Building success online is done through tiny achievements. Sadly, the money doesn’t come in immediately with affiliate marketing. But it’s there for the taking if you commit to the journey and stay the course. There’s an estimated $730 billion (USD) being spent online each year and it’s a number that is perpetually growing.
You only need a small slice of the pie to make a living from affiliate marketing. But it starts with taking small daily steps.
Building Success Online With Tiny Achievements
While it might sound nice to be earning $10,000 a month with an online business, every affiliate starts making nothing! From the foundation, you can get some training and begin by building a website., for example.
Once you’ve set up a website and a sales funnel, you can progress to studying a marketing method, such as paid advertising or blogging, for example. Each of the first steps as an affiliate is the foundation to your ultimate online success.
But it’s often after the initial excitement has worn off, when a beginner will lose interest. Once you’ve done all the initial steps, and yet nothing much seems to have happened, is where many lose their mojo and quit! To keep yourself moving, no matter how slowly, you must focus on the next step on the journey!
Building success online is done with tiny achievements. Each step leads you closer to the long term goal of having a profitable online business. But unless you keep going, you’ll lose momentum and likely quit. So, how do you keep going when the mountain seems so high and so far away? The answer lies in small, easily achievable goals.
Building Success Online With Tiny Achievements – Touching The Void
If you haven’t seen the film Touching The Void I highly recommend it, especially if you’re an affiliate. In 1985 two friends, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, set out to climb Siula Grande in Peru via the West Face. This was a unaccomplished feat by any climber.
Joe breaks his leg on the descent and Simon is in the process of lowering him on a rope to get them both to the bottom. However, a problem arises and Yates realises he has lowered Simpson over a crevasse. With no strength to pull him up, and having to make a decision he cuts the rope in order to save his own life.
Assuming Joe has been killed, Simon proceeds down the mountain. However, Joe is still alive! His story is something to behold and it’s an inspiration if you’re a struggling affiliate.
In the film, Joe explains how the only way he was able to sum the strength to drag himself (broken limbs and all) down a mountain of obstacles, which would have been enough to discourage most able bodied people, was to focus on small wins. He sets himself time limits with which to get to certain points on the horizon.
Only with the small, achievable “wins” was he able to continue and survive against so many odds!
Building Success Online With Tiny Achievements
While building an online business isn’t quite so perilous as dragging a broken body down the Siula Grande, it certainly has its challenges!
But as with looking at the big picture with a mountain, if you look at the feat of building a profitable online business it’s easy to become discouraged. When you start an online business you’re bound to be discouraged at some point too. The answer is to use this same strategy – focus on what is in front of you. Make small goals which can be accomplished within a short timeframe.
In Touching The Void, Joe gave himself strict time limits to get to a specific point on the horizon. He knew, if he didn’t get to basecamp before Simon left that he was finished!
With an online business, these tiny “baby steps” can be easily achievable goals which can be done within the day – not long term goals which seem impossible!
Why Most Quit
There’s a 95% drop out rate in affiliate marketing which means only a tiny percentage actually keeps going and becomes successful. But like with the Joe Simpson analogy, if you look at the big picture, you’re bound to become overwhelmed and quit before you even begin!
So instead of doing so, look to the small steps you can easily accomplish:
- Watch a training video
- Write a blog post
- Email your email list
- Get a free autoresponder
- Create a website
- Shoot a video
- etc.
By making a habit out of achieving the small wins, and celebrating them, you keep yourself moving forwards towards your longer term goals.
Summary
Success with affiliate marketing doesn’t come easily, although some early “easy wins” are possible. However, long term, sustainable success is something different entirely. It can be easy to become overwhelmed by the size of the task you have undertaken, and as a result, lose your belief and faith that it even can be done.
Don’t look at the top of the mountain! Look instead only at the step right in front of you that you can take!
Good luck!
If you’re ready to get started in building an online business from scratch, you can get started here.