Why Some People Will NEVER Succeed at Affiliate Marketing
August 13th, 2007 by 
Amit
I get a lot of emails from people asking for help, but check out this email Alex Goad got from one of his readers:
Hey Alex,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while and I think it’s great. There’s tons of real info here and I always discover new things.
I really want to make money online so that’s why I’m writing to you for some advice.
1) I read all your stuff about affiliate marketing, but it seems I’d have to learn to write and I don’t like that much. Plus I’d probably have to buy some Adwords clicks and my wife doesn’t like it if I spend money online, she thinks the internet is all a big scam.
2) I bought your Black Hat Ebook and boy, it was the most informative one I ever got. I never saw so much real information in one place. I’m not sure if it’s right for me though because I don’t know how to make a link and I don’t feel like learning html for that. I’m really not much of a techie kinda gal…
3) I read about Bum Marketing and it sounds great because it doesn’t cost any money. But there it is again with all that writing. Just really seems like a bunch of work.
4) I remember when you said that selling your own product in a field of expertise is one of the best ways to make bank online. The thing is, I’m not really good at anything. I’m just a regular guy with a day job. In fact, when I come home, a lot of the time I’m tired and I don’t even use the products that I buy, so how would I make one myself?
5) What I really want is a foolproof system where I can make money on autopilot, why does it have to be so complicated? I don’t want anything where I have to buy software or other stuff. And preferably nothing too complicated where I’d have to learn a bunch of skills since that would take too long. I’m 46 years young by the way…
I need something like that right now so I can buy nice gifts for my family and take a vacation. I also want a new car LOL.
Thanks for your help,
[Name]
I’m sorry, but people who have no desire to work hard or learn should not waste their money on info products and should be focusing on working just enough in their 9 to 5 job so they don’t get fired.
We live in a society full of people with entitlement mentality. They believe that the world owes them something just for existing, and that people like Alex Goad or myself should hand them money on silver platter.
I’m all for helping someone who’s willing to learn and work hard, and I know that 99% of my readers fall into that catagory.
But if you’re a slacker and want to sit on your lazy butt watching TV and do nothing else, when there’s a world of opportunity out there to be successful, and provide a better life for your family, to become more than what you are, THEN YOUR A FREAKING LOSER!
Here’s some of Alex’s response to the guy who wrote him the above email:
“I’m going to give you a secret URL. On that page, you’ll find a button. All you have to do is push it and every time you do, a fresh, crisp hundred dollar bill will pop out of your CD tray and do a jig (to ensure you don’t get bored).
Now I realize it’s not completely automated, so please do accept my most sincere apologies. If you’d like, I can log to the site and push the button for you while you watch Lost reruns. Just let me know.
You know, it’s so unfair, when you think about it. Why should you have to learn anything, isn’t that what we went to school for? Why should you have to invest your hard earned money? Why doesn’t it just fall into your lap during a beer commercial?
The world is a tough cruel place, but I’ll bet a smart guy like you already knew that. I’m just glad I was able to help. You deserve it tiger.”
I was on the ground laughing! I love sarcasm! LOL
alex goad overcoming laziness personal motivation
Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset | 
That response made me laugh so hard I had a tear coming out my eye.
But thats so true. When we first started making a decent amount of cash we told quite a number of people. And to some we told them EXACTLY how we do it, but they just sat on their ball expecting us to do all the work for them. To setup their cash machine for them and dupe our sites. We found that we could not force someone to just “awake up” and go at it no matter how much talk you give them. They are ultimatly their own makers.
This is the type of thing where you have to laugh to keep from crying…I tried to teach my friend this business, I told him what e-books to read and offered to help him. A few days later I asked how it was going and he said he couldn’t get into the e-books there were “too many new things to learn” and he was “to old to learn anything new.” And at this point he wants something easier to do to make money…so he’s trading stocks! No joke..that’s what he’s doing!
There are so many ebooks out there letting you believe you can get rich overnight without any efforts and many people are falling for them. I almost fell for them myself.
