A Day In the Life of a Full-Time Affiliate Marketer

A while back a couple people emailed me a few times requesting that I post what a typical day is like for me. I guess it’s just interesting to read, so I’ll post out an “average” schedule on any ordinary day of the week – we’ll say Monday. It’s going to be hard to really give an accurate example as I do different things all the time, but this is pretty much how my day goes. My schedule has actually morphed a lot lately and I’ve started to become pretty lazy. The more money I’m making, the less motivation I have to work…not a good thing. Anywho it still is what I’ve been doing for the past couple weeks, so here we go.

11:00am (roughly) – The Wakeup

Rise and shine buttercup, it’s time to get up and start your day. My absolute favorite part about working at home full time is that I get to sleep in. The thing that I hate most in this world is having to wake up unnaturally to an alarm. I’m grumpy the entire day if I have to.

11:05-11:30am – Breakfast

I prepare and eat my breakfast until about 11:30. Once I finish half, I bring the second half downstairs and eat it while reading email and checking all the IMs I got overnight. So what does an UberAffiliate eat for breakfast you say? Here’s a pic :

First I mix the protein powder, olive oil, and liquid eggs with a small glass of water. Tastes awful but I chug it and hold my breath. Heat up the oatmeal and then enjoy that with some V8. Not a huge meal, but I eat 6 full-sized meals a day and it’s a nice kickstart.

11:30am-12:00pm – Check Ups

During this time I’ll check a number of things. I’ll respond to any urgent emails, check my stats and see how much I made while I was fast asleep, check this blog and approve any comments, start some IM conversations.

12:00-2:00pm – Work Planning/Research/Phone Calls

Here’s were I do most of my organization/planning for what I want to accomplish in the tail end of the day. I’ll bicker with affiliate managers about payouts, research some new potential offers, check a couple blogs. I’ll also make any phone calls I have to make, which usually requires at least 1 call to Google Adwords every day. Any other phone calls I have to make, I try to make them now as well when business hours in the US are good.

2:00-3:00pm – Break Time

Every day I’ve been finding excuses for myself to “take a break” and play some Xbox 360. I’m starting to become pretty addicted to Halo, so I unleash my killer instincts here and have some fun.

3:00pm-5:00pm – Workout/Dinner

I workout four times a week, and the whole process usually takes a couple hours. I’ll workout for an hour, do a little cardio, hit the showers, and then eat some food. If someone calls me I’ll usually pick it up during the workout, and check IMs/stats in between sets every now and then. My current during-workout-movie is Godzilla that I play on a small TV in my workout room.

5:00-7:30pm – More Planning, Little Work

I’ll continue to plan my next task, and maybe start dabbling with a few things. More phone calls and AIM conversations are also in this period. It’s hard to explain what I mean by “dabbling and planning”, since I’m doing different things all the time. Most of the time it’s just more bickering with affiliate networks and search engines.

7:30-10:00pm – Girlfriend Time

Every weeknight I hang out with my girlfriend from about this time. She has school during the day and has to get up for it early, so this is pretty much the only time we get to hang out. It’s nice because I get to just relax and take my mind off of work (most of the time) and just hang out with my significant other. She’s a great girl and we’ve been dating for a year and a half now, so it’s my favorite time of the day.

10:00pm-2:00am – Execution Time

Here is where I execute most of my work. Day-time business is quited down, it’s night time, quiet, relaxing…I can get some things done. Here is where I’ll design that landing page, start that PPC campaign, optimize that landing page, optimize that PPC campaign, and of course blog (it’s 1:03am right now, perfect timing). Now I will have some IMs up and I’ll browse Wickedfire or something, so it’s not uber-hardcore work here, but I do work.

2:00-3:00am – More Halo 3

This is when I unwind and prepare myself for bed. I get my mind off of work (as some times it’s IMPOSSIBLE to fall asleep when you can’t stop thinking about your new campaign) and do some more gaming. I’m not a huge gaming nerd, but I do love my Halo and NHL ’07.

Exciting, isn’t it?

That’s your average day in my life. Some are more exciting than others. I may get into a vocal conversation with Google and get pretty upset, or I may find out that my payout is getting cut 20% on an offer I’m making a lot of money on and blow a gasket. But then on the flipside some days I’ll have $6.00 EPCs on a $20 offer and go out and spend some money. There’s also events every couple months that I go to, plus out of state visits, so it’s not that mundane.

But that’s the life of a full-time affiliate marketer. Whether I’m 19 or 39, I hope it will stay that way for the entire ride. Hopefully with some effort you guys can get there too. Once you do, hit me up with your gamertag and we’ll fancy a game of Team Slayer.


34 Comments

  1. December 6, 2007

    Heh, Halo 3. You should check out Call of Duty 4! My roommate is a huge Halo person, and I think Call of Duty just won him over!

    Your sleep schedule is ridiculously similar to mine, but I’m a typical college student and part time marketer, so you can fill all the time slots with studying, homework, and Counter-Strike.

    Gotta love being out of the rat race!

  2. December 6, 2007

    Your whole routine reminds me a bit of the gecko :)

  3. aaron
    December 6, 2007

    I’m a huge halo fan and I’m converted to cod4. I hated cod4 and ghost recon but cod4 has got me hooked.

    hit me up.

    gamer tag: xtra balboa

  4. December 6, 2007

    Hey buddy,

    Lol. Your freakin day looks almost like mine :-). Wake up in the morning around this time, eat something, clean around the house ( lol, don’t laugh ), work, make a break, then my gf comes ( she is also still in school :-) ) and then back to work.

