hard work and dedication for me to finally say, “I have an online community.” 

My community is there for me every single day, waiting for me to show up and listening to what I have to say. I don’t take that for granted! I know I can influence and inspire them, so I try my best to be the best version of myself. I want to inspire and influence something useful. I understand my audience demographics, age groups, interests, and more! 

For that, brands are willing to pay and work with me to influence my community into buying their products and growing their brand. I am very picky and selective with who I work with and what I promote because I know my audience trusts me and I value their trust more than anything.

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When I wrote my first book, I was so nervous no one would buy it. My audience was my biggest support. They bought, baked from the book, and shared it all over the internet. 

When I’m visiting a local farm promoting the farming industry, I share the trips with my audience, and their insights, questions, and interest in the industry make my visit a huge success! 

When I’m ranting about an unpleasant situation on my IG stories, I find their support immense and they all have my back! In a situation with an airline where the airline lost my ticket and I eventually missed my flight, I received a big apology and upgrade from the airline because of all the complaints submitted in support of me. 

Initially, each person came to my online business either through a Google search looking for a recipe, and then appreciated my content and signed up. Or they came through social media and followed me. 

Then most of them have led their friends and family to me. And we are a growing community every day!

So as an entrepreneur online, I find that my audience is my biggest asset as they are the ones who visit my website, make my recipes, appreciate my work, support the brands that I work with, buy my book, and have unconditional trust in me. 

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What She Wishes She Knew When She Started

Oh, so many things! 

Primarily, I wish I knew that it takes time and patience! It takes time to build a solid website, a strong community online, and a unique food styling/food photography and food videography identity. 

Her Biggest Mistake

My biggest mistake was definitely waiting too long before hiring out some of the work and doing it all alone! While I’m not a perfectionist, I still hesitated to hire thinking the ROI wouldn’t be worthy. 

As soon as I started hiring out some of the work, I saw a real ROI for my business and that’s when I started expanding. Not only did I see value in my business, but I saw value in my personal life! 

I had a better work-life balance and I had the time and space in my mind needed to grow and expand.

Her Advice for Other Entrepreneurs

My best advice would be to always invest in yourself, keep learning, and be flexible enough to change strategies because the online world is ever-changing. 

Hire help as soon as you can because this will allow you to have better peace of mind and help you think of growth rather than completing tasks. 

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And finally, remember it takes time! So be patient and give it time to flourish.



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AFFILIATE MARKETING

Common Affiliate Marketing Scams and How to Avoid Them

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Common Affiliate Marketing Scams and How to Avoid Them

At WPBeginner, we have been on both sides of affiliate marketing as affiliate marketers and as businesses running affiliate programs.

With over a decade of expertise, we have encountered all types of affiliate marketing scams and frauds.

While most folks in the affiliate business are honest, hardworking people, there are always people trying to make a quick buck at the expense of others.

Here, we’ll discuss some of the top affiliate marketing scams and how to avoid them. We’ll talk about it from both perspectives as a business owner and as an affiliate marketer.

Common affiliate marketing scams explained for beginners

How Do Affiliate Marketing Scams Affect Businesses?

Affiliate marketing scams try to steal from businesses by pretending to be affiliate marketers. Similarly, they may also defraud unsuspecting affiliate marketers by pretending to be a legitimate business.

Thousands of people make money online with affiliate marketing. It is a lucrative industry worth over $17 billion (Source).

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Due to the low barrier of entry, good payouts, and higher returns on invested time and resources, it attracts many businesses and marketers.

Affiliate marketing industryAffiliate marketing industry

However, this success also attracts many bad actors who want to profit by scamming and defrauding affiliate marketers and businesses running affiliate programs.

For these reasons, affiliate marketers and businesses may struggle to distinguish between legitimate opportunities and scams:

  • Financial loss – Affiliate marketing scams may use deceptive practices to hijack ads, change payment terms, or block payments, causing financial loss to marketers.
  • Reputational Damage – Some scammers create fake websites, advertisements, and landing pages pretending to be from a legitimate business. This causes harm to the business’s reputation.
  • Legal Damages – Some affiliate marketing scams may promote illegal products or fraudulent activities. This can lead to legal consequences and damage the affiliate’s personal and professional standing.
  • Increased Skepticism – Due to encountering scams, affiliate marketers may become more skeptical and hesitant to join new programs or promote certain products. This can limit their opportunities for legitimate partnerships and revenue generation. Similarly, businesses may find it difficult to trust affiliate marketers if they have been deceived by fraudulent actors in the industry.

