How not to give up on Affiliate Marketing before you actually master it? (34)
How not to give up on Affiliate Marketing before you actually master it?
Affiliate Marketing pulls a TON of interest from people looking for ways to make money on the internet. This is a known fact and there is no need to argue about it. The sad fact is that only a fraction of them actually make it, majority gives up at one stage or another. This is another fact we don't need to argue about. But why is the % of those who reach “Profitopolis” so low? And what can you do in order to join the winners and not give up like so many before you?
A lot has been written about the requirements needed to make it in this game and I don't like to repeat what has been said already. We all know it's a lot about the right mindset, hard work, persistence, cashflow … etc, and I'm not gonna write about these again. I would like to approach this topic with a personal touch and focus on 2 MAJOR obstacles I personally had to go through and how to overcome them.
1. Trust issues: In a world where everyone wants to sell you their “manual/course/secret code ...” it's hard to believe anything. What's the AM world actually about? Is it simply one large scheme to sell you more courses, so like a fucking Ponzi scheme? Are all the gurus sucking newbies into the system, so traffic networks can sell them some bots, affiliate networks can earn their margins on their attempts to become millionaires and then kick the poor guys out, after they lost a couple $1000s?
I certainly was in a stage when I actually did believe this was the case. I started dozens of campaigns and I couldn't turn profit no matter what I did. Everyone was telling me it was doable and many people are profiting, but I simply didn't understand how it could be possible. I felt like a sheep waiting in the line to get shaved. I was bringing out my A game, thinking I'm doing the best there is to be done and the results still didn't come. The only logical answer for me was, that the system was a fraud...
When I look at the banners I was using at the beginning, I feel like crying, they are so bad. The same goes for the campaign setup, it was one galactic mess. I was missing the skills and still wanted to compete with the pros, and I blamed my failure on the “corrupt system”. I was very close to giving up and telling everyone how this whole paid traffic marketing is a scam. The problem was, I simply didn't have enough knowledge at that time. I thought that if I steal a banner and an LP and run it on the same spot I ripped it from … I thought that's enough to become profitable. I didn't know anything about targeting, capping, carriers/wifi, bid importance … I didn't understand I was actually buying traffic that the pros left lying there for the newbies to buy 
It's very easy to give up at this stage, but you have to realize one thing : anything you do in your life, it takes skill and the proper knowledge to become good at it. You don't expect a fresh medic uni graduate to perform quality brain surgery… so don't expect to beat the pros within the first month of your marketing attempts. It's simply not doable and the system has nothing to do with it.
And how did I overcome this obstacle? I couldn't give up because my old business was dying and I didn't have any other back-up plan. So I was testing like mad and one day it happened, I've hit my first green campaign. I remember it exactly : it was an adult dating offer called Milfaholic, it was a SOI leadgen offer and I was running US geo on Xhamster. I made $100 profit on the first day, then $60 on the next one and then it died … welcome to obstacle number 2 I had to get through.
2. Becoming profitable AGAIN: Hitting a profitable campaign can be a question of pure luck, it can happen to anyone, but that doesn't make you a successful AM. In my opinion, the final chamber of the AM path is to create profitable campaigns again and again and again … every campaign will die at some point, the key is to be able to create new profitable campaigns thereafter. If you are able to do this, you can safely say you mastered affiliate marketing.
But it's not so easy and it took me a rather long time to overcome this obstacle – those were some of the most shittiest 7-8 months in my “paid traffic” AM career. So I've hit my first profitable day with that dating offer, but it only lasted for a bit more than 2 days. And there I was with nothing in my hands again. BUT, the trust issue was solved. You can believe what you want and fall for the conspiracy of your choice, but once you see something with your own eyes, you simply know where the truth is. So I knew this shit was working and all there was to do, was to identify the key factors and figure out what went wrong.
I approached this in a totally wrong way. I was stubborn as a bull – it worked on that spot, it will work there again … right? Well, no, it didn't Several factors were responsible for the situation and I could identify them quickly today, but at that time I didn't have the knowledge to do so. Instead of trying something else, my brain was fixed to exactly the same setup I had when I hit the first profit day. I refused to change something because I believed I had the winning formula already. Wrong!
The spot I was running at was probably the most competitive there is in the adult space, everyone is using it for quick testing, thus the bids were too high there. I was getting paid $3.3 per lead – later on I went direct with the advertiser since I sent nice volume and ended up with $4.2 per lead. I used CPM instead of smart CPM bidding … I made all the mistakes possible and the payout I was getting simply couldn't cut it.
Eventually I identified all the problems, I ported the campaign to different traffic sources, got a better payout and improved my creatives too. In the end, I made about $50 000 revenue with this offer, with decent ROI in the end phase.
