Boston Marathon & Persistence in Affiliate Marketing
April 21st, 2008 by 
Amit
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 :
- 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.
- 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.
affiliate marketing boston marathon persistence
Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset | 
A very encouraging post, thank you. Was there anything you can recognize that you did differently in the last campaign versus the first few that had an impact on your results?
Great post Amit,
I am in the position you spoke of when you were setting up your 15 unprofitable campaigns. But just last night I made a re-affirmation that there is no way I’m quitting this game until I have succeeded at it.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Systematick
Coach (aka Amit),
I’m hitting the 9th failed campaign. My first I believe was in
July of last year. Looking back on some of those bad campaigns I can just slap myself, what was I thinking, think man think.
Thanks for the kick in the pants Coach!!
…..”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……”
This is a great analogy. I’m closer to the the 90%. There’s days where I get frustrated beyond comprehension….
Inspiring post, not just for affiliate marketing but for any challenge in life.
hello amit this is a very realistic post.Even though i m still to taste success with affiliate marketing,your posts are making me mentally strong enough to be prepared for any seen stumblings i m going to have.Thanks for your motivation!
Too funny!!!
Leap Frog!!
[...] budyd, Amit Mehta’s also put up a blog about the value of persistence worth checking [...]
Nice post.
Amit,
I saw that Andree Wee has a podcast. When is yours coming? I saw you at the PPC Classroom event back in Dec and you are very motivational when you speak.
Fred
Appreciate the motivational post. But, there are just too many of them. Each and every post in some way implies how great you are. We get it! This blog has more such post than actual quality tips. There are much better blogs out there with great tips on PPC, SEO, Aff Marketing, Content Writing etc etc. Already tired of this B.S.
Hey Amit,
As always great post!
Now I know why I’m here, the little munchies of information that you dole out on a daily basis Is all I need to get busy. Now tell me if I’m wrong folks, I have been in this marketing game for a very long time now, talk about campaigns.
I probably had close to 25 at one time or another, failure was my closest friend, yes I failed many times and continue to fail, but every time I do, I know I’m getting closer to success.
Because you(should)learn from the mistakes you make, I look down the road to a brighter future for me and my family, which no 9-5 JOB could ever give me, and I know that I’m really close to that day, so close I can feel it in my bones
really.
As I write this post, my newsletters are being deleted, and I’m clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the gurus $2400 program. Give me a break, please. So now what do you do. First, STAY FOCUSED, DON”T QUIT, and yes don’t cry.
We have heard these said before, but do we really pay attention. That’s what I will do. pay attention
To all your success,
Cheers,
Jim Novak
Wireless-Home-Computer.com
BuildSitesThatWork.com
It’s 26.2 miles, not 26.4.
I really needed this Amit, in the recent past I had considered quitting, always wondering why i cant get to the tipping point, why cant I seem to “get it”, but thankfully i reconsidered and since i dont have much to invest I considered a new strategy.
Thanks Amit
Carlos
15 failed campaigns? wow! How much money did you spend on PPC during those failed efforts? I don’t mind failing, especially if it means, I’ll also be learning. I’m just not sure I can afford it!
NB:
Has anyone here used wordze and if so can you give me a clue as to what numbers/table to look at inorder to determine if I have a good niche product?
Thanks
Excellent post … Having failed campaigns is part of this business. Learn from these mistakes.
yes without perseverance you will never succeed in this game!
That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! Thanks!
Nice Post Amit,
15 failed campaigns maybe a low number before success for some.
I would say that not everybody is as quick of a learner as you are. You can try to be modest but Id say you are quite a bit smarter than the average person evidenced by your PHD in physics.
Im saying that It may take longer for some as there is a lot to figure out initially.
Reviewing my adwords account I have about 25 on pause / 10 deleted and about 3 that actually work.
Will you show us how to get from 90% competence to 99%? I’m new to PPC and just found your blog last week. Looking forward to your direct linking PPC campaign example you have talked about doing in May (”simple direct linking case study “). I need a little more detail about how to do one in addition to what you have posted already (i.e. the post for beginners about “How to Get Started as an Affiliate”). I don’t know what’s considered a good conversion, but basically I’ve spent $55 and made $65 from 2 conversions over 10 days testing 5 campaigns.
Amit - you are da man.
@fields marshall….
Amit is highly educated and intelligent, but I don’t think that gave him a huge advantage over others just getting started. Being book smart doesn’t automatically = business smarts. Look at all the “super affiliates” who never went to college.
I met a High School dropout back in 05′ who does $19,000,000 per year online selling his own line of products. There are a lot of smart people who fail miserably in business and average folk who make it big. It really all comes down to what Amit shared in his article, imo.