Can you really gain a living out of this? I am now starting to wonder.
I have been on WA for nearly 2 months. I know. It is short.
I am now at a stage where I am looking to fully complete my website so that I can apply to become an affiliate. Whilst working on my website I have researched some affiliate companies I am looking to join and the commission they give are peanuts. I mean 5% for instance. Unless you are going to promote products of high value you will need huge traffic and multiple purchases to gain enough income to make a living. Surely? I have no doubt that money can be made. But can enough be made to make a living? I am starting to wonder. I mean I am looking at at least £1000 per month. Is that even possible? I love what I am doing, I have always wanted to make websites but if I am going to pay fees to make a website, I would like to make some money to cover the payment and make profit.
A part of me says do not lose hope. Go one step at a time. Fully develop your website. Join affiliate companies. Find superb keywords and let it go and see what happens.
And then another part of me says. I could spend all that time and effort doing something else.
Am I just going through a phase that everybody goes through that may hopefully lead to eventual success?????
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How long is an awfully long time for you? Most people seem to start making a living around the 1 year mark, but it depends on how many times you write and how good your content is. If it's good content, targeting low-competition keywords (With good traffic ratings), you should (Hopefully) start seeing good results around month 6. 1 year seems to be the usual point where people are making 1,000s though. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.
I will say that your chances of failure are far lower if you write 4-5 (Or even more) times per week for a year. If you fail at that point, and your content is good, and you are following the proper steps, then something is seriously out to get you. The odds are far higher of success at that point than they are for failure.
The number one reason people fail here is that they give up too soon. They stop after their first few months. They don't realize how much profit they just lost for themselves. It's depressing to see.
thank you very much for your comments. it is a very good question. i am a hard working patient person who has the determination to go at least a year and far. i think the question raised in my head was during the research, when i encountered a question where i was asking myself not about whether money can be made but whether my expectations or target that i have for myself can be met by a business such as this. a business i have no experience in. i do realise one thing though, there is constant tutoring and help here so it is possible. the odds you have stated are very good and i do agree that most people who do not succeed are the ones to give up early. so thank you for the comments.
I've been working on my site for three months and haven't had any sales yet so I know how you feel. I promised myself I would give a full year's commitment though and then reevaluate my situation. I'm confident that I will at least be making some money by then and I'm sure you will too!
thank you for the vote of confidence. i feel the same. i think i encountered what some people call the 3 month barrier where you start questioning yourself. if you are experienced and know the business inside out then no props, but when you are like me where everything is alien then i guess it is natural that we would get that type of feeling. i am currently looking for affiliates through CJ affiliate just to get some links. hopefully by the end of the year we will both have some good news to share. one question. are you getting affiliates separately or through affiliate network for e.g. CJ affiliate?
Hi Arif,
Most of my affiliates are through Amazon at the moment, but I'm also using Adsense and a couple other programs like Microsoft Affiliates.
Ken
Arif, any business you start in life is going to take a significant amount of investment before you start seeing a return. Whether it is a monetary investment or your time invested. It's got to take one of the two. My father just started making a living driving his own semi truck a few months ago. He makes enough to live comfortably. To do this he had to invest in a $25k in a truck. So I can see why he's seeing his return on investment now. Whereas an internet business, I mean we have minimal monetary investments. So it will take a lot before starting to make a big return. The way I see it I will have to work a whole year if I were to trade my time for money (25k). So give it at least a year.
hi. thank you for your words. you know i have not given in. i have always wanted to work online. i have always wanted to earn a living online. make my own sites and work from home and be my own boss. doing this allows me everything and potentially earning a comfortable living. i can always be there for my family too working from home. i know it takes time.
these thoughts have just recently entered my thinking predominantly because the amount of money I want to make may take an awful long time. maybe i'm getting impatient and perhaps looking for some inspiration. how has it been with yourself anyways may i ask?
