Greetings esteemed blog readers, and welcome to another thrilling installment in the K.McCubbin stream of consciousness series.  As you may have already gathered I’ve been thinking a lot about the way I work recently  As this occupies a lot of brain time I figure blogging about it will mean y’all don’t form the mistaken opinion I don’t love you any more as I don’t seem to be able to lucidly think about much else!

How Does Effort Convert To Cash In Affiliate Land?

Todays epistle has been brought to you courtesy of a new friend of mine, Kathrin, who has been asking  questions about my difficult to understand career!  She basically asked me why I didn’t work 5 days a week instead of 4 and thus make 20% more money.  I explained to her that with the world of affiliate marketing, that 20% more effort didn’t necessarily equate to 20% more money.  When I reflected on this, I realised I’d touched on a powerful and simple truth I needed to vocalise on here.

Thinking Smartly and Efficiently Is More Important Than Blindly Pushing “Onwards and Upwards”

And I reckon that’s where our old mate Del Boy went wrong with his “Onwards and upwards Rodney” frame of mind.  The “scale and replicate” principle has been a particular preoccupation of mine when considering the expansion of my very own minature empire and I have talked about it often.

“Scale And Replicate” Is Just So Last Week.  Lets Try “Maximum Revenue With Minimum Effort” On For Size!

However, I now realise its also important to also bring a considerable amount of smart thinking to this process.  Some of the affiliates I’ve met don’t always work all that hard.  In fact, many of them barely seem to lift a finger!  Why?  How?  They’re just lucky smartassed sods, reaping it in while we do the hard yards right?

Urr, nope.  They’re not lucky, and they could well be sods but they most definately are smart. When they can be assed Why?  Because they have perfected the fine art of smart thinking.  They are able to find lots of things that will create the maximum amount of revenue with the minimum effort.

I don’t do that dreadfully at this kind of thing myself, but I wouldn’t say I’ve the midas touch you’ll see from the likes of Jamie Harwood or Mr Affiliate bling himself, Kieron Donoghue, either.  I often suffer from not seeing the affiliate revenue wood for looking at the trees and thinking how much work it’ll be to cut them all down myself and then painstakingly craft them into revenue bearing masterpieces.  However, now I consider it, some of my biggest earners are things that took very little to put together. With an affiliate chainsaw and mass production sawmill. (if you will indulge my increasingly flamboyant use of analogies!)

For example, I have a single landing page I send painfully generic traffic to via Yahoo and MSN search.  It took 3 hours all up to build the page and compile a keyword list.  It makes me £15,000 a year, I never have to do a thing to the page, and I don’t even really know what gave me the idea to try it. Suddenly it was out there, and it was obvious despite my having struggled with generating consistent cash in that niche for almost two years.

The Moral Of The Story?

I’m not sure if there is one.  I can’t tell anyone how this happens.  Nor how they can acquire such a skill. For me personally it is a fleeting bit of magic I’m privelliged to experience every now and again.  I wish I could come up with one of those beauties every day I can tell you, cos I’d be sitting writing this on my own private island if I could!

Could I Come Up With A Midas-esque Idea Every Day?

Well, perhaps not every day.  But I have a feeling that the trick is to take a step back every now and again and simply stand on a mental hill observing the undulating nature of your revenue streams from afar.  By doing that you may well see the goldmine nestled in that half hidden valley beside something you already think you’re 100% on top of.  Recently my new intensive work system has given me the chance to take that step back in the form of my extra day a week off.  Since then, I’ve found that there are a lot of things I can multiply significantly with just a few hours work. I don’t know how I couldn’t see it before.

The Best and Most Lucid Advice I Can Give Is…

Work out grab yourself a vantage point to observe the fruits of your labours!  You’ll have to come up with your own way to allow those great ideas to reveal themselves to you.

And The Obvious Disclaimer That Has To Be Made?

The above may make it look like there’s an affiliate holy grail out there that allows you to work little and earn lots.  The truth is 99% of affiliates that make decent money work very hard at it. Nay, supernaturally hard. Do not read the above and delude yourself that this job does not require a lot of dedication, I merely wish to make the point that you can often make your hard work more productive… by being able to think clearly about where the work is directed.

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