In The Beginning...
As we head into 2022
I want to share my 1st full year
as an affiliate marketing publisher
So let's go back to summer 2020
I was unemployed
laid off from work because of Covid-19
broke and generally a mess
all my neighbors and friends the same
To find an online job I joined Affiliate Fix
roughly 42 million seconds ago
as @EuronGreyjoy
I knew about online marketing
it was my one true self taught skill
along with basic coding and writing
but beyond that I wanted to improve something
and I had to do it from home
learn it fast and start making buck from the get-go
August 27, 2020 --> Read my introduction message
Got a warm welcome that day
from @T J Tutor
from @Graybeard
from @VirtualGlobalPhone
from @trackwill
from @towhidzaman
from @thelegend
from @azgold
Makes a big difference
when total strangers take an interest
and give you a friendly welcome
I decided to stick around
An Idea Was Spawned...
My 1st affiliate plan was to
My bank balance and ADD
meant I had to dive in head 1st
which I did --> after reading the affiliate marketing wiki
found an untapped niche
set up a website
used my google competitors for ideas
added product pages
--> which I linked internally from news pages
those product pages didn't have affiliate IDs
they linked directly to major website product pages
and I got traffic almost immediately
Truth told I don't know if this was legal
but the websites didn't know
and they were getting free qualified leads
Once my traffic hit 100 daily views
I joined some affiliate networks
and slowly added my affiliate IDs
--> it worked!
I started getting commission almost immediately
my OCD helped with the detailed SEO
--> my product pages become better than Amazon
but it was time consuming in the extreme
no drag and drop tools
everything I did was manual labor
and I struggled to focus
which I overcame with the help of a mentor
Fast forward to early 2021
I'd earned $10,000 commission
--> read the full story here
Then Came The Storm...
My affiliate checks continued
with bumper amounts in January & February
but I stopped working like a mule
and began lounging like a crab
slowly my traffic dried up
product pages got outdated
items went out of stock
dead links were everywhere
and my commission checks
went from thousands to hundreds
I'd hit the affiliate brick wall
broke again and got into a mess
Back To Work...
By summer 2021 I was fed up
as my monthly commission checks dipped below $500
got a regular job
and stopped my affiliate updates
Born Again...
Fall 2021 I got the affiliate bug back
and started updating my 1st site
then building several more
but the original focus was lost
and I was disorganized
which meant many hours wasted
I started multiple follow threads
all of which hit dead ends
Winter is Coming...
Back to the present
it's Christmas 2021
and I am planning the year ahead
I've been thinking about all the success and failure
from my 1st full year as an affiliate
and I realize that success is born of simplicity
a simple routine followed consistently
that's what worked in my journey so far
So I'm going back go back to basics again
and plan to rock this world in 2022
Have a great vacation everyone!
As we head into 2022
I want to share my 1st full year
as an affiliate marketing publisher
So let's go back to summer 2020
I was unemployed
laid off from work because of Covid-19
broke and generally a mess
all my neighbors and friends the same
To find an online job I joined Affiliate Fix
roughly 42 million seconds ago
as @EuronGreyjoy
I knew about online marketing
it was my one true self taught skill
along with basic coding and writing
but beyond that I wanted to improve something
and I had to do it from home
learn it fast and start making buck from the get-go
August 27, 2020 --> Read my introduction message
Got a warm welcome that day
from @T J Tutor
from @Graybeard
from @VirtualGlobalPhone
from @trackwill
from @towhidzaman
from @thelegend
from @azgold
Makes a big difference
when total strangers take an interest
and give you a friendly welcome
I decided to stick around
An Idea Was Spawned...
My 1st affiliate plan was to
- look for trending needs
- list all of the competitors
- find problems with competitor sites
- find questions for those problems
- find the answers to those questions
- publish the answers --> best answers
- get traffic from google
- get ad revenue
- pay my bills
- repeat
- what was I shopping for? --> a wallet
- why did I need the products? --> old wallet was bust
- where did I search for answers? --> google.com
- what words did I use? --> buy thin brown leather wallet
- which sites did I visit --> amazon.com
- was I satisfied? --> no
- why was I unsatisfied --> messy design, too many colors, no FAQ, very bad SEO
- what was the outcome? --> thought I could do better
My bank balance and ADD
meant I had to dive in head 1st
which I did --> after reading the affiliate marketing wiki
found an untapped niche
set up a website
used my google competitors for ideas
added product pages
--> which I linked internally from news pages
those product pages didn't have affiliate IDs
they linked directly to major website product pages
and I got traffic almost immediately
Truth told I don't know if this was legal
but the websites didn't know
and they were getting free qualified leads
Once my traffic hit 100 daily views
I joined some affiliate networks
and slowly added my affiliate IDs
--> it worked!
I started getting commission almost immediately
my OCD helped with the detailed SEO
--> my product pages become better than Amazon
but it was time consuming in the extreme
no drag and drop tools
everything I did was manual labor
and I struggled to focus
which I overcame with the help of a mentor
Fast forward to early 2021
I'd earned $10,000 commission
--> read the full story here
Then Came The Storm...
My affiliate checks continued
with bumper amounts in January & February
but I stopped working like a mule
and began lounging like a crab
slowly my traffic dried up
product pages got outdated
items went out of stock
dead links were everywhere
and my commission checks
went from thousands to hundreds
I'd hit the affiliate brick wall
broke again and got into a mess
Back To Work...
By summer 2021 I was fed up
as my monthly commission checks dipped below $500
got a regular job
and stopped my affiliate updates
Born Again...
Fall 2021 I got the affiliate bug back
and started updating my 1st site
then building several more
but the original focus was lost
and I was disorganized
which meant many hours wasted
I started multiple follow threads
all of which hit dead ends
Winter is Coming...
Back to the present
it's Christmas 2021
and I am planning the year ahead
I've been thinking about all the success and failure
from my 1st full year as an affiliate
and I realize that success is born of simplicity
a simple routine followed consistently
that's what worked in my journey so far
So I'm going back go back to basics again
and plan to rock this world in 2022
Have a great vacation everyone!
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