However, this can be mitigated by carefully researching an affiliate program’s terms and conditions. Before signing up, you can also look for the common shady tactics scammers use.

Here are some of the most common affiliate marketing scams you should avoid.

Common Affiliate Marketing Scams Targeting Affiliate Marketers

Scammers often target affiliate marketers to promote illegal or dubious products with little to no payout in return.

Here are some of the most common scams targeted at affiliate marketers.

1. Get Rich Quick Schemes

Get rich quick scamsGet rich quick scams

Get-rich-quick schemes are perhaps the industry’s most common and longest-running affiliate marketing scam.

They promise affiliate marketers a much higher commission for promoting their products with dubious promises and big claims about earning potential.

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These scams can be harder to identify. Many niches in the affiliate industry offer higher incentives, and it is not uncommon to make big claims even by legitimate businesses.

These scams differ because they often sell questionable products with little to no value. These programs have their terms and conditions set up so that they end up paying nothing to the affiliate marketers.

How to Identify This Scam:

These businesses often make big promises of incredibly high earning potential. They are often selling dubious products with little to no value. Their affiliate program is not transparent, and terms and conditions are often vague or have hidden clauses to avoid any payment.

2. Fake Products

Another common scam targeting affiliate marketers is fake products. These scammers would sell a cheap (and often illegally obtained) copy of a legitimate product by a recognized brand.

However, often, they don’t even deliver the cheap copy and just steal money from the customers.

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Another variation of this scam involves digital products. After customers have paid up, there is no product to download or access, and the company’s customer support is non-existent.

On the other end of things, these scammers will also simply refuse to issue any payment to the affiliate marketers, meaning they get money for nothing.

How to Identify This Scam:

Fake products are often shown by copying an existing brand or business. Their pricing would be lower than the actual products to lure customers into believing they are getting a cheaper deal. Do your research about the product, search for real reviews, or dig into background information of the business.

3. Pyramid Schemes and Multi-level Marketing Programs

Pyramid schemes or they’re modern name, multi-level marketing (MLM) are scams dating back to pre-internet days. It is still effectively used to target innocent people.

They target affiliate marketers by asking them to recruit investors into often imaginary, fake, or shoddy products. Marketers are promised a commission on each new sign-up that their recruits or people they bring in make.

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Eventually, it becomes impossible to find new recruits, and the whole scheme fails. These scammers then go ahead and launch the scheme with different names.

Even if there is a real product being sold, a MLM company floods the market with affiliates, meaning no one makes any meaningful money and saturates the market.

How to Identify This Scam:

These scams often ask you to promote a fake business or product like a get-rich-quick scheme, dietary supplements, or cheaply made fake products. You will be promised higher payouts when people you bring in recruit more people. You may also be asked to deposit a joining fee, which they may label as an investment.

4. Pay to Join Affiliate Programs

Another common scam is to ask for you to pay a fee to join an affiliate program. These pay-to-join programs will claim that they run an exclusive affiliate partnership program, and in order to ensure that only serious marketers join their program, they need you to make a small payment.

Such programs will pretend to sell high-value items and promise to offer unrealistically high commissions.

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All genuine affiliate programs are free to join. It is possible that some affiliate programs may require you to demonstrate product knowledge or industry expertise, but they would never ask you to pay them in order to promote their products.

How to Identify This Scam:

The most obvious sign of this scam is that they will ask you to make a payment. Some may even want you to pay with Bitcoin so the transaction can’t be reversed or traced back. If you are asked to make any payment just to join an affiliate program, then it is most likely a scam.

5. Fake Gurus and Influencers

Social media influencerSocial media influencer

Another popular scam is when you are asked to promote a fake guru or social media influencer. These fake influencers or self-claimed gurus often pretend to be experts in something and typically sell courses and 1-on-1 training sessions.

