Does anyone have a full time job AND do AM? (49)
Just wondering if anyone holds down a separate full time job and has good success in AM?
I got into it back when I had a month off, and progressed really fast because I was putting in bulk hours as I usually would in a working week.
Then I got full time at my job, which is being a pilot. I love it a lot and am not interested in quitting. It doesn't feel like a 'daily grind' for me.
Hence, AM has become a weekend endeavor and any progress I have comes along slowly. I am not saying I want to quit AM, an not getting demotivated or anything, just wondering if anyone is in the same position. Maybe you have some nice stories for me, that you successfully do both?
Yes, I have a full time job and I do AM on my free time.
I'm a bit stuck in the $100 a day range, so I'm still not able to quit my job, but I don't forget my goal, which is to be full time aff asap 
not any more but before I had full time i had a very busy job, and did AM parttime for about a year
if you find it hard to find the time - i recommend you:
a) write down your "process" in clear simple to understand steps
b) follow your own process for a month, improving it, streamlining it, making it easier to understand
c) hire an offshore person to do some of the more boring steps in the process
d) use dropbox or something similar to manage your workflow with this person
in the end you focus on the tasks you enjoy most and that add most value to your "business"
I still work as a programmer at a software company. I work on my campaigns in the evenings and on the weekends when I can. I hope that I can one day leave my cubicle for full time AM work but I have a long way to go. I have a wife and kids too so it can be hard to make time some days to sit down and put in a couple hours of solid work. I will keep at it though cause the thought of going in to the office every day to work for someone else for the next 30 years sounds horrible.
-Aaron
Yep. Working full time with that wonderful 2 hour round trip to and from work in the traffic. But wife very supportive (Especially as making money now). Hard work but as Tjin says have to be organised. Still working on this. Hardest thing is finding time to scale everything, get new campaigns going, optimise current and work on new more long term projects. Oh as well as the UK time difference. Usually start working c. 8 after putting kids to bed and go anywhere between 11pm and 3am. Do everything myself at the moment but looking to start outsourcing some stuff to buy time as well as getting vps for everything soon.
But wouldn't have it otherwise. Did SEO for 3 years and very demorilising. At least I see money quickly now. Doing about $1000 profit a month just now and have targets worked out to increase profits and margin every month. Know what you need to do to get the money you need to pay down debt and get a buffer to quit. Cut unecessary expenses (I'm still working on the smoking shit). Work on a healthy cash flow and reinvest like crazy. Finally drop the wife/partner some dosh every month and everything is sweet.
Originally Posted by tijn
Full time job here also, completely unrelated to AM, plants infact.
The weird thing is that although my AM business turns over more than the company I work for and I make far more money from AM, I'm finding it hard to make the leap to full time AM. Not sure if I've just got into a routine or what, it's hard to explain really.
Anyone had similar issues making the transition to full time AM?
Originally Posted by turtle_hammer
rather then put up an advert - i approach people with recent login count or joining date
I send them a standard intro / request - with a task at the end
(send email to this address with this codeword)
then they get an automated response with a follow up task to test their responsiveness
like - fine me 10 images like this, and resize them to 110x80
then from the ones that reply - i choose the best 2
Hire both
Let 1 go after a month - the worst one
I have a day job too, but fortunately it's in the CPA/CPM world so everything I learn is relevant to my own AM. I could use a few more hours in the day though for my own campaigns.
I came out of high school doing this full-time, I never want to have to work for someone else.
i did double duty for about the first year and a half while i figured it out. I was so determined to make it work that I would leave my 9-5 gig, come home and take a new shower. I'd make a fresh pot of coffee and have "second morning" and work from 6pm until 1-2am on my Affiliate projects.
I may have *allegedly* also done a lot of Affiliate work at my 9-5 gig as well... haha
I remember seeing an article somewhere a long time ago titled
How To Make 6 Figures in Affiliate Marketing
- Get a job paying $100,000+ per year at a corporation
- Do affiliate marketing all day at work
Originally Posted by profitable
Full time job here also. Working in an agency doing PPC, SEO and Google Analytics. Pushing hard to reach full time AM status but finding it hard to keep the ball rolling with the limited hours available. Makes success taste that much sweeter I guess!
