I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
Look, I know what you're thinking, here comes the guru hype B.S. But if you've read my blogs here at Wealthy Affiliate or followed me on my sites, you know I'm a straight shooter. I'm not really the bragging type. I like to stay incog"negro". LOL I just do my thing in the background and keep it moving. I don't need or like the attention.
But recently I started a YouTube Channel to help diversify my traffic and income. And one of the topics I wanted to cover was affiliate marketing. Most of the time I cover various other ways to make money online with my videos. But I always encourage my loyal YouTube subscribers to try Wealthy Affiliate since it's helped me earn a full time income online. If you haven't gone premium yet, you may change your mind after reading this article.
Oh Snap!
In any event, I started compiling some screenshots of my affiliate income to use in my Affiliate Marketing 101 video. Showing off my income is not normally my thing, but people want proof that you know what you're talking about. So I decided to start going through my past affiliate income. And I was floored to discover that I had earned over $1 million dollars with Google Adsense over the course of a decade. Think about that, that was just 1 company! I am an affiliate of many more companies. Unfortunately I haven't reached that number with others. But I have made hundreds of thousands with others.
But let's get back to my point. I made over a million dollars with affiliate marketing and more importantly I didn't have to sell anything. Let that marinate in your mind. And if you're wondering how I did it, just read my Back At 5 Figures: I Earned $10,640,56 article, you'll discover that I use various affiliate marketing programs to earn money. Many affiliate programs don't require you to make sales to earn money. But as you'll read in the article, I like to have multiple streams of income from my site.
Who Cares?
So you may be thinking, well that's all good for you Mr "Eddy with a y". Well first of all, don't be a hater, be a congratulator. LOL I'm sharing this with you so you understand the potential you have with this business. It's unlimited. The training you are getting here at Wealthy affiliate can lead to a $1 million dollar business. Now keep in mind this didn't happen overnight for me. That one accomplishment happened over the course of a decade. But regardless, it all started with a few cents and then went on to thousands.
With this business you have to appreciate the small wins and be patient. When I made a few cents with Google I was excited. Because it proved to me that affiliate marketing works. But most of my friends and family were like what's the big deal? They didn't see beyond the now. I did. I knew that it was a start and could be scaled up.
Eventually my dumb ass invested in training from sites like Wealthy Affiliate and it's helped me continue to build on that income. I've learned new things and more importantly I've built friendships and relationships with some awesome Wealthy Affiliate members.
If I never invested in my self with a premium membership, I would have never met some of these people and I would have probably missed out on thousands of dollars that they helped me earn because of the information they shared with me like I'm doing here with you.
Your Take Aways
I added this section because DaveSw did a great job of capturing the lessons of this article.
- Hard work is required.
- Tenacity is required.
- Mindset makes ALL the difference.
- This is a marathon-style of business, not a wind sprint (short burst of running as fast as you can).
- Don't put all your eggs in one basket (diversification of content type, diversification of platforms, and diversification of traffic sources must be constantly worked as hard as content).
- Sometimes it is better NOT to obsess with what is NOT working and RATHER put the focus on FINDING NEW WAYS TO GET THINGS WORKING (i.e. repeatedly doing what is NOT working and expecting results makes no sense - duh?).
- Use various sources when promoting services or products. You never know what people want or may need.
- Walls are everywhere, and the job is to jump over them, run around them, dig under them, or break right through them. Our choice, just do it.
- Affiliate marketing is a viable business model more than ever and all we have to do is figure out how to match buyers with the products they want or need using a medium that they know and use regularly (i.e. YouTube).
- Adapt or perish holds true in this business (as with most) - you either pay attention to what is happening in the industry and make changes to your approach or you keep doing what you have been doing (that worked 10 years ago) and go broke - your choice.
What's Next?
No matter where you are in your affiliate marketing business, don't give up. Lately a lot of us in this business have suffered with stupid Google algorithm updates that have been hurting good sites. Even I have been a victim.
But that's part of doing business, you're going to run into obstacles. You can bitch and moan about it. Or you can push forward and adjust. And sometimes you need to be inspired to keep your eyes on the prize which is why I'm writing this article.
I want you to be reminded of your potential with this business. We all need to be lifted sometimes. I've learned not to let the ups and downs of my business affect me as much.
