One Cool Thing About Affiliate Marketing
There are so many ways to make money. Even in the online world, there's a lot more ways to make money online than just affiliate marketing.
However, I like affiliate marketing the most! Why?
The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that there's no rush to produce results. Unlike starting a restaurant or brick and mortar shop, you don't have to pay thousands of dollars in rent every month.
Unlike ecommerce and Amazon selling, you don't have to invest money into products.
Here are a couple specific situations where the unique business model of affiliate marketing has worked in my favor.
Just Window Shopping!
This section was inspired by a rude message I got from an affiliate manager just last week. I asked this person some questions about their affiliate program, then they told me "no window shoppers allowed", and blocked me.
Um, what? Well, that was a pretty dumb move IMO. Every affiliate is a potential powerhouse to your business, even if it takes time to ramp up sales.
For example, back when I signed up to Wealthy Affiliate in 2010 I created accounts for a bunch of affiliate networks like Shareasale, CJ, Impact, and Flexoffers.
Then for the next 8 years I didn't do anything with them. I didn't really know why I signed up initially. It was just part of the training here in WA. I was busy focusing on other affiliate programs for those years, so just didn't think about doing anything with those accounts.
Now, in 2019, I've got monthly earnings coming in from many of those same networks. I simply signed into my accounts, updated my information, and started promoting. There's nothing wrong with leaving your affiliate accounts dormant for a period of time while you develop your content.
Wait For The Right Time To Take Action
Once affiliate marketing "clicks" for you, you'll start to have tons and tons of ideas. There are hundreds of thousands of potential niche websites you could start! I'm still sitting on a great domain I bought 3 years ago (wirelesssportheadphones (dot) com).
I haven't done anything with it since I bought it, but I know it's a good topic, and when I have the time I'll start building it out. For now, it's on the backburner. The cost of having it on the backburner? $14/year.
No expensive rent. No loans to pay back. No investors to worry about. Just an entire business sitting on the sidelines for a couple bucks a year. You never know when inspiration will hit, or when an opportunity will come along!
You Can Put Projects On Pause
I worked for about 2 years on a side project that was just failing and failing again. It was super frustrating to deal with. Day after day, that can really weigh on you!
So I stepped away for about 3 months. I let the content stew during that time period. I posted nothing, and just checked a few times per week to see how sales and traffic were doing.
After I took that break, I hired a writer, and started publishing again. Now the site is doing much better!
That 3-month break was exactly what I needed to regain some mental space for that project.
I didn't have to delete my site. I didn't have to sell it. Hosting and domain costs were more than covered by the poor affiliate earnings. $359 + $14/ per year is pretty easy to earn with just a few affiliate sales and Adsense clicks per month.
If you have to pause your work for a while, that's fine. Just make sure to get off the couch at some point and start things back up again.
"Just Testing" Is A Great Strategy
One time I spent two weeks testing out a product, writing a review, and then promoted the heck out of that product for the next month. I made exactly zero sales.
Another time I noticed that I had some relevant traffic to an affiliate program, signed up, and instantly started making money in a previously unmonetized section of my site.
Both were "tests". One worked, one didn't. That's kind of the nature of testing things out! The great news is that there were no financial concequences of running a failed promotion. I lost some time, for sure, but it's not like I sunk $5,000 into ordering products from China!
The other test took minimal effort, and ended up working out really well. Because it worked so well, I ended up adding additional content, creating charts, and further optimizing to boost sales. What started as a test, ended up creating reliable monthly income!
Tests can go either way, good or bad, no matter what you're trying out. Take some risks, try some ideas, and see what happens.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate marketing is a great biz to be in. Mistakes are cheap, anything can be fixed later, and there's plenty of time to learn as you build.
As you build our your affiliate sites, if you have to test, pause, and restart along the way, you'll be totally fine. Enjoy 2019 everyone.