The sad truth is, if I wasn't stubborn and stupid in a way, this all could have been solved way sooner and I could have saved myself a lot of stress too. Learn from my mistakes!
- Don't be stubborn, just because something worked once, it doesn't mean it was the best possible combination. Test new things, don't be obsessed with the first winning offer or landing page.
- There is no excuse to stick to one traffic source only, or to one placement. The traffic world is huge, you need to explore it.
- Make sure you understand targeting, bidding, capping … this can all play in your favor.
I almost gave up during these 8 months again. I was thinking that maybe I was just lucky to hit something, after all it worked just for 2 days, right? I was also starting to believe there is some secret trick that the big guys know and I can't make it without it. Basically, I was looking for excuses for my own incompetence and the absence of drive to test some more. It was very frustrating for sure.
But as I said before, I simply couldn't give up. So I forced myself to test more, I was bombing traffic networks with 100-150 new banners on some days. I tested dozens and dozens of landing pages and eventually it started to click.
There were 3 key decisions that helped me to reach constant profits.
1st one was to register with more affiliate networks and eventually going direct with that particular offer. Going direct was just a small % raise, but testing more aff networks was an absolute game changer. I was able to get from $3.3 to $4 almost instantly, that was a huge boost to my revenues. Definitely test the same offer with more networks whenever that is possible. I was soo stupid for not doing that immediately.
2nd decision was to stop using just one traffic source and testing 3 new ones. I realized how different the results can be per network, how much different the banner CVR can be, pricing etc … this was a very valuable lesson and it helped me a lot.
3rd one was to eventually move away from US GEO and explore the world a bit, this opened a lot of possibilities for me. I invested some $ to get my angles and LPs translated and started to run globally.
And lastly, I also realized there is no secret formula and that my competition has the same advantages I can get with consistency – higher payouts and better funnels.
Once all this clicked I started to see constant profits every single day. I don't think I had a negative day ever since to be honest. A lot has changed during the past few years, I have a team now, we run in different markets and push a wider range of offers, but I will never forget how I started with paid traffic
I would like to give one more advice to all the new affiliates that are reading this write-up – TAKE ACTION! This whole AM world can look like a total mess and information overload when you first enter it. In reality, it's a pretty simple concept, but don't try to understand and master all the aspects at once. You can spend days on planning, but in the end, you will still start your first campaign as a noob and you don't stand a chance to beat the pros right away.
Don't waste days on choosing “the right offer”, cause honestly you don't have the skills to choose it yet, just get something and throw some traffic at it. Keep your initial losses small and learn along the way. Nothing beats seeing it in action! I have seen many people to give up even in this starting phase – they wanted to pick the best offer and the best source and the best aff network … the inability to do so simply killed their motivation and they've quit. Don't do the same mistake.
I hope my story will help at least one of you to not give up and reach the profit land. Thanks for reading.
Great post mate. Spot on.
Everyone goes through the exact same struggles, the ones who make the coming out laughing their way to the bank are the ones who don't make excuses, and learn from every decision and piece of data they get. I know such a wide range of people who have "made it" in this industry. Some are super smart, some aren't, some are technical, some are creative, some have solid families to support them, some don't. The STM Thought Leader Stories show a common thread between the guys that make. They stick at it, show some grit, and follow the processes.
Awesome motivation booster write-up. Thank you.
I'm starting am, planning to put in 3 hours a day into it (that's all I can afford, I got 2 websites to run and 3 kids lol) , half reading and half taking action, I'm bound to get somewhere in a few months right? I also signed up for the 6wamc, starting next week.
Originally Posted by MrT
It's doable, don't look for reasons to hold you back!
Hi Matuloo,
Thanks for the great post.
I signed up for the AMC in order to greatly reduce my learning curve. I intend to emerge from the AMC victorious.
Cheers,
Gordon
Originally Posted by tapadh leibh
Great post. I've always gone by - never assume anything will work for long, never stick to one source, never stick to one geo, always have multiple niches/geos/offers/networks, and always work hard no matter how well you're doing one month. Also, never take any $ loss negatively, every piece of data you buy from testing is knowledge/experience. (of course cut bad campaigns after a certain amount) Don't take anything for granted, never stop working, and never over-assume. Patience and hard work make it all happen.
Originally Posted by jamesc
great post. yea i definitely see it all the time now, the people who fail are the ones always looking for 'the right X' or 'the best X'.
Replace X with ad network, affiliate network, offer, niche, etc.
Nice write up...took a while for me to get into positives worth mentioning. The way I see it, every-time you click "Start Campaign", you learn something new. So keep learning!
Originally Posted by johnaff
Yes, yes, definitely, yes, YES. This post is spot-on in every respect.
wow what a bomb!
