Growing up I saw my dad try to sell Amway and a whole lot of other multi-level marketing ventures that never really worked out. I thought it was a bit ridiculous, but then I fell prey to a couple schemes myself when I was young.
I felt dumb, a regretted the money I wasted. I swore never again …
Now I’m not going to say ever MLM is bad, that’s not the point. That’s actually the opposite of the point I want to make.
I just realized that for me, and my dad, and a whole lot of people in this world, I have a bit of a gambler in me, and by that, I’m just looking for my hot streak to come along when I’m finally going to strike it rich (quick) without hardly trying. I just got to be in the right place at the right time and get lucky.
Hell even when I am in the right place at the right time – not that I’ve ever really struck it rich, but I’ve had my lucky moments – but then I get greedy and think I can play the system and beat it. But it never goes how I plan.
I live out on the West Coast of the U.S. and the town I grew up in was a gold rush town – kind of like the California Gold Rush, but in Oregon. It happened there too.
I think of all those guys who risked their lives to come out west, and a whole lot of people from Asia who for them headed East, for their chance to strike it rich. Every single one of them thought they were going to be the lucky ones. They’d just show up, dip their hand down into the stream, and pull out a gold nugget the size of their head and that would be that – no more worries.
But for most of them, it didn’t work out.
There are plenty of legitimate business opportunities online, but one thing I’ve learned is I need to stop trying to chase the next gold rush. Affiliate marketing is not a quick, or necessarily “easy” path to success. But it’s a proven path. Affiliate marketing is not a lottery that a few lucky people win. It’s a skill that can be learned.
If you’ve found you’re way to this blog you probably either:
- You class yourself as an affiliate marketer, but you haven’t really got traction or achieved the results that you want yet
- You don’t think of yourself as an affiliate marketer however you are fully aware of what it is; you are in a place where you may feel a little overwhelmed, lost, or confused right now as to how to make it work and what to do (all feelings that someone in category 1 can also possess)
- You may not have ever looked into affiliate marketing, but like the other categories above, you want to change your life by earning a consistent income online
If you don’t think of yourself as being in one of those three categories, I’m not sure why you’d be reading this blog, but you’re still welcome to read away.
You don’t have to spend too much time trying to learn about how to make money online, using YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. to hear about affiliate marketing. Many people know about it, they just don’t know what it’s called.
It’s a major force in the marketing world, used by even the biggest brands in the world. In large part because it’s super efficient for the brands. They don’t have to pay you if you don’t results. Which is of course the risk for you. You can waste a lot of time and money with nothing to show for it.
But if you do get good at it, it can pay very well. And I do believe that if you work at it long enough and don’t give up we can all learn how to make this work. Of course, you also want to not go broke before you learn it – that’s also very important.
Unfortunately, most people never get past the pitfalls and achieve the success that they want from it. But I think that’s because most people start with the wrong attitude. A lot of people are just trying to find that “get rich quick” scheme. They never stick to something and instead just jump from one thing to another – chasing the hype, getting distracted by the next shiny object – those “solve all your problems in a day” type of “solutions”.
I’ve fallen victim to those kinds of schemes before. And I’ve learned those solutions don’t really exist. Sure now and again someone wins the lottery, but hoping you’re going to win the lottery is not a good way to live.
Of course, we’d all like success as quickly as possible, with as little work as possible.
Many people play on this desire.
But if you think you’ve failed if you don’t make 10K in your first 30 days trying something new, then you’re probably going to quit and look for something new. Then quit that when you don’t succeed immediately, and the vicious cycle continues.
People feel that the reason they didn’t achieve results isn’t because of THEIR actions, but rather it’s because they haven’t found “THE RIGHT PRODUCT” (or program, course, etc.) that will finally help them achieve their desires.
Their journey into the online business/make money online world started with the promise they could get rich without even trying.
When I first started online with affiliate marketing, I thought it was going to be easy too. In part, that’s because I had had success in business before. I overestimated my abilities, or at least my ability to apply my skills to online marketing and sales. But it’s a whole lot different from face-to-face sales.
I learned the problem was my mindset – and I don’t mean I needed to create a vision board, or somehow wish money to come to me. A lot of people wish for money that doesn’t come.
I needed to get the gold rush mindset out of my mind. It’s not going to be a show-up and just pull the gold nuggets out of the creek, get rich in a week, and retire in Bolivia by next year situation. That mindset will lead to failure.
So I’m not looking for the next gold rush. I’m not looking to win the lottery. I’m ready to work, learn my craft, and become a master of affiliate marketing, and it turns out that hasn’t happened overnight.
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