You may be asked to bring in unsuspecting customers and will be promised a lucrative commission when they sign up for the course, follow the influencer on social media, or join an email list.

These scammers would then sell customers useless courses with little to no value. They would refuse to pay affiliate marketers by not recognizing any leads or conversions they bring.

On the other hand, there are legitimate experts in various industries selling online courses and mentorship programs. This makes it harder for affiliate marketers to distinguish between legitimate businesses and scammers.

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How to Identify This Scam:

These scammers usually have no track record of their supposed expertise. Their testimonials would sound phony and unverifiable. They would use pushy tactics to make sales, and most of their followers on social media profiles would be bot accounts.

6. Phishing Scams

Phishing scamsPhishing scams

Another way scammers target affiliate marketers is by using phishing tactics to steal sensitive information.

They create fake websites or emails that appear to be from legitimate affiliate programs, tricking affiliates into providing login credentials or personal information.

Besides fake websites and emails, scammers may also target affiliate marketers on social media websites and messaging apps. They may use brand images of popular affiliate platforms to deceive victims into believing that they are talking to an official account.

How to Identify This Scam:

Ensure that you are visiting a legitimate website. If you are unsure, then close your browser window and try to reach the actual website manually. Any email account asking you to visit a website should be sifted through. Don’t provide any login information to any fake website.

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Common Affiliate Marketing Scams Targeting Businesses

If you are a business running an affiliate program to generate more sales, then you may be targeted by scammers in a number of ways.

Here are some of those common scams to look out for:

1. Fraudulent Transactions

Transaction fraudTransaction fraud

Scammers may target a business by generating fake sales using stolen credit cards, dummy payment accounts, and other fraudulent techniques.

Once a sale is generated, they are qualified for commission. However, your business may pay a refund or chargeback on the fake transaction.

More sophisticated scammers may even attempt to manipulate your conversion tracking data to credit them for more sales.

How to Identify This Scam:

The easiest way to detect this scam is by monitoring your refund and chargeback requests. However, this could be due to customers being genuinely unsatisfied with their purchase.

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You can look for patterns to detect fraudulent activities causing higher refunds. Compare the refund rates of suspected affiliates with other affiliates to detect suspicious activity.

2. Cookie Stuffing

This is a sophisticated affiliate marketing scam targeting businesses that run an affiliate program.

Here is how it works, the scammers use phishing tactics, malware, and popups to install cookies with their affiliate tracking IDs on unsuspecting users. After that, when users visit the website and make a purchase, these marketers earn a commission.

These cookies are often set never to expire unless a user deletes all cookies in their browser. The user would have never interacted with the affiliates’ content and wouldn’t even be referred by their URL.

How to Identify This Scam:

This sort of scam is harder to identify. However, depending on your affiliate management program, it may automatically detect fraudulent activities. You also need to monitor your conversions in Google Analytics to find suspicious URLs and activities.

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Many affiliate programs only allow marketers to send traffic from a pre-approved list of websites, and any conversions not originating from their approved websites are discredited.

3. Google Ad Keyword Hijacking

Google Ad HijackingGoogle Ad Hijacking

Another problematic affiliate scam that affects businesses is Google Ad Keyword Hijacking.

Basically, the scammers sign up for an affiliate program and run Google ads on brand keywords or keywords where your business may already be advertising.

This increases your cost to bid on those keywords, and you end up paying additional commission to a source of traffic that you could have acquired yourself by running the ads.

An even more problematic situation arises when these scammers first redirect the users to their websites before sending them to yours. This makes it harder for you to detect fraudulent activity for a longer period of time.

How to Identify This Scam:

Monitor your top keywords for PPC ads on Google. The easiest way to do this is by using a search marketing tool like Semrush.

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Another way to identify this scam is to monitor your website traffic and look for unusually high-traffic sources. You can also carefully monitor affiliate activity to look out for unusually high conversions, sudden jumps in referral traffic, and other signs of suspicious activity.

4. Fake Leads

Fake leads can be a problematic affiliate scam for businesses paying affiliate marketers to bring in leads.

