Gosh darn it’s frustrating isn’t it? You’ve been working soooo hard on your affiliate sites, often staying up till 2am on a work night to try and make your big break into affiliate marketing or push your affiliate business on to new heights.
Or have you?
Here’s my top 8 reasons why those hours spent industriously in front of your computer screen might not be as industrious as you thought.
1. Twitter and Facebook. Great places to network with other affiliates and get all important industry contacts. However, Mafia Wars and Farmville do not count as networking, and nor does spending hours pointlessly retweeting articles you’ve never read in the hope of ingratiating yourself to Jeremy Schoemaker and Shawn Collins so they will DM you everything you need to know about dominating the affiliate world in 140 characters or less.
2. Online Forums. Yes, A4U is spiffing in every way and is jam packed with useful information (alternatively insert forum name of your choice). However if you’re spending all your time on there starting (or answering) threads about just about every possible problem you might come up against in affiliate marketing over the span of your career you’re going to start to notice that your business has completely failed to grow despite you asking questions about it till you’re blue in the face.
3. Spending Hours Working Out What Other People Are Doing Isn’t Work! Every single day I have searches to all of my sites from people searching on my company name having a good nosey. Completely understandable of course, everyone has a wee internet nosey every now and again… but looking at what other people do isn’t going to help you work out what you need to do for yourself to make you some cash. Take a look around, say “my that’s cool”, and then get on with creating some genius ideas to revolutionise your own business. Oh, and whilst I’m on don’t use the CTRL+C button to do this. Particularly if you’ve been looking at one of my sites 
4. Does This Sound Familiar? “I was up till 5am last night looking at super affiliates. I reckon that Amit Mehta must be on at least $30,000 per second or part thereof. Did I tell you he has an American Express Black Card? It’s so cool. Oh, oh! and I read on Twitter that John Chow went out for dinner and had made $9,000 by the time he got back. Oh man!” If you have found yourself in possession of lots of facts and figures of this nature recently I have some ill tidings about your career. You’ve been titting about and not working!!!
5. You Have a Portfolio of 743 Red Hot Niche Domains. How Many Websites? If the number is between zero and none, or you have 7 half finished designs lurking around the internet looking sorry for themselves, guess what? You haven’t been working at all. If you’ve been an “affiliate marketer” for 6 months or more and think that’s a good achievement I have some bad news. You’re not an affiliate marketer, you’re Walter Mitty.
6. Similarly, You Have 10 Websites but every time you start one you get bored after two weeks and start another one before you’ve even given it a chance to work. You’re always seeking the pot of gold at the end of the affiliate rainbow but you’re not looking at your own two feet which is often where the rainbow starts. Dig for the pot of gold in what you’ve already achieved. You might be surprised at what you find there. The money in this game is in consistency and measured application of your skills. Put that scattergun away!
7. You’re Not Doing Anything At All… Despite knowing that you should be. Now this may be obvious but it’s more common than you think. Suddenly your affiliate mojo has deserted you, shot the craw as we say in Scotland. It often happens to people who have worked long and hard to go full time. They achieve their goal and suddenly discover that David Dickenson is their idol and they can’t rip eyes off him on his many daytime TV shows. Solution? Personally, I usually stop staring at the computer screen blankly alternately stressing and contemplating my navel, step back for a day or three, have a think about it all, and take another run up to see if I can get back on the work train. Works about 7 times out of 10.
8. The People Around You Don’t Think AM is a “Real” Job (one for the full timers here) You will therefore be more than happy to be volunteered for all duties at your kids’ school. Furthermore you don’t mind at all when people call round for coffee unannounced or ring you up to help them solve the trivial emergency of the day. I’m not sure why people do this. I’m assuming they think that because it involves computers the process of making money is fully automated and requires no human intervention. Solving this requires assertiveness and in some cases downright rudeness. This can be fun if you’re not particularly fond of the offender.
And Finally…
I’ve devoted lots of words to describing the many ways you can waste your time as an affiliate and I’m sure there are many more I could have used. However the solution is way more succinct. Honesty. Be honest with yourself about what you’re supposed to be doing and what constitutes a good day of progress – you’ll be amazed how much more productive you can be.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Very funny yet very true – I think number 6 is relevant to me. I never read up on the super affiliates anymore – lots of their money is from their own hype or getting in very early. Its the affiliates who got in late yet still make it that impress me.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Some great points Kirsty. Even having focused on just 2 websites, I feel the urge to try/test new things on a different website to test new ideas (format rather than niche).
I no longer buy domains until I need them, and I have reduced email and twitter time to focus on my work.
However, although I better understand the type of traffic I need to target for conversions, I am still struggling to get that traffic for my niche. And trying to start a business at the same time to bring in the monthly salary is also hard work!
Dan
March 10th, 2010 at 10:40 am
It gets very frustrating and demoralising when things don’t work out as planned and a bit of a break as you suggest in #7 works most of the time for me, too!
Note to self – less reading, more action!!
H
March 10th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Great article, thanks.
I’ve been guilty of a number of these in the past, and others ring true.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Good point by Hamish. We can’t all be experts like you!
As much as we read, understand and try, some of us still just can’t ‘crack’ AM. Making a few pennies here and there doesn’t count, as that’s accidental!
Dan
March 10th, 2010 at 10:50 am
I think the hardest part of affiliate marketing, especially at the start, is the blind faith that’s required.
When you’re used to a 9-5 job or running an offline business where you do some work and then you get paid, the months of content creation, etc. required to succeed online with potentially no reward, can be very demoralising.
