Am I the only one who measures success in dollars?
Hi everyone-
I have been a very successful designer for many years earning 6+ figure income for many of those. I'm in early retirement and slowing down a little and wanted to start an online business selling jewelry when I stumbled upon affiliate marketing.
While I'm fully aware it takes awhile to build up your market to make money and I do not think of this as a get rich quick scheme, I am disappointed to find almost NO real success posts.
I go to that area of the WA site and people are posting enthusiast quotes or stories of their 1st dollar. Or excitement that they have made $8,000 in their 5th year.
That's not success to me and I don't mean to offend anyone but I pour through page after page of "success stories" not to find any real success.
I'm not going to invest 2-3 years of my life building a blog to make $5K a year. So I am being real here. Real direct in asking the question. Is anyone on this site making even $50K a year or more in affiliate marketing?
Thanks-Patti
Recent Comments
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That's a terrible attitude. The reason everyone's not making money is because their all doing the same thing, building review sites . Set yourself apart from everyone and think like an entrepreneur otherwise Mabey the online business world is not for you.
Seriously? There is nothing wrong with saying show me proof that people doing this consistently are succeeding.
I thought so too, there is nothing wrong with asking show me proof. You are alright in my book, as I said we are a community and our job is to give valuable feedback and encouragement. So I'm coming to your defense here.
How is that a terrible attitude? Validation is a requirement for me to take a leap into anything. This is no different.
I build review sites and make money. I know several people that do the same.
I don't do anything differently than anyone else. Probably the only difference is that I do it better.
I've been at work all day so haven't had time to look at WA. what I was saying is you can't compare an online business income to a service income. I personally work as an electrician and earning 6 figures is definitely in reach but I also understand building any business is a risk and at the end of the day you could put years of hard work into it and not see the results you want but on the other hand the business could change your life. an online business is no different. I've got no problem her asking people to show you proof online marketing works but I also doubt they will show you exactly their earnings.
Thanks Lee. I appreciate you responding back. When I search for an item or solution online, I see so many poorly written blogs that are an obvious attempt to make money online.
And I know in my heart of hearts, that there are many dieting sites online that are worlds better than mine. Mostly because they are sponsored by a magazine or a famous expert in the field.
I can write opinions and recipes all day long and not get traction there. In addition, I would not personally buy something off a link on someone's blog.
Let's say they suggest a Vitamix. I leave their blog and go search it online and go directly to Amazon or Sur La Table etc. I have never felt comfortable using a link off a site I know is a blog.
So that leads me back to thinking that writing a blog for one of my passions is great for a hobby but not for a full time income.
For an income, I will start a website that sells products. With all of that said, I am learning a ton that will help that move forward on WA.
Thanks so much!
Patti
There were 3 very successful members on Live Chat just last night and another I saw this morning, they make $5-$10K a MONTH easy, a lot of them just don't blog about it as they're not comfortable telling people how much they make.
Wealthy Affiliate offers you the basic framework & fundamentals on how to make money with your site through affiliate marketing, it's up to you to make as much as you want with it.
This list I compiled needs updating to add the recent stories I've found but you can see several stories on this list making thousands a month: New To WA, Want To Quit or Have Doubts? Success Stories Will Show You The Money! Anyone who's made it to Vegas also makes thousands a month. Search Vegas up top to find those, I don't think I got everyone on my list.
Hey Patti,
There are a handful of peeps who are earning over 50k per year from working online.
I am not sure what percentage of these do that from affiliate marketing alone.
I make money from several areas online. This includes local digital marketing, affiliate marketing, kindle, and most recently cryptocurrencies. I'm looking at ecom as I see it as the next step up from affiliate marketing.
I'f i'm to be completely honest, affiliate marketing makes up a small percentage of my income (I'm full time) as I focused on local marketing. Having a handful of 5k per month clients is great but hard work.
Since my recent success with affiliate marketing I am now producing one niche site a month with a goal of monetizing each site to 1k plus per month.
The thing I like about affiliate marketing over my major money earner, local marketing, is that it really is passive once you outsource the process. This is why I have decided to give affiliate marketing a good try for at least one year. Well at least oversee my assistants doing the work for me :)
With my massive ROI from cryptocurrencies it's hard to ignore 500% return on an investment within 2 weeks. Once I normalize from this high I will be able to look at my other goals.. Who knows... I might be too wealthy from crypto mining / trading to even bother. At this rate my income is exploding and I don't see it stopping now.
Here are a list of some of the other top earners here at WA:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/domw
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/bthiel
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/onmyownterms
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/nathaniell
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/jasonheard
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/leoemery
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/ivetriedthat
My apologies for missing anyone out. These are just some that come to mind. The most successful peeps aren't on here often. I guess because they're too busy working on their businesses.
I hope this helps
Thank you for your very honest answer. I am guessing the same. That you get started with affiliate and then find something else online that starts producing more income for you. Your answer helped a ton!!
