Everyone is struggling these days. I’ve been feeling the pinch more severely than some, and not nearly as severely as many others. I live in a motel room right now. Many people are full on homeless so things could be worse. Things were going bad with my landlord right before everything shut down and I opted to get out before I got stuck there with no refuge from the problems after the shit hit the fan outside.
It’s been a serious struggle to keep myself with a room to stay in, daily, for 3 weeks now. I have several means of earning income, not just a single job to go to every day and collect a pay check every week or two. It’s more hit or miss and unstable than a regular job, but that isn’t an option for me at this point. That is a long story for another day, but for now, suggesting that I just go get a regular job is not helpful.
Nor is it recommended these days. Things have started opening up again, and just today, after weeks of not knowing anyone personally that has been affected by the virus, 3 people that I know have now tested positive, and 1 of them has been hospitalized.
I’m in the high risk category for complications if I contract it. With high blood pressure and a progressive kidney disease, I don’t like the odds, so I stay indoors and away from people as much as possible. So, I continue busting my ass trying to make money working from a desktop set up in a Motel 6. It’s working for me, for now.
I’ve been doing research on Affiliate Marketing for a while and I have had an account set up on Clickbank for over a year. I’ve been on the fence about actually digging into it for many reasons. Partly because it requires a bit more work than I wanted to put out for other people’s products. It was also because I really couldn’t find any products that I felt I could really slide into my blog about writing and books that would be helpful and useful to you guys. The last reason was, with all the people out there producing videos claiming they’ve made millions doing it, really it made me feel like it was a shady business to get into. Scammy even.
The corona virus has really changed that. I can’t afford to care if it “seems scammy” if it works. It is scammy if I don’t research or use the products that I promote. It doesn’t have to be scammy at all. I can spend time searching out the products that I’ve used myself (including my own products and services) so I’m not promoting things that people don’t want or need just to make a buck.
The need to be able to survive and make it through this period of uncertainty revolves heavily around people being able to make money, and stay away from other people. Digital products and services provide the way for that. Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring the two together, and if done right, can create not just one, but multiple income streams. The best part is, it is completely dependent on how many streams you want to manage. So, here I am.
I’m not a seasoned pro by any means. I’ve made commissions on my own products through Amazon, so I have a handle on the concept and I’ve been through the process from end to end, and I have gotten paid a few times for the effort. I’ve not made thousands, but I’ve not promoted any high ticket items either. So, I don’t recommend you follow my lead right now, but, I can point you in the right direction if you want to get started. I recommend taking an online course if you want to learn the ropes before you go digging in. This one is a good place to start. Yes, it’s an affiliate link and I’ll be paid a percentage of the sale whenever someone uses that link to purchase the course. That is pretty much how it works.
I came to a new realization yesterday. Affiliate marketing works both ways. I can pick up a few links and write blog posts around them and bring sales for other people that I’ve actually used and can vouch for, but I can also set up my own affiliate marketing system for the products I have on offer. So, I’ve spent the past few days now setting up an affiliate system on my own website.
I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve been trying to market books and other products, like t-shirts and coffee mugs and now services like editing, ghost writing, and publication assistance, and getting people to help spread the word for free is REALLY HARD! Very few people, even the ones that really and truly love you and want to be supportive of you, are hard to convince to help you more than once, without some kind of incentive.
I don’t say that to put anyone down, I say it because it is the reality of the situation. Time is a valuable commodity for EVERYONE and if you can’t value that time and make it worth it, they might do a quick share once or twice as a kindness when they are thinking of you. However, if they can get something of value from the effort, every time they do it, they will do it a lot more often. It has nothing to do with how they feel about you, it’s about how valuable their time is to them that matters. There are only 24 hours in a day and seconds matter. You have to make it worth it for everyone you want to have help you.
Facebook, Google, and Amazon ads cost money and they are so hit or miss it’s not even worth getting started if you don’t have the ability to spend $100 a day every day these days. The competition and sheer number of other people running ads for their own stuff is just so high, it’s hard to make a dent without starting there, let alone turn a profit. We are all, always, looking for ways to save that kind of money and paying for ads seems to just eat right through it without producing as much as we need it to. That is where Affiliate Marketing comes in handy. With the right products and services on offer, you can set up an Affiliate Marketing Program, and pay people to do some of the marketing for you. On the back end, not up front or without spending a fortune testing ad campaigns.
I was really surprised that the back side of affiliate marketing hadn’t dawned on me until recently. I would probably be in much better shape financially than I am right now if it had gotten started with it much sooner. The ability to pay people to help promote sales after the fact is a game changer. If you have books and/or other products for sale, set your website up with an Affiliate Marketing program or find out how to start making Affiliate Marketing Sales without having a website at all.
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