Reality Check: Making $ Online
I decided to post the question, "Is anyone out there making a full time living using affiliate marketing?" on the WA site. Three people were gracious enough to say they were making a full time income from affiliate marketing. Thank you Paul Osbourne, Ken-Pringle, and Nathaniell.
I feel sad and disappointed at the lack of response. I really was expecting more from affiliate marketing veterans.
Well, now I will give you my two cents worth about this subject. I have located a couple of thousand responses to how much money people are actually making.
First, I don't mind sharing my experience online. I have dabbled in affiliate marketing all along but was never serious about the subject until now. This is my "final frontier" in making money online. I have made good money online in the past but it didn't have anything to do with affiliate marketing. I was strictly selling one dietary supplement online and sending the product to my customers. I made $6000.00 my first year and $30,000 my second year. My third year was heading to surpass year number 2 when I ran into my first stroke and had to shut the business down. It broke my heart as I was developing a commanding stake in my niche. Do you want to know how I know my market share was threatening? A multi-million dollar company in Connecticut tried to stop me with a bogus copyright allegation. Ooooo, I'm not the sort to get scared by some bully on the block so I hired a great copyright attorney and the bully company ended up tucking tale and running back for home. I won.
So how do I know whether I can make a full time living using affiliate marketing? Are folks truly making a living at this? How can I find out? My question here at WA didn't get much of a response. So if I'm going to make a dedicated effort to be a successful affiliate entrepreneur then how do I know my efforts will pay off?
The good news is that the answer is out there if you know where to look.
I spent all day today and tonight doing research into the subject. It took a bit of digging but I found the answer I was seeking. In short, yes, you can make a full time living with affiliate marketing with a ton of work, education, and persistence (a tad bit of luck doesn't hurt either). As with any successful enterprise, you have to work very hard to earn your pay. It is also rare that someone will become wealthy doing this sort of work. It is also very common that folks will earn around $10,000.00 per year or less.
So talk is cheap but source references speak for themselves. What follows are affiliate statistics which I located. The statistics may help you put some perspective into your online goals. Also, I want you to be a success so I included 21 short affiliate marketing tips and links which may help you.
First, here are some eye opening affiliate statistics I located:
https://youtu.be/xSDx5GsZwvA
See also the following affiliate stat links below:
http://canadiansinternet.com/2014-affiliate-market...
http://affstat.com/2013-affiliate-summit-affstat-r...
(click on the AffStat image below their article to open the PDF file in the above link)
Next is some commentary on affiliate marketing:
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/may/21/affil...
http://homebusiness.about.com/od/affiliatemarketin...
The following article was written by Intuit, the makers of Quicken and Quickbooks.
Keep in mind that this article dates back to 2012.
http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/marketing/4-highly-...
Finally, here are 21 tips to help you be successful:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140408142723-3239...
http://marketingland.com/7-big-mistakes-new-affili...
I believe that there is money to be made doing affiliate marketing. How much I think is in direct proportion to how hard one works at earning an online living. I also think one must become a savvy business person who can learn enough to outsmart the competition.
I outsmarted the competition once before selling a product direct to consumers. How much you wanna bet I can do it again with affiliate marketing and the support of all the wonderful WA tutorials and WA secrets of the trade.
Many happy thoughts and all my best wishes for your success too.
... GrampaMike
Recent Comments
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Many people are uncomfortable talking about money. Just like in a Job -- many won't talk about their salary. However, I think the percentage of people that will put in the work here to make a really good living is slim (good being relative). Any business that does well requires commitment and tons of energy. If you're willing to do what it takes, you WILL do well.
Yep, I agree. This is a job just like working for an employer, running a brick and mortar store, or selling product online. A person has to get in there and work hard to earn their pay.
I think sometimes people get the idea that they will get it right the first time with making money online. That's not how it worked with me. I managed to figure out a million ways to do it wrong before I began to make some serious money online.
The money online is out there but a person needs persistence, patience, and a passionate devotion to earn their pay. Affiliate marketing can produce a full time living with the right work ethic.
... GrampaMike
Mike, your research and links were very informative . I checked all of them out and bookmarked several. What you share here is remarkable help for getting the perspective and gives a better idea of the work people have to put in to get anything out.
My guess is that at least 70% of those who join WA fall out or away because they can't or don't have what it takes to be as diligent as needed to succeed as great as they envision.
Great post
~D
I have an idea your drop out prediction might be accurate.
Affiliate marketing is like any other endeavor whether it be working for an employer, running a brick and mortar store, or selling your own products online. You have to work your tail off to earn a living.
It's possible some folks think affiliate marketing is a way to make tons of money without having to work hard to earn the revenue. I don't know. What I do know from my online experience is that anything I did took a lot of work, time, and dedication to make things successful.
Anyway, I hope my research is enlightening and inspiring for potential online entrepreneurs.
