AffiliateMentor, Author at Affiliate Marketing Mentors

Aligning Your Passion With An Affiliate Business

If you’re struggling aligning your passion with an affiliate business, you’re definitely not alone. A passion project is so much more inspiring than working for the sole purpose of making money.

When you’re aligned with a passion project, you love every minute and you could do it all day long. When you’re working for the money alone, it has a much more “weighty” vibe to it. There’s challenges of course with any endeavour. But would you rather choose a path with heart, or one which has no meaning to you besides the paycheck?

I’ve never been very good at working (only) for the money, without having some kind of love or connection to it. Over time, it simply wears me down inside somehow. Still, I’ve worked countless jobs trying to stay afloat. Maybe you’re in the same boat? But each job that I didn’t care about has brought me closer to realising what it is I’m actually passionate about.

So how can you align your passion with an affiliate marketing business?

Aligning Your Passion With An Affiliate Business – Ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese term meaning “reason for being”. Ikigai is where your vision, mission and passion aligns with a way/means of making money!

I’ve always struggled with this and in large part I put this down to the programming of society. We are told, “you can’t make money doing this, or doing that”. You need to “choose a profession“, or “find a vocation”, or just “get a job” whatever it is!

So confused was I around this situation that in my 20’s I pretty much dropped out of society and went a lived in a ramshackled old house with a bunch of hippies! It was literally falling down! One morning I woke up to the sound of a collapsing wall – fortunately it was only the dry stone wall surrounding a nearby field – not the house falling down!

It’s since been rebuilt and you can now actually stay there as it’s a B&B:

During the 3 years I spent at this house, I realised something pretty important: time was worth much more than money and despite being broke for the whole time, I found an inner peace I didn’t manage to replace by re-joining society and “fitting in”.

Aligning Your Passion With An Affiliate Business – Forget The Money

Many people are frustrated with their working situation. A recent Gallop poll stated that 85% of people are disengaged at work.

That’s a pretty harsh statistic. But what’s the answer? While money is an important part of life, it’s worth asking yourself what you would do if money didn’t matter?. Separating ourselves from the ties which money makes on our very being is vital to understand out motivations outside of making money.

It is your intrinsic motivation which will give you the answer when trying to understand your passion project. Intrinsic motivation comes from within, while extrinsic motivation arises from external factors. Here’s a few other questions to ask yourself which might help you find your passion project:

What lights you up?
What subject are you most interested in?
What’s the first thing you want to tell someone about yourself?

Here’s another way to consider your passion project. Imagine you’ve won the lottery. Think of everything you would buy. Perhaps you’d go on a few holidays, buy some nice cars and travel the world. Now, once you’ve done all those things, what will you do once you have exhausted all those material desires? What’s left?

Another angle is to imagine a future where money doesn’t exist! Look at your day through those eyes and think about how you feel about your chosen vocation, knowing that you must continue in your job, without getting paid! How do you feel about it?

Be Yourself – Everyone Else Is Taken

The deathbed meditation is a meditation to help you gain clarity around your life. Start by imagining yourself in the last few hours of your life. Perhaps you are surrounded by your family members who are saying goodbye for the last time. Ask yourself a few questions once you have spent some time getting into the meditation:

Ask yourself “What was I most happy to have done in life?”, “What did I regret not doing?”, “What is the most important thing in life to me, above all else?”.

The deathbed meditation might seem extreme, but it’s important to realise that we don’t live forever. Sometimes that’s the realisation you need in order to shift your thinking.

When you come to terms with the fact that you will die someday, it’s very liberating. From this perspective you can make much better choices than if you’re surrounded by the opinions of other people and the constructs of society which are unconsciously absorbed through the course of life.

Summary

Aligning your passion with an affiliate business can definitely take some time. Most of us have at least some programming which may not be helpful when approaching this topic. We are told, for example, that we “need to be realistic”, you must “choose a profession”, that you can’t make money “this way” or “that way” and so on.

With an affiliate marketing business you need to align your passion with a product of some kind in order to make it pay. But too often we think of the money first, and second guess our passion as a result, shifting into an area which perhaps we are less than passion about to make it pay. But with blogging, it’s a much harder and longer road if you don’t care for your topic so it’s a much better idea to choose a topic you can maintain your passion for over the longer term.

How To “Flag” Your Goal To Your Unconscious Mind

How To “Flag” Your Goal To Your Unconscious Mind? “Flagging up” your goal to your subconscious mind is an important part of attaining something you strive for. We know the things we truly want, because we think about them a lot. But the reason why so many people struggle with their goals and desires is because they are in conflict with them.

Take the gym for an example. You join a gym to get in shape and get that “beach body”. But within a month, you’re bored of it. Your old habits kick in and you’re eating pizza and having a few beers. The “six pack” never arrived not because you didn’t desire it, but because you didn’t desire it enough to get over all your competing desires such as slobbing out, drinking beer and having a pizza whenever you felt like it!

The same can be said when you’re attempting to build an online business. There’s the desire to have more money, and create more freedom, for example. Perhaps your goal is to quit your job or make $10,000 a month as an affiliate. But there are also counter desires which don’t fit with your goal such as to slack off and watch TV.

The competing parts of your self want to maintain the status quo, so you put your feet up and don’t do the work. What happened to your dreams of building a profitable online business? They took a back seat to the status quo. What’s the payoff? You don’t have to do the work. You tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow, but secretly you know nothing will happen!

How To “Flag” Your Goal To Your Subconscious Mind – Negative Payoffs

Perhaps you want to get fit, but you like a beer now and then. Maybe you want more control and freedom, but you don’t want to do the work. You want more money, but you like time off. The negative payoff of not getting your stated goal is that you don’t have to do the hard work in attaining it.

You want it but you don’t want it badly enough! Or, perhaps you just don’t know how to get it. Why do you want a better body, or to “get fit” or to make $10k a month?

Friedrich Nietzsche — ‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’

Find your “why” and get clear on it. With an online business, the ones who succeed and build large incomes from affiliate marketing/online businesses are those with a big reason to do it. So if your job is “ok” and you don’t mind your boss, you probably aren’t motivated enough to build an online business to quit your job. If your fitness or body is “ok” you’re probably not motivated to get fitter or in better shape.

Be honest enough to admit that you don’t always want the “goal” you say you do badly enough to put down those habits and behaviours which stand in the way of your attaining it!

Set A Goal

Without a tangible goal, how will you know whether you have hit it or not? If your goal is to “make more money” or to “get fitter”, you’ll never know when you have arrived. You can’t hit a goal which isn’t well defined.

These goals are poorly defined and as such not much use. “More money” is always future bound and you can always be wanting “more money” no matter how much you attain. Similarly, “getting fitter” can always be your goal, forever! You’ll never arrive at “get fitter” because again it’s future paced and there’s no measurable “end-point” to it.

So define what you want by writing it out in specific terms. A SMART goal has:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timebound

There’s also the notion that SMART goals can become too cerebral and that DUMB goals are the way to go! A DUMB goal, by contrast to a SMART goal can be more motivating because they are “moonshot” dreams which inspire and lift your spirits. Either way, jot down a goal or aspiration you currently have and give it a time and a date to accomplish it by.

