The greatest benefit of affiliate marketing — in my opinion — is that it can potentially set you on the path to financial independence — if done right of course. What does “done right” mean? Read on.
Imagine yourself in that position when your only concern every morning will be composing another post for your website and connecting with your sizeable audience which you have been building steadily. They are waiting out there for you eagerly. “Got get them,” your will be will be saying to yourself.
This alone can be so satisfying — you are transforming your thoughts into fodder for the minds of others who may be looking for the same things that enthuse you — provided of course you take the advice yourself of choosing a niche that is aligned to your own interests — coin collecting; music; financial independence; wealth creation — whatever takes you fancy can be transformed into profitability. This is also called monetisation.
So, from a very personal point of view — even if took away all the other benefits — nothing can be more fulfilling than affiliate marketing. You make an immediate emotional connection with your work. Actually, it might not be work at all, if you feel so passionately about something. Can there be a greater reward?
Each day you will be making progress in your enterprise — the only imperative that will be driving you will not be someone else’s will but your own. Imagine that sense of sovereignty. In a conventional job even thinking that can way be tantamount to sacrilege.
Many of us like work — but not what we have to do to like it: constantly submitting to the will of others and how they have conceptualised their work. It is like wearing ill fitting clothes chosen by others for you and saying that you like it. How awful.
The independent minded who still hope to find fulfilment in their work did not choose it in the first place because they could bend to the will of others. Work without the hierarchy of work is rare if not a myth altogether.
In affiliate marketing, the only imperative that drives you is your own satisfaction. This is living life on your own terms.
Happy workers make for a happy organisation — and here you are both the worker and the organisation. You are the prime mover — of your destiny.
I cannot think of a better place to be in than in affiliate marketing right now.
What would be the point of doing something if it does not make you happy in the end? In a conventional job even if we are not happy, we bear it as along as we can — just for the pay check at the end. Is that good enough? Why, that is a dismal prospect, if you ask me.
However, running an enterprise on your own, pose its risks — keep your day job, thus the classic advice. What would be the point of going into affiliate marketing — or anything else — if it just becomes another job with all its less desirable attributes? What would be the point of replacing one devil with another? Venturing solo can also be daunting. I understand.
But you do not have to do this alone. Actually, you never have to do this alone. Ever. Your chances of success increase dramatically with the quality of the team you build. And, for this you do not have to wait for years. You can do it right from the start. In fact, this is a far more effective strategy than going solo, first, and hoping to learn from it eventually. It does not have to be that way.
Watch this video by Kyle — one of the co-founders of Wealthy Affiliate — to understand why.
Take This Further — Act
If Kyle’s video has whetted your appetite — as I hope it would have — then please don’t just stop there. If you felt inspired by it, you need to move before your your passion cools down — one thing you need to know about inspirations is that they can be notoriously short-lived. You don’t have time.
What’s the first thing question you should asked when presented with a new opportunity? — What are its main challenges?
I the case of affiliate marketing (Spoiler Alert), it is content creation. This you might say, is the core of your business. Simply put, the more content you have, the more chances you have of engaging with your audience. And, the more engagements you have the the more chances of conversions — the inflection point when your audience makes the crucial decision to make a purchase that will make you money as an affiliate.
A Short Interlude
Watch Kyle’s video on content, shown below to understand why this is so crucial.
Now Back to Content Creation
For content creation to happen in any viable manner, you have to have meaningful content on hand, and, on a rolling basis. So how do you achieve this?
Well, you can do this manually — churning out a few posts each day — or, perhaps, on a day — that still gets you 30 posts a day — not bad. And I would encourage you to do that to some extent in the very beginning. In due course you may ask, is there a better way?
The good news is, YES. Let me explain.
In the case of running a business this frustration might come might come from doing all the mundane tasks that make the bigger task possible. This is where the notion of delegation comes in . . . when you hand over smaller tasks to others.
But how do you do this with writing? The short answer: AI or automation.
Using AI For Content Creation
While you may be an accomplished writer yourself or just enjoy writing for itself (I know, I do), this task can make serious inroads into your time. Moreover, it can be dispiriting to be scrambling for your next post. This is where AI assisted writing can be useful. However, a caveat.
Now, Google rewards originality when it comes to ranking — and an AI-generated piece of writing could diminish those possibilities of ranking high. Moreover, it may or may not resonate with your audience: they also want your voice for authenticity. How do you get around that obstacle? How can you eat your cake and have it, too? — in other words.
You can do this by changing your conceptualisation of AI: treat it as an instigation — a provocation — a stimulus to writing, rather than a substitution of your own authorship. Nothing will ring truer than your own voice, however inadequate you might think it is.
Bearing that in mind will enable you to delegate in the best possible way without losing your own agency. After all, this is what most people fear about AI — that it will rob of them of agency. While that may yet be far away even if it happens (I certainly hope it does not), the more immediate effect that we have to consider here is how it will shape affiliate marketing.
Possibly it will be for the better — provided of course we know how to use it not only responsibly but also effectively by following a hybrid model of use: for generating outlines and conducting research.
Imagine if you could find all the most valuable key words for ranking on Google without having to pay extra for it. Why would you not want to try it? You can still do the main writing yourself.
The easiest way to find out how this could work for you would be to experiment with AI on a platform . . .
Try Out A Free Starter Subscription On Wealthy Affiliate.
Emerging Issues
Some burning issues from the preceding:
- Affiliate marketing’s cost-benefit analysis
- How scalable is affiliate marketing?
- How many moving parts does it have?
As much as I would like to plunge into them right away, I feel that it might be better to postpone that discussion for another post by which time you shall have assimilated the advice I dispensed here.
Also, I am dying to hear from you folks out there. Please do not hesitate email me here, soheil@affiliatepathways.com, and I shall try to get back to you.
Cheers.