Since last February, I’ve invested at least 15 hours a week (hey I already got a damn full time job working for the “man”), I’ve read like crazy on AM, PPC, landing pages and SEO. I’ve gone through all of Perry Marshall and Chris Carpenter’s stuff. I’ve tried to launch some campaigns myself (still without significative success though). I bought some research tools like keywordcountry.com and keywordspy cause I know you can’t get anywhere with the free stuff.
Right now I am working closer with my COPEAC affiliate manager to see what I can do to improve my techniques. I am pretty confident that I should be seeing some results within a year or two. I try to be realistic and not thinking that I will be making it overnight.
Reading blogs like yours helps keeping me motivated.
Keep on the good work!
Did anyone else think this was odd?
…”my wife doesn’t like it if I spend money online, she thinks the internet is all a big scam.”
“I’m really not much of a techie kinda gal…”
This person refers to having a wife but calls themselves a “gal”?
While its a funny letter, I have trouble believing that its real. Sounds like someone just wanted to be funny. The “gal” says she can’t buy anything online because her wife doesn’t want her to, but she admitted to just buying an ebook.
Amit, I started reading this post and I thought to myself, what a waste of time Amit!!! But then I read the reply, lol, that was worth it.
Anyways man, I am looking forward to some more of your rich posts.
Ha ha! Hilarious. I too wish for a big enough front yard to park my unicorn and land my helicopter. I’m using the secrets found in “The Secret” to believe it to be true. I tell my self daily “A check will arrive in the mail today (and I didn’t even earn it! w00t!)”. Who wants to work towards anything anyway? It’s so much easier to just watch the CSI marathon all day on SpikeTV.
Autopilot earnings is a hoop dream. BUT, if you work hard enough for a little bit, you CAN coast off residual from your hard work for a while. Even then you might need to throw in some maintenance work, but it won’t even be close to the amount of work you initially did (unless you want to multiply your residual earnings by a nice X factor). I don’t blame the guy, really. I too want to be lazy. Only difference is, I’m working towards it.
This post is so hilarious, me myself earn 4 figure from the internet and when I teach some of my friend about it, all they say was “i dont wanna learn new thing”, “i dont wanna spend money on ppc”, “i want everything free and everything done for me”, if that is the case, then dont even bother to dream about become rich
Amit,
I’m having some success with PPC/Affiliate Marketing, currently i’m having alot of issues with Googles Quality Score (Google Slap) though. I already know alot of the keywords that converts and I’ve implemented alot of your advice (i created a mini site (with lots of related content, contact us, privacy policy, ads-keywords-landing page all match, etc.). Do you recommend any e-book or resource about dealing with the “Google Slap”?.
Thanks for the great post. Yes, this is exactly why the majority of people who hear about affiliate marketing, domaining, etc. will fail. Why? Because they aren’t willing to do the WORK it takes to succeed; nor do they have the patience to get rich SLOWLY.
I’d like to think I’m among the minority who will succeed. I spend the better part of 16 hours this past Saturday reading about affiliate marketing, setting up a blog, and finding ways to make the blog more appealing and profitable in the future. Dedication, creativity, focus: this leads to success, not looking for get rich quick schemes.
… although I, too, wonder if the post was real.
Hi,
Amit: thanks for the write up.
All: This is not a real email. It’s a mashup of several I have gotten lately.
I assure you they are often *worse* than this.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Actually, I prefer sitting on my couch watching episodes of Entourage.
Then during the commercial breaks (the times I don’t TiVO the progs), I head on over and check how much $$$ has come into my affiliate and paypal accounts while I was stuffing my face with mud pie, while Turtle was stuffing his on the tube.
Most new marketers get the sequence wrong.
They should set up their systems and have them earn BEFORE they sit on their butt and enjoy life…
Ha, ha! It was the funniest article I’ve read in a while! I have a friend exactly like that. The only computer skills she has are Solitaire and Pharaoh, she does not want to learn anything, and most of all, when she heard that she has to pay for an internet connection, she was amazed that I dared to suggest her this way of making money
Wow - that was too funny! lol
Love it man…
Regards,
Robert