Well, its that time of year again – Mega Monday is upon us and todays papers are full of tales of seasonal spending excess. Apparently £4,000 a second has been forecast as the golden sum that will be spent on interweb shopping today. John Lewis has had a record breaking week, selling £102.4 million in the week to 5th December, beating their previous 2007 record by over a million quid.
Online forums, Twitter, Facebook and every other electronic communication medium will be filled with the shouts of thrilled affiliates seeing those shopping pennies whizzing into their network accounts.
But at this time of year there is a bit of a danger. Introducing…
Commission Envy?
I think if Sigmund Freud was still around he’d definately be adding commission envy to his list of ills. The theory of the Phallus would be revised, and he’d be chatting on about how all of us deal with the absence of Shoemoney-esque commission cheques from our lives and the devastating effect of that missing symbol of power.
The trouble with this time of year is that we’re surrounded by tales of people making insane amounts of cash. It can often only take the reading of one tale of thousands of pounds earned in a single afternoon to turn a feeling of elation at a good innings in Christmas trade into a deep and nagging feeling of inadequacy.
Being “Pretty Good” is Also Acceptable
I say this often, but today I reckon should say it again. It’s absolutely fine to be a “Pretty Good” affiliate. Although all those huge commission cheques, the fast cars, mansions, and impossibly glam lifestyles are great motivation I think they can be counter productive at times. Who doesn’t compare themselves with their peers? And with money being the measure of success in this industry, a lot of people can start to feel a little bit inadequate when there’s really no need.
Although I have always gone on about not needing to be “super”, I’ve definately fallen into the trap a few times. (I can see the headlines now: “Scandal, Shock Horror, Kirsty’s Not As Perfect As She Lets On!!!!”) Sometimes I find myself grumbling about a month or day that’s really been below my expectations before I remember that in terms of my hopes and aspirations when I started out in this industry, I’ve outperformed my early imaginings about my potential earnings by a huge margin.
What Do YOU Think is Good?
In affiliate marketing success is a self defined thing. If its an amount you are pleased with, you are doing great. Getting caught up with how other people are doing is a completely counter productive process. Remember this: -
The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become. (Harold Taylor)
December 7th, 2009 at 11:56 am
We were just having this conversation on twitter last week!
I earn much less than most affiliates in the game. Admittedly, very few let on specifics of their earnings. However, I think that’s how it should be. Then you have nothing to compare your own earnings to.
I was reading some kind of well-being article (which I cannot find now), and it basically said that comparing yourself to others all the time will make you miserable.
When I started doing AM earlier this year, I was obsessed with how much others were earning, and it really got to me. Thankfully I pulled myself out of that downwards spiral.
Now I get a buzz from making *anything* from AM, regardless how of little it is. Simply because I consider that making any money to be a sign of success. Over time, I’ll evolve to earn more. But what I have now makes me happy.
Dan
December 7th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Much twitchy stat checking from me! Loving it though, really got the enthusiasm back for it and will be building all year towards next xmas.
The way I look at it is that next year I don’t want to have commission envy any more. 
December 7th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Spot on as usual Kirsty. I’m generally happy being a pretty good affiliate but I am prone to bouts of commission envy too! Most of the year I’m fine but in late November I always get the feeling I’m missing out on a gold mine. Bottom line is stats are up and I should be be happy.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Glad its not just me, I think its all part of the competitive nature of the game but as Dan rightly says it can start to really pull you down.
Ironically, one of my biggest sites was down for 8 hours today after a plugin issue – I’m saying nothing more about being happy with smaller amounts of money ever again. Gahhh!! LOL
December 8th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Good article Kirsty. As newbies to this game we have found it difficult not to look at other people’s successes and wonder why we can’t match it, however what we have learnt in the short time that we have been doing this is it requires hard work and patience.
We have seen our earnings increase month on month which is great and every increase is a step towards our goal of doing this full time. We know we will get there and are learning all the time. We have learnt not to be envious of others commission but rather to see learn from what they are doing differently and applying some new ideas to our sites.
The main thing is we are still enjoying the ride and are rapidly approaching the end of our first year. It has flown by and the amount we have learnt has been staggering.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Recently i’ve started not dwelling too much on how much I make from AM – it always got me down so now focus on running websites that interest me and if they make a commisson – great, if not (more often) it’s not the end of the world i’ve still got blogs I enjoy running
December 10th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
rather than commission envy, knowing that this amount of money is being spent always drives me on, as I know I could have a big piece of pie rather than just the crumbs.