The Affiliate Marketer’s Work Ethic
I’ve noticed and experienced something over the past couple of weeks
that may be of interest to you if you’ve been trying to make
affiliate marketing work for you.
It has to do with the concept of “work ethic” but it will
have a profound effect on your productivity, motivation
and success if you follow these steps.
But why should you read this post in the first place?
If you have tried affiliate marketing, and it’s not working for you…
If you are frustrated about not getting enough traffic to your site…
If you tend to jump back and forth from one “system” to another,
one offer to another, or between different niches…
If you are spending way too much time in front of your computer
and have no income results to show for it…
If you feel overwhelmed by information, directions, stuff to learn,
and the weekly flavor of internet marketing fads…
…then you may get surprising results when you apply what
I’m about to share with you.
You are not treating Affiliate Marketing as a business!
If you are facing any of the above challenges (and a bunch of others too)
you are NOT treating your affiliate marketing efforts as a business.
And that’s all!
To understand I mean by that, let’s look at some characteristics of a business.
A business is when you have certain tasks assigned to people
who are executing them.
A business is when you have a plan that outlines your business mission.
Including what value your business provides, who your ideal customer is,
and how you go about getting the value to the ideal customer.
And that would include a marketing plan, a follow up plan,
a fulfillment plan, and a customer service plan.
And each of these plans have a set of tasks that fully describe how
that plan is executed.
And each task has a process map that tells whoever is assigned that task
what to do.
What to do first, what to do next, and what to do after that.
And then, each of these tasks can be assigned to a specific person or group
who will be responsible for its execution.
And in return that person or group will get paid.
Do you have any of that in place for you Affiliate Marketing?
If you’re with me so far, ask yourself – honestly – do you
have any of these business staples in place for your
Affiliate Marketing (or whatever else you are doing to make
money on the internet?)
If you don’t then the entire chain of events that ends in
someone getting paid is not going to happen.
Yeah, you may get lucky and make a few sales here and there,
but you will never create the success that you’re dreaming about.
The example of affiliate marketing is actually so much EASIER
than any other way of making money on the internet.
Because all you need is a marketing plan and possibly a follow-up plan
(if you want to build your own list while affiliate marketing which I
would very much encourage you to do).
You still need to define your value proposition though, and
identify your ideal customer.
So there you have it – 3 tasks:
1. Define the value proposition or purpose of your business
2. Find your ideal customer and learn all about them
3. Create Marketing Plan
Now we get to the “work ethic” part of this blog post.
Because now that yo’ve identified these tasks – who is going to do them?
You think you can get them from another eBook or hi-ticket
study course?
You think anyone will do them for you for a reasobnable amount
of pay?
You think it takes anything to do them that you don’t have or know already right now?
You still with me?
Then the answer is: YOU!
These are the fundamental tasks in building your business that
YOU will have to do.
You and you alone can do them in a way that makes sense
for your business.
Therefore: Treat these 3 tasks like a JOB right now so you get them done!
Imagine that someone outside of yourself had HIRED you to
perform these 3 tasks within the next 7 days.
Pretend like you had actually received a retainer fee of $x to
get them done on time (you can enter any amount here that
makes you feel good about yourself when you do this JOB.)
Commit to doing these tasks, because that’s how you get
good at anything you want.
Phew, pretty long post… now go make some money!
(…and let me know how it goes with this!)
Filed under: Marketing Inspiration • Productivity
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Hey Thomas,
very well said! I’ve been there, done that and ended up making no money at all …..
With a lot of hype and bogus IM products out there we can easily get distracted because they all look good on their squeeze pages until we find out we just wasting money again.
We know how to do internet marketing but to do what we know is a completely different story. Without serious action we just turn ourselves into another internet marketing losers …
- Rudi
Rudi´s last blog ..The Unpredictable Google
Hey Thomas,
Great post, treat it as a hobby and all you will get is part time money, I was doing it all wrong (like most people for a long time.
Just stumbling along and if, yes if I made a sale I would thing great but with no plan I ended up just doing the wrong things over and over.
As they say, fail to plan, plan to fail.
James
James Howard´s last blog ..Commentluv WordPress Plugin Simple Traffic Trick
Hey Thomas,
really good post, and you have hit the nail on the head. Actually you’ve inspired me to re-read “The E-Myth Revisited” (by Michael E Gerber). Thank you, I think I needed this inspiring
Annie
Ann Marie Dennis´s last blog ..Free! Cash Keywords Toolbar
Thomas,
Yep, a lot of people treat their business like their hobby, but I know exactly why…
People think that when they have a job they’re paid for the work they do when in fact they’re paid to show up and do at least as much as the next guy or gal.
Doesn’t really cut it in business though.
Great reminders all the way through your article.
Take care my friend,
Rob
Rob Canyon´s last blog ..The Secret Society of ‘Blog Traffic Hurricane’… Here Is Where We Meet.
Thomas,
Great Post! Wow, does that ring true! I am a prime example.
I spend way too much time going in too many different directions and not focusing on just a few things and getting really good at them.
Well, I wrote down your 3 tasks and put them where I can see them.
We’ll see if that helps me get organized. Thanks for the great perspective, my man!
Mike
Mike Bush´s last blog ..My Goal – A New Business
Hey Thomas,
You’ve just sung my song! Guilty!
Like Mike, I’ve made a copy of your tasks (actually the whole article) and am putting it where I can see it and DO WHAT IT SAYS! This is why you were one of Rob Canyon’s star students!
By the way, I was just over at Paul Hooper’s blog and noticed you had left a comment. I also noticed that you included a link to a specific page on your blog. I’ve seen others do that, as well, but I don’t know how to get that to show on my blog pages. Is that a plug-in or what? Mind letting me in on your secret?
Thanks,
Dawn
Dawn Anderson´s last blog ..Want to make some money in the next few days? Take a look…
Hi Dawn,
thanks for your kind words! Don’t beat yourself up too much… just make the plan and execute it. I bet you’ll see results soon.
Your linking question sounds like you’ve seen CommentLuv in action.
Here is a great article and video about it that James Howard made.
When you put that on YOUR blog it will automatically add a link to the commentator’s latest blog post. It will do the same for you if you leave comments on other blogs that use CommentLuv (like mine
You can also just add a link to your blog comments if you are on a CommentLuv-less blog. Sometimes you just use http://www... and the URL is turned into a link, on other blogs you may have to use html linking code to make the link clickable.
Cheers,
Thomas
Dear Tom-
Just wanted to let you know that I have been watching and enjoying your Ustream presentations. I have been watching them on YouTube.
Are you still blogging?