Before success comes in any man’s life he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps, some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.
- Napoleon Hill
Affiliate marketing has its extreme moments of ups and downs. Your first profitable campaign will be one of the best things you’ll come upon in your career, however, you’ll be hit by a great amount of potholes, failures, before that. The only thing you can do, is to press on, and keep working towards success.
I get this question a lot. How many failed campaigns do you get before you find a winner? It’s an odd question to ask, because if you’ve done any amount of affiliate marketing and then ask this question, you should know that there really isn’t an answer. You could make 50 campaigns and come up with nothing, or you could come up with 50 and come up with 50 winners. It’s so completely random, that some say it might be based on luck, and for the uninformed affiliate, it probably is.
The thing is, the only things you can really do is be analytical, do some research, and even if you think you have all the data in the world to make your campaign a success, be prepared for failure, because you will run into it in the middle of the road to success a lot. You have to get used to the stress and tortures of failure. It has become so common for me, that I almost can’t explain what it feels like to have a failed campaign. I just ignore it and move on to the next thing.
I lost money. I lost time. Oh well! I can make it up with further hard work and dedication to research, analyzing why I failed, and building out a new campaign with that data. There is no way to guarantee success in this industry, but if you are just throwing shit at the wall, you are 99% guaranteeing your failure. There is the lucky 1% of you that just get some massive campaign rolling, but after that, what are you left with? A bunch of money, no plan, and no idea how to invest that money further towards your business…
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I agree that throwing shit at the wall will fail most times, but sometimes that's the only way to do it if you ask me. If you have been researching, analyzing, and trying to build every campaign just perfectly and shit is STILL failing, try to just throw some shit together and see what (if anything) sticks.
That's how I have hit some of my best campaigns, actually!
I've done some shit throwing in my time, and while some has stuck, my ratio of success:planned is much higher than my success:shit-stick campaigns. Not to say either is constant, but lets just put an average on it.
I'm not saying you have to analyze everything, but taking a look at demographics, scouting out competitors (even looking at competitors on Google if you are running PPV ads is a good idea) to see what they're doing, and checking with your affiliate network, all of which can take 30 minutes, is better than blindly throwing 20 random offers and throwing traffic at it.
And if you do decide to do that, at least go back and analyze why it would work. It will help for future planning.
Oh, and by the way, congrats on first… Seriously, though… how do you do it?
Like the old (and somewhat tired) saying goes: don't throw your all eggs in one basket.
You have to keep trying different things, touch on various subjects and don't be afraid to work on new projects just because you got burned from one test.
As you said, some may be a success, all could be a failure but eventually, with hard work, you will break into something.
Hey Justin,
Good post. You're totally right about the road to success.Failure is something that is almost a necessity. Good advice.
Peace,
Darren L Carter
As said above, if you put all of your eggs in one basket – such as earning all your income from one campaign – then if shit hits the fan you're really going to hit a brick wall. By having multiple campaigns and such running then when you do get in a rut, it's not as threatening as it seems.
I think one reason a lot of new affiliate marketers die out is they don't dare gamble. With a 9-5 office job you clock in, do your work, clock out and get a pay check for a pre-defined amount. With affiliate marketing if you sit around for a few hours doing nothing, you've earnt zilch. Even worse, when you're an affiliate and you invest in something that doesn't pay off, your wages could be in the negatives for this week.
Justin,
The very first sentence pulled me in.
So many people come online and just try to hit a "home run" straight away.
When that doesn't quite happen (…most of the time…) they pick up sticks and give up.
When your mentality changes into trying to build a business you'll realsize that you will come up against some roadblocks.
You can either give up, or push through them.
You got a losing campaign. Well just analyse why it's not working and then use that knowledge to improve the same campaign or the next one.
Thanks for the post.
Reach new heights,
Nathan
Wow, powerful quote you've found there, Justin.
I believe that success is being farther than you were last week. Throughout my journey to success, I've had over 10 different "passions".
I was into animation, then drawing on paint, then gaming. Runescape had it's day, and so did the membership that it took to pay for it, followed by the blog that was "All Runescape Talk". That rubbed up against my musical days, were I dreamed of being a musician, only to go back into gaming and learning to code HTML + CSS. From there, I got into Youtube, followed by today, where I am standing another day, another failure avoided, holding strong for 13 consecutive years, and another 13 to come.
Great post, Justin :D
You are correct, there is no sure fire way however there must be a thought process behind each decision and we must measure each success and failure to understand the drivers of the campaign.
Telling it as it is, always has been and always will, Justin.
I'm new to Internet Marketing, but have built and ran a business before, as well as other professional endeavours, and it is the same everywhere…. there will always be that requirement for the persistent slog.
Unfortunately so many are "sold a pup" in the online business industry. Instant riches at the turn of a key and push of a button… it's no wonder so many fail when that is the expectation that has been sold to them.
It is a real pity, because the 'Net offers opportunity the like of which has never been seen before, and the costs are really pocket change in comparison to traditional businesses. You just have to believe in yourself and put in the work.
Yet so many miss out because they see the hype, or get bitten by it, and then turn away in disillusionment!
I haven't read all of your blog, but have to ask, are you still in Thailand? Have a lot of memories from my adventures in that magical place, way back in the early 80s! (Sad to see the recent turmoil)