Not too long ago I visited Uluru (or Ayres Rock to all you rampaging colonialists). It’s a truly, truly inspirational place… despite how well-worn it is in terms of being a familiar image associated with Australia. As soon as the rock came into view I was completely struck by a feeling of power and immensity.

How does this relate to affiliate marketing? Bear with me! As soon as we arrived, my partner Duncan felt totally let down. We crowded into a camp site with thousands of caravanners, set in a bland resort purpose built for the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the rock each year. Duncan felt his expectations of getting to grips with the huge cultural importance attached to the rock by the ancient aboriginal culture, were melting away.

However, I was unperturbed. I knew that we could still “commune with the rock” despite the thousands of other tourists thronging around the Uluru scene. As always in an apparently crowded marketplace, the road less travelled is the key to a truly great experience. So in accordance with the wishes of the traditional owners of Uluru, we walked around the great rock instead of over it. 10 kilometers of completely deserted, stunning views of the rock. We discovered aboriginal rock paintings, hidden waterholes, and beautiful solitude with the iconic rock. We saw 4 other people in 3 hours. We got the rock to ourselves by avoiding the cattle-like instincts of every other tourist in the place.

… and this is exactly what I find with affiliate marketing. So often I find a profitable wee gem in an apparently hugely overcrowded market. As with the request not to climb the rock, the indicators of an untapped niche are often staring you in the face, you just have to be prepared to find your own road less travelled. Do not follow the crowd. Do not do the glaringly obvious.

In short, often doing things even marginally differently from what you see staring you in the face is they key to finding your own little bit of affiliate paradise!

We made the effort to find the Uluru you don’t see in the media or popular images…

… and boy did it ever pay off big time!

I love affiliate marketing. I eat, sleep, and breathe it. Why? I could go on forever, but here are my main reasons.

Every day I wake up, and it feels a bit like Christmas. I have a funny little feeling of excitement in the pit of my stomach and a great feeling of optimism. The cause? My one true passion in life, affiliate marketing. As soon as I open my eyes, that’s me… I have to get up, grab a quick tea and get straight onto the internet to assess what happened yesterday and plan my day ahead.

The other great thing about affiliate marketing, is that you don’t need to stay in one place to do it. You can take time off whenever you like and generally your earnings don’t suffer from it (within reason!). I’ve been travelling for the last 7 months and running my affiliate business on the road. So far I’ve been to Thailand, New Zealand, and half way round Australia whilst still earning 5 times my salary when I worked for an online marketing agency.

I feel blessed each and every day. Whenever I’m doing something amazing on my trip like swimming on a beautiful reef in Thailand, or sitting on an impossibly beautiful beach, I think about affiliate marketing… because it’s the real vehicle that has brought me to all the wonderful places I’m seeing right now. I do have to work part time on my trip… here’s a picture of me in my mobile office complete with internet connection from a 3G datacard.

Finally, I love affiliate marketing for its wonderful economy of scale. One person can run a business with virtually limitless turnover and profit. Once you have something set up and bringing in an income stream, you can move onto your next project again, and again, and again, and watch the turnover slowly build into something truly special. This is a simplification; but if I really told you guys how I do things, this post would be encyclopaedic in nature!

Affiliate marketing… I love you!!

I posted this a while back on the A4UForum “Real World” section. I just wanted to include it here because it documents what was probably the most frightening experience of my life during our current travels in Australia… and it gives a bit of an idea of my personality

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I feel I need to share the out of body experience I had recently whilst trying to perform the simple but essential task of checking myself for grey hairs in the mirror on the passenger side of our van. I’m only just able to talk about this you understand.

Those of you who know me really, really, well will no doubt be aware that my reaction to arachnids is somewhat spectacular. I feel like I’m trying to breathe underwater whenever I see even a teeny tiny one a few feet away. Read the rest of this entry »