Suits said:
GT777733 said:
Suits said:
Since you have very little leverage and basically no ownership, you are at the mercy of other factors. What if Google changes a policy and you get fucked over? What if the company running one of the affiliate programs you have invested a lot of time into lowers that commission percentage? These questions would keep any sane person awake at night.
Google is only one way to drive traffic - and it can sometimes be a very effective way.
The people that I see that get screwed over by Google updates are the ones who go black hat and are in it for quick money. They don't respect the process and end up getting burnt. Some people can recover from updates and some people can't.
Changes in search engine algorithm is just one
off the top of my head example of why being dependent on other people's platforms is a disadvantage.
GT777733 said:
You are absolutely right about being at the mercy of the program or programs you are with. I've had half my income wiped away overnight by a commission rate change a few years ago, and in the first 2-3 years, I basically woke up every morning to check my email to see if one innocent mistake in violating affiliate terms and conditions could have led to me being banned from a program.
This is also a major issue, obviously, but to me the largest concern with AM is that it simply isn't your product and it isn't really your platform. This means that the long term pay-off your hard work is reduced because nothing you build is very scalable.
Which leads us to...
GT777733 said:
Unless you are doing an info product or an e-book, I just don't think the average person with little help or no help can manage to put together their own product. There's just too much to consider to move it at any level which scalable and worth it.
I've seen some people do it - but very few.
I agree that it is difficult, but I'm not confident that the average person couldn't do it. Although I'm hardly a proven success myself, I mentor a number of guys in their early 20's who are just starting out with building a business around a specific product category. In most cases, they aren't the actual product creator themselves and in some cases, they don't all strike me as more capable than average.
What makes me believe that they have the potential for success is the simple fact that they are satisfying a need. As an example, one guy travels to south-east Asia a couple times a year and buys a couple suitcases worth of little trinkets that are small, but look valuable. These aren't things that any tourist would have any trouble finding on the streets of Bangkok, but there are not something you'd generally see outside of SEA.
He then combines them with cheap ass (but durable) do-it-yourself jewelry kits and puts them in a random nice wood box (also cheap). His production costs per unit are about $3, but he has a few clients who can sell them for $35 in their retail locations.
Right now he's working on selling them from a website. So far, it's not a huge success, but he's getting close to ironing out the kinks.
The product isn't innovative at all, but it fills the need and took him less than a month to figure out how to put it all together as an attractive product.
GT777733 said:
It's just much easier and less risk overall to pick products and services you believe in and start by marketing them.
Of course it is easier, but there's also less pay off long-term. You don't developing assets that you own rights to.
You are, as another member has pointed out, developing skills.
HustleNomad said:
After 2-4 years in the affiliate space you have
1) significant resources to throw at new ventures - your own product(s),
2) enough knowledge of marketing and paid traffic that if you plan and test correctly your chances of success are very high - in fact you should be running tests before even building a product so that you never build anything that is not viable
3) true business experience negotiating with shady affiliate networks and advertisers (absolutely priceless, you learn how things REALLY work)
The problem with starting from scratch with your own product is this. You can have the best traffic in the world, but if the offer is not structured correctly it does not matter. Just because you build it does not mean they will come, and that cannot be emphasised enough - one of my first rookie errors way back when I started.
There are a lot of young guys who are just figuring things out, developing skills and learning what they are capable of doing. If they have no business ideas to pursue, they can certainly do worse that get into AM. These skills, as you've stated, will definitely come in handy if they do launch a product at some point.
HustleNomad said:
I've seen several examples of people who are "experts" in their niche, from dating to fitness to health to weird shit, but get absolutely destroyed when putting their offer to the world because they lack an indepth understanding of how MARKETING works.
The challenge I see, however, is that becoming an expert in a niche is a time-intensive process as is becoming skilled in AM. Theoretically a person can do both, but that might not be practical if you have less than 10 years to play with.
Personally, becoming knowledgeable in a niche has been a full-time endeavor for me for many years and that pursuit was largely incompatible with doing something as demanding as building a AM skillset. Becoming an expert in a niche typically involves working a (boring or routine) day job for many years to understand what the needs and missing solutions are.