How To “Flag” Your Goal To Your Subconscious Mind – Setting A Goal

Did you write something down? Writing down a goal makes it tangible. If you only carry ideas in your head and don’t get them on to paper, they are less definite and tangible. So make sure you write something down just to start off with.

e.g. I now make $1000 a month from my affiliate business. It is January 1st 2025.

How To "Flag" Your Goal To Your Unconscious Mind

Now, have a look at your goal. Does it inspire you? How do you feel about it? Mark it out of 10 for desirability and out of 10 for achievability – meaning how easily do you think you can achieve it? If you don’t believe you can achieve your goal, you’re unlikely to work towards it.

If you goal isn’t desirable enough to you, you won’t want to push yourself towards it either. You want your goal to be a 10/10 in desirability and a 10/10 in achievability. Perhaps you believe you need more time, so alter the date. Or perhaps your goal doesn’t really motivate you, so change it to a more desirable goal:

e.g. I now make $10,000 a month from my affiliate business, it is January 1st 2026!

How To “Flag” Your Goal To Your Unconscious Mind – A Goal

Spend some time altering and “tweaking” your goal because unless you find a goal which is highly desirable, and you really believe you can achieve it, you won’t be motivated to work at achieving it.

Your goal must be a 10 out of 10 for desirability and a 10 out of 10 for achievability. Your goal might not be about building a business, or money. It might be about a relationship or a situation, a new job or a new house or car. Whatever it is, make it highly desirable and achievable and realistic to you.

Once you have tweaked your goal so it’s high number for both these factors, write out your final goal. Now write it out 10-20 times. As you do so, notice if anything feels “off” about it. Do you really want this, or is there something you can change to increase its desirability or your belief in it?

As you write out your goal multiple times, you’ll likely want to change a few things to align it with your values and genuine intentions. Keep going until your goal is clearly stated, has a definite outcome which can be measured. It should excite you and still be within the realms of possibility for you.

Writing Out Your Goal

Ok so you have your goal and you’ve tweaked it to a 10 out of 10 for desirability and attainability. Now write it out 100 times! It’s this repetition which will clearly install your goal in your subconscious mind.

Once you have done this, you’re unconscious mind will “flag” your goal and your mind will start searching for ways to make it happen. The subconscious mind is powerful, but most of us don’t know how to use it properly.

Make a habit out of repeating your goal daily and write it out at least 10 times a day. Don’t want to do this? You haven’t chosen a big enough goal/ you don’t want it enough. Choose a big enough goal to motivate you into this exercise. Write it out every day at least 10 times. You’ll be amazed at the power of your unconscious mind to deliver results when you do this.

Be on the lookout for “packages” of information pertaining to your goal which you’ll receive from your unconscious mind when you start doing this regularly. They’ll come in as brainwaves, brain farts and inspiring actions. Make sure you take them!

The best book I’ve found on this process is Stuart Lichtman’s Lots of money for anything fast. Stuart Lichtman was an MIT professor who came up with a goal setting formula called Cybernetic Transposition. It’s a process where you align all parts of your brain with an outcome you desire (a goal). You repeat it to yourself regularly and train your brain to look out for opportunities and ideas pertaining to your goal. Do the work and you won’t be disappointed.

Summary

So how to “flag” your goal to your unconscious mind? Firstly you must define your goal in terms which are specific and measurable. A vague goal such as “have more money” or “get fitter” can never be measured so you won’t be able to “hit” it!

Once you have defined a tangible goal, spend some time writing it out. How does it feel to you? Is it desirable enough to go for it? Do you genuinely care about your goal? How about believability? Do you believe you can attain your goal? With a strong desire and belief you simply won’t follow through on the actions needed to attain your goal.

Once you have defined a goal which is specific to you, write it out many times. At least 100! As you do so, keep tweaking to align your goal even more with what you really want and how strong you believe you can have it.

Read your goal out daily, and watch for ideas and inspirations coming from your subconscious mind as it processes your daily mantra. So that’s how to “flag” your goal to your subconscious mind.

Unconscious Saboteurs Of Your Success

If you’re struggling in any endeavour, you’ll probably have a few unconscious saboteurs of your success. What are they? Well, they’re you! Or, to be more specific they are parts of you.

So if you dream of a lifestyle of freedom and unlimited income, but you’re not quite making the grade, there’s a way to uncover these hidden splinters in your mind, which are holding you from success.

“Why would you sabotage your own life?”

Did you know that many of the worlds lottery winners end up regretting their win? Many of them suffer lost relationships and 70% of them lose or spend their money within 5 years or less.

Unconscious Saboteurs Of Your Success — https://www.rd.com/list/13-things-lottery-winners/

Changing your circumstances financially has an effect on more than just your bank balance. You could lose friends or even a life partner if it throws up some conflict or problem:

Unconscious Saboteurs Of Your Success – Your Own Cognitive Bias

Cognitive bias is an individual’s construction of reality, not necessarily the the objective reality. So if you hold a negative bias towards money, for example, it can act as a subconscious money repellant and stop you from attaining it.

While consciously you may be trying to build a profitable business for example, your unconscious money “tick” keeps you struggling. Why would you do that to yourself? It’s because there’s a payoff. Your subconscious mind is wise and listens to everything you say and think. So if you’re running a “program” in your mind which secretly hates money, or connects some negative attributes to money, it will “keep you safe” by limiting money in your life.

For example, if you believe rich people to be greedy, but you consider yourself generous, there’s a clear conflict if you desire to become rich. How would you reconcile becoming rich when you attribute a negative idea to “the rich”?

Here’s a few commonly held limiting beliefs which you may have some connection with:

Rich people are greedy
Money is unspiritual
Money is the route of all evil
The rich are deceitful
You must be dishonest to become rich
It’s nobler to be poor

Have a look at these statements and rate your agreement with them on a scale of 1-10. 1 = you absolutely agree, and 10 = you completely disagree.

Unconscious Saboteurs Of Your Success – Other Inner Conflicts

Having money might compromise some of your relationships too. Imagine if you suddenly doubled your income overnight. How would that affect your relationships? How would those closest to you see you differently? Would it create any difficulties with friends and family who don’t share your outlook and aspirations?

Do you have any bad habits which might surface when money is no longer limited? What is often cited as an excuse to not giving money to beggars is that “they would only spend it on drugs”! So, if you gave a homeless person some money, they might even drink themselves to death with it, or die from a drug overdose! Therefore you could cause their death, if you believe that.

But apply that same rationnel to yourself becoming wealthy. Do you have any negative habits such as drinking/smoking/drug taking which might be exacerbated when you have more money? Imagine at the same time if you lacked purpose and direction, how damaging this could be if you suddenly had large amounts of money to spend.

Sometimes your subconscious mind is keeping you safe by not allowing you to succeed past a certain level. Gay Hendricks, author of The Big Leap, calls this the upper limit problem, and it can surface in some negative event which sabotages your success.

Unconscious Saboteurs Of Your Success -Identity/Self Image

One of the biggest obstacles to success is that it would change your identity. Your self image, or identity is a large part of your model of the world. It’s a strong piece of the jigsaw which holds your world view together.

Your self image is often made up of the people in your life, your job, your purpose, and your place in the world. Having a big money shift can change a lot of things at once and damage your self image.

You might quit your job and lose your friends for example. This can be dangerous to your mental and physical health.

