I never had the thought “I want to be an affiliate marketer“. It just happened out of curiosity. I was using ebay to make money by finding misspelled items and re-listing them with a better title and description. Have a look at how I did it in this article: how to buy and sell for profit on ebay. But it was e-bay that led me to become an affiliate marketer.
I bought a few “e-books” from ebay which showed me how to make money from the auction site. At that time you could buy a digital product without having to send anything physically. The rules of ebay have changed since but it is this model which is what makes affiliate marketing probably the most flexible business model available. I wanted to be able to sell digital products in my sleep and have them delivered to the customer on complete autopilot, effectively creating an autopilot income system.
I Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer – Early Days
It was after a few searches on the search engine Google that I found my first digital product. I bought a course which taught online marketing and I learned how to sell courses and products online. This was a long time ago now, probably 10 years ago. I thought I was going to make it big and I even created a few of my own products. I soon learned how difficult it was. Before long I was looking for another course and then another. Each one claimed to show the secrets of online riches. Despite putting many hours into these systems, success on the internet eluded me.
I Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer – Traffic
One of the main problems was traffic. I simply didn’t understand how I was going to sell products. I though I could throw us a website and suddenly I would be found. This wasn’t the case. Anyone can throw up a website and never be seen on the internet. I became an expert at building sites which no-one would see! I created site after site, all geared to sell affiliate products.
No sooner had I thrown one together and put it online, I was on with the next one. I thought simply by the numbers I was going to make it work. But not one of them get any traffic. Google saw them for what they were – ‘spammy’ little sites which offered no value. The kind of ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ website which Google will never rank for it’s targeted keywords.
I Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer – Finding Your Passion
Part of the problem was my mindset. I was solely focused on the money and not on offering value. As a result no-one wanted to see my websites. I wrote about various topics too. I had websites on mushroom harvesting,  car auctions,  pasta recipes, even one on building your own shed! I spent months on all these sites and barely sold a thing. I had the odd sale from one or two of the sites but it wasn’t a business, just a very time consuming (and not very much fun) hobby!
I Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer – Perseverance
I kept reminding myself why I wanted this. The idea of a completely flexible lifestyle and job kept me going. I listed my reasons to keep persevering with my online efforts in a bid to maintain my enthusiasm. See them in my top reasons for owning my own internet business. I referred to this list when I was looking for reasons to quit. I decided the model of affiliate marketing was good, I just needed the right direction and training to make it a viable business.
I Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer – Never Quit But Never Stop Learning
Although there is certain amount of repetition with affiliate marketing, you need to keep learning and growing to make affiliate marketing work. Without putting yourself in uncomfortable positions you will never grow. You can get stuck in a pattern of behavior which leads nowhere. Don’t be a ‘busy fool’. One of the problems of affiliate marketing is you can work alone. This can be a double edged sword.
You can please yourself and not be accountable to anyone. This can mean you don’t work hard enough or in the right areas. Make sure you concentrate on the money producing activities. As an affiliate marketer, you don’t get paid unless you sell products. This means you need to spend your time effectively.
I Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer – The Right Training
One of the problems with an online business is that too many people want to show you how it’s done. There is an information overload on the internet. Each course promises faster results the the previous one and so it can be easy to become a perpetual student – always learning, never earning. Make sure you get the right training upfront and take your affiliate marketing business seriously. Treat it as a hobby and you will only earn a ‘hobby’ income. Treat it seriously and you can completely replace your existing income from affiliate marketing.
Access a wealth of coaches, community and support in this online digital platform which will walk you through step by step modules and help you build an online affiliate marketing business from scratch.
