The Comfort Zone = One of Your Biggest Enemies
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a rocket scientist in order to make $200 – $300 per day online. Anyone with half a brain can pull it off and even if you’re a complete beginner, you’ll probably be able to start making $6k – $9k monthly without working all that hard fairly soon.
Starting out is always hard but once things are on the right track, you’ll have your first “hey, I’m making some decent cash by only working a couple of hours/day” moment. You’ll be able to start taking advantage of all the free time you have at your disposal and that can be extremely dangerous.
Oh Really? Why?
Three words: the comfort zone, the place which keeps most people from tapping their true potential. Human nature at its best! After all, why hustle and hustle and hustle when you can make enough money to live a comfortable life without working all that hard? Time to take your foot off the pedal, right? Wrong!
While it may be true that you’ll feel “content” at the beginning, it’s only a matter of time until regret starts kicking in. Sure, your life is fairly comfortable but what will happen when you find out that the guy you’ve been talking to on AIM back when both of you were beginners is now banking $3,000 per day while you’re still stuck at the $250 level?
Why Sacrifice the Future for a Comfortable Present?
The opportunities you have now will not stay around forever. Maybe you’ll come across better ones but you probably won’t. That’s why the ability to make the most of what you have is ultimately what separates winners from losers. If you can make $500 per day, make $500 per day. Even if it means not hanging out with friends as often watching less TV! Guess what: your friends will never pay your bills and neither will your favorite TV host.
Never make the mistake of letting the comfort zone hold you back. It’s easy to let the thought of making money without working all that much seduce you, especially after you’ve invested a lot of time in a certain project and think that you’ve had enough. Once you make one compromise, others will follow and it’s only a matter of time until things get out of hand. Is being content really enough for you? It definitely shouldn’t be!
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Managing Cash Flow Problems
Cash flow problems have the bad habit of turning something good into a very stressful experience. Instead of enjoying the ride once you’ve finally found a campaign you can scale, you have to try your best to find enough cash to keep that campaign alive.
You can either pause the campaign and wait for some money from the network(s) you’re working with once you run out of funds or you can be smart about it and try your best to get your hands on some money fast. What will it be?
Ok, I Need Some Cash: Where to Start?
Well, why not start by asking the other party who has a lot to gain if you keep the campaign alive for assistance? Networks are basically middle men, it’s in their best interest to help affiliate marketers whenever they’re dealing with cash flow issues.
If you have a decent track record with the network(s) you’re currently working with, convincing them to send some money your way shouldn’t be all that difficult. Pick up the phone and give your AM a call or contact him/her on AIM. If you don’t have a lot of history with the network(s) in question, you can at the very least ask: it definitely can’t hurt! Explain your situation in detail and focus on the part a network is always more receptive to, the “what’s in it for me” one.
It’s a perfectly understandable way of thinking because let’s be honest, we’re all here to make money. This isn’t ballet class, business is business and numbers talk. Bug your AM, explain and even threaten to take your business elsewhere as a last resort. You need thick skin to survive in this industry, don’t take no for an answer.
Are There Other Options?
If the network(s) in question are not willing to pay you a bit sooner then sure, there are other options. From asking some of the people you know offline for a loan to selling stuff for some fast cash, there are lots of more or less creative solutions to cash flow problems.
Obviously, convincing the network(s) to pay you sooner is the best solution but if that is out of the question, you need to put your thinking shoes on. When you don’t have a huge budget at your disposal, you need to hustle. There’s just no other way. Be proactive and again, don’t take no for an answer: now go get ‘em!
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Time Management 101 – Outsourcing
Remember the first site you’ve ever published? You know, that ugly template-ish thing you spent so much time putting together and which never converted (then again, you probably didn’t even know what conversions are back then)?
The beautiful thing about having money is that you will never ever have to go through something like that again. You have an idea, then pay a designer and a writer to make things happen: bam, there’s your site! There’s so much competition out there that freelancers are working for practically nothing these days.
Finding Freelancers Who Know What They’re Doing
It’s perfectly natural to want things on the cheap but seriously, don’t go too far. If you always chase after bargains, you’re going to end up working with people who don’t have a clue and that’s always bad for business.
Think about it: let’s assume that a decent designer (lots of positive testimonials, an impressive portfolio and so on) charges $100 for a fully coded landing page and that lots of beginners (no portfolio whatsoever and maybe a couple of testimonials) only charge $40. If you go with the person with a great track record, you’ll probably receive a landing page which converts (we can assume that based on the fact that the reputable designer in question has worked with a lot of affiliate marketers) but if you want to save a buck and choose to go with a beginner, it’s hit or miss.
Good Case Scenario, Bad Case Scenario
If the beginner does a great job, you’ve saved $60 but if not, you’ll probably lose a lot of money. Aside from the fact that you’ll have to pay for another landing page at the very least (if you continue to work with the beginner, you’ll probably have to order a handful of landing pages until he finally gets it right), you need to also take the money spent on traffic (probably a good chunk of change) into consideration.
