Before deciding to get into affiliate marketing – you have to have the right Affiliate Marketer’s mindset if you hope to succeed. It’s a mindset that can be easily described in just a few words: it’s not quick, it’s not easy.
There’s nothing quick – you shouldn’t expect to see any money for at least 6 months
Oh yes, there’s exceptions… if you have a TikTok channel with 30,000 viewers, you could probably start earning money tomorrow. Or if you’re an exceptional videographer and can whip out & edit dozens of videos a day, a life of easy money probably exists for you on Youtube.
But the vast majority of us can’t expect anything sooner than 6 months to a year away… can you work that long without daily reinforcement of a paycheck? I strongly suspect that most people who try to start an online business lose heart and stop after just a few months. I did the same thing a few years ago!
Affiliate marketing works. If you have a good product (and there are literally thousands of them!), all you need to do is to introduce that product to someone who’s looking to buy it. Affiliate marketing is the “science” of bringing sellers and buyers together. It simply works. But it’s hard for many people to see the end results.
So they tend to stop doing what’s needed… and end up simply wasting a lot of time.
Youtube Fallacies…
If you are like me, you spend plenty of time watching Youtube videos – and there’s an amazing selection of videos showing you how to make thousands of dollars a day… and having the money tomorrow!
There are also videos – fewer and hard to find – that show the lies being told. I saw one guy who is a success at making videos of him trying out these ‘make money quick’ ideas… and failing every time. Many Youtubers posting these “Get Rich Quick” schemes are doing just fine with the ad revenue from those who believe in their stories… They never seem to be using the “secret technique” themselves – but it doesn’t matter – THEY are getting paid in ad revenue dollars!
There’s no shortcut – you need traffic – and while there are many ways to get traffic – by far the CHEAPEST way is to write good content that people want to read.
This IS hard work, you’re going to have to set aside time regularly to work on this.
If spending time learning new things, and typing long posts that you need to research frightens you – don’t try to make money with affiliate marketing!
Can You Type?
I took a typing class in High School – mainly because there were three other guys and 30 girls in the class… 😁 but that one class paid off for me more than anything else I ever learned in HS & College… I hope you know how to type, because you’ll be doing a lot of it. There are speech to text programs, but nothing is going to beat being able to spin along at 30 or 40 words a minute touch typing.
If you’re not a touch typist, this may not be the best strategy to earn money online – there are other methods that you might want to look into – such as making videos on Youtube.
You’re going to learn Website Hosting, FTP, and WordPress – no way to get around that.
For the type of affiliate marketing that I suggest, you need to have a location that you can reach potential customers from – this is a website. It needs to ‘live’ on a hosting platform, and run on software called a “CMS” – a ‘content management system‘. WordPress is the one I use, but I’ve used others in the past, such as Drupal and GetSimple.
A stat that has been floating around the Internet is ’43’ The number of websites built on WordPress worldwide is 43%… WordPress can be a very powerful platform for earning money – and you’ll definitely need to learn your way around it – fortunately, nearly any question you have is only a Google search away.
If you intend to be making money a year from now – spend three months learning the ins and outs of WordPress… it’s free, and many hosting platforms will even automatically install it for you. Spending three months (say, 5-10 hours a week) learning the platform that can transform your life isn’t really asking much.
Now, I know some of you will jump on Ebay – and *buy* a fully designed website – but you’re only cheating yourself… you’re still going to have to learn how to use it.. best be prepared right from the beginning to do so…
You will absolutely need to learn basic graphic skills – at an absolute minimum you’ll need to learn how to resize photos.
Nothing is more boring than text text text… you need to break it up with photos from time to time. I prefer to have at least one photo for each post, and more photos if necessary to illustrate something. There’s tons of free public photos & videos online for you to use – you’ll learn how to search them out.
But unless you want to pay someone at Fiverr.com to resize photos to what you need in your website, you’ll need free basic software, or even online graphic editors. It’s not hard, and you’ll soon be a graphics wizard. I use Paint.net – it’s easy, and does everything I need it to do… and it’s FREE.
You will spend time (and perhaps money too!) learning the ropes.
If you have the money to spend, I’ll be happy to suggest some learning resources. The funny thing about affiliate marketing is the inverse relationship time has with money. If you have a few thousand dollars to invest, making money can come pretty quickly – mostly by hiring others to do the work. But if you want to start cheap, doing the work yourself is the only option you have.
You can speed up the process of learning by taking a course – or you could start cheap by reading everything on this website, and spending some time on Youtube with others who are willing to share. (Just be careful of the “get rich quick” crowd – learn to distrust anything that comes “easy” or “quick” – real life isn’t that way!
“Perfection Is The Enemy Of Perfectly Adequate”
Don’t try to get everything perfect, you will always be going back to update your content anyway – so just do a decent job, and let it go.
In the TV show Better Call Saul, Jimmy McGill, a morally ambiguous lawyer; says this line to his brother Chuck, who is a highly successful lawyer with a reputation for being a perfectionist. Chuck is so focused on perfection that he often misses opportunities to help his clients or advance his career. Jimmy, on the other hand, is more willing to settle for “perfectly adequate” results, which allows him to be more successful in the long run.
Always working for perfection in every post you write will mean that you will get far less done. Everyone’s hour is just the same – Elon Musk can’t get any more time during that hour than you get – so make the most of it. Spellcheckers, grammar checkers, artificial intelligence, and other text tools can be your friend.
Embrace your friends and move forward…
Patience will be your greatest asset
There will be times when you feel discouraged. You may not make as much money as you want or you may not see the results you expected. But it’s important to never give up. Realize that this is going to take a minimum of 6 months, and more likely a year… Keep learning, keep working hard, and eventually you will achieve your goals. Because affiliate marketing just works.
Here are some of the benefits of having the right mindset for affiliate marketing:
- You will be more likely to succeed. People with the right mindset are more likely to take action and persevere in the face of challenges. This is essential for success in affiliate marketing, as it is a long-term and challenging endeavor.
- You will enjoy the process more. When you have the right mindset, you will find affiliate marketing to be more enjoyable and rewarding. This is because you will be more motivated to learn and grow, and you will be more likely to see the results of your hard work.
- You will make more money. People with the right mindset are more likely to be successful in affiliate marketing, which means they will make more money. This is because they are more likely to find the right products to promote, to create effective marketing campaigns, and to build a strong following.
If you are serious about success in affiliate marketing, it is important to develop the right mindset. By following the tips above, you can increase your chances of success.
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