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 No matter what you currently earn in a job, that figure can be matched and superseded by your affiliate business.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.