For every person I've talked to that is successful at all with affiliate marketing, there are probably nine others that are either in the red or failing. I know, not just from talking to people, but from my own personal experience that it's likely you'll fail your first couple of times around in the Affiliate Marketing game. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and there will be those that inevitably take to the business like a fish to water, but this article isn't for those people.

The intention here is to save people before they throw up a white flag and go back to their jobs with their heads hung low.

First and foremost, let's get one myth out of the way: you will not get rich quick with affiliate marketing. In most cases, it is either supplemental to or a replacement for a regular job. Yes, you might make more money doing it and you'll have more freedom doing so, but it's a long, arduous journey to actually call yourself 'rich.' When I started affiliate marketing, my initial goal was (besides making a single sale) to generate a steady $100/day. It took me 5 months working 14+ hour days to reach that goal. That is by no means rich and by no means quick; it's actually quite slow but at least I was turning a small profit from it. I was spending about $50+/day at the time which seems trivial now, but at the time, seemed like a ton. It wasn't easy to keep pushing forward. In fact, at one point, I was failing so bad and spending $150+/day to the point where I just abruptly stopped and let everything stabilize. It was scary.

The next point, of course, is fear. If you can't master your fear of the possibility of spending hundreds per day (or losing it), you will not do well in this business. I won't say it's impossible to make hundreds per day without spending a lot, but it's very, very, very unlikely. In general, you have to spend serious money to make serious money. I know, I know.. you're probably thinking what I thought "if I'm making $1000/day in profit, I don't care if I spend $10,000/day to make it!" but the truth is, once you start spending upwards of $500-600/day and you start cutting close to what you normally make in a week's time, this game gets very serious and some people can't handle that. So be aware and be prepared; don't let your fear get the best of you. Most of all, be very realistic with yourself in knowing that you'll have to fork out a decent sum of money for your affiliate marketing business to work. And make no mistake-- it is a business, so run it like one.

Speaking of businesses, have you thought of how you're going to fund your business venture? I've touched on it in earlier posts in this blog but I've rarely read about this anywhere else. Sure, some people have the capital to fund their fledgling business ventures but mostly, people don't. If you're like I was, you probably think you can skate by on an initial $1000. Well, depending on how big you want your business to be, $1000 probably won't cut it. CPC (Cost Per Click) networks like Yahoo! Search Marketing take money up front and not exactly what you take. No, they take twice your daily spend. That means you have to have substantially more in your bank account than you spend on a daily basis for at least a month's-worth of spending. Sound like you? Me neither. So my solution was to work out a solid business plan with a credit card. What's great is that I only have to cover my statement amount for every period and that is always less than I spend (profitable campaign), so I'm able to stay on top of things, despite the hungry CPC engines. What's more, in the near future, I will switch to a credit card that gives cash back for all purchases, thus increasing profit. Plus, you can also earn rewards just for spending money in general. Once you start spending hundreds per day like I do, you can start flying places for free!

Going back to the more mental side of affiliate marketing, there's also the terrible "I can't" attitude a lot of people have. They figure the successful people must have some gift or super secret knowledge that everyone else doesn't. This is false. What they do have that the "I can't" people don't is tenacity and strong will to push forward. Successful people don't eat or sleep until they see something work. They know failure is part of success in the long run. Keep that in mind the next time you feel like giving up.

The last point I'd like to touch on is dedication. If there's nothing else in life that you are dedicated to, it should be this. Without that will to succeed, people are easily discouraged and although it's great for affiliates like me because it makes for less competition, it is bad because that money that could potentially be yours is going to other people or worse, to no one at all.

Oh, also-- people fail at affiliate marketing when they don't read this blog. But you knew that already.

Scott

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Work From Home, Yahoo Search Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.