Finally, it is the weekend!
Like most weekends, I have more time to spend on my blogging activities.
Outside, the weather is nice. The sky is blue with some scattered clouds. Another day of summer I have to sacrifice for my business in front of my computer.
Here in Canada, summers are shorts in terms of warm sunny days. Clearly, I totally believe in what I do otherwise I would be in the pool swimming with my children or enjoying these beautiful moments with a cool drink.
The dark side of starting affiliate marketing
Things don’t always look good under the sunlight; it’s hard to admit, but I just found a dark side to affiliate marketing.
Well, it’s not that bad.
Like any other job, there are tougher days than others.
It’s in these gloomy moments, when I feel a little down, that it would be nice to have a colleague to which I could talk, throw some paper bullets, or on which I could empty my bag of accumulated frustrations and disappointments.
With affiliate marketing, I’m more than often alone in front of my laptop.
Fortunately for me, I have a dog.
I think he understands what I feel when he sits near my desk, pointing his big nose and staring at me with his brown eyes.
These long moments where I’m carrying my stone alone without a glimpse of a positive encouragement are felt difficult, not only because I have to sacrifice time that I could have spent otherwise, but I find it morally difficult because I don’t have the support from the people in my immediate surroundings.
They don’t take seriously what I do.
My ego is always taking a rough beating when I hear them saying I’m wasting my time, while my business is struggling at generating any benefits.
I don’t blame them, they don’t understand what it takes to get an income from a profitable business.
In these moments I look forward for the day I will get my first high ticket commission… I use this kind of thought as a source of motivation.
So I gave my dog a tie and officially promoted him as my new colleague and helper. I call this zoo therapy, and it works just fine.
Time to Make Money Online
I have less time to give to people I love and I’m terribly sorry about this. I even feel guilty in times.
I keep encouraging myself by saying this is only for a short period, the time I need to start, learn, and become proficient at what I’m doing. Eventually I will free up time for other things.
I do believe that the time I spend in front of my computer will someday pay. Why are people so reluctant with the idea of making money online?
As far as I’m concerned, I avoid talking about the subject in front of my colleagues at work, or to relatives, because I’m afraid they laugh at me. I can imagine saying:
“hey! I wrote a new blog post about how to make money online, would you like to read it?!”
They would stare at me like if I was telling them I saw an UFO.
I have to accept the fact that working in affiliate marketing is also a quest to fight distrust, educate, construct new relationships, and find the support from like-minded people.
There, I realize the chance I have to be inside a really active affiliate program, thanks to Dean Holland!
Loneliness is less of a problem with our partnership community, mentorship, monthly events where we can get together online for a whole day workshop, and those weekly nuggets that worth the detour!
Work for the right reason
Digital technologies including social medias brought with them plenty of new ways to make money. My generation, the “x”, and especially the generation of my parents, turned their back to this reality some decades ago because they feared the risk of the unknown.
They’ve made long studies to achieve a conventional lifestyle pattern, with a stable work, a salary, a car, and a mortgage they would have paid by the time they retire.
They built a cozy nest, counting on the same income week after week, for the time they could keep their job.
For them, everything look nice within their comfort zone.
They had a stable situation, and didn’t feel the need for more. They stayed with the same employer for years, until they became part of the furniture…
People the age of my mother, over eighty, are now obviously not the right persons to sell affiliate marketing to, however, their lifestyle have for sure influenced the way I looked at my ideal life and, consequently, how I was dealing with money.
This was before I started having financial uncertainties with high mortgage costs and sudden expenses from different sources that my mind changed.
This kind of hazardous situation, repeated over many months, made me realized that despite all the advanced studies I made, all those years of efforts as a student at University have never been compensated by my salary, my only source of income.
Not at all!
I was told to go to school for a long time, find a profession, and earn the big bucks. What a brainwash!
If this was true in the economic environment of the past, I can no longer support this belief in today’s reality. A single salary isn’t sufficient to maintain the same kind of life formerly embraced by my parents.
Fortunately, in my mind, it has never been the intention, neither the goal to study for money. I’ve made long studies because I was passionate for my program and by technologies.
When I look back, it has always been the working conditions, the experience, the accomplishment, and the chance I got to work in a field that makes me feel good, getting up almost every morning with a smile, that have paid the most.
The conventional way of making money, that is, being a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, etc. are prestigious and highly valuable professions, but necessitate years of efforts and investments to end-up paying, without counting the nice loan the student has likely accumulated.
Those who did all that only for money may find themselves frustrated and sad as they compare to people making money and succeeding with almost no studies at all!
Money is one thing, long studies no longer have to necessarily cross this path.
I’m not telling you to avoid studies.
Rather I want to emphasize the fact that too much of us embraced a professional career because they were supposedly the only worth ways to make money and meeting with success.
Times have changed as more people realize that this now belongs to misconception.
Today, more people are open to take risks to start being their own boss. The digital technologies could be the new modern way of assuming a financial security.
Embrace studies for the right cause, not for the money alone, and embrace money with the right attitude.
Consider digital marketing and its related businesses with all the serious and respect they deserve. There are now more ways to make money than many could imagine, but unfortunately, none of them come without efforts.
If your goal is to make money then study your tools and work hard on the actions you have to do to make money. If your goal is to save lives, than study and work hard on the tools and the actions you have to take to become someone who saves lives.
Think like an entrepreneur
In order to make money you have to think out of the box, like an entrepreneur. That’s the lesson I learned so far.
Find a problem to solve and build a business that will address it.
Don’t limit yourself with thoughts that prevent you from moving forward, make your dreams a destination that could be achieved. Don’t be shy to go out of your comfort zone. Be creative, always seek to learn new things.
Wealthy people became rich because they find how to overcome their fear of failure in order to pursue their dreams of a better life.
Why should I limit myself and let people around discourage me from taking the actions that will make me grow and reach my goals?
I know what I do, I have a clear plan to follow, and I’m taking it seriously.
Some people became famous and respected online because they were inspired by a dream and while they took actions to pursue their dream, they sparked an opportunity and they ride it as far as they could.
You have a wave then surf on it!
Don’t let it pass pretending you can’t do it without even trying a little.
Don’t let your dreams just be a dream.
The reputation of affiliate marketing
I discovered that affiliate marketing could have a bad reputation for the non-initiated.
For a vast majority of people, it often falls in the same category as SCAM, phishing, and other bad marketing methods they experience on the internet. Internet has such a bad name when it refers to making money online so it’s not surprising that people close to you might try to keep you away from all the online misinformation that claims you’ll be rich fast.
I made my researches, and I know it’s possible to make money as an affiliate marketer on the internet.
My time is not wasted, it’s invested.
But, I said it before, there are some risks.
After all, everyone who starts a new business knows there are risks associated with it!
Hopefully, these risks can be mitigated.
I know deep inside me that, if I don’t take this path now, if I don’t try even a little, I will regret it.
I am not afraid to fail.
Failure is just another way to learn.
I chose a path that has been proven by people that I trust, why should I fail?
When you own a business, you don’t expect to make money straight from the start. You make investments that could take the form of time or actual dollars.
In my case, because I don’t have the money required to finance my marketing campaigns, all I have to invest is my time. But you expect that, eventually, your business will become profitable and you will have back what you invested in it.
It’s been 3 weeks only since I started this blog. It was expected that I would have no result yet to share.
The moment I will start to make money online, people will start to change.
I tell you.
People will ask me how I did!
Tell me about you and your experience. Are you also starting affiliate marketing?
Do you have the support from people around you?
Please let me know by writing your comments below.
Have a nice day!
Martin & Pollux
Thanks to Pintera Studio for the cover picture.
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