    What we are doing diff. is that you play game and make more cash :-). And I watch some movie here and there late night and I make less.

    Maybe I need to start playin games, lol. What’s your thought on that?

    Have a great and prosperous day,
    Hrvoje Livnjak

  5. December 6, 2007

    Thanks for posting your schedule… Mostly jealous of your 11:00 AM wake up time!!!

  6. December 6, 2007

    Hey Paul,

    I agree with getting work done late at night. I’m not sure what it is… maybe all the 9-5ers aren’t bugging me on IM, or the darkness outside doesn’t distract me. Too bad I’m up at 5AM, so when I work nights, it’s only 8-11. It’s hard for me to hit the gym with less than 6 hours of sleep.

    Plus, working with companies in Europe, I need to get those calls done by noon, as that’s when they’re closed for the day.

  7. December 6, 2007

    Quite interesting , everything i hoped it would of been

  8. December 6, 2007

    not bad. wonder if the corporate world will ever wake up and let the programmers work from 10-2 (the natural hours)…

  9. Chris
    December 6, 2007

    Good stuff. Just as a note, if you are trying to put on a little size, you should swap your ON whey for Muscle Milk. I used to use ON, but I switched to MM, and as long as you keep working out, it’s great. Tastes awesome too.

  10. December 6, 2007

    Great post, our IM business runs 9-5 so I play Halo early in the evening.

    But look me up: butch330

  11. December 6, 2007

    forgot to mention, my recipe. Same brand whey, but Cookies N’ Cream. Mix in a spoon of peanut butter, a banana, oatmeal, ice and water or milk (depending on diet). You can sprinkle on a bit of cinnamon on top if you want. Those taste great and are decent. Obviously a lot heavier though and more for gains.

  12. December 6, 2007

    I love working late at night. Its so quite and peiceful, and im about 200% more productive after midnight.

    Instead of Halo though, Im stuck doing stupid school projects in my free time.

    Cant wait to fricking graduate already!

  13. December 6, 2007

    Man remind me not to eat breakfast at your house. Gag!

  14. Josh
    December 6, 2007

    Great blog, thanks for keeping things “real” I love halo as well. If any of you ever want to play, hit me up “testone” is my xbox live tag. Right now I am about lvl 18 but hoping to break that soon in team slayer.

  15. December 6, 2007

    Heh. Sounds like a pretty normal day…

  16. December 6, 2007

    Dood,

    Thats a top post. Very interesting to read your daily routine. Sadly at the ripe old age of 29, my routine *used* to be like that.

    Keep kickin’ ass before too many committments bog you down.

    Good stuff’ good post.

  17. December 6, 2007

    Sounds like something I wouldn’t mind. If only school didn’t take up like 6hrs a day.

    Good to hear about the internet lifestyle of an uber affiliate. I’m sure we’ll get there someday.

  18. December 6, 2007

    Quite interesting. It’s very good to hear about the internet life of another affiliate. Yeah, I definitely love the sleeping in too. Your day is a lot more structured than mine, but I do find time to spend with the girlfriend and time to work out usually 5-6 times a week. Some days I work a lot though and those are the days that I bring it in. Well, very interesting…

  19. December 6, 2007

    Oh, I play Halo all the time, but don’t have Live…so maybe I’ll look into that…

    Later..

  20. December 6, 2007

    Ah, I do miss being able to sleep in. Kids don’t let you do that, no matter how well business is going.

  21. December 6, 2007

    nice workout – I workout in the morning but before breakfast – nice schedule!

    that is a big tub of whey protein!

  22. December 6, 2007

    I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who enjoys getting the majority of work done during the late hours.

    My day involves no xbox… a bit of Team Fortress 2 though. ;)

  23. December 6, 2007

    Love your schedule :)

  24. Big Pete
    December 6, 2007

    Paul,

    I’m closer to 39 and 2008 is the year go Pro. Full time IM baby!

    Love your blog. Keep it up man.

    cheers,

    Pete

  25. December 6, 2007

    No offense.. I’m trying to say this in a mature way, but this is more like “A day in the life of a 17 year old punk”

    ..stick to the affiliate tips bud

    Carl

  26. Maximus
    December 6, 2007

    What does the olive oil in the breakfast drink do for you?

  27. Coops
    December 7, 2007

    Hey man, here is my gammer tag. Add me to ur list and will have a game some time.

    GamerTag: ambienc3

  28. December 7, 2007

    Enjoy it whilst you can. I bet when you’re 39, you’d be in bed by 11pm. ;p

  29. December 10, 2007

    “First I mix the protein powder, olive oil, and liquid eggs with a small glass of water. Tastes awful but I chug it and hold my breath.”

    lol, nice!

  30. strokeofg
    December 10, 2007

    “check IMs/stats in between sets every now and then”

    curious as to what device you use to check such things?

  31. December 11, 2007

    Of course, gotta get in the time for ‘gaming’, even in the wee-early hours. :D

  32. December 16, 2007

    Sounds like a pretty good day to me…always interesting to see what affiliate marketers when they’re not driving around in ferrari’s and renovating their mansions.
    ~ Dave

  33. December 18, 2007

    Looks like somebody’s bulking :)

  34. Your daily routine looks like mine. :D It’s kinda creepy.

Leave a Comment