Is it really worth it? Sure, you can save 60 bucks but you’ll probably lose hundreds of dollars as well as time by not working with people who know what they’re doing. Do yourself a favor and learn from the mistakes others have made. You’re better off hiring freelancers with a proven track record, far less variables involved. Given the fact that you probably have a lot on your mind as it is, the last thing you have time for is babysitting a beginner.
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Most people start out by thinking that being an affiliate marketer is a piece of cake: sitting in front of your computer for a while, checking your stats and… well, that would pretty much be it according to most folks.
In a way, they’re actually right. There are a handful of marketers out there who have decided that they no longer want to hustle, that they want to take it easy and limit themselves to simply keeping their current projects alive. Sure, that involves work as well but still, we could say that these people are “living the live”.
But Can You Do That?
Probably, but definitely not right from the beginning! The problem is that the affiliate marketers who have decided to take it easy are a minority and that getting there was anything but a walk in the park.
Most (probably all) of the people who are now “living the life” have started out as workaholics, there’s just no other way. Learning the ropes, banging your head against the wall, making mistakes: it’s all a part of the game! Some people quit, others keep on hustling. The world can sometimes be a painfully simple place, there are winners and there are losers.
Adapt or Give Up
Unfortunately, nobody really cares if you think that life’s hard. The world is what it is, the Web is what it is. There are lots of life-changing opportunities out there and it’s ultimately your responsibility to make things happen. Ask any successful (online or offline) business owner out there, you simply have to suck it up and hustle when you’re starting out.
After one of your businesses (maybe a site, maybe a campaign, maybe several campaigns) is pretty much on autopilot, then maybe (just maybe) you can afford to take it easy for a while and reap the rewards of your hard work. After the (short) celebration though, it’s back to hustling if you want to stay on top.
If making lots of money online were as easy as most people think it is, everyone would be doing it. Why work 9 to 5 if you can make 10x more money just like that? Here’s the thing: yes, there are countless “harder” careers out there but this doesn’t mean that anyone and his dog can make it as an affiliate marketer. In fact, most people fail miserably because they’re not willing to keep at it when things get tough. Adapt or give up, what will it be?
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New Networks – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A lot of people complain about the fact that the most popular networks out there are no longer offering the support that made them famous and, naturally, start shopping around for alternatives. Given the fact that you’ll be facing a lot of competition as an affiliate marketer, everything counts and your relationship with the network(s) you’re working with makes no exception.
Are new networks the best solution out there? Will they end up representing the breath of fresh air you so desperately need? Let’s find out.
The Good
Let’s start by analyzing the role networks have in the ecosystem. Here’s how things work: most affiliate marketers don’t have a huge budget at their disposal and most advertisers are not willing to do things like pay on a weekly basis. The need for a middle man arises. Networks are, in theory, here to help you keep your campaign active by paying you more often, even before they receive the money from an advertiser.
They receive a cut, you get to keep your campaign(s) active and the advertiser takes advantage of your traffic. Everyone’s happy, right? Not always. As with everything else in this world, there’s a certain degree of risk involved. Unfortunately, not all advertisers are reasonable and as a result, it’s not at all uncommon for networks not to be paid.
New networks have to offer weekly wires to stand out. Otherwise, people will simply look the other way. Let’s leave the fact that some owners start out with shady intentions aside and assume that most of them want to start a legitimate business. Let’s also assume that they have a 5 figure budget at their disposal, are really excited and offer weekly wires as well as outstanding support via phone, email and AIM. While everything may seem great on paper, problems are bound to occur at one point or another.
The Bad
Most people who start a network assume that advertisers will always pay them. Huge mistake! If that were the case then yes, everything would run extremely smoothly. But unfortunately for them and for the affiliate marketers they’re doing business with, that’s just not how things work.
All it takes is one shady advertiser and bam… it’s all downhill from there. That 5 figure budget of theirs starts seeming less and less impressive while the people who expected fast payments start becoming less and less thrilled about the business relationship!
The Ugly
So, what then? Well, they start becoming desperate. People are no longer willing to push volume through their network and they’ll probably be stuck with a handful of affiliate marketers who send shady traffic and are only willing to work with the network in question because everyone else already banned them.
Naturally, the traffic doesn’t convert and advertisers start reacting. Some will issue a first and final warning, others will cut them out and a few will even refuse to pay them. End of story.
Don’t risk it, just don’t. Wait until a network has a bit of history before jumping in because otherwise, you’re going to probably end up losing a lot of time and money. The only exceptions are represented by networks such as C2M and A4D, which are ran by people who had a lot of “street cred” before becoming network owners. As far as those two are concerned, trust was never an issue but those are just exceptions. In most cases, the pros just don’t outweigh the cons, so do the reasonable thing and stay away.
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