Scammers can generate fake leads using sophisticated techniques like stolen user data, unverified leads bought from third-party sources, or simply paying someone to create fake user accounts.

More sophisticated scammers may even send bot traffic from their legitimate-looking websites. These bots then fill in forms with fake user data to submit a lead.

How to Identify This Scam:

One way to thwart fake leads is by requiring customers to double opt-in. Another way to detect quality leads is by reaching out to customers.

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If more leads appear to be non-existent, you can dig deeper and find the affiliate accounts sending those leads.

Look for your affiliate reports to find patterns like a website sending a specific number of leads per day could be a sign of fake leads.

5. Click Frauds

Businesses running pay-per-click affiliate programs are vulnerable to click fraud. Scammers can use a wide variety of techniques to generate fake clicks and traffic.

Some of these techniques use automated bots to click on links. These bots may use IP spoofing and appear as legitimate traffic in your analytics or affiliate marketing reports.

Other scammers may use click farms, where scammers pay pennies to click farms where actual humans click on links as part of their job. These click farms may use hacked computers worldwide to generate those clicks.

How to Identify This Scam:

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Monitoring your Google Analytics reports can help you look for signs of click fraud. You can look for suspicious traffic sources, traffic coming from random places, low conversion rates than the industry average.

Keep track of IP addresses to look for signs of click fraud. Your affiliate management software may also provide tools to detect and prevent click fraud.

6. URL Hijacking

Another common scam targeting businesses is when an affiliate partner registers similar domain names or misspelled URLs.

For instance, if a business’s website is a stargardeningtools.com, the scammers may register stargardiningtools.com or similar domains.

This scam is also called domain squatting. It can be easily tracked by looking at referral domains in Google Analytics. However, some of these affiliates may set up dubious redirects to ensure that the squatted domain doesn’t appear as a referral domain.

How to Identify This Scam:

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You can track most such tactics by regularly monitoring the referral domains in Google Analytics. Also looking for traffic sources that look suspicious can be helpful. Sometimes, these traffic sources may not have any content promoting your products and services.

Avoiding Affiliate Marketing Scams Tips and Tricks

Following are some handy tips that will help you avoid common affiliate marketing scams both as a marketer and as a business.

1. Join Reputable Affiliate Platforms

Join the top affiliate networks and platforms to work with top businesses, best products, and legitimate affiliate marketers.

Platforms like ShareASale, Impact, and Amazon offer a large number of products and businesses to promote. They also help businesses partner up with the best marketers, handle payouts, and prevent fraud.

However, these programs cost money and may reduce the profitability of your business.

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Luckily, there are platforms like AffiliateWP. It is the best affiliate tracking and management software that runs on top of WordPress.

AffiliateWP comes with easy affiliate management, advanced fraud detection, easy payouts, and no middleman fees.

Another excellent alternative is EasyAffiliate. Similar to AffiliateWP, it runs on top of WordPress and allows you to manage and run your own affiliate program.

2. Monitor Your Website Traffic

Whether you are an affiliate marketer or an affiliate manager, monitoring your website traffic regularly helps you detect and prevent fraud and scams.

The easiest way to do this is by installing MonsterInsights. It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress and helps you easily track your website traffic.

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MonsterInsightsMonsterInsights

MonsterInsights has features like eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking, outbound link tracking, and more. Plus, it helps you easily see where your traffic is coming from and what those users do while visiting your site.

3. Use Better Link Management Tools

As an affiliate marketer, you will need tools to manage all your affiliate links easily. This helps you insert links easily and increase your earnings, but it will also help you track link performance and detect your clicks.

This is where ThirstyAffiliates comes in. It is the best affiliate link management tool for WordPress and allows you to easily manage and track all your affiliate links.

ThirstyAffiliatesThirstyAffiliates

ThristyAffiliates helps you detect broken affiliate links, track link clicks, set up redirects, and cloak affiliate links.

Another excellent alternative is PrettyLinks. It is a link management tool for WordPress. It allows you to shorten affiliate links, cloak links, manage all your links, and easily insert them in your website.

