It seems like a lot of affiliates (even a lot of experienced ones) are still looking for some secret, that one missing piece of the puzzle, that is going to skyrocket their income. I think the IM/Guru community is largely to blame for this. Would be affiliates see promises of easy money with little work and campaigns that produce $10k per day all if they could figure out just a few things about what that person is doing. I have been an affiliate for nearly 8 years now and have seen a lot of affiliates (and Guru’s ) come and go.
I want to talk about some of the fantasies of marketing online, and what the reality (at least as I see it) is.
Fantasy
As an affiliate I need to hit it big with one campaign that will net me thousands of dollars per day.
Reality
Yes, most of the affiliates you see boasting about huge numbers have hit on a niche that really takes off. Suddenly they are an expert because they hit $300k in a month. In reality, many of these affiliates (I have known quite a few) can never reproduce that success on that type of level. Hitting a big campaign in affiliate marketing is not that hard but doing it for years is very hard. I’m not saying it’s not a good idea to go for the big money but of the affiliates I have helped….almost all the very successful ones (successful meaning longevity) don’t put all their eggs into one basket.
Fantasy
If I buy this tool, system, or coaching program it’s sure to make me successful.
Reality
I’m not one of those people who think all ebooks or products are evil. I definitely think some are overpriced and some are garbage but spending $50-100 on a reputable course can give you some ideas you may have never thought of before. The problem is, people buy these products and tools and NEVER do anything with them. They get caught up in the endless cycle of buying the next latest and greatest information. I personally know 2 people who have spent $90k and $200k respectively on IM courses and tools. Between them, they have probably done a total of 2-3 campaigns. Buying courses is fine IF you are willing to put in the time to actually apply what they are teaching you. You aren’t going to learn some ‘secret’ in the next course you buy or the one after that. You will learn that the real secret is when you go through a course and then do some work building campaigns with that information.
Fantasy
If I can perfect this system, I can only work a few hours a day and have my income on auto pilot.
Reality
I think it’s great that bloggers are starting to admit a little more how much hard work affiliate marketing can be. Sure, you can go through periods where everything is running fine, there isn’t a lot of work, and the money seems stable. Unfortunately these periods of time don’t last too long and if you get too complacent, you’ll wake up one morning and your business will be dead.
Most people (not just in IM) don’t want to work hard. If you really want to make a lot of money you are going to have to put in a lot of hours. I know some really successful affiliates who put in 10-15 hours a day regularly. I don’t want to scare anybody off, because you can still make a really good living working less hours. I’m just saying the really high earners you read about are working really hard.
Here’s an example to illustrate my point;
It would be relatively simple to make $100k a year through article marketing. That’s a lot better salary than many people will make in their day jobs. Nobody wants to do this though because it would essentially mean sitting down at the computer and writing all day (ie ‘work’). Everyone is looking for the magical key to quit their job and sometimes a way they could do this would be fairly simple. What most people don't realize is that affiliate marketing is not all that glamorous. It can be very repetitive, monotonous, and generally not too exciting.
If you can take a step back and look at affiliate marketing more objectively as a business you will have a lot more success (longevity) as the result of your efforts.
What an excellent post. Everything is exactly true.
I coudn’t agree more. Experience is still the best way to learn something. Theory + Application = Success!
absolutely true. Glad you posted this. I can’t stand the superaffiliate bs that everyone knows about being rehashed and revamped for their thuperduper action site with cartoon caricatures of themselves. It can get sickening and I wish more and more affiliates would just start building campaigns instead of getting way too much info. Certainly, there is a point where one must start; certains skills, resources, and how-tos to learn. But it’s not difficult. Join a good network, understand the offers, split test some landers, split test tons of ads, split test traffic sources. The issue is that guys don’t want to do all that work and end up making 1 lander, 1 traffic source and maybe 2 or 3 ads and complain about why it doesn’t work when “my AM said it was blowing up!” Honestly, how much work are you doing?
Fantasy vs Reality in Affiliate Marketing = Great post
word. but its hard work that pays and to me thats infinately better than sh*t work that pays badly.
Hopefully with more of these realistic post being tossed around the newbs won’t try and intrude on affiliate marketing and bid up all the prices.
It’s more about going into affiliate marketing with a good understanding of what this business really is 🙂
I believe the problem is the people are focus on the easy way out. How do I do this. They are looking for minimal work. Building a serious affiliate income stream take dedicated and commitment of running as a business. That means it take work to build the business.
Great Post David,
In my beginner opinion, I think it’s or same information must be THE 1-st page of every eBooks around this topic.
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