It’s well known that someone aged from 40-60 suffers a mid life crisis – a period of transition in life where someone struggles with their identity and self-confidence.

Sudden changes in circumstances can trigger these kinds of events and knock your confidence and direction in life.

Uncovering Your Success Blockers

So there’s some of the reasons why someone might sabotage their own success, whether they admit it or not. Often these things are sitting below the radar of the conscious mind and you haven’t even thought about them. Shining a light on these “success blockers” is a good way to get them out in the open. Once you do, you can have a conversation with yourself about them which can help bring clarity to the situation.

If, on the surface, you feel as though you’re struggling to attain something which never materialises, these could be your reasons to never quite get there, wherever “there” is! To help uncover some of your own, personal success blockers, make a list of all the potential reasons why you might NOT really want the success you say you want.

Success brings challenges – people will see you differently, it could change your relationships. You might face loneliness, separation and people might start asking you for handouts. Once you see these potential challenges and face them, they have a lesser hold over you. Once you have spent some time writing out your reasons NOT to succeed, write down all the reasons you want success.

Write out all the reasons which might be holding you from taking action towards success
Write out why you want success – how your life will be different, the benefits

Look At Your Lists

Did you learn anything from this exercise? If you haven’t done the exercise I highly recommend it. I learned a lot from writing out these two lists. In particular, I found I had a huge list reasoning why I shouldn’t be successful. I uncovered a lot of fear associated with success. My list holding me back was pretty long and filled with fears about the negative consequences of attaining wealth:

How I would perceive myself differently (identity)
How others would see me (negatively)
The person that I would have to become (and the conflicts this brought up)

But on the positive side, I also found a number of reasons why I wanted success, many of which were practical reasons such as:

Paying off debt
Living where I wanted
Being free of a job/boss

Unconscious Saboteurs Of Your Success – Summary

There’s many reasons why you might be struggling with attaining success on the surface which you may or may not be already aware of. But there’s also a bunch of reasons why you are unconsciously sabotaging your own success in more covert ways.

Pay attention to how you speak of yourself and your inner dialogue which runs in your head. Who do you hang around with and what are their views on you becoming successful? Do they value success or see it in the same way as you?

“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” – Jim Rohn

If your mind is predominantly filled with plans for your success and positivity, you are probably well on your way to the life you choose. However, if you fill you mind with contrary thoughts and negative influence, your subconscious mind has no option but to deliver results of a likeness to the thoughts and emotions you continually give energy to.

As Napoleon Hill shares in his book Think And Grow Rich: “The mind is a fertile garden spot in which weeds will grow in abundance if seeds of a more desirable nature are not sewn therein”.

By uncovering the ideas which you hold dear in your mind, you are becoming more conscious of them. When you do, you can become a more active “player” in the story of your life, rather than a victim of your unconscious bias. This way you are becoming a more conscious creator, rather than letting your unconscious mind sabotage your best intentions with unconscious counter-intentions.

Why Gratitude Is The Affiliate’s Superpower

There’s a few reasons gratitude is the affiliate’s superpower. One of the main things you’re going to experience as an affiliate is frustration. All affiliates will, at some stage, want to throw their laptop through the window! How you react in those moments will determine whether you continue to pursue your affiliate business or not!

In my darkest days, I was working hard on my affiliate business, and getting nothing back in terms of results. I couldn’t understand it. I was desperate for results! Which is perhaps why they eluded me for so long! It was the result I was looking for, and by looking, and finding none, I was placing myself into an energy of perpetual frustration and anxiety. The harder I worked, the more I was frustrated by my lack of results.

The result of all this endless work and frustration – burnout and disappointment. I wasn’t enjoying the journey, and ultimately gave up several times. Fortunately I was part of an online community and was able to reach out for some assistance on the cusp of quitting.

I wasn’t given advice on my marketing strategy. Rather, I was advised to start a gratitude journal and read a book: The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. How odd I thought! But, by this point I was ready to listen to anything, so frustrated was I.

Why Gratitude Is The Affiliate’s Superpower – Shifting Your “Vibe”

When you are running towards something, desperate to have it, you don’t get the thing, the object of your desire, you get the results of your actions, whatever they are.

Now, I wanted a profitable online business, but I wasn’t taking the actions I needed to take to achieve that outcome! I was doing more and more of what didn’t work – because those actions satisfied my criteria, not the reality!

I read the book and I started a gratitude journal, as advised. Also, I shifted gear in terms of my actions. I joined an online group and started learning about video marketing. What happened almost instantly though was a shift in my “energy”, or my “vibe”.

From being anxious and desperate, the kind of being-ness where nothing new can enter, I shifted to a more relaxed and “at ease” state of being. This shift alone I attribute to my sticking with affiliate marketing, and not quitting.

95% of affiliates will quit. And I believe this is due to the frustration and anxiety associated with the initial struggle. In particular this happens in the early days of starting an affiliate business.

But if you can equip yourself with the power of gratitude, by creating and keeping up with a gratitude journal, you have the power to shift your state.

Things won’t be any less stressful and anxiety provoking, however, you’ll be empowered to shift that stress and anxiety and maintain a positive, and more powerful and empowering state of being-ness.

Why Gratitude Is The Affiliate’s Superpower – The Tipping Point Of Frustration

If you get frustrated with your affiliate business, or anything for that matter, there’s a point where you’ll lose your shit! That’s the point where you throw your laptop through the window, or some similar outburst!

Conflict de-escalation is taught on the understanding of this idea, too. Once someone gets to a certain level of anger/frustration, it breaks over into physical violence. So to de-escalate the potential violence of a conflict it’s wise to be mindful of this image (below) and keep the individual on the left hand side of this (violent outbreak) thermostat:

If someone is verbally abusive, for example, chances are they are close to Stage 5 where they might spill over into physical violence. To keep them from “tipping” over into violence, you might for example, avoid raising your voice or becoming abusive yourself!

While this is a different situation to your own state of being when building your affiliate business, there’s definitely some pertinent similarities. Stage 5 in your affiliate business is perhaps when you’ll quit for good! It might be the fifth time you throw your laptop through the window, for example!

By understanding your state, and using gratitude, you can put yourself in a calmer and more resourceful place of “being-ness”. In this state, you can make better choices and avoid losing your shit! Knowing when it’s time to step away from the laptop is something you will learn through experience, of course, and you’ll fine tune this as you go, for optimum output/performance. But initially it can help to use gratitude and other outlets such as exercise to maintain a positive outlook and state of being.

Controlling Your State

Controlling your state is a powerful life skill, whether you’re an affiliate or not. But particularly when you’re building an affiliate business, your state is super important.

When you come up against a roadblock in your affiliate business, who do you turn to? More often than not, affiliates will have to solve their own problems. If you are always looking for help and support, whenever you get stuck, you’ll waste a huge amount of time waiting for it.

If you can solve your own problems, through online research, for example, you’ll get things moving far faster than if you’re always wanting someone else to help you.

I’ve definitely had some difficult moments as an affiliate. I’ve felt like quitting on more than one occasion. But affiliate marketing is very forgiving. You can always start again, but this time with more insight and knowledge than you had before. The main key skill though, I personally believe is to have an insight into your own mind, and maintain a positive and empowered outlook.

Summary

So that’s why gratitude is the affiliate’s superpower!