I had a full time tech job the first 2 years I did AM. It was for a big ad network (which is now pretty much nonexistent) which was helpful in that I learned a lot about how an ad network operates.
Aside: you'll save yourself a lot of trouble trying to understand why an ad network operates the way it does, even if it seems like they could make more money if they fixed certain things. Stop wondering why you have one campaign that gets 5x volume on 1/2 the eCPM of another campaign. Just figure out HOW it works and exploit it (I still have to remind myself on a daily basis). When you ask your ad rep for advice and he gives you what seems like a lazy, generic answer about your bid or 'competition', he's most likely not an asshole but is instead covering for the tech side of things. The timeline to get things changed or improved on an ad server from a tech standpoint is astronomical, and not usually because it's difficult. You have thirty IT guys at a company who all need to have their 20 minutes every meeting to pontificate about some code changes they made seven years ago and why the simplest and fastest solution is not nearly as much fun.
ANYWAY - we got sold to another, completely useless ad network. My job there was a complete waste of time; working was replaced by constant 'all hands' meetings, the purpose of which was to talk about how great we all were, and discuss the latest media coverage of our wonderful CEO. Focusing on revenue was a distant priority compared to making sure we have a bunch of masturbatory press releases out there, and getting big booths at every industry conference, and talking about how we were industry leaders even though we probably weren't.
Near the end there I was about to have my first child so having an easy corporate gig was the right thing to have; a couple months after she was born, the company laid off a bunch of people, including me. Instead of looking for another easy corporate gig that I would eventually find to be a waste of time, I got support from my fiance and went into this full time.
It helped that my last corporate gig was a joke, because I honestly wonder if I ever would have had the guts to leave the easy life and jump into this. There were several months during my 2 years w/ a job where I was costing myself money by going to a corporate gig instead of using that time to scale my AM business, and I was making 6 figures at the corporate gig. Of course there were also the months where you think "Thank God I have this day job."
I haven't looked back in a year, even though the lack of a 'fall back' stresses me out like crazy sometimes. But when you don't have a fallback, you learn to put up with less bullshit from affiliate networks or ad networks, and you waste a few less nights at a bar, and you watch football while working instead of stopping everything to watch football.
And you need to make sure you really love this. I hate the days where I spend 90% of my time going back and forth with a network trying to figure out why a pixel isn't firing correctly, or getting the email that an offer went down after you've spent thousands optimizing. But the excitement of the first conversion on a new angle can't be beat.
Sorry this is so long
We all had to start somewhere.
I worked a stressful corporate job for 4 years while doing AM in the evenings and weekends. Its slow and can be very frustrating but it will test your resilience and how bad you really want it.
It makes you appreciate doing this full time SO MUCH MORE
I have a full time job doing critical care transports in a hospital and I'm in college.
Fortunately for me, my full time job consists of 12 hours of watching netflix/doing AM/homework/sleep, with the occasional interruption for a call. It's a pretty fun job, with some cool adrenalin rushes when we have serious calls, but I can't wait to go full time AM.
Originally Posted by bmcadvertising
Originally Posted by izzy
+1
(and thanks for the reminder of how much corporate life sucks 
)
My other half also works full time whilst trying to learn/do forex. It ain't easy, especially when she gets a window of time to check her graphs/trades etc .. always looking over her shoulder if someone is looking.
I seriously respect all you guys that are holding a full time job and doing AM part time. Keep your goals intact, and the day will came when you can show your middle finder to your boss. It's just a matter of when.
I graduated college in 07'. At that time I knew about affiliate marketing, but didn't have any success yet so I had to take a job. I got a few job offers including one for $60k a year, but I opted for a $35k a year job because it involved doing PPC for a Fortune 500 company.
