The public image of affiliate marketing which attracts people in droves is the vision of a working week of just a few hours, great financial rewards, and an amazing life filled with vast amounts of leisure and general adventuring.
Is it accurate?? Well for some. But for many people it’s a case of “Oh well, 2 out of 3 aint bad eh?? I didn’t like short working weeks and holidays anyway!”
Arrghhh! I didn't sign up for this!!
Affiliate Marketing is Like A Venus Fly Trap
The rewards can come at a price, and the work can ensnare you in a sticky world of changing goalposts that’s hard to escape.
This year I achieved the monthly income I set out 3 years ago as “the absolute pinnacle” of my financial aims. I decided that when I finally got to that level I’d be happy and relaxed about my finances at last. Am I? Of course not. I’ve trebled the target. I’ll be happy and relaxed once I’ve reached that in two years time, won’t I?? Ummm….
So What Creates The Venus Affiliate Trap?
The earnings potential for any individual is open ended, and we are surrounded by tales of super affiliates earning riches beyond their wildest dreams. This means it is easy for affiliates to suffer from feelings of inadequacy about how much they are earning and also to constantly push themselves on ever harder to earn more.It doesn’t matter what the Ten Commandments say – it’s human nature to covet your neighbour’s Ox and in affiliate marketing there are some might damned fine oxes for the purpose of coveting.
The side effect of this is ever increasing working hours meaning the self employed affiliate can easily work twice as hard as they did for someone else and will most likely be half as happy. Now that is arse about face logic but I know more than a few people will read this and feel a little stab of self-recognition.
Don’t End Up Being A Slave To The Affiliate Wage
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working hard to earn more. However as with all things a little balance is needed. A few things that might help…
- Make a contract with yourself. Agree some working hours with yourself and stick to them. You’ll probably find you get more done when presented with a finite amount of time to cram those important tasks into.
- Define “happiness” – sit yourself down, work out what you’d be happy with in terms of your income, what you think you need to do to get there and if it’s achieveable within the scope of the hours you want to work. If it’s not, under no circumstances should you compromise your contract. You’ll have to find another way to achieve your aims either through outsourcing or nutting out some way to get the tasks that take up most of your time done efficiently.
- Plan leisure – If you’re earning any money at all from affiliate marketing make sure you spend some of it on enjoying yourself. It could be a Friday night down the pub with your mates, a day out, or a luxurious holiday. Whatever it is, make regular time for yourself to benefit from the money you earn. This will help you keep a balance between the numbers in your bank account and what they can actually do for you in the real world. There’s no point in being mega rich and trapped in your office 18 hours a day.
- Investigate your attitudes to money – I think if you want to make money for yourself it’s important to work out how you feel about it. I recently read Secrets of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker and there was some very illuminating things in there about how your attitudes to money can affect your ability to successfully earn it, and keep hold of it.
In my own special little case, I think I need to follow a bit of my own advice. I don’t mind revising my targets upwards, purely because I have found a method that works within my margins which will ensure additional profits won’t mean additional working hours. In fact, I’m about to take 4 months off and will be working only 2.5 days a week when we return.
However I think there’s a distinct possibility that unless I put a bit of a cap on my ambitions I’ll be in the unique situation of earning great money, having bags of leisure time, and STILL not being happy because of my need to always drive things onwards and upwards.
Clearly time to write a bullet pointed list concerning myself rather than worrying about all you guys!
August 26th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Very good advice Kirsty, and I’m thankful that I’m already doing it. I have a salary in mind that I want to achieve. Once I achieve it, my goal is to do as little as possible to earn it.
To add to what you’ve covered really well, I have a strict budget that both myself and fiance stick to. Once we’ve got enough money to cover the bills, we decide how to allocate the extra month towards saving for a house or a holiday. As a result, we make the money we do earn go really far, plus we don’t become too accustomed to any surges of cashflow, which often disappear. Basically living within our means.
Dan
August 26th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Ah, the ol’ work life balance conundrum! Good points. In my case it’s my kids that spur me on to work harder for a better future for our family and at the same time distract me from working too hard – although I do still try.
August 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
That’s a really useful addition to the post Dan, You’ve captured a really important sentiment about the way money from affiliate marketing can work for you.
Too many people end up spending the extra money that comes in without thinking of it, which can be very counter productive!
Joe – It’s an old problem that I doubt many people get perfectly right
August 26th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Thanks Kirsty
We actually split our ‘surplus money’ (money not needed for retirement pots or bills) between our investing pot, and house/wedding/holiday pot. Great way to stop us from wasting money. Also means we get creative with how we make extra money, plus we appreciate the little we do have a whole lot more.
Dan
August 26th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Fabulous post Kirsty ! I think most of us can totally relate to this in so many ways.
Frank
August 26th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Well I’m planning on going full time from the new year…new year…new start!
I smashed my 6 month target, and if I knuckle down (which I am) hopefully I’ll make my 12 month target. Newb to full time affiliate in 12 months
Working at a computer for 8.5 hours a day, then going home and doing 4 or 5 hours of AM takes it out of you so I think by taking the leap of faith I’ll soon reach my target if I havent by Christmas.
Once I hit that target I would like to get the misses involved a bit more and increase the target to cover both of us, add a little more for “luxury” and then try and trim the hours back so we can enjoy the freedom (and move to warmer climates!).
August 26th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
This remindw me of my favourite line from the “Sunscreen” song:
Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Exciting times Shane – definately a good idea to have targets, stick to them, and make sure you take time out to enjoy the lifestyle. If you end up self employed but still working 13.5 hours in a day you’ll quickly find your new gig loses it’s shine (and your misses will probably get shitted off with you!).
Graham – That’s absolutely and completely spot on, love it!
August 30th, 2010 at 9:29 am
I’ve been stuck in the “trap” for years but I love it.
Setting targets and beating them is such a buzz. I guess its a little like beating your high score at a computer game or an athlete setting a new personal best.
I’ve taken on lots of people to reduce what I need to do in the business even to the extent that I’m not always the one that hires people now, but I still find I want to be involved and set myself new challenges.
August 30th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Hey Antony, There’s definately a buzz to meeting and beating all those targets. Think the key to doing that and staying happy is probably taking on staff to achieve it and reduce the drain on your time.
I definately reckon that’s positive growth! Whether you enjoy it or not is probably down to your own mindset. I’m going through a bit of a phase where I’m getting cross with myself for never being happy with what I’ve achieved. Hopefully my upcoming time off will help me appreciate things again
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:16 am
You should be proud of what you have achieved. Of course there will always be people doing better but if you compare yourself against your school friends or people you used to work with before being an affiliate with Im sure not many of them are enjoying the lifestyle and freedom you have.
Yeah I agree staff and outsourcing do help especially if you can give them the bits you dont like so much. This can then leave you to focus on the bits you are best at and enjoy the most.
I started by taking someone part-time and it was a scarey change when i did it. I told myself that I could always get out of it if it didnt work. However it did work well and I quickly got used to it and then taking on more people is easy once youve done it once.
September 3rd, 2010 at 12:10 am
Thanks Antony, you are right of course – I am incredibly fortunate to have this lifestyle. I think that’s why I need my upcoming trip, it will reall remind me just how great my job and the things it lets me do really is.
Definately agree that first bit of outsourcing or new member of staff is the scariest, but I’ve found it’s so worth it. The business is rocking on with the consistent additional work being put in.