Patti
you're most welcome Patti. I believe ecom would be a natural progression from affiliate marketing and something I see you doing well with in regards to your jewelry.
You have choices at this point. You can take the long path and start writing content with the intention of ranking, or you can build your site, use paid traffic and drive traffic to your products from day one.
Optimize your ad spend to lower the acquisition costs. Put a sales funnel in place to increase the average customer value. Look at dropshipping / white label other niche related products to increase your range.
Dropshipping and white label can be completely outsourced.
This will free you from working within your business, allowing you to work on your business.. Research more products.. optimize ad spends further. Increase your ROI...
Fastest way to the money.
Skip past the time taken to use content marketing and slowly rank in an industry that may be highly competitive. Flick the switch and drive targeted traffic instead :)
Hi Patti,
I haven't been here long. Since last March, about 3 months ago. I knew this wasn't a get rich quick, but I believe in time I can reach a point of making decent money. In the end, yes, for me it's about securing my future, financially! It's about the money. I'm sorry but I think everyone here joined to eventually "make money". I, like you, do not want to work at this for 8 years to make 5K a year. Michael says that the learning here is a platform to transfer your skills into more profitable enterprises. However there have been a couple of people here in WA who say they do make a sizable amount of money each month.
I suppose at some point if making a move to something that is more financially rewarding, based on the knowledge learned here would be a good thing. Too soon to tell for me right now I guess. I'll build my biz as best I can.
Good on you for doing your homework.
I hope you find the answers you're looking for.
Mark
Thanks Mark. The confirmation helps. This ain't a hobby. It's not Facebook or a way to kill time. I started this journey to MAKE MONEY. Yes, to learn new skills and write interesting content. But at the end of the day, it is to make money.
Cheers-Patti
I asked the same question in Christian circles and got trashed for it and even left the faith for that reason. However at WA the goal is not to criticize others doubts it's to give feedback, value and encouragement, which is what I received quite often here and I would like to return that favor. I'm honestly not sure either whether it's possible to ever make money here.
However I don't measure success based on money. I measure it based on personal merit and effort. I have seen some posts here in the past of people who have made 10K in one month so it is possible it just depends on how much you're willing to give.
Most people give up which is why there are very little success stories. Others keep going but they rarely post or they just don't feel the same fire anymore. Building an online business is like building an empire, you have to think like a conquerer, if not you'll definitely get eaten alive.
Thanks for your honest feedback. You're right, it's a bit like gladiator. Many enter but few survive!
Hi Patti
WA is a great platform for learning and belonging to a community. You are not getting a quick rich scheme here with Affiliate marketing. I agree with you and I have said the same to myself.
There are other pieces to the puzzle where you can make higher commission than this 4% from Amazon. You just have to look for them. I love this platform of all the learning experience and the interaction. How far and how successful you will be it is up to you, how high you want to scale. I am aiming high.
Cheers Sylvia
Thanks I agree with the community and platform. However this isn't a hobby for me. When I got into design, the company that hired me had 4 successful designers all making over $120K a year. We were all straight commissioned. No salary.
That didn't mean I would make that much BUT it did mean others were and it was possible. You follow their behavior and you expect the same result.
So far I have seen a lot of people bellyaching about not making much. But I have not seen people ecstatic because they are in the 6 figures.
I really would like to hear some success stories. Not, aim high and you'll make it stories when everyone here is aiming high.
Wealthy Affiliate is a great learning platform to transfer your skills into more profitable enterprises Patti!
Thanks! That is what I have gathered. I will continue to build my skills here and then use them for an online biz where I am selling the product.
30 cents here or there from an Amazon referral just doesn't add up. :)
Yes I discovered that. One wanted $10K up front but "guaranteed" your income would be $5K a month by month 3. It seemed high pressure to me.
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Patti, it is interesting that there are quite a few success stories on this platform and you have not run across any. That is unfortunate.
Success is what each individual declares it to be; Yes, we all come aboard to make money and many have specified the amount. They are working toward it, but this is not a business that we can walk in and accept a 120K job. We have to build it.
Given that, we have to satisfy our readers with the information we present to them. This can only be accomplished by spending the time to write the content, following all of the rules that the search engines follow.
Everyone has the desire to do so and, often, does not have the time, at the right time to spend it so things slow down.
Fact: There have been more millionaires empowered in Affiliate marketing, all over the world in the last 20 years than in ANY other industry! And they all built it starting with an empty (electronic) page, so give it a good effort for a year and see if you can do it!
We all think you can if you follow the lessons from those who are making the big bucks!
Thanks Mickey. I am learning quite a bit on WA on how to set up and market a website and I am very appreciative of that.
I am deciding on whether to concentrate on Affiliate marketing or marketing a product I sell and that is what caused me to ask the question.
Patti
Got 'cha!
I think most members have one website to promote Wealthy Affiliate (why not?), but focus their best efforts in promoting other products that do have a better return rate!