You’ve seen the Adsense ads proclaiming “Affiliates: $537 per Day – Quit Your Job With ClickBank”.
Wait a minute – I hope you aren’t thinking you could go quit your day job so you can be an affiliate marketer. If so, here is why I recommend that you don’t:
* Affiliate marketing is volatile – You have no way of knowing where the market is going to go in six months, a year, or five years. Just because you managed to make $5,000 last month does not mean that its going to stay that way. Websites fluctuate in traffic, popularity, and relevance all the time- Ive had sites that were making $200 a day drop to less than $10 a day for seemingly no reason. It will take work, patience, persistence, and a bit of ingenuity to ensure that your income continues to grow. Until youve got $10,000 in a bank account and all of your expenses paid, do not quit your day job. Why throw away a solid income for hopes and dreams?
* Affiliate marketing is competitive – Were talking about a business where you wont even be able to tell your friends or family what your websites are. Any competition that you bring up inadvertently could be taking away from your income, and if you are spending money to make money (PPC advertising, for example), that can really take its toll on your profits. Unlike the job landscape in your area, affiliate marketing can be done from anywhere in the world. Are you comfortable having competition from people in Thailand, Brazil, India, China, the UK, the United States, Canada, and any other internet-enabled nation? If not, stick to your day job.
* Affiliate marketing is fast-paced – Once you have your marketing campaigns going and the traffic starts coming in you are either going to be making money or not. There are no wait times, rest periods, of times when you can kick back and take it easy. This is a business that runs 24/7.
All of that being said, I should mention that Im not a complete hypocrite for working full time as an affiliate marketer. There are many reasons why you should take up affiliate marketing full time:
1. It is Lucrative. No other business start-up allows you to make $500 the day you start. I’ve seen programs bring in over $10,000 in less than four months from a dinky little website with a few pages and images. Should you find a way to get people to buy from you then you could end up making unlimited profits.
2. Evolution is taking hold in the Affiliate Market. This business changes daily. If trying out new things to see what works and what doesn’t then this may be the niche for you. You can try different marketing methods and sales techniques on a day to day basis and when you succeed, you can become the leader of the pack.
3. Affiliate Marketing is TONS of Fun. It is hard not to enjoy being able to get up when I want, run errands, get my hair cut, come home and set up new marketing programs, check my stats and grin at my bank account. The knowledge that I’m being paid to loaf really makes life interesting. Did I mention it is fun?
In truth, an offline job provides steady reliable income. Continue to supplement your offline income while growing your Affiliate Marketing income. When the day comes that your are making more than $8,000 a month online, stick with the day job.
Gotta agree with you there – affiliate marketing is fast-paced and loads of fun and pretty addicting too.
But if I was making $8000 a month from this business, I would definitely quit my day job. I mean, if I can make this kind of money, then I must be doing something right. If I spend more time on it and be careful not to put all my eggs in one basket, I should be able to ride out any bad patches, and make much more than I would if I had stuck to my day job.
At least, that is what I would do.