Gratitude is a super useful “tool” for the affiliate marketer’s tool box. If you can learn how to shift your mindset when things are becoming uncomfortable for you, you’re much more likely to overcome the challenges that come with building an affiliate marketing business.

If you find yourself in a frustrated and anxious state, it’s much more difficult to be resourceful and clear-minded. With a simple shift, and the ability to step away and come back with a calmer head, you can overcome many of the obstacles which would be seen as insurmountable to those who quit.

When I reached out for help and support, I was in a desperate “groove” of depression, anxiety and frustration. I didn’t see it at the time, but these days, through having gone through it, I’m able to maintain a much more productive and resourceful state of being-ness.

You can too by utilising the power of using a gratitude journal. Write in it every day just 10 things you’re grateful for. Make those things different every day. Soon your mind will be searching out things to be grateful for, and positive about. Just watch as your life changes when you keep up this habit for several months in a row!

Too Many Mind

If your mind is split, going in too many directions, it is known as too many mind. “No mind” is the Japanese idea of 無心 (むしん: mushin) or having a “mind free from thought”. In this focused state, we can be fully present and focus intently on the job in hand, directly in front of you.

If you’re building an affiliate business, this concept is important too. If you have become stuck in your affiliate business for example, your mind might be in a whirl of doubt and frustration. You are full of questions without answers. “What if I do this?” “Will it work if I do that?” “How long is this going to take?” With multiple open ended questions and no definite answers, this leads to inaction, and perhaps even quitting altogether.

A simple solution is to break down the big picture (a profitable online business) into tiny, easily achievable steps. Make these steps into daily habits, and focus only on the step in front of you, not the long road ahead. Don’t look for evidence that your step is “working” because it likely won’t produce a tangible result immediately. Instead, focus on the small steps each and every day. Focus on the action, and keep your mind steady and clear on your objective right now, not in the future, or in your results (or lack of them!).

Too Many Mind – Not Being Present/Focused

While writing I noticed I was distracted by Facebook and I wondered off to watch a video! What irony! Anyway, back to the post! An important case in point of the distractions we all face when online.

“The wise man lets go of all results, whether good or bad, and is focused on the action alone” – Bhagavad Gita

A old mentor of mine back in the early 90’s said : “Don’t focus on your results, focus on your actions”.

This is solid advice when it comes to building an online business. When I become disillusioned by a lack of results from blogging, for example, it fills me with uncertainty. That stops me enjoying the process. So I stop creating content! But when I’m in “flow” with blogging, I could happily keep going regardless of the outcome.

This is the key to getting traction with an online business. Focus on the action in front of you and keep going regardless. Stop looking for results before you’ve done the work!

Looking For Confirmation – Focusing Into The Future

Of course you will want some confirmation that the actions you take will lead you to the end result – money in your bank account, perhaps. But by looking for confirmation too soon, you are scattering doubt on your strategy, undermining your confidence.

With an organic marketing strategy, such as blogging or creating a video channel, you need to provide the content first, before you can see the results of your efforts, in terms of sales. Without putting the work in first hand, or by only timidly working a little, before looking for confirmation, you will be unlikely to generate the traction needed to produce the results you desire.

This is where I was for quite some time. I put the cart before the horse – I was wanting the outcome before doing the work. In that energy of “wanting” I struggled to take action because I wasn’t being present in the moment, focusing on the step in front of me.

So, what’s the solution? The solution is to choose a path which aligns with your values. Create content/choose actions which give you personal satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment. Fulfilment through an online business doesn’t come only with the money. In a recent conversation a friend of mine pointed out that “with no true value brought to the table, you may well convince some people to part with cash but it won’t fulfil“.

He is right. The fulfilment comes through the work, whatever that may be for your own particular path.

Too Many Mind – What Energy Are You Feeding?

If, like I was, you are focused on only the end result for your business, but aren’t taking any action, you are feeding the energy of desperation, frustration, procrastination and/or entitlement.

The more you focus on the results you don’t yet have, and your indecisions about what you “should” be doing, as opposed to what you are actually doing, the more this frustration will build.

In this state it becomes more and more difficult to take action. Your mind gets filled with questions and conflicts. The more you think about it, the more conflict arises. There’s only two outcomes which come from this energy – action or inaction.

To take action, you must step out of this cycle and focus on a single “baby step“.

Breaking The Cycle Of Procrastination

To break the cycle of procrastination you need to take action. The inner state of conflict and indecision can become exhausting. To break the cycle, take a tiny, easily achievable step forwards in some area of your business. It might be watching a training video, joining a group or trying some new marketing strategy such as blogging, video, paid ads etc.

A small action is far better than giving more energy to this state of confusion and inner turmoil! Here’s a few actions which can help break the state of not-doing through inner conflict:

Exercise – particularly cardiovascular exercise which gets your heart pumping
A gratitude journal – when I was struggling with my affiliate business, I got help and was recommended to start a gratitude journal, which helped massively shift my mindset
Self help books – I’ve always been an avid collector of self help books – checkout some of my favourite motivational ebooks in pdf format here.
A tiny “micro-step” in your affiliate business – a micro step focuses your mind and gets you out of procrastination and towards momentum. Even a super tiny step to break your state can have massive implications if you maintain the momentum, no matter how slow.

Summary

Whether you’re stuck, procrastinating or disempowered in your action steps by focusing too much on the future (looking for confirmation) rather than being fully engaged in the action step, you can likely benefit from the concept of “too many mind”.

Too many mind is a concept which is massively important for today’s fast paced world with all its distractions. In the process of writing this article, it’s ironic how many times I have been distracted by: phone calls, social media accounts and videos! When you have a phone that offers an endless loop of dopamine, it becomes difficult to focus on tasks that don’t provide the same instant gratification.

As we become addicted to our distractions, we are less able to focus on tasks for our online business. So the best thing to do if this is something you’re experiencing is to lower the ability of your laptop and phone to distract you. Spend a day in digital detox. Notice how many times you desire to check your phone, or look on social media. How could you build an online business with a brain that’s running rampant for stimulus for most of the day?

Too many mind.

Remove distraction, find a daily routine you can stick with, and keep taking actions, letting go of the need for validation or results.

The Tipping Point In Blogging

There is a tipping point in blogging, where your previous work culminates in a steady growth in traffic. Ultimately there becomes a “tipping point” where it goes supersonic. More traffic means more shares and backlinks and this in turn can “tip” your traffic upwards so you experience exponential growth very quickly.

Here’s what it looks like on a graph.

The Tipping Point In Blogging

When I started blogging way back in the early 2000’s I struggled to get anyone at all to visit my blog posts. I admit, I wasn’t very good at it and most of the stuff I shared wasn’t particularly useful for anyone. My intention was simply to make sales back then, and it was before I knew I should be adding some kind of value through blogging. So my posts were full of affiliate links and not much value.

Plus, I was new to blogging. I used free blog platforms which didn’t rank well on the search engines. So getting traffic was a difficult thing to do (for anyone) on those platforms, especially someone with only a handful of blog posts!

But I persevered with blogging because I wanted to learn how to earn an income online and I had very little spare money for advertising. It’s been a long journey and my hopes of getting a post to “go viral” were never realised!

I jumped around a lot too, from topic to topic and I must have created several hundred websites overall before this one! That’s not a great plan because you are spreading yourself very thin. My advice is choose a topic you can stick with for the duration and don’t deviate from it. Write content which is helpful to your audience and find an affiliate product you truly value. Once all that is in place, get blogging and never quit!

