You’ve seen the Adsense ads proclaiming “Affiliates: $537 per Day - Quit Your Job With ClickBank”.
Wait a minute - I hope you aren’t thinking you could go quit your day job so you can be an affiliate marketer. If so, here is why I recommend that you don’t:
* Affiliate marketing is volatile - You have no way of knowing where the market is going to go in six months, a year, or five years. Just because you managed to make $5,000 last month does not mean that its going to stay that way. Websites fluctuate in traffic, popularity, and relevance all the time- Ive had sites that were making $200 a day drop to less than $10 a day for seemingly no reason. It will take work, patience, persistence, and a bit of ingenuity to ensure that your income continues to grow. Until youve got $10,000 in a bank account and all of your expenses paid, do not quit your day job. Why throw away a solid income for hopes and dreams?
* Competition is the name of the game with Affiliate Marketing. You won’t even be able to tell your friends or family the name of your websites for fear of competition. Competition that will take away from your income, and when you are spending money to make money it will really cut into your profits. Affiliate Marketing can be done from anywhere there is an internet connection. Your competition will come from the other side of the world or the opposite hemisphere wherever the internet is available. Are you happy with this competition? If not, don’t quit your day job.
* Affiliate marketing is fast-paced - Once you have your marketing campaigns going and the traffic starts coming in you are either going to be making money or not. There are no wait times, rest periods, of times when you can kick back and take it easy. This is a business that runs 24/7.
All of that being said, I should mention that Im not a complete hypocrite for working full time as an affiliate marketer. There are many reasons why you should take up affiliate marketing full time:
1. Affiliate marketing is lucrative - There is no other business where you can start up and make $500 that day. My first website made me over $10,000 in profit over the course of four months, and it was little more than eight pages of text and a few images. If you can find a way to get people to do what you want them to youll be able to make limitless amounts of cash.
2. Affiliate marketing is evolving - This is a business that is never the same from day to day. If you love trying out new things and seeing what works and what doesnt, affiliate marketing is for you. Youll be able to see marketing methods and sales techniques change on a day to day basis, and if youre good enough, youll be leading the pack.
3. Affiliate Marketing is TONS of Fun. It is hard not to enjoy being able to get up when I want, run errands, get my hair cut, come home and set up new marketing programs, check my stats and grin at my bank account. The knowledge that I’m being paid to loaf really makes life interesting. Did I mention it is fun?
An offline job can provide a reliable and steady income. While making some money with Affiliate Marketing, just continue to use it as a supplement to your offline income until your online income grows. Someday it will come down to the point where you make more at Affiliate Marketing than your day job, but until then just keep going in to the office.
