New Experiment: Starting Out As An Affiliate Marketing Beginner Again!
I've been wondering recently what it's really like to start an online business as a new affiliate marketer.
It's many, many years since I was in this position myself and the affiliate marketing landscape has changed radically since I first started back in 2004.
So I've decided to try an experiment: starting an affiliate marketing business from scratch using nothing but free tools to start with.
I'm really curious whether things are easier or harder than when I started or if things are just...different.
I've described my idea and plan in more detail in this new blog post:
Affiliate Marketing Ideas - How To Get Started With Affiliate Marketing
I'll be documenting my progress whether they're failures or successes, the hurdles I hit and how I overcome them, and so on.
You'll typically hear that it takes 6-12 months to really start seeing decent income from an online business.
That's another thing I want to test to see if that's still true or if it's a bit of a fairy tale.
I won't be using any of my current business assets to help get this experiment off the ground - that would just give me an unfair advantage.
However, I can't just forget all the marketing knowledge I've accumulated over the years, so what I'll do here is use techniques I haven't tried myself before, so I will be a beginner with those.
I also won't be using any existing accounts I have with online tools and services or desktop software I've bought.
I'm literally starting from zero, with zero up-front investment and zero tools.
If you're interested in following along, I'll be documenting my journey on my blog.
All the best,
Gary Nugent
Recent Comments
14
Awesome idea Gary...sure i'm following you...altho i've been trying for a long time, no real success to show for it yet...
I think, as with everything, there's an element of luck involved in getting an online business up and running, coachgrant.
It can just be down to being in the right place at the right time and promoting the right opportunity, regardless of one's expertise. Look at all the people who made bank when the initial crypto opportunities arrived in the mid-2010s (no, I wasn't one of them).
It can also be down to who you know - that might be having the right mentor for you or knowing someone who has inside knowledge of upcoming launches that you can promote before anyone else knows about them.
One thing I do know is not true is that hard work will result in success. It increases your chances certainly, but hard work alone is not enough. Mindset plays a role in how you deal with success and the inevitable failures, and how you deal with money or lack of it.
Having a business plan, and sticking to it regardless of all the other courses, products, webinars etc that compete for your attention and pull you off your path, is also key.
Having a bad mentor - either someone who's not interested or invested in your success, someone who's simply a bad teacher or someone who's teaching out of date information or strategies - can derail your efforts.
So there's quite a few things that need to line up the right way. The nice thing with online marketing is that you can fail fast and fail inexpensively. It's easy to pick yourself up and get going again, even if it is disheartening. Failing in the offline world is much more terminal. Some people really only get one chance there to build a successful business. In the online world, we get many chances, if we're willing to take them.
That’s another way of thinking outside the box! Clever approach! Similarly with Brenda, I shall be tailing along. I may learn a great deal from this. Although at the moment, a have zero experience in marketing and technology.
Cheers,
Maria
Thanks, Maria. I've no idea how this experiment will ultimately turn out. It will be interesting to see. :)
Hi Gary, that should be an interesting experiment. I will follow along with you and see how it works out. That's a great idea.
Very interesting, Gary! I, too, would love to hear your final report! Best success, my friend!
Jeff
My final report is probably months away, Jeff, certainly with the amount of time it's taking to write my blog posts! :O
But, in any case, I'm not expecting to see any significant results for 3-6 months. But I'll document it all.
Hey Gary! I'm looking forward to following your progress. Good luck and keep us informed.
Rick
See more comments
We all learn something new every day!!