You can always hire someone to do your marketing for you, but can you hire someone to invent a product from scratch for you?
Here is the thing. You obviously have contributed a lot to this forum.
I respect this forum and the people here, and I have respect for what you’ve done here too.
Don’t take this reply as aggressive or me disrespecting you – it’s me clearing the issues you’ve raised.
I’m going to be brutally, brutally honest.
So - your last reply left a lot to be desired.
I thought about not replying, but I decided to reply because I didn’t want anyone reading this not to get into AM or internet marketing in general because they thought it was too risky or it wasn’t legit.
You went from asking me a question in an objective respectful way, to making comments on my experience admitting you aren’t a ‘big success’ but still questioning AM when I’ve told you I’m making more than 11k profit (profit – not revenue) a month out of it.
If there’s one thing I have learnt in life, it’s to never argue results unless you are getting better results yourself.
In this case, you’re not – at least not yet.
If you want to express how little belief you have in something - get out there and prove that other person wrong (but I guarantee you won't feel the need to when you get to this point).
The vibe I get is you’ve realized you are mentoring these young guys on product creation, and you’re sh*tting yourself because you realise you might be leading them (and possibly yourself) down the wrong track. And, to save yourself, you’re trying to poke holes in affiliate marketing (without coming up with an equal amount of pros) to rationalize your own decisions.
Please show some awareness, put your insecurities aside, re word your responses and respond in a more respectful way where you are clearly asking me to address the gaps in your own knowledge. You didn’t do this – you just made general comments and left it at that.
Otherwise, you are pushing your own limitations and insecurities onto others who might want to pursue the thing you think has all these limitations. You might be denying them massive success without realizing you are doing it.
You’re hurting yourself with a mindset like this too.
It’s fine to be skeptical of something, but communicate in a productive and self aware way about it.
I am more than happy to do that.
So, for you, and for anyone reading this, I will address the concerns about getting into affiliate marketing now:
The three biggest risks you will probably face with affiliate marketing are:
1. Your traffic sources drying up
2. That you get banned for a violation of terms of affiliate services
3. The commission structures change on you
RE traffic sources - if you play by the rules of the traffic platform/s, you should be more than fine. It's just a matter of competency of keeping your traffic consistent - but this should be part of your skill set you aim to develop over time.
Rating - low risk.
RE affiliate TOS - read the entire TOS back to front, and make the necessary modifications to your marketing strategy reflecting these TOS. Then, send an email to your affiliate program provider with all your questions. Mention to them that one of your main priorities is to have a long successful partnership with them, and you want to do everything in your power to stick by their rules. Make it clear how much effort you've gone to stick by these rules. Every few months or so they will update their TOS. Read the update. If something changes and you are unsure about it - message them/email them again and report yourself if you feel like you might be in violation and present what you think might be the solution, and tell them you are just looking to stay within their TOS and their feedback/advice would be appreciated. Tell them you will make any necessary changes as soon as you get their email, and will send them an email once you’ve made the changes.
If you do this, and don't get ridiculously lazy, like I've seen most people are, you will cover a huge amount of your risk here.
Rating – low risk.
RE commission structure change - pick a reputable affiliate program first and foremost and do research on them beforehand about how they run their program. My main affiliate provider has changed their commissions once in about 5 years. Was it painful? Yes - I lost half my income. But, after the initial shock and panic, I composed myself, recovered and changed my strategy. I also took the risk to stay with them banking on the probably scenario that it would be a while IF they chose to change it again. I calculated my maximum downside would be that they shave another 25-30% off what I'm getting now. If they did anymore than that, I can't see why anyone would stay with them - remember - they have to stay competitive too.
So, with what I'm making now - another commission structure change, barring a catastrophic one, is low to medium risk - I can't really go to zero commissions - so I'm always going to have some income stream.
The other thing too is this is NOT network marketing. I’m free to promote other people’s products and switch affiliates. Affiliate marketing has flexibility!
