I’ve been thinking today about the critical ingredients for affiliate success. Why? Because I’m feeling a bit frustrated and negative right now and considering how hard work and the desire to succeed are simply not enough to really start bringing in the big bucks as an affiliate.
I’m sure all seasoned affiliates will know what I’m talking about when I say that there is most definately an affiliate “X Factor” (My thanks to Martin Warn for that phrase via MSN recently). There are just some people you meet in this industry and you immediately think “Oh yeah baby! You are definately a rising star in the making.”
So What Is That X Factor?
Well, I reckon if I knew for sure I’d be raking it in because I’d have been able to analyse it all and would be selling millions of “How to Be a Good Affiliate” e-books.
When you meet an affiliate who makes a full time living, they are always an intensely interesting, motivated person to be around. They have a creative presence that is almost magnetic.
But This Isn’t A Post About Affiliate Star Spotting
Many would be affiliates desire the flexible lifestyle, the money and everything else. But who doesn’t? Lots of people want it and then simply can’t be assed to do anything about it or want it handed to them on a plate. A handful of people are incredibly motivated and will do just about anything to succeed. OK, that’s 80% of the battle but I’ve met plenty of people with 50 content rich websites who were making a pittance in comparison to the work they’d been putting in. Why? Well, its usually because they’re simply following a mindless formula and churning out a lot of stuff that may never work for them on the grand scale they have in mind.
People Who Succeed Have Something In Common…
The Affiliate “X Factor” is what lets you find that niche that will actually work. I believe that involves a huge amount of creative and lateral thinking, as well as the ability to empathise strongly with the mindset of the online consumer, and predict upcoming buying trends.
Ideas? Ideas? If you have too many of them and have to keep a notepad beside your bed and have recently had to invest in a waterproof one for when you’re in the bath, then you might just have that X Factor.
BUT
I’ve also met a lot of people with the affiliate mojo who didn’t have the ability to do the hard graft to bring all their wild and wonderful ideas to fruition.
So If You Wonder Why The Market Isn’t Being Flooded With New Affiliates….
Not only do you need to be one of the lucky few have that fabulous ability for hugely creative entrepreneurial thinking and be able to see that highly lucrative niche from a mile off – you also need to be one of the handful the inclination to do all the hard graft to make them work.
Do YOU have the affiliate X Factor? Do you have what it takes to make it work? Think about it.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
“I say UK, you say talent. Affiliate Talent, I’ve got affiliate talent!”
To borrow from DJ Talent from the X factor, I think it encompasses what we all want!
June 11th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Whats that statistic? 5% of affiliates make 95% of the money. Or 10% make 90% of the money or something. Enough said.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
As much as I don’t want to agree, I do… I think at the moment I need to find my hidden affiliate x factor
Do you think that the X factor is something you can find, rather than something you are born with?
June 11th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I have to disagree on this one
I know a few affiliates who make quite a lot more than your average full-time income from doing this yet they don’t really have a clue. I don’t mean that in a bad way.
I think hard work and determination pays off, those who do have the affiliate x factor as you call it generally do turn out to be the super affiliates. But there’s still room to make a very very very good full-time income from just following tried and tested methods and putting the work in!
(good post by the way, I just think you’re being pesimistic!)
June 11th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
[...] What is the affiliate X factor and do you have it? Kirsty over at Affiliate Stuff has some ideas and is starting a discussion about it. I add my 2 cents below. Affiliate X Factor – The Sure Fire Secret of Success [...]
June 11th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Thanks for the comments guys. I was trying to find my way through a vague and nagging feeling I get sometimes in the above post as I do think a lot of people have that intangiable ability to innovate and make cash.
@Rich I’m sure there are some people making money who don’t have a clue, nothing I say is 100% right for the entire population. I’d be making a fortune off betting if it was!! However from experience I must say that I’ve found the kind of people you speak eventually come up against some kind of problem they just can’t solve i.e. Adwords QS or changing Google SEO rules.
I think I might have been trying to say you really need the passion to understand the whole process and the determination to keep on trying as well as that X Factor.
Hard to explain, but I hope I’ve done a reasonable job!!
June 11th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
yeah, i keep running into problems myself (as you know!) yeah good point about google ever evolving! It does take a lot of patience and is really testing when things constantly go wrong.
I agree tho some people do just have a better natural skill set for it (the x factor) like the guys behind easycontentunits. I think you’ve got the x factor for overcoming google penalty’s by the looks of it
June 12th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Don’t talk to me about them this week!! that’s one of the reasons I’m feeling pessimistic, I’ve an Aussie site I just can’t seem to get right and don’t know what to do about it. Fortunately the lovely Smingle is having a look for me, so keep your fingers crossed or there’ll be more bitchy posts to come, LOL.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:23 am
I don’t know if I buy this … successful affiliates have ‘ingredient X’ … that’s a self referential definition: as a virtue of being successful, one must have it eh?
Don’t underestimate the effect of persistence and determination.
For anyone out there thinking they don’t have ‘ingredient X’ – you do. Keep trying.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Matt, This post isn’t about me its about other people. For the record I don’t count myself as a truly successful affiliate. This post comes from my own frustrations at my lack of ability to take my business past a certain point whilst others around me can. So why are they able and not I?
I’m calling it “X Factor” because I’m not really sure what it is – and I’m certainly not slagging anyone off other than myself in this post. Not my style.
June 12th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Good (european) Morning Kirsty – no of course not. It didn’t occur to me for a moment you were self-promoting or trying to put anyone down. & congrats on your award you deserve it. Thanks for a good blog (except for the spiders).
As for the defintion of ‘successful’ – that’s a tricky one. I’d say anyone that runs their own show and earns their own living is ‘successful’. But then I have done that for several years myself (AM is just a small part of that), and I don’t count myself.
Haha go figure.
Let’s all give ourselves credit where it’s due & feel good about it, me and you too.
- M
June 12th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Good (Australian) evening Matt. I getcha! I was a bit worried about people thinking I was slagging other people off in the post so I guess I was a bit over sensitive there, lol.
I think entrepreneurs aren’t ever really happy with what they achieve. I’m particularly bad at thinking I’m doing well even when I take a step back and look at the level I’ve already gotten to. It’s just never good enough!
June 12th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
I definitely don’t have high levels of charisma so I don’t think anyone will think “Oh yeah baby! You are definitely a rising star in the making.” after meeting me.
Also I am not that creative, although that can be learnt if one has the inclination.
I am determined and believe I am putting in a fair amount of work to make this happen. Do I have the x factor? I’d like to think I have it for something so fingers crossed it is affiliate marketing!
June 13th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Kirsty – you are spot on with this post.
Sure there are some affiliates who get lucky with a particular website but the really successful (and I mean REALLY successful) affiliates that I have ever met do indeed have all the attributes that you mention.
I do think you need to add “waking up at 4 in the morning with your head so full of ideas that you can’t get back to sleep so have to start work right there and then” to the list!
June 16th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I would not call it Affiliate Factor X, but I certainly agree that the really successful affiliates have something special. It can’t be hard work alone because I know enough people (including myself) who put in hour after hour and still get stuck with their business at a certain level.