Boston Marathon & Persistence in Affiliate Marketing

My wife and I had a chance to take a peak at the Boston Marathon today. The Marathon goes through Beacon St., 1 block down from where we live, at mile marker 23.

Funny thing, we actually had to cut across the Marathon runners to get to our acupuncture appointment!

Watching the Marathon runners got me thinking about one of the most important keys to affiliate success : persistence.

Running 26.4 miles is the epitome of persistence, training non stop for 6-12 months for a marathon is all about persistence.

My story of affiliate success is also all about persistence.

It took me about 10 months before I started making any significant money in affiliate marketing. I had officially started my affiliate business early in 2005, and it took me until Nov until I made any profit at all, and that month I ended up making around $3k profit.

In the first 6 months of building my business I didn’t make a SINGLE affiliate sale. Can you imagine how discouraging that is?

Once I learned about ppc affiliate marketing I got to work and launched a total of 15 failed campaigns, with nothing to show for it but one campaign that produced 3 sales a week before it fizzled out.

And you know what? I was a total newbie, I really didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t have a team helping me. I busted my butt setting up those 15 campaigns.

Some of you are crying because you launched 3 campaigns and they didn’t work out!

I’m here to tell you : SUCK IT UP!

No one is going to hand you success on a silver platter. If you want to make a 6 or 7-figure income in this business and have an incredible lifestyle, you’re going to have to pay the price. You’ve gotta toughen up, there’s no boss to tell you what to do anymore, YOU are responsible for YOUR success.

Biggest reasons most affiliates fail :

1. They quit too soon. How many affiliates would have kept on going after 9 months of no success? I can only imagine how many affiliates there are out there who have launched 10 campaigns, had no success, so they quit, when their 11th campaign would have been an enormous success.
2. They’re constantly jumping to something else. They try ppc for 2 months, doesn’t work, so they jump to SEO. They try SEO for 2 months, again doesn’t work out, so they jump to blogging. Etc, Etc, Etc… Ever met a leap frog affiliate like this? Here’s a tip : Try sticking to one thing long enough to actually get good at it!

Here’s a Secret…

It takes about 99% competence in ppc affiliate marketing before you hit it BIG. At 95% competence you’ll make a little bit of money but nothing significant. At 90% competence you’ll break even.

At anything less than 90% competence you’ll lose money.

Reaching the magical 99% mark takes some serious dedication and persistence.

How long will it take you?

It depends on how badly you want to succeed and how hard you’re willing to work.

So when you have a few failed campaigns, or even 15 failed campaigns as in my case, don’t tuck your tail in and hide under the bed like a scared little puppy. Stand UP and say “I’m going to WIN no matter WHAT IT TAKES!”

If you want to play ball with the heavy hitters you have to prove that you have what it takes first.