Pretty Links Pro WebsitePretty Links Pro Website

For more on this topic, see our complete affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Affiliate Marketing Scams

The following are some of the most commonly asked questions about affiliate marketing scams by our users.

1. Is affiliate marketing risky?

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Affiliate marketing is just as risky as other type of marketing strategies. Due to the increasing number of fraudulent activities and scams, it may give an impression of being risky. However, most of these affiliate marketing scams can be easily avoided. Affiliate marketing still provides excellent opportunities for publishers to make money online and businesses to promote their products and services.

2. Is affiliate marketing similar to pyramid schemes?

No, affiliate marketing is not similar to pyramid schemes. Unlike pyramid schemes, affiliate programs are free to join, and affiliate marketers are paid to bring in customers. However, some pyramid schemes may present themselves as an affiliate program in order to appear legitimate.

3. Is it possible to avoid affiliate marketing scams altogether?

Yes, it is possible to avoid affiliate marketing scams by joining reputable affiliate platforms and carefully selecting affiliate marketers, products, and businesses that you work with.

We hope this article helps you avoid common affiliate marketing scams. You may also want to explore these low online business ideas or take a look at these additional ways to make money online.

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If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.



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How Creators Make Money Is Changing

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In 2021, we reported on a survey that measured creators’ top sources of revenue. At that time, sponsorships with advertisers took the top spot by …

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The Ultimate Guide to Succeeding Alone in Business in 2024

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The Ultimate Guide to Succeeding Alone in Business in 2024

What is a solopreneur? And how do you become one?

Well, in this post, we’re diving into the world of solopreneurship to help you get started.

You’ll learn:

  • The difference between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur
  • Pros and cons of solopreneurship
  • A step-by-step guide to becoming a solopreneur
  • Plus, solopreneur business ideas you can start today.

Let’s get started.

What is a Solopreneur?

A solopreneur is a person who starts a business by themself, without a partner, and the need for hiring employees.

What is a Solopreneur?

Merriam-Webster defines it as:

One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise without the help of a partner : a solo entrepreneur.

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They typically bootstrap their business using their own money and manage all aspects of the business needs to make a profit.

This might involve sales, marketing, product development, managing finances, and customer satisfaction.

Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur

Now, you might be asking, “What’s the difference between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur?”

Solopreneur vs EntrepreneurSolopreneur vs Entrepreneur

Here are the key distinctions between the two. Knowing these can also help you choose which one to pursue.

Purpose

A solopreneur and an entrepreneur have slightly different intentions when launching a business. The solopreneur starts a business so they can work for themselves, make extra money, and work on something they’re passionate about.

Solopreneurs often start a side hustle while working a regular job, hoping their business will take over their salary.

The entrepreneur generally starts a business for growth, scalability, and profit. They may also be driven by having an impact on a market.

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Entrepreneurs might start as solopreneurs in the beginning but with an aim to expand. They may also have an exit strategy in mind from the very beginning, whereas solopreneurs rarely start to sell the business.

Management

Solopreneurs don’t hire employees as they aim to manage all aspects of the business themselves. But, they might hire a freelancer, independent contractor, or virtual assistant for specific daily tasks.

The solopreneur doesn’t usually seek investments either, as their startups are self-funded.

Entrepreneurs will build a team of employees and seek investments so they can expand the business quickly.

Most entrepreneurs don’t want to be working in the business but rather focus on their vision and creative direction.

Focus

The focus of a solopreneur is primarily to create a lifestyle business. They might also want to achieve financial independence and work on things they love.

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Many solopreneurs are simply driven by their interests. For example, an artist might want to spend more time painting, so they research ways to monetize their work.

When their art business makes more money than their job, they can leave and focus on painting full-time. They’ve turned their hobby into a business.

Whereas the entrepreneur might have a passion for growth, innovation, impact, or for business itself. The businesses they start can be varied, and they don’t necessarily have to be passionate about their niche.

Pros and Cons of Solopreneurship

Like any venture, business model, or career choice, there are advantages and disadvantages.

Here’s what you need to know when becoming a solopreneur.

