When Affiliate Marketing Gets You Down

When things just aren’t working out for you, remember…

  • There are countless other affiliates in the exact same shoes as you are. Sometimes affiliate marketing is as simple as putting a few random keywords in and having the offer work out huge. For most, this isn’t the case. For every super affiliate making a lot of money, there’s 200 other affiliates struggling to get out of the red. It’s not always easy and it takes dedication. Some people get lucky their first try, others have to try 50 times to get lucky. But it’s the ones who try 50 times that end up becoming 1 of the 200 super affiliates.
  • There are many many ways to make money online. Now I’m certainly not telling any of you to give up, but if you’ve lost thousands and feel like you gained nothing from it, maybe marketing just isn’t for you. There’s guys that make boatloads of money from SEO, programming, design, etc. Honestly. Making money can be as simple as saying you’re a content creation company, then just outsourcing all of your work. Sell articles for $8 a piece and outsource it for $5.
  • There’s always tomorrow…literally. I’ve had days where campaigns are doing horrible, things are only looking worse, and then the next day it’s like a light switch was turned on. They’re back working well, end up making more money than ever, and I’ve been taken on yet another emotional affiliate roller coaster ride. Tomorrow could be your lucky day…
  • Notice how I keep saying luck a lot? Yeah, most big affiliates got lucky in some way, shape, or form. I’ve gotten plenty lucky before and it’s worked out great. So don’t feel so bad because you think you’re trying your hardest and you’re not getting any results from it…keep trying and eventually you’ll stumble upon something.
  • Know that once you get it…you pretty much got it. I was pretty stagnated for months not earning that much, and then I just “got it” and my earnings skyrocketed. Once again all it takes is one niche…one offer…one group of keywords.
  • Know that it’s definitely possible. I hope one of the things this blog does is serve as an inspiration to those who are struggling to make ends meet. It’s most definitely possible to make a living from affiliate marketing, if some super affiliates can make millions in a month, it can’t be that hard to make a few thousand.
  • Know that you’re trying to do something pretty incredible. Try telling someone that you’re starting up an online business that makes money 24/7 round the clock on autopilot and allows you to work at home whenever you want. Most people out there don’t even believe that it’s possible and will laugh it off (trust me I know from personal experience), and what everybody here is trying to do is totally respectable – even if it doesn’t work out.

Alright just some motivational words from Dr. Phil—-err Dr. Paul for my brothas who are having a rough time making some money. And now for the true message.


31 Comments

  1. May 18, 2008

    I am going through the stages that you are speaking about. 6 Months back I hit the gold online, now I am just digging wherever possible, it is the hope that there is another gold pot somewhere that keeps me going!

  2. Hahaha that puts things in perspective. One question though, about the “once you got it, you got it” point, I’ve had successful offers but nothing that just consistently sustains itself, and it sounds like you have? How is it even possible?

  3. c.v
    May 19, 2008

    I respect you for understanding that luck has lots to do, luck and hard work together combined will make you a super affiliate. I’m sure most successful people will realize their success is part luck and part hard work, combine the two of them and BAM.

    MUCH RESPECT for this post…….

  4. May 19, 2008

    It’s so true about the emotional roller coaster ride that affiliate marketing can give you. Elation one day, down in the dumps the next.

  5. May 19, 2008

    Hi Paul,
    Got you on my IM but never did msg u. Serves as a motivation to keep on working on my campaigns and be successful as you. I will be there one day. Thanks for the post

  6. May 19, 2008

    What’s getting me down is that I’ve done put 3,000 dollars into a campaign and I have a great quality score across the board, but yet a client of ours has a lower ctr level and we have a higher ctr level, but yet there paying 30 cents a click and I’m paying ~1.50 a click.

    That’s discouraging and I don’t know why which granted my account is only 3 months old, but still..

  7. May 19, 2008

    Learn to deal with the winters like Jim Rohn once said. The way I look at is that if you didn’t experience failures then you wouldn’t really appreciate success as much.

    PS: All the toilets must have been taken…

  8. May 19, 2008

    LOL @ the picture! Great article Paul, Keep it up

  9. May 19, 2008

    lol, this guy on the picture looks like me

  10. May 19, 2008

    Love the picture. Thanks for the encouraging words.

  11. Murali
    May 19, 2008

    For a minute I thought it was you in the picture Paul……Kidding!. Great Post!