I think all of us can identify with the early struggles.
Being stubborn was a huge mistake for me. I sticked with a one particular traffic source for a year because I failed to read what the data was telling me ie that it's just a bot infested junkyard. Took me a while to get over the frustration and really sit down and analyze the data I was getting.
But I never thought this was a scam or pyramid scheme. I just turned adblock off and saw all the ads and I was like you motherfuckers what are you doing that I'm not.
Then after a lot of trial and error I had my first solid profitable campaign. But I couldn't create another one. I was testing all the time and I knew this one campaign will die out eventually, which it did. Huge period of self-doubt, not wanting to believe that I just might've been lucky.
And even if I was just lucky. Luck falls upon those guys and gals hustling in the field not on those reading all the time. The more I launched the luckier I got! Eventually I figured out the missing pieces one by one and substituted luck with skill
I was probably the worst marketer when I started out but if you want it badly enough you will find a way eventually. You just have to refuse to give up.
I still make mistakes and learn every day.
Also, the people you hang out with make a HUGE impact on your motivation. I have a swipe file of motivational pics and videos and visualize my goals of having X income. Having people telling you that this is all a scam and that you will never make money is NOT helpful to your career.
Make sure to feed your mind good stuff just like you would feed your body. Read success stories on this forum, watch motivational youtube videos, listen to audiobooks. I probably listened over 100 times to earl nightingale the strangest secret.
I make it now a priority to cut off everybody who is draining my energy with negativity and have no tolerance for this whatsoever.
Originally Posted by ebaskin
Great Post matuloo
I completely agree with what you wrote about the trust and struggles.
Thing is that the competition is only getting harder when a lot of courses are open all over the world.
some of them are great and will surely can help newbies get their feet wet in this vast Sea called Affiliate marketing, while other courses are plain rubbish where you can find 100% of the stuff they teach online for free.
i always get back to DR. Charles NGO Story where he said had to sell his car and Xbox before he started to earn, i never have to go through that as majority of my campaigns were sponsored so one big monkey (cash flow) was never on my shoulder.
but when i did "play" with my money the amount of tension was X100 higher.
so my point is this - you can learn a course, you can find great AM's (like we have in affiliaXe 
) and trust them and everything (on paper) looks OK. you still need to be strong and cool when seeing your campaigns are loosing money.
not everyone are able or cable to believe that although you see failures if you will continue pushing you will manage to succeed.
its a hard thing to do but if i have one advice its this - think of this like a game of Poker.
you wouldn't join a table where the Big boys are playing for $5K-$10K blinds if you dont have these amounts available. so dont jump from the start on campaigns that working "Great" for the master affiliates but rather find you a small - medium offer to start with and learn where the amount of money you "invest" is your school tuition.
start small and ramp it up as you learn and grow your abilities in AM.
Originally Posted by affiliaxeguy
Originally Posted by matuloo
I would like to give one more advice to all the new affiliates that are reading this write-up – TAKE ACTION! This whole AM world can look like a total mess and information overload when you first enter it. In reality, it's a pretty simple concept, but don't try to understand and master all the aspects at once. You can spend days on planning, but in the end, you will still start your first campaign as a noob and you don't stand a chance to beat the pros right away.
Don't waste days on choosing “the right offer”, cause honestly you don't have the skills to choose it yet, just get something and throw some traffic at it. Keep your initial losses small and learn along the way. Nothing beats seeing it in action! I have seen many people to give up even in this starting phase – they wanted to pick the best offer and the best source and the best aff network … the inability to do so simply killed their motivation and they've quit. Don't do the same mistake.
Spot on post here mate.
Originally Posted by HenryF5
Thanks for the post Matuloo. This is super timely. I have been focusing on free iphone sweeps for the past three months. I have been pretty fixated on a few landers, offers and the 1 pop traffic source and 1 affiliate network. I am getting OK results but not hitting profitable status. My next move now is to diversify everything that I just mentioned and take some massive action. Regards!
Originally Posted by success1
Great post Matuloo this is exactly what I need now!
I know there is money to be made in this game but it can be a grind when you're not profitable!
Thanks again for always helping out!
Great post!! Thanks for writing this!
I totally identify myself with it, I had my first profitable campaign and it died 3 days after.
The 3 key decisions you wrote to make constant profits make a lot of sense and I am definitely lacking on the first one, so will take care of that soon!
Cheers,
Andre
thank you for this great post matuloo. i was taking so long to plan my first campaign. reading your post gave a kick up my butt and i'm going to launch my campaign in the next few days. even before i set up my first campaign, there were pitfalls and re-reading your post gave me the strength to not quit before i even started
AM can be hard, there are days of frustration in front of anyone who is starting out, but the only way to get over it, is by taking action and looking forward. Doubts, fear, hesitation ... this is not going to help anyone. The obstacles are there two overcome and to make you stronger! I'm glad this post is helping you guys, makes me want to write more for you!