The temptation then is to look to the gurus, hang out in forums, try new stuff all the time in the hope of a home run – working for no reward is no fun!
Far too many “gurus” gloss over this aspect of AM when in truth, they’ve worked their arses off and probably still do.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Hi Kirsty, I suppose in one way or another we all get sucked into this at some point, as a P-T affiliate I find I have to be disciplined in making stuff happen when I really can’t be arsed after a full days work in 9-5 world. I find a good adage is “plan the work, work the plan…” therefore you always have something on your to do list which gives a sense of achievement when you can cross it off, even if its a small job!
March 10th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Number 8!!
My day according to everyone I know:
I get up at the crack of noon, read a couple of emails, watch some telly, have a cup of tea, maybe read another email (if I can be bothered), watch some more telly.
At about 3.30, I decide Ive had enough of all that and stop to do nothing instead.
In reality:
Up at 7
graft till somebody calls (again) to ask if I read that email they sent involving a Dog and a skateboard/surfboard/fat woman. After 30 minutes of them describing it (whether Ive seen it or not) I graft again until either someone else calls to repeat the cycle, or it gets to about 2am.
I wish everyone would just f*** **f so I can get on with earning more money than they do.
March 10th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Hey Kirsty,
First time I have came across your blog and it is inspiring me to pull the finger out as we say in Northern Ireland
March 10th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Great article, so true for more than just AM. Also, loved Carl’s comment above…but don’t worry about ‘getting in’ early or late, there is always earlier and later!!
March 10th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
[...] who makes a great living while she travels the globe. Read what she has to say in her latest post: 8 Reasons Why Your “Hard Work” Isn’t Paying Off in Affiliate Marketing Gosh darn it’s frustrating isn’t it? You’ve been working soooo hard on your affiliate sites, [...]
March 10th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Eight extremely pertinent observations but for newbies, or in my case an oldie trying to soak up vast amounts of information in order to become established in this new environment, it is somewhat difficult at times to remain focused when being bombarded with often conflicting information by so called experts.
However, us silver surfers need assurances periodically and I find visiting sites like yours extremely rewarding as I will often pick up a few nuggets of information.
Your main theme though is spot on, it is the “Butterfly Syndrome” yesterday’s fantastic idea is in today’s waste bin.
I have now set daily targets and am determined to complete my project: site now set up, affiliate products registered, next folks the main events – LINKS & TRAFFIC.
Wish me luck
March 11th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Re “You’re not an affiliate marketer, you’re Walter Mitty”.
LOL excellent. Really good blog post and food for thought. Love Walter
March 11th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Great post Kirsty.
First timer here but am stepping up my game as they say as I can identify with a fair few of those, but that was in the past!
March 11th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
9. Too much time spent blogging about methods and not enough time actually implementing them.
I wonder how many other bloggers fall in to that category =p
Good points all in all. I use a Firefox extension called Leechblock to control my bad browsing habits. It’s worth checking out.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
I absolutely love this post, being a UK affiliate marketer of some six months’ standing now, full-time. Point eight is the one that resonates for me – I am seen to be “at home all the time” so I “won’t be busy”.
Also, I cannot begin to explain to the technophobe family and friends around me what exactly it is that I do. They think I “work in computing” and that’s it. Laptop won’t connect – ring Michael. Got a virus on the PC? Ring Michael. The fact that I hate computer hardware is somehow lost on them.
Kirsty, I absolutely love what you do. Thank you.
Michael
March 11th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
If I may respond to Michael…know all about the computer geek title. I spent days on a computer problem for a new neighbour. He thought I was a ‘computer geek’ ‘cos I work from home and I wanted to make a good neighbourly gesture.
The solution to this one…reminds me of a technique I used as a young, dating man. If a girlfriend wanted me to help washing up after she cooked me dinner, I would drop a plate (well nearly if they looked expensive). They never wanted me near the washing up afterwards.
So I guess crashing your friends’ computers when they ask you to help might work…hehe
Seriously, you might try telling them you are a writer rather than ‘computer anything…’.
March 13th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
All very true! I spent the past two years trying a number of strategies for making money with internet marketing. I did pretty well, too! Added a lot to my bottom line, and more importantly learned a lot of skills. But had I stuck with one thing, I would have done much better. I’m sticking with one thing now, building large, affiliate sites with plenty of truly good content. This more patient approach is already paying dividends, and I’m sure in the long haul will turn out to work very well. Thanks for the great post!
March 14th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Guilty of all of the above! Today for example I’ve spent most of the day reading about a ‘super-affiliate’ I have a tenuous link with in real life. Lazy days…
March 16th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Hmm. Occasionally guilty of 5, 6 and 7. Definately 8 (but then that’s other people, not me). Presumably reading this and commenting qualify me for 2, 3 and 4 combined. That just leaves 1 so excuse me while I retreet this and please immediately DM me everything I need to know about dominating the affiliate world in 140 characters or less.
Thanks.
March 18th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Excellent post Kirsty. This is true regardless of the industry or job classification.
You only get out what you put in. Another quote I like is…”if you continue to do the same thing, you will continue to get the same results”.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Having the tenacity to continue with something and not getting distracted is key to making it work. It’s true there are many lessons to learn from those who have gone before but at some stage you have to take a leap of faith and strike out on your own. It doesn’t matter if you fail at first, in fact it’s probably better if you do.
I would add one more thing to your list: you won’t succeed by joining endless programs. Choose one and stick to it or even better, create your own! Good post, I’ll be following your RSS