I'm in the same boat as you my man! Breaking down that 3 month wall. Haven't made any money yet, but I'm working my a$$ off! :-) I'm 30 years old now and I've realized that to get where I want to be in life I have to be a small business owner. What better business to own than an online business?! Thanks for the follow!
good luck with your venture. wish you all the best. hopefully by the 12th month we will both be sharing good news
good question. i know it takes time. and most people start making money after a year. i think it is probably the potential that i am questioning. i am hoping for big things and i know it will take time and hard work which i will strive for. i think also because i am a beginner i do not know what to expect. hows it been for you?
I can't say for sure, but I don't see a reason you can't achieve what you're striving for within a year, so long as you follow the steps outlined above. I'm only at month 4. I haven't seen any monetary gain yet, but that's because it takes time and I recently got burned by Amazon so I have to go in and change all my links (Severely sets me back).
i am sorry to here about amazon and the set back. i can only imagine how annoying and frustrating it must have been. good luck in this venture anyway. hopefully we can share hints and tips and by the 12th month we will be sharing good news :)
Indeed! And thank you for your kind words.
Can't wait to see our progress in the months to come!
Hi. Don't get discouraged. I just started out here, but I see the potential. I applied for a couple affiliate programs last night, one of them through www.shareasale.com . Maybe check that website. The commissions seem pretty decent for most of the merchants.
Thank you for that. What would you say is best to do before applying for an affiliate program? would you complete the website in full before applying? I'm only asking because one of the website i wanted to join uses an affiliate network. and one of the minimum requirements of that network is to have a completed website.
Well I only had one post up when I applied, I added the second today. Right now I am active with Amazon.com, but I know there is a review process. You should definitely have your website up and running and you must own your domain, from what I understand. Here is my site http://girlsdresstoimpress.com/
It takes time and effort to build up any business. Will this earn you £1000 per month within the next few months? No. Will it earn you that within a year? Possibly. Colton got his first $10,000 month after a little over a year. But he is in the computer games niche, so some quite high priced items.
I don't quite believe that all niches can be really profitable. I think the "turn any passion into a business" line is not quite true. Some niches are clearly far more profitable than others.
But you are in the fat loss niche. There is high demand for that, and people will pay money to be shown how to lose fat. You could try looking through the products on ClickBank to see if there is one on there that is genuine. Some are going to be scams, but you might find one that's good. If you do, you'll earn more money than with a lot of other affiliate programs.
But your question should not be "Does this work?" Your question should be "What do I need to do to make this work?"
hey marcus. thank you for your comments. i completely forgot about clickbank. I am guessing not all affiliate programs will be in an affiliate network like clickbank. so basically clickbank will have certain affiliate programs? and that is why using other affiliate networks are good? if i make sense!
Clickbank is an affiliate network that sells many different products. If you sign up with them, you can look through all their products and pick on that you want to sell. You might want to try it yourself first before you recommend it, though.
Yes it's possible some affiliate programs/products offer higher or different affiliate commission percentages, so if a program isn't what you're looking for you can look for others that have products for your niche.
hi jack. i am scouring the net to see which program offers the best deals. one place i havent checked is the affiliate markets. would you say it is best to complete your website fully before joining affiliate programs?
I think it's best to choose a niche you enjoy first then build your site and select affiliate programs and products that go with your site niche.
Only if you persevere, I have no pension build up as being my own boss for years now, too expensive to ensure, and I am now working for my retirement, I have 12 years to go before I official retire.
I firmly believe that this will be more than sufficient to make a living:)
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The money is in the numbers. Let's say you write 300 articles that each generate at least 10 visitors a month, you would be getting over 3,000 visitors to your site a month and your rankings would increase resulting in more visitors.. All you need to do is make $2 and a few cents on 20% of those visitors to achieve your financial goal.
You can easily reach your goal, but you will have to do some work to get there...
Good luck!
hey trav. thanks for the figures and comments. i agree it is in the figures. what would be best is high number of visitors and sales that have individual high cost. i know the products i will be advertising are in the popular market and cost a fair bit. if i can get that type of visitor numbers that would be fantastic. but yes you are right. high work load hard work equals high success. how are you getting on may i ask?
I took a year for learning, but I just wrote a post on how an article made me some money on a 5 month old site... You can read it here I Took March Off & Made $40 On 1 Article!
congrats. i will take a look. thank you.