The Tipping Point In Blogging – Get Back On The Horse

Having recently been through a breakup and house move, I fell out of my blogging habit for several months. As a result, I watched my traffic take a big dive! Despite all the work I’d put in previously, I’d lost momentum. In addition, Google has somehow penalised my website and it fell from the rankings.

There’s over 800 blog posts on this website, so I took that pretty badly! After my pity party, I decided to start the habit up again, but this time I’d create longer and better posts. I knew from experience that the peak of my traffic had come from a long, sustained effort at building content on a regular basis and promoting it too, every day, or at least most days. Some days I simply couldn’t write a blog post though. I lacked inspiration or I had been blogging all week and just needed a rest!

The fact that I still had any traffic at all was promising. Especially as I hadn’t even looked at my website for a few months.

The Tipping Point In Blogging – 1 Post At A Time

I went through a lot of procrastination about blogging of course: “Is it worth bothering with?”, “Will I make any sales?” “Maybe I should do something else, such as paid marketing?” These were the questions running through my mind.

The endless procrastination led me nowhere and, since I was short of advertising budget, I was led back to blogging once more! After all, it’s free, cathartic and I quite enjoy it really!

Now I’ve covered a lot of topics already on this website. Just have a search using the search bar at the top of this website and you can find posts in pretty much any affiliate topic you care to think of. So I wondered how I was going to come up with yet more content for affiliate marketing!

The answer was simple: I would inspire myself back into the habit! So my last few posts have been on the topic of my own personal battles. Here’s a few of my latest posts:

articles about blogging and affiliate marketing

You can see at the bottom I’ve written a post on overcoming procrastination!

Intrinsic Motivation Vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from within, extrinsic motivation is wanting something on the outside. I realised that my affiliate sales from my blogging habit didn’t come about through wanting those commissions alone (although I did want them of course!). No, it came from a rather arbitrary motivation – getting my content ranked and getting FREE traffic.

“The man who likes walking will go further than the man who wants the destination”

So in the first instance, my motivation for this website was to get free traffic from the search engines. Although I only had some modest success with this strategy, I did get free traffic ultimately. However, what came about from my attempting to rank my content on Google was the habit of blogging that was formed as a result.

It is this habit which resulted in the traffic I obtained and of course the habit of sharing my content with my email list and on social media, too.

Simple Daily Habits Vs. Goals

If you’re not a fan of goal setting, which many people aren’t, consider formulating a daily habit ritual instead which leads you to your desired outcome. It is the ritual of a daily blog post which has made the most impact for me in my life and not just on my affiliate business. The process has given me structure and discipline, without which my life would be more chaotic than it is!

I was always focused on the outcome (of the affiliate sales, for example) rather than the journey. But when you consider the journey, and how you would like to live, if you can find a strategy to enjoy your days while working towards your outcome, you’re on to a winner. Many people quit with affiliate marketing simply because they only want the outcome, rather than the journey. Those who succeed, enjoy the process and the personal growth which comes with that process.

Blogging is no different and it’s a long journey. But if you choose a topic you’re passionate about, and enjoy writing, there’s no reason you can’t make it work if you stick with it!

Summary

When you’re so busy enjoying the process of creating and sharing content, you’re definitely on track for reaching a tipping point. For so long I was checking my traffic, unhappy about my sales, desperate for “success”. When you look for the result before you do the work, the outcome is to feel disappointed, frustrated and inadequate. But wanting isn’t an inspiring emotion.

When you shift the desire to “get” into the desire to give and find a purposeful way to create, you’ve already arrived because it’s a joy to do! When you can tie that in with generating an income you have found your “groove” in life.

Ikigai is a Japanese word meaning “reason for being”. I always struggled with it because I was too focused on “never enough”. When I realised that I was carrying the belief “I’m never enough”, I was able to work on it and find simple joy again in being, without “need” or “wanting” attached to what I was doing. See also my post on overcoming limiting beliefs about money and poverty consciousness.

I believe the tipping point in blogging comes after you have realised this in your work. Find something you love writing about and you can write forever without the need for approval or reward! That’s the kind of intrinsic motivation you need to “tip” your blog posts into the stratosphere!

Does A Poverty Mindset Hold You Back?

Does a poverty mindset hold you back from the life you desire? If you feel like you’re never enough, and you never have enough, you might have some limiting beliefs which are holding you from the life you deserve.

What are limiting beliefs? Limiting beliefs are those ideas you have which stop you from taking action in a positive direction in your life. In terms of a poverty mindset they might be things such as:

Money is the route of all evil
Rich people are greedy
It’s unspiritual to want more
It’s more virtuous being poor
I’m never enough
I’m always broke
I hate money
I can never get ahead
All the good jobs are taken
I can’t afford it
etc.

If you’re holding on to an identity of always being broke, or of never being enough, no amount of effort on the outside can compete with this inner saboteur to your success. At some point, your inner voice will kick in with it’s limiting ideas and scupper your best intentions. So it’s far better to uncover your beliefs which hold you back and change them, than to struggle on only to self sabotage later.

Does A Poverty Mindset Hold You Back From Building A Profitable Online Business?

In terms of building an online business which is profitable, a poverty mindset can hold you back in multiple ways. You might be sceptical of purchasing a training course, for example, because you believe you can’t afford it. Or it might stop you buying something you need to grow your business, such as an email autoresponder. (Get one free here).

In my early years as an affiliate I avoiding buying anything because I had so little money to spend. Money was genuinely a concern for me and I had a poverty consciousness too which meant I perpetuated the situation. I tried to do everything on the cheap and struggled as a result, avoiding getting proper training and support, and buying the tools I really needed for success.

A limiting belief might stop you from taking action on an opportunity, or from taking a certain action. But it can also sabotage your efforts more subtly too. Imagine that half of you genuinely wants to succeed and earn a good living online, while the other half secretly hates the very idea of money, and finds it repugnant. How do you think that will play out in your life and your business?

Does A Poverty Mindset Hold You Back? – Self Image/Identity

Your self image or identity becomes a solid foundation of your world view. The world can be a scary place without something to hold on to. For many people a large piece of their world view “jigsaw” is their identity. How you see yourself in the world can give you something solid and tangible to “hold on to” particularly in tough times.

However, if this identity is wrapped up in hatred for money, and conflicting ideas which push money away from you, you’ll act out these beliefs in your life, creating obstacles for yourself which reflect those beliefs.

In a recent coaching call I had with one of my subscribers, it became apparent that there were more than a few conflicting ideas around the topic of money. No wonder they were having trouble building their online business when there was a distinct hatred of the green stuff.

If you harbour negative ideas towards money it will have massive affect on your ability to create it, spend it and keep it, however you attempt to earn it.

How To Shift Your Money Mindset Towards Abundance

The opposite of lack or limitation is abundance and plenty. Think about your current situation and you should have an idea about whether you are living in limitation or in abundance. The reality you’re presented with today, comes from your thoughts about money, lack, limitation and abundance and plenty.

Why do you think you are not living the life of your dreams in terms of financial stability/abundance yet? What are the reasons for your current reality? Often a lack of money stems from a history of lack. If you’ve grown up with parents who have struggled, chances are good they have likely shared their views on money, the wealthy/rich and poverty. Perhaps some of your limiting ideas around the subject come from your childhood and growing up with lack and limitation?