Rating – low to medium risk.
Now - RE not building an asset. I didn't want to put this in the original message because I didn't want to come off as one of those big head a**hole 'look at all my riches' business guys. But, it’s going to benefit people to know this so I’m happy to share - the intellectual property and other property in the marketing channels I have built are worth around 300k as a conservative estimate if I choose to sell them off today (for anyone reading this – I definitely didn’t build this asset overnight – it’s taken years – you have to put in hard work first). I could sell them to another marketer or a business. I'm not going to go into detail about how you do this - the answer to that question should be a reward for people who put their blood, sweat and tears into the game, and are actually willing to sacrifice their time for a result.
This is the funny thing about building an asset/building someone else’s business. I originally thought the exact same thing as you. But, guess what? I actually got into it and realized that everything I had heard was complete lies and misinformation. It was spread by people who either hadn’t tried hard enough, or weren’t committed to go deep enough. But, I only would have found that out if I sacrificed my time and put the effort and associated pain in to find that out myself, and be able to think independently enough to see that everyone else was being a sheep and believing everything they heard or were seeing others do.
Something I hope people learn that read this thread is that life can be much less intimidating if you understand these things:
- Most of the mainstream don't understand that it's basically impossible to reap any rewards in life without taking SOME risk. They think there is some magical or lucky path that some people take to get certain things. You think someone is going to hand you money and assets you can’t get in most 9-5’s for very little risk, time/money commitment and stress?
- Most of the mainstream listen to all the BS stories and information out there that ALL types of business or certain types of business are too risky. I can't express how horsesh*t this is. Most of it comes from people with insecurities who don’t want to confront those insecurities, people who failed in business themselves (nine times out of ten when I ask these people why they failed it’s because they didn’t put proper time into research, they were greedy and didn’t do enough of the boring non money making activities that help a business run, they were lazy, they weren’t committed enough, or they simply didn’t treat it with the respect it deserved and thought they could be a business owner and live a normal life too – they wanted their cake and to eat it as well essentially), people not wanting others to try and succeed because they want to see them stay at their level, or literally just people who are close minded or unable to critically think their way out of the lower levels of society
- Most of the mainstream don't understand that if you identify your risks BEFORE jumping into something, you can manage these risks extremely well over time. A risk only stays a risk if you let it by doing nothing to minimize it. Essentially, don’t be lazy. Go that extra step to minimise your risk to as low of a point as possible. Assume everyone else is slacking or hasn’t asked enough questions, and look into something if you really think things should work differently to how they seem
- Lastly, if you want extreme rewards in anything, you have to embody that thing and obsess over it to master it first. It's an all-in mind set once you make the commitment. Everything else in life becomes a second priority. Stop thinking you have no control over your life or that you can’t create whatever life you want. You can't stand on the edge of the water with one toe dipped in and watch someone else jump in and keep asking them how the temperature is. At some point you have to research the topic as best you can, make an educated assessment, and just take the plunge and commit. Never look back. Keep running. Pivot if you have to. But, don't stop until you have what you got into it for. When you get to that point, you can stop and ask yourself what you want to do next. But not before. I can't stress how much this involves changing your habits and mindset on a very very deep level though. You will literally become a different person if you do it right, and it will be extremely uncomfortable at times. But, if you keep going, you eventually find a point where you can put your head above water again and get some air. Eventually, you'll be surfing on waves while you watch everyone else back on the shore still dipping their toes in the edge of the water asking what it's like.
^^With all of this, You DO NOT have to be gifted apart from having grit/resilience and the desire to put one foot in front of the other until you get to your destination. It’s why I keep telling people the only key to success is persistence. If you want it, and you’re willing to work on it over the long term., you will be successful. It’s a matter of when, not if. Just don’t expect it to be easy or comfortable in the slightest for the first few years. Treat your craft like your life depends on it.
I wasn’t told any of this stuff when I first started. Some people simply don’t appreciate the information they get access to anymore because the internet makes everything free and we don’t understand when someone is giving us gems that can save us months and years of mistakes and toil.