  12. May 19, 2008

    The harder you work, the luckier you get

  13. May 19, 2008

    “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

  14. May 19, 2008

    “Only a person who does nothing makes no mistakes”

  15. May 19, 2008

    I’m learning not to get caught up in the “roller coaster” of affiliate marketing. I’m no longer checking my stats every 1/2 hour. :)

    Good point on there being other ways to make money online. One of my plans in the very near future is to promote my own product.

  16. May 19, 2008

    Good points but at some point you have to cut your losses and move on right? I’m not having much success but I’m chugging along in hopes that one day, I’ll make some decent coin but with each day passing and more money and time is spent, my will dries up a bit.

  17. May 19, 2008

    I have not yet taken that plunge… but when I do I hope I am successful the first time. Maybe I’ll get lucky eh?! So from the beginning I am researching as much as possible and planning so when the first launch does come it will be worthwhile to lose money on! :)

    Thanks for the motivation though Paul. I remeber when I passed out in a dog bed. :)

  18. May 19, 2008

    In my opinion, you only fail when you give up so never give up and you will never fail. Just gotta keep on keepin on PLAYBOYYYYYYYYY!

  19. May 19, 2008

    Good points.

  20. May 19, 2008

    It is a hard area to get into. With little guides or help on how to get started, it opens a lot of doors for failure. I have tried running some campaigns. Not having tons of money to splurge on the internet, I limit myself to smaller pots. I try taking 25 or 50 bucks and turn it in to 100-200 bucks. WIth little gains like this, you eventually can get to spending 1000 on a campaign and making 5000 off of it. Make the most out of your money. For someone just starting off, don’t try being a big bad super affiliate. Remember you are a rookie and don’t get 300k checks. Start off small. When starting a campaign say ok, how much can I put on the table. Expect to lose all of it, but hope to double it. Don’t put any money up that you aren’t willing to lose!!!

    When you “get it” as paul mentioned, then you can start to gamble and have a different outlook. But just don’t spend the last of your grocery money on a deal if you don’t know what you are doing!

  21. FCO
    May 19, 2008

    Yes if you fail at first your should definately quit, this is to save you and your family from sleeping in a cardboard boxes in front of the Azoogle offices… come on Paul, you’ve gone so PC and want to cater to absolutely everyone that you are “not telling you to give up” if you’ve lost “thousands”?? I think these are the first people you should tell to close up shop…plus all of you wannabes are saturating the market and artificially cutting into the profits of the 20% of us that are succeeding…yeah that’s right wikipedia Pareto’s principle which is also conveniently called “law of the vital few” and couple that with the bank needed for the “law of averages” then tell me which one of you still got the stomach to succeed….Paul, when you know that luck is a factor you might as well tell your audience to go to a casino and gamble their money…..

    welcome to the real world..

  22. Toki Tover
    May 19, 2008

    Thanks for your tips…

  23. May 19, 2008

    this is a great post. I’m just barely on the icing of the cake on affiliate marketing. I had some good days and bad days but each bad day i just wait until tomorrow and see if its brighter.

    You will never know if tomorrow is brighter if you give up

  24. “if you fail at first you should definitely quit” … wtf? you’re joking right?

    i’ve lost thousands but i’ve also made tens of thousands. you have to look at the grand scheme of things and decide if its worth it, not just quit because you had a bad first day

  25. May 20, 2008

    I definitely think that these are some good comments for people who do web work of any type, even if its not affiliate work too.

  26. May 20, 2008

    Sage advice. I’m still on the newer side of aff marketing but my other online industries serve me very well, we’ll have to see where this leads me ;)

  27. Justin Rumpf
    May 20, 2008

    never stop trying. read about thomas edison or ben franklin. see how many ideas of theirs failed. thats good inspiration.

    you only need 1 good idea to make 1 million dollars.

  28. May 20, 2008

    The picture i hope is not from a Affili who lost all his money.

    I hope that a lot of people will visited my website and enjoy Australia.
    (Switch to the English version).

    greeting hans.

  29. May 23, 2008

    Worth the read just for the photo!

    Hilarious.

    -Dave King

  30. May 24, 2008

    Amazing article and the way the article has shaped up is really nice.The emotional aspect of this affiliate marketing is simply something which no one can keep under control because there will be ups and down every now and then.

  31. May 29, 2008

    That photo is the shiznit.

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