Often limiting ideas are unconscious beliefs which have a powerful control over your life without your knowledge. As is often quoted from C.G Jung ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.’

The first step towards shifting a poverty consciousness is therefore to make your limiting beliefs more conscious.

“The Word Became Flesh” – Watch Your Words

John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”. Are you talking money away from you saying things like “I can’t afford”, “I can never get ahead”, “Money doesn’t grow on trees” and other such ideas?

From your words becomes your reality and you are speaking life into your reality through your choice of speech. Notice in particular how you talk about money, work, the rich/wealthy and ideas relating to you own financial well being.

If you are negative towards yourself too, this can be an indication that you are speaking against yourself and negating yourself. “I’m never good enough”, “I don’t deserve it”, “Why don’t things ever work out for me” etc.

As you start to uncover some of your negative programming, you can turn these ideas slowly around to be more positive.

Mantras For Success And Abundance

When you notice yourself talking money away, or negating yourself with your words, stop and pay attention. Those are the key learning moments for you to alter your self talk and speech patterns.

Replace negative ideas with more positive counterparts which are more in line with what you want to create:

I’m never enough – I am enough
Money doesn’t grow on trees – money comes easily and frequently
Why do I never get ahead ?- how can I get ahead ?
It’s no use – where there’s a will, there’s a way
Rich people are greedy – rich people create opportunity/are generous
Money is the route of evil – Money is neutral, the actual quote (from the bible) is “the love of money is the route of evil” – (or greed)

1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is the root of all of evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

By shifting your unconscious ideas about money which talk it away from you, to more positive and life affirming ones, you can radically change your unconscious saboteurs to success. Use new mantras in place of your limiting ideas which often come up in conversation (or in your mind) when the topic of money comes up.

Summary

A poverty mindset can act like a hidden “saboteur” in your unconscious mind. It shows itself with ideas like “I’m never enough”, “I’ll never have enough”, “I can’t afford it”, “It’s unspiritual to want money”, “It’s noble to remain poor” and similar limiting ideas.

If your unconscious mind has some limiting beliefs they can sabotage your best efforts to move forwards in creating the life you want. There’s a payoff for remaining in your same situation such as a consistent world view and identity. Less conflict with your circle of influence (family and friends). You get to sustain the status quo and don’t upset the applecart between unspoken conflicts of interest.

If your financial situation changes, it can change many relationships, for example. Your unconscious mind might be battling with your efforts to improve your finances because of your self image, for example, or to remain “equal” to your circle of friendships on financial terms.

To change things on the outside you must change them from within. This might involve looking into your past and uncovering some trauma from childhood too.

Access my eBook Shift Your Money Mindset below:

Why Failure Is Necessary

There’s a reason why failure is necessary for success in an affiliate business. Everyone starts at the same place with affiliate marketing. They choose a product to promote and, more often than not, they fail at selling it. Those who succeed are the ones who carry on, despite the setbacks.

There’s many ways to sell affiliate products and earn a living online:

Blogging
Paid advertising
YouTube videos
Social media marketing
SEO – search engine optimisation
Offline advertising (choose your own marketing method – newspapers, magazines, flyers etc.)

But what makes affiliate marketing a business model worth pursuing is the ability to automate and scale it to multiple sales per day. No matter what you currently earn in a job, that figure can be matched and superseded by your affiliate business.

This is why affiliate marketing is so appealing to anyone who dreams of earning a living on their own terms. The ability to earn an independent income means freedom, flexibility and not having to earn an income from a job. Live anywhere, work from your laptop, yada yada you know the rest!!

Why Failure Is Necessary – The “Journey”

But with that comes a journey where you’re going to want to quit many times!

95% of affiliates quit which means you’re going to need to stick at it for much longer than most. But when most people meet a challenge or setback they presume that “affiliate marketing does not work“. Or that it’s “just too difficult”. But that presumption is only founded on their current knowledge – which is flawed. They maybe have only tried a single advert, for example. Or, they’ve written a single blog post or uploaded a single video to YouTube. The ones who succeed have tried (and perhaps failed) many times before that sweet message drops in to their inbox “You’ve made a sale!”

I have failed many times as an affiliate, too. My first sale came after I published a number of posts plugging my affiliate links on a free blogging site (Hubpages.com). It was a review of a product I had bought and it gave me hope. However, if I would have quit after only a few posts, I wouldn’t have seen the light at the end of the tunnel!

The first sale is an important milestone for affiliates for one reason – it gives you a “glimpse” of what is to come. It inspires you and gives you hope. But when that sale comes depends on what actions you are doing and, more importantly how many times you can “fail” without quitting!

Reframing “Failure” In Affiliate Marketing

Failure isn’t the best word to use when you’re learning affiliate marketing, even though most will see it that way, (myself included in the early years of my journey). Instead of calling the lack of “success” in monetary terms it’s wise to view action steps in a more positive light. Every time you try a strategy out and fail to make a sale, that’s more opportunity to learn from your strategy.

Another way to reframe “success” in affiliate marketing is to change your frame of reference. Rather than seeing the “sale” as your frame of reference, look to the actions you are taking on a daily basis. I’ve made this mistake too many times to mention. I spent far too long looking for the sale when I wasn’t doing any actions to bring it about.

Reward yourself for taking actions on a constant basis, whatever the outcome. Focus on the blog post, running the advert, watching the training videos, etc. When you start taking the actions, you’ll start to see small wins such as a hit on your website, a lead dropping into your sales funnel. These are the “sprouts” from which great success can and will come, if you keep going!

The Chinese Bamboo Tree – An Analogy

The Chinese Bamboo tree makes for a brilliant analogy for affiliate marketing. It has to be watered and fertilised in the ground where it has been planted every day. It doesn’t break through the ground for five years. After five years, once it breaks through the ground, it will grow 90 feet tall in five weeks!

The cultivation of your affiliate business is very similar. In the beginning you are planting the seeds (learning by watching videos and reading, for example). Then you set up your system for selling an affiliate product (watering your plant). The next step is to learn a marketing strategy and get good at it.

This requires actually attempting it, and “failing” perhaps many times. Eventually you hit upon a strategy which works for you, and you start to see sales dropping in (shoots coming through the soil). Depending on your marketing method, time spent on building your affiliate business and the time spent in “learning mode”, this could be between several months and a few years.

So if you haven’t seen a “shoot” come through the soil yet, don’t despair! Keep going! Remember your Bamboo tree can grow 90 feet in five weeks! When you get those sales dropping in, things can change dramatically and within a very short timeframe too.

So Plant Your Affiliate Business, Nurture and Water it, and Watch It Grow!

If you haven’t started out with affiliate marketing this is a good place to start. Once you have some knowledge behind you, it’s time to find a product to promote and a method of promotion. Make sure you take some action every day, and keep taking those small actions. Over time, your work compounds and you’ll start to see some growth.

Don’t judge your growth by those making “millions” in the affiliate space, because that is likely to demoralise you lead to inaction. Focus only on the next step, and keep going, no matter how slowly!

Make a daily habit out of doing something towards your business growth and keep doing it. “Failure” is just part of the process, and necessary, so take those action steps which are uncomfortable and keep going!

