The love and the hate of affiliate marketing, expanding on K's threads.....
The worst of it for me is all of the misinformation. Misinformation has lead me to many losses over the past 6 months. All of it from "reputable sources", so to speak. My first three months I managed to get back my $2000 investment and push it to $3000. Over the past few months, that investment has dwindled considerably. I experimented with methods, tactics, and strategies recommended by several "reputable" sources for scaling up and it cost me. Now I have less to invest than I started with.
Now that I have stated my disappointments, I must proclaim my love for the business!
The greatest value is the independence. That said, I have always been rather independent in my work, with a few exceptions. The independence, as long as you have a developed level of discipline (the knowledge of self control), is actually both freeing and confining. It's freeing because one has no limitations set upon one's direction or efforts towards one's direction. It's confining because, like any original work, one must wear all of the hats to get the job done. It's true that one can eventually outsource some work, however, other than menial tasks, any original work must be your own. Another argument for that has served me well is to avoid assigning tasks to someone else that I haven't first mastered myself. Obviously if you are not a Java programmer and need Java programming, this doesn't apply. But when it comes to writing copy, building landers, creating banners, setting up tracking, etc., then I recommend learning to do that yourself before you assign it to another person. remember, you need to be able to train, motivate, delegate, and inspect the work that is assigned and that is hard to do when you cannot do it yourself.
The second greatest value for me is that there is no earnings ceiling. The sky is the limit. The lucky ones that make it through the learning curves and have a steady positive ROI can typically move through the ranks to where the "real" money is. For me, this would be $1000 a day and up. Getting there is elusive. Many say this is unachievable, but they would be wrong. There are those that achieve this, but actually knowing the details to get there is what makes this so elusive for most of us. I have been at the top of my game in several industries over the last 30 years, and each time it has been with a mentor that was as committed to my success as they had been to there own. This is very difficult to find in this industry. No one wants to "give up the ghost", as it were!
I'm a tactile person, I learn best from example, however, I am excellent at writing and have had extremely successful results in other industries with my ability to tell a story. So I learn from physical examples, but I am most excellent at expression through writing. I know it's odd, but that is who I am and it poses struggles in this industry for me.
Finally, what I love about this industry can be thought of as the other side of the same blade. While I hate the abundance of misinformation in this industry, I love and salute the guys like "K" that are making every attempt at spreading the word and getting exciting and actionable information out to us at a reasonable price. Now if I could only get myself successful enough in this industry to properly honor the efforts of people like "K", I would be a very happy camper!
Always at your service, T J
The worst of it for me is all of the misinformation. Misinformation has lead me to many losses over the past 6 months. All of it from "reputable sources", so to speak. My first three months I managed to get back my $2000 investment and push it to $3000. Over the past few months, that investment has dwindled considerably. I experimented with methods, tactics, and strategies recommended by several "reputable" sources for scaling up and it cost me. Now I have less to invest than I started with.
Now that I have stated my disappointments, I must proclaim my love for the business!
The greatest value is the independence. That said, I have always been rather independent in my work, with a few exceptions. The independence, as long as you have a developed level of discipline (the knowledge of self control), is actually both freeing and confining. It's freeing because one has no limitations set upon one's direction or efforts towards one's direction. It's confining because, like any original work, one must wear all of the hats to get the job done. It's true that one can eventually outsource some work, however, other than menial tasks, any original work must be your own. Another argument for that has served me well is to avoid assigning tasks to someone else that I haven't first mastered myself. Obviously if you are not a Java programmer and need Java programming, this doesn't apply. But when it comes to writing copy, building landers, creating banners, setting up tracking, etc., then I recommend learning to do that yourself before you assign it to another person. remember, you need to be able to train, motivate, delegate, and inspect the work that is assigned and that is hard to do when you cannot do it yourself.
The second greatest value for me is that there is no earnings ceiling. The sky is the limit. The lucky ones that make it through the learning curves and have a steady positive ROI can typically move through the ranks to where the "real" money is. For me, this would be $1000 a day and up. Getting there is elusive. Many say this is unachievable, but they would be wrong. There are those that achieve this, but actually knowing the details to get there is what makes this so elusive for most of us. I have been at the top of my game in several industries over the last 30 years, and each time it has been with a mentor that was as committed to my success as they had been to there own. This is very difficult to find in this industry. No one wants to "give up the ghost", as it were!
I'm a tactile person, I learn best from example, however, I am excellent at writing and have had extremely successful results in other industries with my ability to tell a story. So I learn from physical examples, but I am most excellent at expression through writing. I know it's odd, but that is who I am and it poses struggles in this industry for me.
Finally, what I love about this industry can be thought of as the other side of the same blade. While I hate the abundance of misinformation in this industry, I love and salute the guys like "K" that are making every attempt at spreading the word and getting exciting and actionable information out to us at a reasonable price. Now if I could only get myself successful enough in this industry to properly honor the efforts of people like "K", I would be a very happy camper!
Always at your service, T J
