Don’t Quit Your Affiliate Marketing Business

Don’t quit your affiliate marketing business. One of the best pieces of advice you can hear as an affiliate is simply “don’t quit”. Most affiliates quit. In fact, around 95% of them do which means only a tiny percentage of affiliate marketers actually make it and build an income online. But don’t be put off by this statistic. Affiliate marketing is an easy business to get into. There’s a very low barrier to entry and pretty much anyone can “give it a go”.

You can start for next to no cost. All you really need is an internet connection and a laptop. This means anyone with a laptop can try it, for next to no risk.

To succeed, you need to stick with it when others quit. Most people will experience some adversity and use it as an excuse to quit. The 5% who succeed, use this adversity to get better.

Don’t Quit Your Affiliate Marketing Business – Failing Forwards

Failing forwards is a term I first heard after becoming an affiliate marketer. A good analogy is of a toddler who is learning how to walk. He first starts getting up and falling over again! Again and again the toddler falls over! But he doesn’t let the adversity define him! He keeps going until he has managed to actually stand! Then, little by little he begins to walk. At no point does he think “this walking lark just doesn’t work“!

This is the same experience of an affiliate marketer. Only, with affiliate marketing you’re trying out some kind of marketing strategy. Initially, most of the efforts you put in will result in a less than successful outcome. This is tough and you’ll be tempted to give up. But when you see that some affiliates are making a nice, passive income from affiliate marketing, it can keep you going. (One of the benefits of joining a community).

If you keep going long enough, you should experience your first sale. This is a great moment and it should be celebrated. From this moment, you have proved to yourself that it can be done. You have some actual real world experience and you’re no longer hanging on the advice of some “guru” or coach!

The experience of failing forwards in affiliate marketing is what every affiliate experiences – trying things out until they reach a sale, or they quit!

Don’t Quit Your Affiliate Marketing Business – Your “Why?”

A strong enough “why” will overcome almost any “how”. So ask yourself why you’re doing affiliate marketing. Is it for the independent income, the time and geographical freedom? Do you long for more free time to spend with your family? Or, are you sick and tired of the commute or a crappy work situation or difficult boss?

When you’ve tried everything you can thing of, and those sales still aren’t coming in, you’re going to feel like quitting. It’s in those moments you need to pull out your “why” list! Here’s some of my reasons for continuing when things get tough:

• I can choose when and where to work
• I can turn away employment I no longer want to do (choice)
• I work how I like, and can put my friends/family/hobbies first
• No need to ask the boss for time off – I am the boss
• No more commuting long distances and in rush hour for employment
• I’m in control of my own destiny

Your “why” in affiliate marketing is pretty important because it’s going to be tested. When things aren’t working out, you will look for reasons to quit. But your “why” keeps you motivated and reminds you why you’re working so hard.

If your situation is pretty ok as it is, you’re probably not going to have the resilience and motivation to keep going if things don’t go your way quickly. Many successful affiliates have a huge motivation to free themselves of corporate life, or from lack and poverty. This is often motivation by the pain of their circumstances, or of giving themselves no other choice but to succeed.

Feedback – The Key To Success

Your results from your affiliate efforts is your “feedback”. How you interpret that feedback is the key to success. If you have no results or feedback to draw from, you probably haven’t been an affiliate for very long. This can be the most difficult part of affiliate marketing; when you’ve run ads, built a list, created content and still have nothing tangible to show (in terms of sales). Most affiliates will quit before they have built their email list to even 1000 subscribers. This just goes to show the short term view of many affiliates.

Once you understand that affiliate marketing can reap rewards for you long after you stop, if you put in the effort beforehand, it’s highly motivating. It’s also a very forgiving business and you can always start over again. The real value is in your understanding, not the results per se.

I like the analogy of the Chinese bamboo tree, which is a lot like affiliate marketing. The Chinese bamboo tree gestates underground for 4-5 years. If you didn’t know the type of plant it was, you would be forgiven in thinking that it wasn’t going to grow at all! During this time it needs feeding and watering. But once it breaks the surface of the soil, it can grow 90 feet in only a few weeks.

Affiliate marketing can be a lot like this plant. It needs feeding and watering and the results don’t sprout up immediately. But if you feed your mind with belief, get help and support in your affiliate journey, the rewards can be amazing if you keep going for long enough.

How long this is will depend on the methods you employ. Use your feedback to adjust and craft your actions. No feedback means you need to fail forwards more. Try new things, join another course. Using paid ads? Try content marketing. Tried content marketing? Use paid ads?

Access a training and education course here and get started.

Summary

Don’t quit your affiliate marketing business. There could be many reasons why you haven’t had the success you crave yet. But quitting only guarantees that you won’t win! Here’s some of the advice which helped me go from a struggling affiliate to generating regular and consistent sales:

• Get help – join a community where you can ask questions and get support and advice
• Use recurring income products – rather than “one-off” sales which only pay you once per sale (subscription and memberships)
• Choose to sell products which pay more – digital and high ticket items pay much more than physical products
• Learn from your feedback and use your “failures” as stepping stones to deepen your understanding and learn what works.