Get a step by step program for building a from scratch affiliate business here.

Turning Simple Daily Habits Into A Tonne Of Website Traffic

Here’s a post on turning simple daily habits into a tonne of website traffic. If you want to make affiliate sales you need traffic. There’s no way around it. You either pay for traffic with your time or with your money! Since most ad campaigns don’t give a positive return, you can easily spend a lot of time (and money) testing and measuring advertising that simply burns through your marketing budget like a hot knife through butter!

It’s great once you have a profitable campaign, granted. But are you prepared to put yourself through the multiple ad creations and expense of that for the outcome? How long are you prepared to stick at it and how much money are you prepared to throw at it?

If you’ve had enough of paying for traffic, or you simply don’t have the funds for a marketing budget, organic marketing is probably the answer. If you still want to build an affiliate business those are your choices: paid marketing, or some free traffic strategy.

Turning Simple Daily Habits Into A Tonne Of Website Traffic – Identify A Habit You Can Create

The first step of this journey is to identify a simple habit you can repeat on a daily basis. There’s multiple ways you can generate traffic to your website/affiliate offer:

Blogging
Video blogging
Social media – joining groups and interacting
SEO – optimising website content for the search engines
Email marketing – sending out content to your email list
See also 22 ways to promote affiliate products for more ideas

Blogging, for example is a simple strategy you can use on a daily basis to build traffic to your website over time. If you stick with it, and post regularly, it can have a dramatic effect on your traffic. However, if you dabble, and only post content once in a blue moon, your results will reflect that. You need to be consistent with an organic strategy for the results to compound.

Turning Simple Daily Habits Into A Tonne Of Website Traffic – Inconsistency

Due to the nature of my film work (I worked as a stunt performer), I would get jobs out of the blue and be working away for a week or two. So my income was sporadic. I started learning affiliate marketing so I could build an income around the stunt work, for when it went quiet. So when I started I got into blogging. The problem was I wasn’t consistent. Once I got into the flow of writing every day, a job would come in.

stuntman — Here’s me doubling Stellan Skarsgard on a TV show called River

By the time I got home again, it would take me a week to get back into my blogging routine. Initially, I would also lose interest in blogging every day because I didn’t trust that it would bring in sales. So, after a week or so of blogging, I would give up! Within a week or two, a sale would drop in from my blog and I would kick myself for not keeping up the habit!

The sale would give me confidence again (and belief) and I’d be back at the blogging every day! So here’s the thing, you must trust the process, but without evidence your belief will wane. That leads to inaction and you’re back procrastinating again. To help get around this problem, choose a topic you love writing content around and a product which is aligned to it which provides massive value to your audience.

Turning Simple Daily Habits Into A Tonne Of Website Traffic – Consistency

To start with you must develop a habit out of your traffic strategy. So whether that is blogging or uploading videos to YouTube, you must do it every day, or at least several times a week. Consistency is the key to organic traffic. Here’s an example of my daily habit strategy:

Create a blog post
Send it to my email list
Post it on my social media accounts

At first, nothing much happens. You might get a few hits on your website as your email list and social media presence attracts a few bites. This will also depend on the size of your email list and your social media presence. You might get nothing! But don’t be disheartened. At this stage you’re only developing a habit out of these basic daily steps.

turning simple daily habits into a tonne of website traffic

On day 2, you do the same, and on day 3 and on day 4 and so on! Within a week or so something magical will happen. You’ll start to see growth in your traffic! It might be sooner or later, but if you keep going you’ll get more and more traffic over time. You’ll also get better at your strategy over time too, so don’t let the habit slip.

Why Results Compound

On day 1, you have only created a single blog post, for example. You share it with your list and your social media following (which may be very small). However, on day 2, some of your day 1 emails and social media posts will just be getting found. Often it can take a little time for the social media “feed” to trickle down. Plus, not everyone is on social media when you post your links.

On day 3, you’ve now got a little more comfortable in your habit pattern. Plus, you’ve got 3 days worth of social media shares and emails that’s you’ve sent out. Not everyone will click on your link or even open your email message. But as you continue with your daily habit, momentum will kick in.

Each day, you not only have your new blog post that some people will be finding, but you’ve also got the previous day’s messages and posts that certain people will still be finding. Added to which by building regular content on a blog or video channel, you’re finding people organically as your SEO (Search engine optimisation) improves as you build authority with the search engines.

The Success, Failure Curve

It’s useful to understand the “success, failure” curve at this point because you’ll want to quit before you can appreciate the power that consistency has in your affiliate business. Here’s an image from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits:

When we achieve a certain level of “success”, we lose interest/motivation at pursuing our goals. If our early motivation is, (for example) to escape poverty and get “comfortable” financially, when we achieve that we put our feet up a little.

With blogging, I’ve definitely found this to be true. When I’m comfortable, I slacken off with my habits. When I’m in a desperate financial state, I ramp up my motivation and get busy.

To stay consistent it’s useful to recognise this pattern so you don’t fall back towards the “failure” part of the image above.

Habits Are Your Friend

At the beginning of your affiliate marketing “journey” you are filled with excitement and enthusiasm. This can quickly disappear when you’ve been working away for several weeks or months without having any kind of positive results. Remember to focus on your action steps and avoid looking for results in the beginning. Reward yourself for your actions; the results will follow if you stay consistent.

Motivation doesn’t last so you need to turn motivation into a habit pattern which can serve you and your affiliate business. Make this habit so strong that even on your worst days you can still do it! Some weeks you won’t make sales, but stay consistent. Some months will be good and you’ll start to see sales dropping in, stay consistent!

If you’re procrastinating, just look for the next step. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many options. See my post on how to overcome procrastination in your affiliate business.

Make Sure You Build Your Email List

As you send more and more people to your blog posts, or YouTube channel through your new content, you will want to use this traffic to help you build your email list. An email list is super valuable to affiliates because it puts you in control of your traffic.

You can see the work that’s going into this traffic generation as you continue to create content on a regular basis. So it’s worth offering your visitors a cool opt-in offer to help you build your email list.

Content promotion is just as important as its creation too, so don’t skimp on promoting your blog posts or videos.

For a long time I created blog posts and simply hoped that Google would rank them! It’s a flawed strategy because this might never happen. You simply must promote your content every time you publish something!

Promotion Methods

To promote your content there’s various methods and strategies you can use. Make sure you use at least one of two of these as your daily routine after creating your content:

Post on social media
Email your list
Backlink from other websites in your niche (good for SEO)
Blog comment on other blogs in your niche
Use Q&A websites to post links back to your content (See using Quora for traffic generation)

Make a daily habit you can stick to for the long term and cut out some space in your day to make it a priority. If you’re just getting started, don’t try and make it perfect, just establish the habit first and you’ll improve as time goes on. See also my post on how to build momentum with organic marketing and this post if you’re feeling stuck.

Why You’re Stuck In Your Affiliate Business

There’s a few reasons why you could be stuck in your affiliate marketing business. Perhaps you’ve just started and have been watching videos, absorbing information and learning? You could be stuck in “information overload” – processing what you have learned.

Or perhaps you’re full of doubt, fear or scepticism? If you don’t believe you can build a profitable affiliate business, it’s going to be difficult moving forwards given this negative outlook.