No bullsh*t – I didn’t even know what an affiliate program properly was until over a year into my IM journey. I literally spent a year going around in circles until then. Some people might be saving a year reading this.
Also - there is no one same path for everyone.
You can 100% become very successful from developing your own product (from what you described to me – those products from overseas that you sell back in your home country actually sound unique and like there is a demand and it seems like you might be onto something). If you have the vision and you know deep down you can make it work, go for it. I’m going to be the first person to encourage you to do it and to want to see you succeed if you’ve got a vision and you’re willing to put in the work.
I want you to succeed, and then I want you to go help others believe in themselves and share your experience with them so they can succeed too. This sounds corny as f*ck – but the more people that experience their version of meaningful success in life – that’s how society actually improves and goes up consciousness levels.
Everyone loses if we have a bunch of unhappy people walking around.
My experiences are based on exactly that – what I have experienced.
Statistically, of all the people that I know that are working online full time – easily over 90% of them started either marketing someone else’s product, or offering a type of service to another company who owns a product or service, such as marketing for example i.e. being a consultant.
That's another path people choose too - become a consultant or freelancer of some kind and find a way to get consistent work from one or two good clients, and find a way to get paid good per hour money for what you do.
Once you build up capital and knowledge, it’s a much easier side step into doing your own product or standalone service (or partnering with an expert in a private partnership) if you want.
Does it mean you can’t offer your own product from the beginning? Absolutely not. You may be wildly successful if you can see a direct need and you have all the knowledge on how to fill that need and offer exactly what the market needs and wants at that time.
But, if someone new to business with no clear idea on a product (which most people don’t) came to me and asked what to do, I’d tell them offer someone else’s product first, or build skills and offer your services as a consultant first.
You need very little money this way – only time. And this suits most beginners perfectly because they are poor/broke. Further to that, they know very little about business and you can get into GIGANTIC problems spending money on things you don’t need or that won’t work when going into product creation. I see this with brick and mortar business too. It can ruin some people for life.
You can build money making skills in exchange for your time/effort instead with someone else’s product or service.
There’s pros and cons to anything you do in life. But, affiliate marketing is legit IF you put the proper time into it (isn’t that a principle that applies to anything?). It’s DEFINITELY not a get rich in a couple of months option if you want to earn consistent money for more than a year or so.
The scammy salesmen, people who can’t be successful with something themselves so they become a fraudulent teacher, and average people in society who never try things themselves might have led you to believe that.
To clarify – I’m not here to sell anything. I’ve had a number of people PM me in the last week. I won’t recommend a resource specifically because I don’t want to seem bias or like I’m connected to someone that I’m secretly promoting.
I have little to gain out of this. I would actually save a lot more time not helping anyone, and it’s not like I’m getting attention or building any sort of brand because no one knows who I am.
I’m only doing it to give other guys belief they can get the things they want if they put in the work, because I know how sh*t it was when I though I had nothing to look forward to in life, and I know how much it’s changed my life to be able to commit to something which can give me the skills and resources to do other great things in life both for myself and others.
Follow my advice in my original post (get on Google and find non scammy blogs, and join non scammy Facebook IM groups - you'll learn to identify both over time if you stick at it), and persist/problem solve consistently (everyday) over a period of years, and you will be successful. I have zero doubts about that.
Choose the path that suits you. There’s actually thousands of ways you can make money online or offline. If you multiply all the different models by all the different industries by all the different products and services by all the different locations by all the different audiences – there are thousands of possibilities.
But, stop thinking of the reasons you can’t (because there are 1000’s of them too - all of which have an alternative or solution by the way) and just commit and take full responsibility for your life and your decisions.
You'll naturally face 1000's of problems and obstacles along the way - but just solve them each one at a time and exercise patience.
I take my hat off to anyone who tries in life. You only have the right to complain about a problem or be negative if you are also genuinely looking for a solution to that problem. Otherwise, that stuff is absolute cancer. It will rot you so fast it's not funny.
Encourage other people, and encourage yourself first and foremost.
