Why 2% of Affiliates Rake in 95% of the Profits…Part II
August 1st, 2007 by 
Amit
Last time I talked about the importance of having vision as a key to success in affiliate marketing, this time I want to talk about:
#2 PERSISTENCE
A vast majority of the people in the 98% that fail at affiliate marketing are the ones that try it for a month, make no money, put their tails between their legs and QUIT!
So you have 1000s of people ‘doing’ affiliate marketing for a month and quiting. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve tried to teach this business to that tried it for less than a month and quit. Some of these people had some moderate success and they STILL QUIT!
The best way to guarantee you’re going to fail at a business is to try it for 1 month then quit. If everyone who tried starting a business, didn’t see instant success, and quit after a month, 99.99% of successful businesses today would not exist.
The problem is that we live in an age of instant gratification. Most people want something for nothing and overnight success.
Well let me give you a tip, affiliate marketing is one of the easiest businesses out there. Easy because it’s virtually zero risk, something almost anyone can learn, and the rewards of success are enormous-just being moderately successful is enough for most people to quit their jobs.
Affiliate marketing is already a short cut to business success, and if this short cut is too much work or too large a commitment for you, then PLEASE stay at your stay job and forget about trying to start any business.
Seriously.
So stop expecting overnight success, and be prepared to go 6 months or a year with little to show, before you start seeing some real success.
True Story:
A good friend of mine and I started ppc affiliate marketing around the same time, we start doing Googlecash. The first month we both got killed-nothing to show for our efforts.
My friend called it quits after the first month. I continued on learning as much as I could, I kept failing at campaign after campaign.
After several months my friend gave me a call, shocked to discover I was now making several $1000/month profit at the time. I said I would help him and show him what to do.
So he decided to give affiliate marketing another try. I taught him what I had learned, which wasn’t much, at that point in time.
He quit his job 3 months later and went full time in affiliate marketing!
That was we’ll over a year ago. Today he’s making $15k/month profit (and that’s during the summer slowdown). With his new found freedom, he rented a place on the beach in California during the winter, and had an absolute blast. This guy is never home, he’s always traveling somewhere, really getting the most out of his affiliate lifestyle.
Now if I had not convinced him to give affiliate marketing another shot, he might still be slaving away at a job that he hated!
He quit his job in 3 months! 3 MONTHS! That could be you, if you’re persistent, like he chose to be.
affiliate persistence quit your job
Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset | 
Yeah, you know Amit, it seems a lot of people also make the mistake of thinking they have to know everything to get started. I sure did. I spent months teaching myself Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS, a little PHP, etc. I also went out and got jobs at two e-commerce companies just for the experience. Now I won’t say that it isn’t nice to know about tags, style sheets, and server side includes. Even if you have someone else do all your design and coding, it’s nice to be able to fix something yourself if you don’t have a full-time programmer/designer on call or to explain something to a designer or programmer. But still, I can’t help feeling that I’ve wasted a lot of time in some aspects. Learning to be a good web designer takes a good amount of trial and error. I don’t know, maybe a lot of affiliates are good web designers to begin with and just stumble upon affiliate marketing. Hearing about your struggles to succeed is definitely an eye-opener. It really is all about persistence.
You forgot to mention how much of a good guy your friend is. I spoke to him a few days ago and he’s helped me out enormously. You and he are very similar in that you were hungry for freedom. [my stomach is growling]
Nice post Amit. Persistence is a huge factor in any business, especially AM. I worked for months, many hours per day with nothing to show. My wife even tried to get me to give up, but I wouldn’t budge. I love it so much, that I enjoyed working even when I wasn’t making any money. I knew that I was working hard and learning. It was costing me to learn — but isn’t that just like any other education that’s worth something?
Now I make great money, and it’s the icing on the cake! I get paid to do something I truly love with all of my heart, and that’s the best feeling ever.
Hey Amit,
What is Googlecash? Is that a product they offer, or is it a system?
im new to internet marketing and i totally love this blog!
im interested in PPC.I have been doing a bit of research on the subject and in want to take the plunge! Only got one problem though……..i need some sort of guide. Can anyone please point me in the right direction…..i was thinking either wealthy affiliate or a book by perry marshall. What do you think?
Hi Amit,
Can we all be your friends?
Great Post as usual, i think its the lucky break you need, even a couple of $ commission is all that’s needed to give you the motivation. I agree a lot of people fail and to be truthful all the new internet manuals on the net I think are to blame as everybody stampedes to the next big thing, read the manual then do nothing.
I am motivated just don’t seem to make any sales, but I keep trying and the wife keeps asking “how long the string is before I make anything”
and my reply is “you will know when I am at the end”, I will be shouting from the rooftops.”
Kevin
http://www.football-gossip.com
UK
Somehow I find your posts very inspirational. You should write a book about how you went from your 9 to 5 to where you are now. Im sure you would get many newbie affilate marketers like me willing to purchase beucase you have great story telling skills and you have done what many really want to acheive. Keep going strong Amit thanks !
Man the Dip is comming the Dip is comming… In Seth godin book he tells about the dip and than the rise, mighty rise for Vijay.
Thanks Amit
Vijay
I think what’s worse than quitting is not even getting started. I see affiliates invest in ebooks, consulting, coaching programs, etc. and then never even take action, they don’t even start!
Hi Miles,
That’s a great point, fear stops a lot of affiliates from even launching a single campaign! They’ll buy $1000s worth of info products and take no action!
Hi Mike,
Googlecash is a method where you put the affiliate url as your destination url in your Google ad. No website required, you just bid on keywords and write ads to those keywords that go right to the affiliate offer.
Interesting…
Amit,
“Googlecash is a method where you put the affiliate url as your destination url in your Google ad. No website required, you just bid on keywords and write ads to those keywords that go right to the affiliate offer.”
I thought there was a problem with different ads pointing to the same url, so Google penalized them by raising key word bids or something. It would be like 100 different advertisers all using the same landing page. I guess not?
Honestly I think the biggest thing that holds people back is it isn’t the norm. People are ingrained from birth work for 30 years at a 9 to 5 and hope to save enough to retire… If you can realize there is a much better way of doing things and make a true go at it then go for it…. Only things of Great Return come with Great Risk..
Amit,
I just want to say that I really appreciate this kind of motivational stuff. I’ve been keeping myself up at night for weeks now trying to make affiliate marketing work for me, and I find myself looking around at other options because maybe AM isn’t for me. But then I read this and I know that you’re right. I just need to keep trying and sooner or later it will pay off.
Ted Fox
I know loads of people who’ve learned all about affiliate marketing, and have a few friends who I have showed EXACTLY how I make all my income…. and then, nothing!! They keep on doing the jobs they hate, maybe make a few halfhearted attempts to do something. And then they give up. Mystery to me why.
Persistence is a huge factor in affiliate marketing. Its what makes you get right back up again after an income-wrecking Google slap. People’s own lack of motivation is a huge barrier to entry in this industry.
I truly believe anyone who wants it enough can have this lifestyle… so get going everyone!
Awesome post!
One thing I would like ask is, didn’t Google ban “googlecash”, I cannot make the ad point to the affiliate page. Google says to put the same URL as the display URL. Any input on that is appreciated.
Thank you.
This is a great story, very inspiring. I am trying affiliate marketing at the moment and I am not making a lot, but I will stick it out, maybe after a while I make some money.
Great post thanks.