At that job I learned a LOT. I really mastered Excel, learn how to analyze extremely large amounts of data, I spent days split testing landing pages / ad copy, learned how to talk to clients, etc. The whole time though my heart was set on doing affiliate marketing full-time.
I worked 9-5pm, took a 2 hour break, and then worked 7pm-2am everyday.
Half year later I quit my job and went full-time in 08.
@dr_ngo : never look back since full time ? bravo
I have a work from home + 50% travel job and I am starting IM on the side. This usually means weekends, evenings and hotels.
Never had a real job. Dropped out of college to get my own stuff going. Stupid move at the time but without all the struggle i wouldnt have had the motivation to pull through. Like someone else posted here before, i met my future business partner on the internet. In early 2008 we started our own adult affiliate program with a 5k investment and about 2 months of work. At the end of 2008 we already had offers to sell out which we decided to do in early 2009. We cleared for 6 figures and stayed on for another year with a percentage to run the program. Since then i make all my money online.
I have a full time job. I'm an ER nurse. Right now, I take my laptop to work and do what I can between seeing patients. It's a small town ER and usually not too busy so some nights I get lots done. Others not so much.
I also have a farm, which can take lots of time away from AM. Some things just have to be done right now. I had to work on my fence today and then go to town to get some hardware for another job.
I have teen children who get my attention whether they want it or not.
It's very frustrating sometimes. I let things slide at the farm sometimes until I just can't put it off anymore. My wife tries to be understanding but gets frustrated because she can't really see the potential I see.
I've been frustrated and discouraged many times but I've decided I will NOT quit. No matter what it takes I will make this happen.
And I hope I can be as helpful to others as you all have been to me.
Originally Posted by rjpbseal
ITT: some pretty bossy stories, and soon to be bossy stories.
One question, where and how did some of you guys get jobs running PPC etc. for companies?
I'm a full time computer scientist. Really have hard time finding constantly time to IM, but the knowledge gained from marketing online applies to a shit ton of prototypes (and coffee table discussions) we develop, so it's a VERY nice match. Seriously, basic ad copy testing becomes something like "Motivating people on the go using psychological triggers" when you write it down on research terms, and people think it is something new... 
cross-disciplinarity <3
Originally Posted by rjpbseal
Originally Posted by Connaissance
(and thanks for the reminder of how much corporate life sucks
)Corporate life CAN suck but a lot of people dig it. I think also having a corporate/real job helps you understand how big business works (or doesn't). You also learn how to talk to people in a social/business setting. A lot of people who have never had 'real' jobs are complete dipshits when it comes to human interaction.
For a lot of people, if you have a corporate gig you don't hate - there's nothing wrong with the easy life, especially if it affords you the time/money to work on things you really enjoy. I'm a musician so showing up for six hours a day and throwing around buzzwords and getting paid was a good trade off to allow me to buy guitar strings or studio time that my fellow broke ass musicians couldn't do.
Re: traffic exploitation - most of what Alex said holds true. I'm by no means a genius at it, and I still get stuck in the rabbit hole from time to time. A lot of it comes down to how much you value your time; there's nothing wrong w/ a campaign that will make you $50/profit a day, but there is something wrong if that $50 "costs" you $100 to maintain.
Learn how much an ad network values your business, or how desperate they are to fill volume in certain demos. If they are, they'll lower your bids below a minimum and let the market play out. If they have a price floor, they probably aren't that desperate.
"Scientifically throw a bunch of shit up there, see what comes out, how much can you scale it" - Albert Einstein
This post alone should be motivation enough to stay on the grind where and when you can to get away from the corporate cell.
Nope AM is my full time job.
