Affiliate marketing is a very popular way to make money online. However, its popularity doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. There are certain skills needed and a certain amount of time and energy required to make it work.
If affiliate marketing interests you, before jumping in, think about the following:
Marketing Skills
This might be stating the obvious, but it does bear mentioning.
You need good marketing skills to make this work for you. The better your marketing skills, the better the chance you have at being successful at affiliate marketing. Some people dread, dislike or hate marketing. If you’re one of them, that’s fine. What you do need to ask yourself is can you still make affiliate marketing work for you even if you dread/hate doing an intrinsic part of what will aid in your progress? Can you learn to find it bearable so you can make a success of it?
Time
According to Ben Givon, CEO of BAFF Networks, “It takes some time to learn and apply various aspects of affiliate marketing. Will you have the time? How much of it will you have? What other commitments do you have? Can you (and how can you) juggle affiliate marketing alongside your commitments?”
Tip: If time will be a factor, you could wake up an hour earlier each day and use that extra hour to your advantage. That’s seven hours of affiliate marketing.
Or you could go to bed an hour later – whichever works for you. Some people feel more energized first thing in the morning, while others feel it at night. Do what works for you.
Motivation/Perseverance
You might be one of the few lucky ones that hit the ground running and start making money from affiliate marketing from the jump. And you may not. The latter is more likely, because the reality is for a lot of people who’ve gotten into this, it’s usually taken a while for them to see the fruits of their labor.
Ben asks you to consider “In the time it takes for you to start making money, and good money, what will you do to motivate yourself? What will keep you going? Maybe for you, the potential money you could make is the motivator. However, there may be times when you might need more than that when you’ve been at it for a while and you’re making little to no money.”
A few tips:
- Celebrate every single dollar you make, especially the first.
- Read the affiliate blogs of folks who’ve been where you are and are where you want to be.
- Watch videos you find motivating.
Confidence/Belief/Mindset
Do you have the confidence to believe that a future success in affiliate marketing is possible for you? It’s good to be realistic/balanced about what is possible in this field and what is not, but being confident is one of the important foundations on which success is built. It’s one of the things that will keep you pushing on the days you’d rather stay in bed and pull the covers over your head. It will be your rocket fuel. It will be the voice that will tell you not to put that alarm on snooze when it goes off. It will get you up and out.
According to Mr. Ben Givon, “With the affiliate marketing industry continuing to grow at a fast rate, there is no better time than now to get involved.”
This is true. But with that, there are things you need to consider before making a decision on whether to jump in. Is this really for you? Do you have the skill, time, level of motivation, perseverance and self confidence to bring your success to fruition, to stick it out when the going gets tough? Because it will take all of that and more.
Here’s to making the right choice for you, and to your success if you choose to pursue the affiliate marketing route.