Recent Comments
102
Well said Nathaniel. I can not count how many times that I have come across one of your blog posts while researching some affiliate marketing idea that I have come up with. I think you must have a blog post for almost every website topic idea that I've come up with lol
There are a ton of affiliate programs out there. The ones that will accept you and be patient while you ramp up your site have the highest probability of being discovered and used by newbie affiliate marketers. Yet, if they reject people outright, like the guy treated you, they are potentially losing in the long run.
It is not like it cost them money to have your information in their database. lol Just as it does not cost us anything, for all practical purposes to sit on a website idea for a while.
Granted....I'm aggravated because I got my first affiliate rejection letter today because my website does not have enough content. What they do not realize is that I was also on the verge of purchasing their program for my brick and mortar business. Too bad for them....
Exactly - it doesn't cost them to have you in the database. I get it - some companies want tighter control of affiliates to prevent spam, but clearly this guy was a jerk because we didn't even finish our conversation and he blocked me LOL. Who does that?
Yeah - if you got rejected too. Just move on. There's plenty of other companies to promote that will be a better fit for you. You an always come back to that company later on when you have more traffic!
Great post as always, Nathaniell and so good to know we can take a break sometimes :)
Cheers
Vicki
Aaww how i can relate to a few of those same scenarios. I have my first site stewing at the moment but am fine with that as i know i will return to it...my mmo site is getting a remake of sorts as i am streamlining it differently than it was 3 months ago ..and as a result starting to see mkre traffic. Also i just started to sit on a new dot com name knowing it will come into play at a later date but at least the rent is cheap thanks to WA
Yup - as long as you return to it, you'll be fine! There's plenty of projects I just stick in the graveyard as well, but some are worth keeping on the back burner and just returning to later :)
Rent is cheap!
This is very timely since I’ve been realizing that I need to re-think and potentially pivot from my current trajectory. I’m about to launch a Fragrance which actually will tie in nicely with my perfume blog.
Erica
Pivoting is cool too! I've tweaked many websites to change directions as I discovered what's working and what isn't. Analyzing Traffic For Content Ideas + Sales
I've actually thought about that very thing...not making many sales yet, but I have time to figure out all the ins and outs. That's a good thing.
More work gets faster results, but slow-pokes like us also do fine. Do what you have time for, and you'll get results accordingly!
This is a good reminder of why we have such a good deal here at WA! One size does not fit all, nor does one method work for everyone! All at the same time!
We all have our own path to where we are going.
Thanks Nathaniell!
Sami
Absolutely! And there's plenty of time to figure out that path. I've made so many changes to my website and business over the past 9 years, I couldn't list them all.
I change, tweak, alter, edit, and move stuff all the time. Those changes are super easy with affiliate marketing.
Can you imagine how much it would cost to redecorate or rename a brick and mortar business? Wow! With a WordPress website, it can be done in less than an hour, for free.
Couldn't agree with you more Nathaniel! I too sat on my Sharasale & CJ account not quite sure what to do with them because of the niche I was in but now they are coming in quite handy. I as well have some nice domains "simmering" just waiting for me to make a move and that is exactly what is so cool about affiliate marketing, we can absolutely "kick tires" along the way and there is nothing wrong with that and yeah, I agree, that affiliate manager made a big mistake LOL! Great post!
Chris...TheHomeBizWizz
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Thanks so much, Nathaniel for the sound advice. I do have a website which have been 'resting' for a lapse of time as I do not have the ideas and inspirations to create any content. However, I know I will come back to this website soon to continue on.
Besides,I recently have a passion to write contents on a new niche. Would like to seek your opinion whether is it advisable to create a new website with a new domain even tough I have a website which is still pending?
Appreciate your advice on this.
Cheers,
Agnes
My advice is to work on just one website at a time, maybe two websites if you outsource stuff. To really build out an authority site, especially as a newbie, is time consuming. Build a super strong foundation to one business, then you can branch out.
Thanks for the great advice with much appreciation. I understood very well what is the next appropriate steps to be taken.
Cheers,
Agnes