I started my first legitimate attempt at affiliate marketing in December 2009. I held a full-time day job already and put in another 30-40 hours weekly during the evening and on weekends. I did this for a year and a half and made it past several layoffs at my day job. Finally in June 2010 they were down to only a handful of people and asked if anybody wanted to volunteer for layoffs, so I took a severance package and attempted to become an affiliate full time. This lasted for about a year and a half and I focused my full-time efforts on my new company, OKStormShelters. Now that we've got a foothold in the industry, I'm looking to hire out my work and only do part-time work for them, while I get back into affiliate marketing. Currently, I'm working full time for the storm shelter company, just started my masters and doing affiliate marketing at night and on the weekends again. I'm looking forward to becoming a full-time affiliate again.
I currently hold down a full time job 6am -5pm. I get home around 6pm & hook up with my partner then hit the AM train till 1-2am ish. I've done this for around 4 months now & it's finally got to a point where I can comfortably hand in my notice & go full time. Just keep busting your balls guys and you'll get there, I never thought the money would come but it did. I never settle for a $50, $100/day camp - Always look for something scalable and keep pushing the limits, once you've found that gem milk it for all its worth!
Wow ! 6am -5pm ?
Over the past year I've worked with a lot of people on and outside of this forum who have been working a full time job whilst chasing the dream of becoming full time affiliates. I myself was never in this position as I came as a university 4th week drop out to pursue this as a full time career.
From working with a few dozen people now, I noticed that its the dudes who are working a full time job on the side, that are the ones who actually become full time affiliates, I dunno they just have this insane burning desire to escape the office and chase their dream. Where as in complete contradiction the lads at home without a job and with their parents or whatever allows them to be at home all hours in a day don't seem to have it, but I believe if they were put in the shoes of the full timer it'd be different.
The common trait that I've seen amongst every single dude who I've worked with reach full time affiliate status is extreme determination, considering I am on a completely different timezone these guys would stay away till the wee hours of the morning working on campaigns with me, getting about 4-5 hours sleep a night, paying their dues to their partners haha and putting up with the fag boss above them. But you know what, it paid off, and most of them make the transition in as little as 30 days but most average 45-60 before they feel comfortable enough that they can do this full time. Small trade off considering how BIG the door is that they opened having all the hours in the day to do as they please.
But then again, some people actually are comfortable working a full time job and substituting some extra income from AM, for a family holiday or a new car. $100/day is really simple to do online once your initial mindset changes from noob to semi-noob haha but $100/day is still an awesome accomplishment and it adds an extra $36,500 to your annual income, couple of dudes on this forum are at this stage and are loving it, especially as profitable said corporate jobs you sit on your ass all day so why not spend a couple of the hours you'd be wasting and use it on AM and make a couple hundred backs extra a day, it can't hurt its just simply progression.
!
I always had a corporate job. But never jumped totally into affiliate marketing , I'm guessing I'm just scared.
But Since I worked in seo and ppc it should be easy, but my wife though is an attention whore, so I don't think I want to be home all day !
Originally Posted by maynzie
I also dropped out of school a few weeks into my first year
I feel as though the often said "treating it as a business" is a key part in maintaining motivation for those who aren't forced to balance another profession and/or family alongside affiliate marketing. This is something I have my battles with, but it always ends with setting new achievable goals and an easy-to-follow action plan. Imo, the hardest part about internet marketing is developing a productive mindset and treating it as a legitimate business. When you're motivated you can feel untouchable.
Before I made IM my full-time job, I worked for years as insurance agent, and I hated it. Always suited up, always these motivational speeches from your "superiors", I am glad I don't work in a corporate setting anymore.
Although I have to say sometimes it's hard to motivate myself, especially in bad times when nothing I do seems to work out.
But overall I couldn't imagine going back to a 9-5 job, I still hate it today
Imagine what you part-timers already making $100-$200 a day could do with an extra 40+ hours per week
Hey maynzie, I'm the guy you're describing.
Still around $100 a day profits, but still not able to go to the next level yet, because of my lack of capabilities to scale things properly.
And like johanseg, my wife is an attention whore that needs a lot of time too.
Not to mention I need to be there for my children.
