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Question: If It Wasn't for Affiliate Marketing, What Would You Be Doing? (25)

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The amazing thing about the affiliate marketing industry is that it is open to people from all walks of life.

I swear I have met successful affiliate marketers who used to be forklift operators, call centre agents, nurses, as well as investment bankers, professional poker players, and real estate agents.

And I have met many successful affiliate marketers who have gone one to do other amazing things. The founders of Spotify, for example, were affiliate marketers.

I am curious, if it was not for affiliate marketing, what would YOU be doing?

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Before affiliate marketing I was a full-time mobile home and house flipper

Before that I was the Regional Program Director for a Medicaid Mental Health Provider lol.

And now - after affiliate marketing- I work on the fringes of the crypto industry doing weird crazy esoteric stuff

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Wow, what a change!

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I've been wondering about this!

If it's not a super-secretive venture - care to share a bit more details?

We have the PERFECT playground for you here:

https://stmforum.com/forum/forumdisp...rency-amp-NFTs



Amy

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The question brings back memories...


Until 2006, I was a mechanical engineer / project manager working in the automotive parts sector (MAGNA Int'l).

On the night of January 9th, 2006, I came across an "online opportunity" - a built-for-you online ecom store equipped with products. You "just need to send traffic".

I hardly slept that night - was messing around with my new store trying to customize it. The next morning I reluctantly left for work, wishing fervently I could stay home to work on my new shiny object some more.

10 minutes after I arrive at the office, I got my wish: Got called into the manager's office, and was informed I no longer had a job.

They called me a cab and escorted me out, all the while looking guilty AF. Me on the other hand I couldn't believe my luck - practically floated all the way home I was so happy.

That was my first taste of freedom, and I vowed to never be tied down by a J.O.B. I didn't like, ever again.

(A month later I found out that the entire plant was shut down, and everybody got laid off. I was the first to go only because I had just finished all the big projects on-hand.)

Not gonna lie - the first couple of years were really tough - financially and psychologically. I was supporting myself plus my family, with neither savings nor income, racking up debt.

(Which is why I'm always preaching to newbies to NOT quit their jobs before they're ready!)

But eventually I found my way and haven't looked back.


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These days, I have one foot in the affiliate/online marketing industry, and the other foot in energy healing.

Through energy healing, my partner and I have been transforming lives - in every way a life CAN be transformed. And the satisfaction I'm getting from clients' feedback, I could never get from running campaigns - no matter how profitable.

But my "online stuff" still has an important place: The income allows me to keep my energy healing services extremely affordable.

Plus: With all my marketing knowledge, I'm able to market my services very efficiently.

(These days, no matter what business you do, knowing how to market online is essential.)


Rant over - looking forward to seeing more of you share your thoughts/journey!



Amy

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Very cool story Amy

I could not agree more on the j.o.b. front... once you taste freedom you can never go back... just the opportunity cost of all the time not focused on your own passions is a monumental loss...

I am trying to raise my son to be an entrepreneur from the start... (he's only 9 now so still a ways away though lol)... although I would certainly love for him to work in a hard, respectable job like roofer or plumber or linesman for a few years too...

But in the long run, if you are a driven, creative person, I think some form of entrepreneurship is the only way

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Lol its all just super nerdy stuff... mostly arbitraging interest rates via liquidity provisioning

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Hey Jack, what kind of stuff in the crypto industry? Im trying to do something with crypto too

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Shoot me a dm so I don't unintionally hijack the excellent thread

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My favorite stories are where its someone from a super non tech-savvy background who monetizes their passion or expertise via affiliate marketing.

Like the grandma who is a knitting superstar and starts a blog or some mechanic dude who can barely type on a keyboard but creates some YouTube channel everyone loves

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This resonates with me in a big way Jack.

And this desire for freedom is so primitive! The only difference is that before, it was difficult to start a thriving business.

Before, the world's money and power was in the hands of a few elites. You could start a physical store and make a living that way, but sooner or later you'd come up against some major competition - i.e. big corporations that had 10000x more advertising budget than you did.

And this is assuming you're not living in a country with corruption, where everyone needs to be bribed in order for your business to even be allowed to stay open.

(As a side note: All the "truths" were controlled by the major media outlets as well - which in turn, again, were controlled by the few elites. These days with everyone owning a cell phone and having access to social media, a lot of the "real" truths are finally coming out - and with truth comes power.)

In recent years, the tides have turned very quickly. I've been sensing and seeing this massive shift of energy in the world - where money and power is no longer in the hands of a few elites.

Anyone that wants freedom, can start an online business for cheap. No rent. No need to pre-stock the shelves with actual goods. No need to have deep pockets to advertise your business.

Anyone can learn how to get traffic from the internet if they're willing to do some research. There are free methods and cheap methods. Just reinvest profits into more ad spend to get more business.

When I decided to give up my engineering career to pursue online marketing in 2006, everyone thought I was crazy! Why would you bother graduating from the top engineering school in Canada and getting a job with a big corporation just to give it all up for a fad??

Boy - how the tides have turned since then!

@jack_l Regarding your son - I wouldn't worry too much about his career choices. He knows on a soul level what his life path will be. And he has chosen you to be his dad because he knew you'd be supportive no matter what he may choose to do. He'll turn out great with a father like you.

We may be getting into "woo-woo territory" here, but the intuitive message I've received and resonated with is that the younger generations (specifically those that were born since 1987) were born into this world with very different priorities than we did: They're here to support this massive shift, by providing heart-based business solutions that will benefit people and enhance people's lives, instead of being money-driven or survival-driven. Lack is just an illusion and previous generations have suffered enough from it. We can already see many businesses today that are heart-based, and over the next few years we'll only be seeing more.