Or, maybe you are at a crossroads? You’ve done some study and found something you want to promote. Perhaps you have even setup a website/platform to sell something from after purchasing a course or selling a system of some kind?

The once exciting phase of buying a course and setting up your selling system soon turns to dismay when you realise you now need to promote that website or get leads for your sales funnel! The marketing aspect of building an online business is where the “rubber meets the road”.

Without a marketing strategy you don’t have a business.

You may have even tried already using paid advertising and/or organic marketing methods but to no avail? So you sit on the sidelines, sitting in a no-man’s land of procrastination, doubt and fear! (See my post on how to overcome procrastination if that’s you).

You’re stuck; and despite trying to think your way out of it, nothing seems to happen!

Why You’re Stuck In Your Affiliate Business – And How To Dig Your Way Out

Depending on where you are personally, there’s going to be a different solution accordingly:

Not begun – get some training
Haven’t chosen a product to sell – Choose your niche & get a product
Not sure of your marketing strategy – Test a new strategy
Out of marketing budget – choose an organic marketing method
Fed up of blogging/organic marketing – start testing a paid marketing strategy

Why You're Stuck In Your Affiliate Business

If you’re stuck in a cycle of procrastination you need to break the cycle and get into some kind of action taking. Imperfect action is far better than no action. But there’s likely a probable cause as to why you’re sitting on the sidelines and it’s likely to be the discussion you’re having with yourself – whether verbally (out loud) or inside your head.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Why You’re Stuck In Your Affiliate Business – Sharpening Your Axe

Here’s a picture (crudely drawn on my noticeboard!). It shows the thoughts and ideas which either contribute to your taking action, or dissuade you from taking action.

On the left of the action step you see thoughts such as these:

I’m not sure
I’m not good enough
It won’t work
Its a scam
I’ll never be able…etc.

These kinds of thoughts and ideas are going to stop you from taking any action at all! Simply put, no action will be taken if your mind is filled predominantly with these kinds of messages. Each time you give energy to one of these thoughts, or one like it, the needle moves downwards – away from the action step you need to take.

On the right hand side of the action “needle” I’ve written some more positive ideas which are likely to inspire you into action. They move the needle towards the action step:

I am good enough
Other’s have done it – so can I
I can build a passive income
I can escape my job
A passion business I love
Escape the commute
Ditch the boss
Be the boss

Why You’re Stuck In Your Affiliate Business – Unconscious Self Sabotage

Which side are you spending most of your mental energy on? Is it the side which leads you to taking action ? With each thought you’re either giving energy to taking action or not taking action. Whether or not you have identified the action step you need to take, your thinking patterns are going to affect it. These are affected by several things you may or may not be consciously aware of such as:

Limiting beliefs, habit patterns, childhood trauma
Circle of influence – who you spend the most time with
Consumption habits – news, social media, books, videos etc.

Limiting beliefs such as “I’m not good enough” can come from childhood trauma, for example. Your circle of influence is a reflection of your belief system too. You surround yourself with people who think like you.

What kinds of information are you digesting on a regular basis from the news, social media, books and magazines? Are they positively affecting you or negatively?

Positive Mantras For Transformation – Yes You Can!

If you are carrying a limiting belief such as “I’m not good enough” or “I don’t have (such and such) skills”, then you’re likely operating from a self image/identity which isn’t helping you. The self image is a strong factor when it comes to new challenges and if we identify as someone who isn’t good enough, for example, it’s the perfect excuse for giving up or not even trying.

If we carry this belief “I’m never good enough”, no amount of trying will alter it unless you get “under the hood” of your unconscious mind and change the belief.

C.G. Jung — ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.’

To help you shift the limiting beliefs which are holding you back you can use mantras:

“I’m good enough”, “I’m a powerful man/woman, on a mission”, “I now make 10 sales a month” etc.

Although initially your conscious mind is likely to reject positive mantras like this (because you’ve been repeating the negative ones so often), they are worth making habits out of. Over time they will change your negative self perception and this in turn helps you take more positive actions going forwards.

A paradigm is a belief system which you hold about yourself or the world. Changing it is a powerful way to alter your self perception and make powerful changes in your life.

Producing Not Consuming

We are trained to be super consumers! But if your intention is to build a profitable affiliate business, you need to change this pattern and become a producer.

Think about how much we consume. From the food in our kitchen, to the social media channels and Netflix channels we absorb. How much time do you spend consuming as opposed to producing online content?

To shift this balance towards building your affiliate business you need to become a regular producer of content, rather than being solely a consumer of it. By regularly producing content you are building a habit pattern which compounds over time.

With each blog post, for example, I’m building a strategy for online growth of my affiliate business, a tiny step at a time. If I gave up, or didn’t start at all, I’m guaranteed to not make further progress.

So even if a single blog post has only a tiny affect on my affiliate business, it’s still a step in the right direction. What tiny step can you make towards building your profitable online business today? A small step might not make your affiliate business overnight, but it has the power to shift your mindset into positive focused action, which can launch you into regular productive action.

Why You’re Stuck In Your Affiliate Business – The Pain Body

There’s another reason why you aren’t taking any action in your affiliate business too. I’ve experienced this many times and it’s linked to what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain body.

According to Eckhart Tolle, the pain-body is a mass of negative energy that occupies your body and mind. It is like a parasite, living in you and feeding on you. The pain-body only has as much power as you give it, though. It feeds on the negative energy that is created when you focus on things which produce negative emotions.

When I get stuck with my affiliate business, I’m frustrated. I look at others far ahead of me and start to dwell on my frustrations. Why are they so far ahead? Why can’t I do it? I focus on reasons why I can’t have their success.

The pain body grows through this focus on frustration, anxiety, jealousy and suffering. The more you give energy to it, the more it has you in it’s grip! So if you’re looking at other influencers perhaps, who appear to be very successful, and feel inadequate as a result, you’re feeding your pain body. To escape you first need to notice when you’re feeding it. Stop it! Stop focusing on those things which are making you feel bad, jealous, inadequate, less than and inferior.

Start becoming more conscious about where you mind is on a moment by moment basis. Meditating for just 10 minutes daily can help you bring awareness to what is going on inside your mind. Once you have some mental clarity, the path will become clearer for your affiliate business.

Summary

Your mindset has a great deal to do with how you tackle your affiliate business. So it’s a good idea to prioritise your health and mental fitness too. Make sure you are living in a tidy environment. If you’re working in clutter, it’s going to affect your mindset.

What’s going on inside your mind is going to affect your ability to work on your affiliate business too. What things are distracting you? Having the space to work on your affiliate business is vital. If you haven’t made the space, or you simply don’t have the space and time for working on your affiliate business, perhaps it’s simply not a priority for you. That’s ok, but just be reasonable with yourself and honest about it!

Have you set a goal for your affiliate business and made a plan of how to get there? Without a goal it’s difficult to hit it! It can be helpful to set a large goal and then set out smaller, shorter term goals too to break it down into small easily achievable steps.

Take your smaller goal and break it down into daily habit patterns which will get you there but are easily achievable “chunks” you can rinse and repeat on a daily basis. Is your goal is too big? If you you don’t have small steps to take which are carefully laid out, it becomes an emotional battlefield each time you try and take some action.

Haven’t started building an online business yet? Get started here.

If you’ve enjoyed this post please share it! Thanks!