SugarRae Tells Affiliates They Need to Have Balls

[Linda Buquet]

…<strong>Balls of Steel</strong>…
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/pheezy/521907607/"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/253/521907607_77de5f9232_m.jpg" alt="Balls of Steel" align="left" height="180" hspace="10" width="240" /></a>

I love reading Rae's blog because she's just so outspoken &amp; well, err... ballsy!

I recently blogged about the affiliate copywriting case study she <a href="http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/1659/case-study-affiliate-copywriting-success.html">posted</a> over at CopyBlogger. A comment over there set her off, or should I say, set her fingers in motion and she wrote a great post about what it really takes to be a successful affiliate.

<strong><a href="http://www.sugarrae.com/find-pair-balls/">How to Find a Pair of Balls</a></strong> - "First, if you’re offended by the post title, learn to have a sense of humor and relax a little. You might live a little longer. And if you take the advice in this post, you’ll likely enjoy those extra years a lot more...

I have "every reason" to have been not only “allowed”, but expected, to “fail” in life. <strong>The only difference between my success and someone else’s lack of it is that I refused to accept, and still do refuse to accept, anything less than what I want for myself in life.</strong>

<strong>I don’t give myself excuses.</strong>

<strong>I don’t wait for **** to be handed to me, I go in search of what I want.</strong>

<font color="#ff6600"><strong>I found my pair of balls (which to me is a combination of belief in myself and a lack of “fear of failing”) and went after what I wanted." </strong></font>

<strong><a href="http://www.sugarrae.com/find-pair-balls/">Go read the rest</a></strong>, then come back to read my comments.

I can't count how many times I've heard affiliates say "I can't make any money because" (insert one): Google hates affiliates, parasites ate my commission, merchant doesn't convert, too much competition, don't have any money for marketing, etc. etc.

Now that's not to say AT ALL that those concerns aren't valid - of course they are! <strong>It's just that many times affiliates (especially in forums) talk about, waste time worrying about and YES making excuses about things they have no control over that stand in their way - instead of spending their energy working on the things they CAN control and finding ways to overcome the obstacles.</strong>

I hope Rae's post inspires many of you to reach further, try harder &amp; helps you find your balls!

 

[jazzguy]

Hey Linda. That was a great post by Rae and thank you for bring it to our attention. There are so many talented, insightful and inspiring individuals on the WWW that it's hard to keep track. I guess I'm gonna have to start RSS'ing...


Of course, she, and you, hit the nail on the head. There are many who feel, and I've "met" them, who think that the world (wide web) owes them a living and that there's some mythical club that keeps them from being successful. And as one commenter on Rae's post pointed out, I too have had a lot of not so close friends wanting to learn about affiliate marketing so they can "cash in"...but when I direct them to forums such as yours or hand them a thick book on HTML/CSS design and ask them to call me back in a month, well...I never hear from them again... Which is fine by me. This industry, like any business, as you know, has its leaders and its followers, and if you don't have that entrepreneurial spirit, that drive that makes you want to forge ahead despite the odds and the naysayers, then you're in the wrong business. The WWW has been likened to the pioneering days of another WWW, the Wild Wild West and it's those individuals who have set themselves up on some real estate and who build upon that land, those are the ones who will, in time (which is a relative term of course) become successful.

When I started I had no clue about HTML, about what it took to get a site put on a server, what FTP was (I thought it was the flower delivery people at first), what worked visually. All that stuff was alien to me. But what I DID know,was that I wanted to make a living off the Web and I would just work s**t out until I got somewhere. And I did. It was hard, and there were many months when I had no clients and I was down to my last $40.00 but then I would get an email from a new client and "the game was afoot" again. And now, I'm still excited after all these years when coming up with a new idea or new website concept...because it is still fun...and challenging...

My apologies for the rant. Once again thanks for bringing this to your readers attention and also, thank you and your moderators for all the hard work in trying to make this industry a little less mystifying. Take care and all the best.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Once again thanks for bringing this to your readers attention and also, thank you and your moderators for all the hard work in trying to make this industry a little less mystifying.

You're welcome Lyle - we try!

And thank you for the great post. There was no rant at all, just some great insight.
Always great for affiliates to hear how someone else persevered through the tough times
and re-enforcing for me to hear you still get excited about new ideas and still find your business
fun and challenging!