Solopreneurship Pros

  1. The introverts dream. Solopreneurship can be very appealing to introverts or those who like working alone.
  2. Total autonomy. You have complete control over business decisions, projects you work on, and the people you serve.
  3. Flexibility. It provides total freedom regarding the hours you work and your location.
  4. Low startup costs. Many solopreneurs can start with a social media account and free marketing tools like Substack.
  5. Passive income. There’s a lot of potential to earn passive income as a solopreneur. Here are some passive income ideas to look into.

Solopreneurship Cons

  1. Workload. Many roles are required to be a successful solopreneur. These include marketing, sales, accounting, and client satisfaction.
  2. Inconsistent income. Revenue can be slow and inconsistent in the beginning.
  3. Isolation. Running a business alone can get pretty lonely sometimes, even for introverts.
  4. Work-life imbalance. It can be hard to switch between work and play, especially when working from home.
  5. Financial responsibility. Financial management can be quite daunting for some people and may lead to failed startups when not managed well.

How to Become a Solopreneur

Here are 9 steps you can take to make the solopreneur journey a breeze.

1. Evaluate Your Skills

Solopreneurship is all about monetizing a skill or what you know. So, the first step is to know what you’re good at.

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This is harder than it seems because what we’re good at often comes naturally to us. Therefore, we don’t recognize our own talents.

It could be fixing your diet, graphic design, writing a novel, or dealing with stress.

Start by documenting your life and answering these questions:

  • What are you passionate about that you’ll never get bored with?
  • Have you achieved anything significant that came easy to you?
  • What do you spend the most money on?
  • What do your friends come to you for advice about?

Spend some time journalling or brainstorming things that come to you. Just try to keep it simple.

You don’t have to be an expert to be your own boss. Only a desire to help others who are a few steps behind you.

If you’re really stuck, you can choose one of the easiest online businesses to start to get you going.

2. Set Financial Goals

Next up is knowing how much income you want to make.

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Solopreneur financial goalsSolopreneur financial goals

Do you want to make a little extra on the side? Or do you want to replace your salary?

There’s no limit to how much you can make when starting an online business as a solopreneur.

But it’s still important to set business goals. Doing so will help you make better decisions and even choose a business model or product to sell.

You’ll want to establish short-term and long-term financial goals. That way, you’ll stay motivated and maintain focus.

3. Choose a Business Model

Your business model is how you deliver your products or services. Establishing one will give you clarity on the direction you can take.

It will also reveal how you’ll generate income, establish risk, and how you might scale if you want to.

We’ll take a deeper dive at specific business ideas later, but these are the main business models to choose from.

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  1. Service-based. Things like freelance writing or web design services.
  2. Content creator. Teaching through YouTube, blogs, or online courses.
  3. Coaching. Helping people achieve personal or professional goals.
  4. eCommerce. Selling physical or digital products.
  5. Developer. Launching web or mobile apps.

4. Identify Your Ideal Market

So you have an idea of what you’ll be offering and the business model to deliver it.

But now you need to find an audience who needs it. Skip this step, and you could sell something no one needs.

Market research validates what you have to sell and will help you clarify your offer.

It involves understanding the pain points of your target audience and crafting a compelling solution.

Here are some popular ways to perform market research today:

  1. Forums and communities: Join and engage in niche forums or communities like Facebook groups. Use Google to find these forums or the search feature on Facebook.
  2. Social media: Monitor conversations on social media sites like Twitter and Reddit. Search for niche-related tags to find the right people.
  3. Competitor analysis: Research your competitors to see what pain points they focus on. Analyze the copy on their website and social media channels to gather insights into your audience.
  4. Keyword research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMRush to find out what your niche is searching for. This will help you understand what their needs and goals are.
  5. Start a community: Launch a free Facebook Group or community platform like Skool to get to know your audience on a deeper level.

Niching down will always help you find a more passionate audience, so try not to go too broad. You can also read our posts on the best niche markets to get some ideas.

5. Create a Business Plan

According to a study published in Small Business Economics, people who create a business plan are 152% more likely to launch their business .

Develop a business planDevelop a business plan

Another study revealed that companies that plan grow 30% faster than those that don’t plan.