More and more people are either leaving their jobs or being laid off, and deciding to finally start their own business. I was chatting with one of my new clients yesterday. She's had this big business idea in her head for years, but haven't dared to strike out on her own because she had a mortgage to pay etc. and the regular paychecks were hard to give up. Her husband is a musician and same thing - he had always wanted to leave his job to pursue a music career - but haven't dared to make a move.

Then recently, both of them were let go from their jobs over the course of a couple months. Of course they are feeling some stress, but the change is necessary - the world needs more heart-based entrepreneurs and service providers.

Massive change is happening. But I firmly believe that we're headed in the right direction - that the world will be in a way better place once all the commotion is over and the dust settles.

Year 2022 will be a year of massive growth for a lot of people. So if those of you reading this post resonate with this message, leave your fears behind and take massive action. Now is the time.

Whether it be to run affiliate offers, start an ecom business, or start a tiktok/youtube channel to build a following - just get started! The first thing you do may not be "right" for you, but you'll never reach the second step without taking that first step!

Carpe diem!



Amy






Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums

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DM-ed you!

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I could not agree more Amy

Much respect for all the work you do on here and other places helping more and more people embrace their true callings!

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This is a very good question!

When I look back, I never really had any other "job" except for affiliate marketing. I started to build some websites and monetize them with Ads while I was still in university and somehow I stayed in this business until these days.

I had some side jobs while studyin for sure, like translating german texts into slovak, or helping my parents with their office furniture business etc... but pretty much everything else I ever did was related to the online world and affiliate marketing in one way or another.

So if it wasn't for internet marketing, what would I do? Seriously, I would probably become a chef Somehow I really started to enjoy cooking in the past few years, so if I would have to make a decision now, I would likely do something that's related to cooking or gastronomy in general.

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Slovakian language cooking affiliate site?

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@matuloo, how is your cooking website going?

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I met an affiliate in Dubai ... 10 years ago he was a call centre operator making minimum wage ... now he runs massive lead generation affiliate offers and employs 100+ call centre operators himself!

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Never even thought about it really, since I am enrolled in this job for quite a time now. Even when I think about it now, nothing in particular comes to my mind, guess I became obsessed with affiliate marketing over years. Maybe I could do some educational stuff, like filming some courses or writing blogs, that seems interesting and I think I could actually be good at it.

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I'm slowly approaching the end-game of owning a technology company.

Right now I've started making AI powered cat & dog toys but eventually I'd love to produce and sell household electronics and the occasional AIM-9 Sidewinder missle.

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Before I started affiliate marketing I also worked in a call centre (customer support) for few months and did also few other sales jobs.

Nowadays I can´t think of much other stuff besides affiliate related work for me, I guess I am just too long in the industry already

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Nope, there's just about 5.5 millions Slovaks out there, that's too small audience for my mind that's used to work with EN speaking markets

But I have started a cooking blog in English some time ago, trying to grow that right now.

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Growing slowly my friend To be honest, I expected the SEO traffic to climb up faster, but apparently it takes about a year to get really recognized by google these days, several SEO people have confirmed this for me. Some say it takes even longer.

I started the site about a year ago, but didn't really do anything with it in the beginning. Then in the summer, I didnt have any time for it, so I wasnt making any new content. So basically, I'm still at the start... but seeing some results already. I'm ranked for about 2500 keywords already, 20+ TOP1 positions and it's getting better every day. The youtube channel is growing too... generally speaking, all the charts are going up, so it should be just a matter of time.

I think it's about time that I start to make some posts about the project here on the forum, based on the talks I had with several people at AWG Dubai, SEO is gaining importance again lately (not that it every lost it really) and many people are looking into building sites again. And I have learned quite a few things in the process, even though it has been just a small side project of mine that I didn't and couldn't give full attention so far.

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Very nice...

Yes the SEO thing is fascinating....

I started two content sites about a year and a half ago, as you may remember, and its been interesting seeing them progress.

One did quite well with GiddyUp affiliate offers via SEO traffic, but interest in those offers has died out and I haven't added any new big product review articles for awhile...

Have both sites monetized with Ezoic now... each is earning around $500-$700/month...

Both sites have like 250+ very well-written articles though and decent backlinks... so I'm kind of surprised at the outcome... I would have guessed that either a) I wouldn't have any success at all with SEO, or b) would have had a ton of success... but sort of ended up right in the middle...

If I was to sell them now I'd probably breakeven on the investments... but yeah, have our VA working on them now though so will likely just leave the setups as-is for awhile and see how things go... I'm sure they could be doing much better if I put more time and attention on them but have kind of lost interest to be honest...

That is very cool about your cooking site though... and that does make sense re: language...

I bet Twitter could be a decent traffic source too if you did some big threads with lots of images and tagging lots of other cooking accounts...

And I'm sure you'll do great on YouTube too as there seems to be massive curiosity about cooking

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Yes I do remember the 2 sites of yours, we've discussed this here on the forum a while ago

May I ask what the traffic looks like on these? EZOIC should be pretty good, but there are better networks out there that might increase your revenue by a lot, but they are looking for websites with quite a bit of traffic... 50-100k sessions per month, you're probably not that high with these yet, or?

Also, the RPM can vary a lot based on the niche... in some niches it's like $5, while in others it can be $20 or more.

Social network are kinda tricky, you can get decent views and engagement on any particular network, the problem is get these people over to the website. The users like to stay within the ecosystem and not click away and since the blog itself is my main goal, I didn't give these platforms all that much attention. Pinterst seems to be an exception, I definitely need to look more into this platform.

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I started in the performance marketing space in 2001 (back in those days it wasnt called performance marketing, it was called a "fad").

I was in banking previously but i absolutely hated it. I would have ended up in sales i believe 100%. Not sure what industry but something that was lucrative

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