Thanx for your message ... GrampaMike
Mike, thanks for sharing a well-researched "volumes" of knowledge that surely took time and effort to collect. I made certain I have a separate file compiled just for them. I am also on the same route of equaling my social security subsidy. I can see how all the pointers enumerated in your suggested websites need to be grasped AND properly. Good luck and wsih you the BEST! Alex
I personally am not here for affiliate marketing per say, I came to develop and market my own product.That is three years in the making and close to being launched, but as I was doing this I did end up making a living the last two years working with affiliates. Go figure.
If you want $$ amounts you will not get them from me, but I will say anything is possible online, and yes, you have to work hard and you have to be serious and yes, a little luck does help. :)
Thank you for your message. Marketing my own product to my customers was how I got my start making money online. It was a wonderful endeavor until stroke took me out of the game. I generated 30k in revenue by myself with no help or staff. I couldn't perform the logistics of product shipment and order processing post-stroke. My brain needed time to heal so I have been on the back burner until now.
Finding WA was an accident. I'm glad I arrived here because the SEO stuff I'm picking up on is helping me refine my 3 and soon to be 4 sites. The information would help anyone build traffic whether affiliate marketing or product sales direct to consumers.
I sure wish you all the success with your product.
... GrampaMike
Likewise. I understand the stroke aspect, I was slowed drastically last summer with heart failure. I am too young for that, but I brought it on myself from hard living. I plan on taking it easy the rest of my life, lol
Oh how interesting Shawn. The second foot to fall was CHF. I'm a 20 year veteran of heart disease and my CHF was stable from 1996 to 2005 when the stroke caused my CHF to go unstable for a while. I'm doing fine now.
Get this, I had my 3rd heart attack in 2006. My cardiologist came into my hospital room and said, "it's hard to predict how long you have to live but your prognosis is poor." Well, it's 2015 and I'm still kicking and active with affiliate marketing development.
Maybe I can't push myself like I did in my hay days of productivity but a little thing like CHF isn't going to keep me from finding new ways to be productive and following my dreams. I just arrive at my success online more slowly than other people.
So here's to us beating the odds ... GrampaMike
I do not know if I need to be scarred or to be thankful for given knowledge, but one thing I know, I need go to work. It means write more content, all the best, regards.
I keep hearing notes of discouragement from some of my followers because their results are slow or they are not achieving their goals as quickly as expected. I was hoping I could make the point that Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say, and a successful affiliate campaign will take time to generate revenue one can live on.
I have been here since February and I'm dreaming of the day when I can press that big old green "success" button when I post a blog message. In the short term, I will settle for a WA rank of 200 or less.
Thank you for your message ... GrampaMike
Interesting post. You can make a living out of affiliate marketing, it takes lots of time, patience and work.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. I believe that no matter your station in life, anyone has the potential to be a success at affiliate marketing.
My goal is to one day match my Social Security income with affiliate revenue. One day I am going to report in my WA profile blog that I reached this goal and how long it took me. Due to my disabilities, I have things stacked against me. However, I have the determination of a pit bull and I will achieve my goal.
http://www.grampamike.com is now number 6 on Google when searching for the keyword "grampamike" which is up from number 8 a short while ago. (baby step success).
My WA profile is up to number 4 on Google which is up from number 11 in February (baby step success). This is important because I got the idea of posting my WA affiliate link in my WA profile.
Oh my, I just learned today that my keywords "pacemaker candidate" and web page jumped to number 4 on Google which was number 7 for years (big toddler step for generating traffic)
http://www.healthtopics4you.info/pacemaker-candidates-why-me.html
The moral of this story is if I can do it then you can too.
... GrampaMike
Mike!
this was a really good post, I like it very much. Having said so I think you have pointed out all the possibilities with affiliate marketing. I totally agree with you and I truly believe you can make a living out of it. Persistence, hard work and a bullet proof system is all that you need (as you mentioned also luck wouldn't hurt) to succeed. The system works fine who can make the difference is just YOU. I think you have quite big successes under your belt to be sure you can do it again.
Good luck and I am sure we be here talking about your success before too long!
Guido
There's nothing like a good real life testimonial to help new folks to affiliate marketing find the encouragement to meet their goals and find success.
My objective is to one day post an update on this blog post testifying to getting to my own personal goal.
Perhaps this post will one day be the source of encouragement some members may need to get to work and make their dreams a reality.
... GrampaMike
Quite discouraging, ha! We hope the business is picking up and it's going to be alright in the future. Lets have hope; what else could we do?
Great informatiion and a fascinating post. I sure bet that you can make a living online again with the help of WA...GOOD LUCK
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I always looked at the WA prospect as a job. The main advantage is when and how I work. I am not going to expect defeat but victory. My site is growing slowly put I tend to be a bit anal and my pages and posts need to at least look good right from the start. I hope I am succeeding with that. The money will come when it does.
What you call being anal retentive (I can use that phrase because I have a Psych degree and Freud won't mind) I call being professional. What did someone say once? If a job is worth doing then it's worth doing well. I think that's how it goes. All my best for your success.
... GrampaMike