I don't want to use this as an excuse, but there are a lot of moments in my AM career, after my dayjob, where I "feel" that I can't go further in my work, because if I work more, I'll break my couple and lose my wife...
And it's definitely not the goal, since I'm doing AM BECAUSE I want to spend way more time with her. (also, I freaking love this job)
It's a never ending story, that's why I got a 4 days job instead of a 5 days job, in order to have more time to invest in AM the last year.
Now, I'm about to accept the same deal, a 4 days job, but in a company that allows me to work at home... So I have even more time to check my campaigns, upload a creative or something... which was impossible in my cubicle since then.
Now, my campaigns that was bringing $100 a day are dying, again, for the second time, so I need to make it again... But since I already made it twice, I know it's achievable, I still need to be able to reach higher numbers before leaving my day job
In my case, I'll do it when I will be able to reach the $1k a day range, and when I'll have 2 years of salary in my bank.
It sounds hard, because of my day job, but I feel I can do it, I just need a little more time than single guys without a family to handle
Thank you guys for your testimonials, it really helps to stay motivated
Originally Posted by julien
Up until last fall I was working full time as a software developer, pursuing a bachelor's degree and working on AM at the same time and also had a pretty demanding gf. I was still able to get to ~$ 100/day by mercilessly killing useless distractions such as TV, magazines etc and doing my best to be as productive as possible at all times. I still felt a burnout creeping up though, so I decided to cut back on my workload and switched to a 3 days / week part time gig.
Due to various personal reasons, since then I also dropped out of university and broke up with my gf, so basically with all the extra time I should be in affiliate heaven by now, right? The sad truth though is that I've never been more lazy than the last couple of months, slacking off in every part of my life, be it sports, work, nutrition etc...
The difference between last fall and now is that back then I was in "go-mode" the whole time and getting stuff done was my default. Once I had all this extra free time on my hands I started wasting it, because after all this stressful months I deserved a little break, right? Thing is, I have an extremely addictive personality, so over time the various distractions increased while I got less and less done every day. It got to a point where I was going out at least 4 times a week, doing the bare minimum at my job and dropping AM altogether.
Only recently I decided that this chaotic life had to stop and that I had to get my shit together. This is such a great opportunity that it would be a shame to miss out on. I've already had my first couple of successes since then and it feels great to finally get some sense of achievement again. I will make sure to capitalize on this new found motivation and avoid falling back into the rut I've been in over the last couple of months.
I hope all this personal stuff wasn't too boring for you guys, it should just show you that more free time doesn't necessarily equal more profits.
Hey andyvon, very wise words, thank you for the feedback.
I hope you'll have some success again soon 
I have a job as a programmer working 4 days a week. The rest goes to AM. Finding the time is always the biggest problem. Finding motivation sometimes as well.
I hope I can switch to 3 days a week soon. Leaving my job and going full time with AM is a dream, but not an option yet. I only take calculated risks.
I'm also doing a full time job, with a brand new baby boy (4 months old now) along with AM in any spare moments I can find, and man is it tough to find the time/energy sometimes. The easy answer is to steal it from my sleeping time, but I know that if I don't get a solid 7-8 hours a night (which is happening quite a bit lately due to my child) that I just can't function nearly as effectively as if I'm well rested, and caffeine seems to only make it worse for me.
My question to the moonlighters - how do you guys find yourselves able to function effectively on say 3-5 hours of sleep every night? Do you think the quality of your work suffers because of it?
Originally Posted by kranium
roductivity relationship.
I did that for a while....but you really do need sleep. Try getting 7-8 hours a night a few nights a week. Notice the difference the next day? Then you can work smarter and faster on your IM business.
Yep, they have a few sleep apps for smartphones and I think standalone too. I've been going off of 5-6 hours of sleep productively for years. The trick is getting a 15 min shut down period around 2pm, where I just lie down in a quiet dark spot and clear my head. I don't call it a nap cuz I don't sleep, but it just refreshes the whole mind and body. Then I grind away after that feeling great. No 5 hour energy needed, lol.
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