I make my living with the affiliate marketing business model, and so do thousands of other online entrepreneurs.
Within the 5 years of doing this wonderful business full-time, I have learned the many dos and don’ts, as well as the wants and needs that come with the territory.
Today I want to go over some of the things you MUST understand before even getting started with affiliate marketing so that you don’t go pulling out your hair.
Too many people come into the business without such knowledge, which leads to a lot of not-so-wonderful things.
- Stress
- Frustration
- Belief that it does not work
- You Quitting
The latter is, of course, the most common thing to happen and one that we want to prevent.
Having one of the best affiliate marketing courses is only half the battle.
Without the proper knowledge of how everything works, well, you will “fail.”
Miserably.
So before any of that happens, let’s go over some of the things that you must know before you get involved with this very unique business.
1. You Will Not Make Money Right Away
The affiliate marketing model is great, but it will not make you an overnight millionaire like most gurus claim.
In fact, you will most likely not make a single penny within the first few months of starting out.
There is a process that comes with the business, and you want to focus on that process and nothing else.
So if your site is brand spanking new and you have 5 posts, you might want to stop checking your stats because you’re wasting your time.
This is the first thing you need to understand as it leads to other things in your business.
2. Patience is a Must
Just like how you’re not going to make money right away, you are going to need patience.
A lot of it.
Not just in the money-making part but also with traffic and the overall function of your site.
Every site starts with a blank canvas and gets built out from there.
Set small goals and tackle them one at a time.
Maybe focus on making your site look like a real site or creating more content to build to get that look.
Once you get it looking and feeling like a real site, you will get over that hump of feeling too new.
Your posts will not get ranked right away either, so focus on building more content, regardless of how much traffic you are not getting.
3. You Need to Build
If you’ve done two blog posts and you’re wondering where the sales are, you can forget about trying to succeed online.
The way I like to build my business is by working on one post at a time.
Along the way, you can start building out your menu items along with your sidebar.
For now, keep the content engine rolling, and everything else will fall into place.
4. Content is a Must
Although you can make money without a website using affiliate marketing, don’t do it.
Every successful affiliate marketer has used and will always have their very own website.
On that website will be content.
Content that will get you traffic and sales that you will work at getting.
If you feel that you can do this without creating any content, then you’re in the wrong line of work.
And if you feel that you are not a writer, you might want to check this post out.
If this non-writing dude who went an extra year in high school can do it, there is really no excuse.
5. You Must Be Consistent
Creating content is one thing, but there is more to the equation.
Too many people create an awesome blog post one day and then take a whole month to create another one.
Or they do like I did and blogged for a whole month straight and then stopped the following month.
If you can only do a post a week, then so be it.
If you can do 3-4, then more power to you.
Now if you can knock out a post a day, you can, of course, see results a lot faster.
Just don’t forget about everything else I just mentioned or you will be scratching your head come month 6.
6. Not Every Post Will Be #1
For SEO purposes, our goal is going to get ranked on page 1 of Google at the very least.
The #1 spot is always our ultimate goal, but early on, you can’t expect to get there.
Now if you do everything I just mentioned above, you will see that post jump from page 10 to page 3 and eventually to page 1.
As long as what?
As long as you remain consistent.
Then come month 12, and you should see some immediate rankings, which is always the best feeling.
7. There is Not Only One Way to Monetize Your Site
Making money selling other people’s products is always going to be a great way to make money but it doesn’t stop there.
Once you gain some traction and trust, you can expand to advertising and some sponsorships.
Adding an advertising platform will increase your income if you are even getting just 500 visitors a day.
But with some consistency and patience, you will see that number increase as the days and months go by.
For now, focus on building and growing your site.
8. There is No Perfect Niche
If you’re anything like me, picking a niche is already a task and a half.
You probably picked a niche that you are probably not passionate about, and that is okay.
Don’t think that you need to stick with it, though as your first choice is usually not your last.
If you find yourself having trouble creating content on your chosen niche, you might want to think things over.
Don’t think that you wasted your time creating the 2 posts on there because you really didn’t.
Now if you went 6 months without creating any content in that niche, then you have definitely wasted a lot of time.
I had that same problem, but now I look at everything as a learning lesson.
It’s better you make the change now rather than 2 years down the road.
9. You Will Always Be a Student
Just like how the internet is always changing, the same thing goes with affiliate marketing.
What worked now will not work later, just like when Google decided to throw out an update.
As an affiliate marketer, you can’t ever think that you know it all.
Once that happens, you will most likely go back down the hill all because you wanted to get complacent.
It’s happened to me, and I’m sure it has happened to thousands of other affiliate marketers.
Always make it a point to learn something new, and don’t be afraid to take advice from someone who is new to all of this.
Heck, they’ve probably learned something new about something you thought would never change.
There are so many moving parts to this business, and the learning will never, ever stop.
So keep that in mind the minute you think you just mastered the art of affiliate marketing.
10. Affiliate Marketing is Worth it
I don’t care what anyone thinks, the end result is a completely worthwhile investment.
If you’ve ever seen the quote above, you need to understand that it is reality.
Break out of your comfort zone and forget about trying to do what everyone else is doing.
Start your affiliate marketing business today and work towards the freedom that most people will never get to have.
Lucky for you, you now know what it takes to succeed with something like affiliate marketing.
Conclusion – Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business
Affiliate marketing is one business that I’m glad I found.
Thanks to the thousands of scams on the net, something so amazing is being hidden like it is some kind of secret.
If you can understand everything I just laid out for you, there is no reason as to why you can’t succeed online.
There is no other legitimate business model out there that costs as little as this and can give you a nice reward.
I pay $50/month to run my business, and I’m sure you know that you can’t do that anywhere else.
So do yourself a favor and start yours today.
And if you need more help with little tips and tricks that I use, you can join me here in this community.
Not only will you learn more about affiliate marketing, but you will get the help and support that is needed to succeed online.
Besides that, I hope this post has helped you in one way or another.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.