Three Reasons Why I’m An Affiliate Marketer

An endeavor without a clear mission and objective is bound to fail. If you don’t have a mission or an objective driving your affiliate marketing efforts, then you’re more likely to spin in circles and never accomplish anything great. A mission statement is crucial to your online success!

Do you have a mission statement? Do you clearly know “why” you’re an affiliate marketer?

Once you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, it is easier to make all of those critical decisions such as:

• What task should I work on next?
• Will I benefit from that software, or that training resource?
• Which affiliate programs should I promote?

Those are just some examples, but I hope you can see how those questions cannot be effectively answered without a clear mission statement driving your efforts.

Your Mission Statement Is Not A Goal

Please note that a mission statement is not a goal. Your goals are based on your mission statement, and are different and separate. Here’s an example:

• Your mission statement might state that you want to earn a full time living from affiliate marketing.
• A goal based on that mission statement might be to earn $4,000 per month from affiliate marketing.

Can you see the difference?  You can even change your goal without changing the mission statement.

Now I understand that the term “mission statement” sounds like something a non-profit organization should have. It seems a bit overkill for the single affiliate marketer… especially if you’re working at this part-time. However trust me when I say it’s still important to have this defined.

So let me explain a way you can easily create your own mission statement. The way to do it is to list out the “reasons” why you are an affiliate marketer. As I just mentioned, don’t list out goals (like “I want to earn this much per month”), but instead list out the reasons why you would need that money. Perhaps it’s financial freedom, or to pay off bills, or to travel to Europe… whatever the “reason” is that you’re an affiliate marketer is your mission statement.

My Personal Reasons

Here are three reasons why I’m an affiliate marketer:

• Earn enough money to eliminate debt. This one seems obvious, but it needs to be listed. Notice that I don’t want to be rich, or have a lot of toys. I just want to get out of debt and stay out of debt. If I can accomplish that in my life, I’ll truly have wealth and I will have financial freedom.
• Have a productive hobby. This might sound corny, but we all need to have distractions from the stresses of life. We all need hobbies. Well affiliate marketing is my hobby, and it definitely is a stress reliever for me. The gravy is that I can earn a handsome profit from it too!
• Help others. One of my overall missions in life in general is to be helpful to others. Affiliate marketing can be a way to do that.

So how do my personal “reasons” for being an affiliate marketer help to guide me, keeping me on track and make critical decisions?

Here Are Some Examples

• Since one of my “reasons” is to get out of debt, I can easily calculate how much debt I have, and in how many months or years I want it to be at zero. Then I can figure out how much affiliate income I’ll need to make each month, and set goals accordingly. Also when I’m thinking about investing money for new software tools or training resources, I can weigh the potential benefits of those tools or resources against my ultimate mission of eliminating debt.
• Another “reason” is to have a relaxing hobby. Therefore, if I’m working on a campaign or project that is stressing me out, it is easier for me to let it go. A personal example of this is when I gave up my directory submission service. While it was a big money maker for me, it caused a lot of stress due to the deadlines it imposed on me. I don’t want my affiliate marketing efforts to take away from family time, but directory submissions were doing just that, so I stopped doing it.
• The third “reason” I listed was helping others. So when I am evaluating an affiliate product or program, I can evaluate if the product is really worthwhile. Will people really benefit and be helped by the product? I can also find common problems that people have, and target my affiliate campaigns in a way that provides these people with solutions to them. That way the customers are being helped, and I’m rewarded for helping them with affiliate commissions. If a program seems shady or sub-par, it’s easy for me to justify passing on it, because it doesn’t align with the reason I do this.

Conclusion

I could probably write a book full of examples of how having a mission statement (”reasons”) is key to success, but the examples listed here will have to do.

So what are the reasons you are an affiliate marketer? Please share them in the comments section below!

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BANS User Forum

Until this moment, I would have said nothing but positive things about the BANS user forum. I really have learned a ton there, and it’s a huge bonus that’s included with the Build a Niche Store software. Unfortunately, I just had my first bad experience there…

Now some may think this is ticky-tacky on my part, but someone wrote a long post about a recession and whatnot, and they had to throw in some jabs about the war in Iraq. I responded in a not-so-subtle manner that there were better places to talk about that stuff than the BANS forum. As expected, the response back was how it was posted in the “general discussion” board, and they had the right to talk about it.

I’m sure they’re probably correct that they have the “right” to talk about the Iraq war there, however having a “right” to do something isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. I mean, I have the right to be a jerk, but if I exercise that right… well that just means I’m being a jerk. See what I mean?