The downfall when planning is that many solopreneurs can get caught up in all the details. However, it doesn’t have to take weeks or months or need to be perfect.

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What’s important is getting the fundamentals down on paper.

This notion template is a great place to start, or this Udemy course for a more comprehensive and guided approach.

6. Launch Your Brand

Now, you’ll want to define the identity of your brand. This includes the name, logo, and messaging to attract the right people to your business.

The easiest route is to use your name and start your business as a personal brand.

But if you intend on scaling your business or selling it as an entrepreneur, you might want to start a professional brand instead.

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Either way, start by brainstorming ideas and checking for domain availability and social media handles.

You might want to register your business legally at this point, too.

If you have design skills, a simple logo might be sufficient enough. You can also hire a designer on Upwork to design your logo and brand identity professionally.

Lastly, you’ll need to tailor your brand messaging to resonate with your audience. A great book on this subject is Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller.

7. Establish an Online Presence

The next step to solopreneur success is forming a coherent online presence. These will be the places where you market yourself, publish content, and deliver your offerings.

Here are a few things you’ll need to set up:

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  1. A website: You can build a simple site using WordPress or Shopify if you sell products.
  2. Social media channels: Sign up and claim your social media handles on the main sites. These include Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, Medium, and YouTube.
  3. Email list: Use ConvertKit or a newsletter service like Substack to start building an email list. The earlier you start this, the better.
  4. Blog: If you like writing, you can also start to publish articles that attract organic visitors through search engines.

You don’t have to be active on all these channels at once. Just set them up so no one else takes your username, then choose a channel your audience uses most.

As a solopreneur, it’s possible to grow your business by sticking to one channel.

8. Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy

Marketing is how you’ll raise awareness of the problems your niche experiences and how you can help solve them.

Solopreneur marketing strategySolopreneur marketing strategy

To do this effectively, you need a strategy.

You’ll want to decide which platform to spend most of your time on. As a solopreneur, there’s only you, so trying to juggle multiple channels will spread you thin.

The strategy is to publish content at each level of the funnel.

Using the AIDA formula is a good place to start:

A: Grab the audience’s Attention with well-crafted headlines
I: Create Interest by communicating pain points. This will help grow followers or subscribers.
D: Create Desire by emphasizing the desired state for potential customers.
A: Provide a call to Action to drive conversions and sales.

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You can check out the 1-Page Marketing Plan for this. It will help you define a comprehensive marketing strategy on a single page.

9. Never Stop Learning

Lastly, you’ll make your journey so much easier when you become a continuous learner and adopt a success mindset.

You can read the best audiobooks for business, take Udemy courses, or even join an online community.

Some great books for solopreneurs include The Lean Startup, Company of One, and Alex Hormozi’s books.

Solopreneur Business Ideas

There are tons of different types of businesses you can start as a solopreneur.

Choosing one will depend on your skills, passions, available resources, and market needs.

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Here’s a quick look at some one-person business ideas to give you some inspiration:

  • App developer: Creating mobile or web apps like habit trackers or even games.
  • Blogger: Publishing content on Medium, Quora, Twitter, or a WordPress blog.
  • Paid newsletter subscription: Sharing your insights and knowledge through a platform like Substack or Beehiiv.
  • Copywriter: Offering copywriting as a freelancer on Upwork on your website.
  • Digital products: Sell your knowledge in the form of digital products on Gumroad or Systeme.
  • eCommerce: Sell physical products through Amazon FBA, Etsy, or a Shopify store.
  • YouTuber: Share your knowledge and monetize with YouTube affiliate marketing and ads.
  • Start a community: Create a Skool community and charge a monthly subscription.

Solopreneur in Conclusion

Becoming a solopreneur has many advantages when starting a business. Unlike entrepreneurship, you get to work alone, choose your hours, and only work on things you love.

Don’t expect things to go perfectly, though. Achieving success in any business venture takes time and dedication.

If you want to connect with others on their solopreneur journey, consider joining the Niche Pursuits Community. You’ll get access to weekly calls from successful bloggers, YouTubers, and 7- and 8-figure digital business owners.



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