I really want to thank you matuloo ! Your post eliminated many of my fears and doubts!
I'm trying AM with some little results for some years(all in all ~55k € profit in 4 years). To be honest it was more luck than anything else and left a bad feeling in my mindset. Maybe some people which had no luck and working hard to master it will ask "How can earning 55k end up in a bad feeling ?"
Some short background information:
Few years back i was in really huge financal problems (i had lost my IT startup company, with it all my private savings and had to pay back a huge loan to my bank)... I searched for any opportunity to earn some money on the side additinally to my fulltime job to have at least some pocketmoney left after paying the huge monthly loan rates.
Like a miracle I had an idea for a gaming related website, so i built it and run some FB ads without knowing what i'm doing exactly (there was no knowledge about elementary basics like tracking or any other AM stuff at this time) but I earned money :O
I had some success but it was based on a good idea and a bulkload of luck, without any deep knowledge, any strategy or any replicable system behind. I've tried other offers and verticals without results, one day my gaming website earnings went down more and more, offers were stopped, my earnings disappeared :/
I have tried to start other websites without success then some other things happened to my family which forced me to spend every free minute in another direction. My mindset switched from "wow, it's a miracle" to "Foget it ... that was just an immense load of luck. You can't live from that internet stuff."
That was nearly a year ago... I've bought a lot of JvZoo BS products, hoping for the "one strategy or tool"... Nothing really helped me to get an overview how this AM industry is working which increased my doubts about the entire make money online possibilities... Someday i found the blog of Charles Ngo, started reading all his stuff, found another blog, watched tons of videos, followed guys on FB... Learned how to use
I stucked 3 month on that because of the fear and doubts to lose money and not get it working with my little budget. I decided to work every additionally shift i can to save some money to invest in AM. A few days back i reached my budget goal and signed up to STM yesterday. Reading all your posts, guides and experiences really helps me to believe it's possible if I work hard enough, stay focused and listen to the advices and help whichis provided here.
Sorry for that long post and thanks again to all of you ! I hope i can give back some value someday.
Thanks for the kind words oliverde! It is definitely possible to make it in AM if you put the energy into it. The fact you were able to make a decent amount of $ online already means you have what it takes to make it again. It might look like luck, but it wouldn't happen without the proper steps taken on your side. Many people try and they never make anything, you did more than 60k USD and that means something.
It's sad how many people actually believe there are hidden tricks and tools that are needed in order to make some $ online, when in reality the principle is quite simple and you just need to test a lot of stuff to find something that works. I know it can be frustrating at times, but that's how it works. Tools are there to make our lives easier, but it's not the secret recipe to start making money online.
I wish you a lot of luck and success, I'm sure you can take your business to the next level with the help of our STM community!
Hi Mat,
OMG, now only I come across this golden post. Your words really clear up a lot of my negative thoughts that I have lately in AM. Thanks for writing this info for newbies.
But I have a question. You said dont stick to 1 TS. Do you mean that you start testing your new offers on several TS to get the initial data? or Focus on 1 quality TS, test the offers, if it is promising, then move on to another TS for further testing?
Harrison
Originally Posted by onleads
I'm doing this for some time already so I have my go-to sources or placements for testing new offers, I believe that anyone with enough experience has it this way. So when testing something new, I go straight to these sources/placements and test stuff there, if it's showing promise then I scale it wherever I can. It's always multiple places, not just one.
Honestly, here's something I did to make sure i NEVER QUIT when I wasn't doing very well.
I learnt this from Grant Cardone actually.
I would write down my successes everyday, even if they are small.
This way I would get motivated to write down more the next day and keep doing so. This helped me a lot and I recommend you to try it.
Originally Posted by ryan_k
Thought I'd give this older but epic thread a bump!
(Tip: Check out the new "Mindset" section here: https://stmforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?322-Mindset)
Amy
Oh, now this brings back quite a few memories
Great insights, thanks for sharing them here with the community, as I think a lot of people have daily struggles with these kinds of things and they are thinking about giving up often, so it's always useful to share thoughts and experiences about this topic. Affiliate marketing isn't some easy and simple are, it requires a lot of effort and daily work and results frequently appear a bit late, so it's no wondering that some affiliates think they are doing something wrong or that they should even change course completely and start doing something else. But I would say that key to success here lies in patience and stability, we have to be proactive and take actions, like you wrote, and to be confident at the same time that good results will arrive eventually. This area can be extremely profitable but only for those who are willing to work and risk a bit.
Originally Posted by vortexalpha
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