Enough digressing…

Maybe I overreacted, but I really don’t want to talk about politics or anything like that at a place like the BANS forum. I checked, and there are over 19 million forums that show up on Google that deal with politics. Certainly these would be better places to talk about such divisive topics. And I realize it was just one comment in one post, but where does the slippery slope end? Should we talk about Democrats versus Republicans, religion, abortion, class warfare… where would it end?

So I wrote back and basically said “goodbye.”

Did I overreact? I don’t know, maybe… probably… But the thread also made me realize that I was spending way too much time posting to that forum… time I should have been spending developing my affiliate marketing business. Time I could have used to build new BANS sites, optimizing and promoting them. Time I could have used to build up this blog (where I can truly help people).

So I think it’s a good thing this happened, because it made me realize I was spending too much time posting to the forum, and not enough time taking action on my business. Which leads me to a valuable lesson I’ve already learned in the past, but apparently keep forgetting…

Take action!

It’s so easy to get caught up watching another “how to” video… or participating in the “affiliate marketing forums”… or “learning” or “experimenting”…

Let me say unequivocally that there is nothing wrong with any of those activities. However if all you do is watch, post, learn, experiment, then you’re not taking action to further your business. There always comes a point where the learning has to stop, and the doing has to begin.

That time has come–yet again–for me.

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Video: How to Choose the Right Keywords

Here’s my “Choosing the Right Keywords” video…

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Article: How to Choose the Right Keywords

I wrote an article over at Hubpages titled “How to Choose the Right Keywords.” I originally posted about this method at the BANS user forum, and after getting several compliments on my post, I decided to write it up as an article to share with everybody, as the method works well for anyone looking to optimize their website with keywords.

As a bonus, I created my very first YouTube video to go along with the article! Basically the video demonstrates me going through the step by step process of finding some keywords using the free method. I realize the quality isn’t the best on the video, but it should be good enough to drive home how simple the process really is.

If you get a chance to read the article or watch the video, please drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it. I’m hoping to do more articles and videos in the future, so any feedback you can give me is appreciated!

(PS. If you didn’t already realize, writing an article and producing a video are methods discussed in StomperNet’s Social Marketing Guide. Hint, hint…)

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January Mid-Month Progress Update

I just wanted to give an update on some of the commissions I’ve earned so far this month through my Build a Niche Store sites. After the first 13 days of the month, I’ve earned $39.40 through my Commission Junction account. That brings my CJ balance up to $72.71 (when you include commissions from last month). I also earned another $13.01 from Amazon’s affiliate program through one of my BANS sites, when someone clicked on the Amazon ad on the page to buy the product.

So just from BANS alone, after only half the month so far, I earned $52.41, with a total balance of $85.72.

Now that small amount of money isn’t going to go very far, and I did have some expenses along the way also (such as web hosting fees). However… and this is the really good part… I’m just getting started here folks! You see I only have four BANS sites up and running, and have only actively promoted one of them. I’m still learning proper online marketing techniques, and so I really believe the sky’s the limit.

Sure, for the amount of time I’ve invested, I could make a ton more cash moonlighting at the local convinience store every evening, but it wouldn’t be as much fun. I’m having a blast learning about affiliate marketing, trying and experimenting with new ideas and strategies, and see how some things work and some things don’t. And even though my CJ balance isn’t that huge, there is a sense of accomplishment whenever I login to check my stats, and see that earnings balance tick upwards by a few more dollars!

Besides, the owner of the local convinience store is probably going to expect me to show up at a certain time, on certain days, without exception. As an affiliate marketer, I can set my own hours and my own goals. If it’s been a tough day at work, and I just want to relax in front of the TV or play with my daughter, then I can do that. If I want to spend 6 hours in the evening working on my affiliate marketing, I can do that too. It’s completely up to me!

As I said, the sky really is the limit. I could probably get a second job making $10/hour… working for the man… burning myself out for a little extra income. Or I can have a blast running my own affiliate marketing business… answer to no one but myself and my family… and potentially earn thousands of dollars each month doing it.

Like I keep telling people who ask, at least I’m trying something that could better myself and my family. Compared to playing video games, or watching TV all night, or going out to drink at the bars three times a week… even if I fail at affiliate marketing (and I won’t) at least I went down swinging… making an attempt to better myself and succeed.

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StomperNet Video - Doubling Your Traffic

If you haven’t already seen them, the guys at StomperNet have released a series of videos on the topic of search engine optimization. Here is the first video…

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