If I had only found affiliate mentors years ago I would have saved a bunch of time and effort. But when I started out online there were no real mentors. There were courses though which taught tactics for earning online. But none of them offered personal 1 to 1 affiliate marketing coaching – or at least none that I found anyway.
At best they offered a number of videos which you could access through a members area. There was no community and no support. Thankfully things have changed since then. You can have a look at the many courses I found online in my digital profit course review. Eventually though I did find affiliate mentors who helped me through the many technical and mental challenges you’ll deal with as an affiliate marketer.
Affiliate Mentors – My Journey
Back in 1995 eBay opened its doors and I opened an account. It wasn’t until years later that I used the platform to make money. After purchasing an ebook on eBay which taught me a business strategy (read about it here), I started buying and selling items for profit. After a while of buying and selling I realised there must be a better way to use the internet to generate an income. I was spending all my time shifting products physically and tied to my computer. What if there was another way?
There was. I bought an ebook which taught me the eBay strategy and realised that this was an automated sale – no dealing with customers or queueing at a post office. I wrote a couple of my own books and tried to sell them but had no luck. A marketing course put me on another trajectory – affiliate marketing. I realised affiliate marketing was a better way to earn than selling my own ebooks, so I started learning. After a lot of struggle and making many mistakes with affiliate marketing, I almost quit completely. Luckily for me I didn’t and I found a community of affiliate mentors who would help me turn my laptop into a veritable cash machine!
Affiliate Mentors – Finding A Mentor Online
I found a video of a guy on a pedalo called Stuart Ross. At the time I was struggling with my affiliate business and thought I needed to take another chance. So I joined his course and found an online community. This was very different to the other courses I had purchased in the past. I was able to meet up with the person who brought me in – a guy called Oliver. He arranged a number of meetings locally in the UK and I also went and met the founders of this community Stuart Ross and Jay Jubassek.
The community was called the SFM – Six Figure Mentors. Of course this sounded too good to be true and a little spammy to me at the time. But the SFM Mentors helped me build a business online and start earning fairly quickly. I was able to make a couple of high value sales within my first few months. Of course this isn’t typical and everyone’s journey is different. Here’s a picture of me with Jay Kubassek at my first Momentum meeting in London in 2014.
What Can They Do For You?
Affiliate mentors are pretty important with building an affiliate business. I tried for years on my own and faced a huge number of challenges. It’s just not worth trying to do it all alone.
Through the community I was able to see real people face to face and it’s amazing how much this can change things. It can give you confidence in what you’re doing. When I first started learning about affiliate marketing, nobody knew anything about it. Most people were sceptical. And this is a major problem if you are surrounded by scepticism.
Your “tribe” can help you or hinder you and if the people around you aren’t on the same path or mission as you it can be a major thorn in your side. So having access to a community of people who are in the same boat is massively beneficial to building an online business. Not to mention that those people can also help you directly with your business – both in terms of mindset, technical difficulties or simply as a shoulder to cry on when things aren’t going so great!
Affiliate Mentors – Right Business Model
Are you stuck with a bad business model and marketing strategy? I was for years and this was the crux of my issues. An affiliate mentor can help by giving you a business model which works and helping you decide on a marketing strategy which is right for you.
Some products such as physical products only pay 1-11% commissions to affiliates. If you choose this path you could be struggling for years before earning enough to quit your job.
Marketing Strategy
Likewise, some marketing strategies are very long term. I got stuck blogging for years with hardly any results. I thought that eventually it would pay off. Meanwhile I saw others overtaking me and this forced me to switch gears. But it was only because I could attend meetings and see for myself what was working that I was able to do this.
Affiliate Mentors – Mindset
Mindset is such an important issue that it deserves an article all to itself. An entrepreneurial mind frame is very different to an employee mind frame. There’s a mindset shift from employee to entrepreneur which is necessary for success. As an employee, you turn up, do the work and go home. The boss or company has the responsibility to make the business profitable. You just work on a small part of it and get paid for your time.
As an entrepreneur in an affiliate business, it all comes down to you. If you don’t make your business profitable, you can’t survive in it. Affiliate marketing is different to being an employee and you don’t get paid for your time. You get paid for your results.
So if you think your affiliate business is there for you to enjoy yourself and do what you love, you’re only half right. Yes it can give you a lifestyle which a job can’t. But you’ll need to make it work and this sometimes can mean taking stock of how you see yourself and the limiting beliefs you’re bringing to your business. Affiliate mentors can help you see these limitations. Without them, you can get stuck in your own thinking patterns which aren’t serving you.
Join The Community
You can join the community of affiliate mentors and access an all-in-one business system here.