Sometimes that means I don't look at my stats to have piece of mind. And other times it means taking a new direction. I've done both. I spend a lot more of my effort on YouTube now because of the success and advice of other successful Wealthy Affiliate members here. (Shout to BenjisDad, LittleMama, VitaliyG and Roppert) And it's been paying off. It gives me new traffic and now a new source of passive income.
At the end of the day, there is a lot of potential with your business. But you have to be patient and put in the work. Because if you do, you may be writing about how you made over a million dollars and inspiring others!
Well that's enough of motivational crap for today. LOL Let me know what you guys think by leaving a comment down below. Are you inspired to push harder now! Did this article come at the right time for you?
Holler at your boy!
Eddy with a y
Recent Comments
553
Hi Eddy. Thank you for a great and insightful read. It has helped clarify issues, almost making the journey sound easy LOL.
I am pretty much dizzy, with no clear direction but one way or the other I have to make this work. However, I have been following your articles and hope to find my footing.
You're welcome Dambudzo. But you shouldn't feel like you're dizzy and have no clear direction if you're following the training step by step. It's literally laid out for you so this doesn't happen.
You may want to check out my cheat sheet: Overwhelmed By The WA Training? Here's A Cheat Sheet!
Wow, really 1 Million from Adsense? I thought most people just used as a gateway till they can either get approved for mediavine or Ezoic. Anyhow, Adsense has definitely been picking up for me recently. Hopefully, another 8 years I can make a million also - how many websites was this through?
Don’t get me wrong. I did move on to mediavine which pays better. But during the hay day of Adsense they paid well and were the only real option. The point of the article was to illustrate what is possible with affiliate marketing if you stick with it for years. It’s not really about Adsense per se.
Hi Eddy, you seem to be a funny guy. I am not here to hate, to appreciate like you said. I am new the information here is overwhelming . I am almost 7 months into the program and I'm still not promoting a thing. My links are not noticeable! I don't know what to do to make them noticeable? Do you think that you can help me? If you think so, thank you in advance .
Hey Gabrielle,
I'm glad you appreciate my humor.
Check this article out: Are You Treating Your Visitors Like A Dumb Herd?...You should! And You may want to read my cheat sheet: Overwhelmed By The WA Training? Here's A Cheat Sheet!
I just built a new website on here but when i type in my domain name i see nothing but HELLO WORLD September 17th,2020 Welcome to Wordpress.This is your first post .Edit or delete it, then start writing!
I don't see the theme image that i chose while building the website.Where or what am i doing wrong?
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I get that at the end of the day, there is a lot of potential in this business, and I have to be patient and put in the work because if I do, I may be writing about how I made over a million dollars and inspire others to do the same.
I also believe that I have to do the work to get to the point where I have readied myself to embrace the changes necessary to accept new avenues of business building. For instance, I am doing things now that I wasn't ready for three months ago because I stayed in the game and kept learning.
I believe that it takes fighting small fights to get to the big arena.
I am grateful for your post, Eddy. You inspire.
Dave
You're welcome Dave. You're on the right track
I hope so, Eddy, I hope so.
It's a long grind but this stuff does work. The people that have the delayed gratification and consistency with doing the right things see results eventually. But make sure you celebrate the little wins.
Sounds good, but I kind of got the impression that you think traditional blogging isn't going to get it done and that YouTube or social marketing in general is the lucrative frontier.
I think it all depends on the niche Dave. Most of my time was spent in the work at home/make money online niche. And that niche changed a lot since working remotely is more common now. So youtube was a better place to pivot to discuss that for me at the time I wrote that article. Blogging definitely works. I don't see that going away. I just like doing videos more and I feel Youtube does a better job of ensuring that all creators get visibility faster, whereas with blogging that may not be the case for certain niches. And that's why niche selection is so important and I always tell people to take your time doing that.
I see. It's far too complex to say this is better than that. It's like asking about the best chess strategy. The best one is the one that wins for the player. And, yes, I'm trying to conquer the OEC strategy, so we're not really on the same playing field.
At any rate, I just finished post 84 and topped 100,000 words, and I'm on my way to 1000 posts 😀 so I'm making progress. I hope to see you at the top someday.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, Eddy.
Dave
Exactly, there are so many factors that play into this business and your success. So I'm glad you understand that. You're making great progress with your effort. Keep it up.