What if affiliate marketing was a martial art? What would the various ranks mean as an affiliate? In the martial arts you get ranked with belts. The belts system is a Western concept which is still used to determine someone’s experience and expertise as a martial artist.
A black belt denotes that someone has been training in a martial art for many years. They are the “experts”. Whereas a white belt means they are a complete beginner. Different martial arts have different ranking systems and use different coloured belts (or sashes).
When I trained in Karate, a white belt was followed by a yellow, then orange then blue, brown and eventually black belt. You progress up the level of black belts in terms of Dan levels. A first dan black belt is the first black belt you receive. As you continue with your training, you move to second Dan, third, forth and so on. Colours on belts can even be segmented with stripes which denote a greater level of expertise in a certain colour.
What If Affiliate Marketing Was A Martial Art? The White Belt
Like with affiliate marketing, many beginners in the martial arts start out only to drop out a few weeks or months later. They get their white belt and their gi (suit), but a few classes struggling can prove to be too much. Often the beginning phase is difficult because you’re feeling nervous and meeting new people. You are shown things to learn and you might even have a hard time as the seniors get the better of you while sparring. You have to keep turning out to lessons, even when you don’t feel like it.
If you decide to give a class a miss, it’s so much more difficult turning up again the next time, after having missed a week/session. Keeping your momentum going and turning up for class after class is the toughest thing to master initially. The same is true of affiliate marketing. You keep turning up to online meetings, time and time again. You keep taking steps forward. If you manage to get into this “flow”, you’ll progress enough to get your first belt!
In the martial arts this means you’ve stayed long enough to have a grading. In affiliate marketing, you’ve set up your website and maybe even managed to run an advertising campaign. You’ve collected your first email lead and started building your email list. Or, maybe you’ve managed to get a hit on your website. Congrats – you’re now a Yellow Belt! Congratulations for keeping up this momentum!
What If Affiliate Marketing Was A Martial Art? The Yellow Belt
The yellow belt denotes that you have reached a level of proficiency beyond that of a complete beginner. It’s your first coloured belt, so be proud of it! As a martial artist it means you have proved that you know a few of the techniques. You’ve probably even remembered what they are called in Japanese/Chinese/etc. As beginers come in, you can even help them now and this helps you solidify your practice and your place in the school/community. You’re now part of the group and you have overcome the main hurdle of integrating yourself and building momentum.
Immersion is critical for learning a martial art and building an affiliate business. If you’re only dipping your toe in, now and then, you’ll always feel as though you’re outside the group. If you’re an affiliate, immerse yourself in an online community and keep turning up. Keep doing what you’ve been building up on and you’ll eventually come to get your next belt – the orange belt! This is another level of seniority in the martial arts. In affiliate marketing it might denote that you’ve made your first sale, perhaps.
This is a major turning point in affiliate marketing because it is testimony to your momentum and efforts you’ve been putting in. It helps you build belief and confidence in what you’re doing. You’re getting more proficient and things are getting easier.
What If Affiliate Marketing Was A Martial Art – The Orange Belt
Congratulations you have attained your orange belt! Your now more proficient and at ease with what you’re doing. In the affiliate marketing business you’ve made your first sale which is a major milestone. Be proud of this and mark the occasion. You’ve proven that you can actually make a sale online, something some beginner affiliates never do.
Your first sale in affiliate marketing is such an important milestone because you’ve proven it can be done. Your previous doubts about whether affiliate marketing actually works are laid to rest. This can give you new motivation and belief. Still, don’t be resting on your laurels because a single sale won’t replace your income yet.
You can also fluke a sale, and get lucky. It doesn’t mean you’re over the hill just yet. Keep going and commit to the journey, doing what is necessary to move your affiliate business forward each day. Reward yourself for each small step you take.
The first sale is also important not just because it gives you confidence. You’ve also learned how to make a sale, and you can use this data to examine your efforts and focus on the most productive actions which created this outcome. This can lead you to create further successes more easily. You can now use pareto’s principle (the 80/20 rule) and make your efforts more worthwhile by focusing on what works the best!
The Green Belt
If you make it to green belt in a martial art, you’ve stuck it out for longer than most will. With an online business, this shows you’ve got what it takes to keep going even when your mind is telling you to take it easy.
At this stage it can be easy to get a little cocky, and rest on your laurels. You’ve put in the hard work now, so you can simply coast for a while, right? As an affiliate, you’ve maybe got some results and you want to celebrate for a while too perhaps?
Don’t celebrate for too long, you’ve got work to do! Remember the momentum you’ve built up so far can easily come crashing down if you stop! The benefit of an online business is that you can use automation to make sales. Once you’ve made some sales it can be the time to do some strategising.
The steps you take to make your first sale online, are often not the same as those you need to grow and scale your business. So it can be easy to get stuck doing the same things over and over, expecting those results to scale up. But if you’re not using a scalable marketing strategy, you’ll simply get stuck at a certain level of success.
For me, I’ve been a little stuck in my habit of content creation. Which has worked in generating sporadic sales. But ultimately I want to have a scalable business, which means using paid marketing of some sort.
In the martial arts, the green belt zone can be where you get a little cocky too. The hubris of beating lower ranked students can push up your confidence and make you lazy and arrogant!
The Brown Belt
The brown belt is the level of seniority directly below the coveted black belt. I would say, the black belt in affiliate marketing reflects having worked for a long time mastering some marketing method. In terms of results, a good outcome in affiliate marketing would be to have a scalable 6 figure business.
The brown belt is a significant one which denotes you’re now deeply entrenched in the affiliate business/martial art. For an affiliate I would like to think the brown belt shows you’ve reached a level of understanding and achievement where you are able to make a living from it which matches or exceeds that of a job/full time income.
You’ve mastered a marketing method and are now fine tuning it or scaling up to reach a larger audience more quickly.
Black Belt – 1st Dan
If you get to black belt in a martial art it should mean you’ve been training hard for many years. You are at a level where techniques spontaneously arise according to what your attacker does, and without preconceived thought. In terms of affiliate marketing, you’ve mastered a marketing strategy and this enables to to generate an income largely on autopilot from anywhere in the world through selling other people’s products.
Well done, it’s always worth the journey to arrive at a nice view!
The journey is never over and the first dan black belt really denotes the beginning of the martial arts journey. You’ve stuck it for several years and now it’s time to fine tune what you have learned. It’s a shame that many black belt martial artists consider this the “peak” and quit shortly afterwards. This is often because they have attained the desired destination which they originally set out to achieve. But there’s always another mountain peak around the corner!
Even a journey of 1000 sales begins with a fist step.
