"AffiliateMarketingLessons is about sharing my experience - all that I've learned, and continue to learn - about building an income online with affiliate marketing"
A few things about me...
BUT it also means that I'm not going to be bombarding you with tons of emails trying to sell you all the latest and greatest internet marketing courses from other "gurus" just so I can fatten my wallet.
It also means that I'm more in tune with your day to day struggles as you try to make money online.
I'm here to help on a more intimate level... As I experience and learn... I share.
why affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest, quickest and least expensive ways to start earning money online...
It allows you the freedom to earn a healthy income while affording you the time to do other things that you love.
With a traditional 9-5 job, your boss determines how much money you get at the end of the month... and in many instances, they not only determine how you spend your time during work-hours , but often invade and demand your time outside of working hours.. time you should be spending doing things you love... hobbies, spending time with family, relaxing, entertainment.
How I came about creating AffiliateMarketingLessons.com
When I first started affiliate marketing it was simply about looking for a source of income to supplement my salary. As the years went by and I saw its potential... and became disenchanted with the traditional day job model, it became more about building your wealth for myself in an enjoyable way.
As I started receiving commission checks on a regular basis, I couldn't help but boast to my friends.
It eventually peaked the interest of two of my closest friends, and they asked me to teach them what I learned. And so I did. I've always found great joy in passing on knowledge to others.
We got together 2-3 times per week, for around 1-2 hours. I taught them all that I knew about choosing a niche, building websites, finding profitable products to promote and creating content, as well as more techie stuff like registering domain names, creating an email list, etc, etc...
After a couple months their commission checks started coming in as well. Since then, I've help other people get started with affiliate marketing.
Interestingly, the motive for wanting to get involved in was often similar among everyone - unhappiness with their job and wanting to find a different, more enjoyable way to earn income... one that afforded a better quality of life.
It's really from the experience of helping others get started with creating that source of income that I decided to create this website and share my experience.
My aim was always to use affiliate marketing to create a source of income online that replaces the income from my full-time job.
.. and in the process help as much people as I can, do the same.
Here are a few posts that can give you a good idea of what to expect on AffiliateMarketingLessons.com:
My Journey Over The Years (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)
As far back as I could remember, I've always been interested in using the Internet to make money... before I got involved in affiliate marketing, I was involved in other methods like "getting paid to surf the net" and "getting paid to do surveys"... remember those?
it's been a roller-coaster ride from then to now... and I've learned a great deal over the years... some of which I'll share with you.
My first taste of affiliate marketing success
When I first got introduced to affiliate marketing several years ago, it was a system involving posting ads on Google Ads (it was called Google Adwords at the time and it wasn't as competitive as it is now, and therefore relatively cheap at the time) that promoted affiliate products from the Clickbank network... so when people clicked on the ads and purchased the products, I got commissions.
I actually did quite well with this method... I was earning hundreds in commissions within the first month. I remember being so excited, that I would check my Clickbank account several times throughout the day to see how my commissions were racking up.
Then my decline...
But, as I started making money I also started to dabble in all sorts of other things... I wanted learn more about Google Adwords, so I bought a few training products about that... but before I could properly learn Google Adwords, I wanted to learn more about building websites, so I bought some ebooks and software and started to do that... I also got involved in Multilevel Marketing, Google Adsense, and few other things...
I spent a lot of money on all sorts of "making money online" products looking for that "magic button" to millions, but I wasn't actually implementing anything in a proper way... and they just ending up occupying space on my computer.
... And my commissions started to dwindle.
Lessons Learnt
- Chasing after the latest business opportunities, buying the latest products, hopping back and forth between too many things isn't going to get you any progress… It's a common habit (often referred to as Shiny Object Syndrome) among persons wanting to earn money online
My second wave of success...
Now, as far as I could remember, I have been wearing glasses but I've never really liked wearing them.
One day while browsing online, I came across an ad which stated that you could improve your eyesight so I don't have to wear contacts or glasses, or undergo LASIK surgery.
The ad peaked my interest, so I clicked on the ad which lead me to a site about "doing eye exercises to improve your vision naturally".
I was skeptical at first, but the product being promoted (the RebuildYourVision Eye Exercise Program) had a one year money back guarantee and so I eventually bought the product and starting following through the exercise program.
I soon after discovered that the product had an affiliate program... so I thought to myself, why not document my experience by creating a blog.. and on the blog I can tell people about my progress and the product.
... so I did just that.
Of course, whenever I mentioned the product on the blog, there was an affiliate link to the product.
What I also did, was I frequently visited QandA sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora, as well as forums related to eye health and such, and told people about my blog... this got me A LOT of traffic... and I made a lot of commissions... I was receiving email notifications 2 and 3 times a day telling me that I earned commissions.
It was around this time that I started to teach my friends what I knew about affiliate marketing and came up with the idea of creating Affiliatemarketinglessons.com.
I received commissions for years!... even after I kinda stopped actively promoting the blog, the commissions were rolling in.
A good thing came to an end (aka the "Bad" part)
RebuildYourVision had two products - the eye exercise program and a multivitamin, mineral and herbal supplement for healthy eyes. Initially I only promoted their products, but I eventually came across two another similar products that also had affiliate programs and decided to also promote those.
Things were going great... then one day, I got an email from one of the main products I was promoting indicating that they were shutting down their affiliate program...
A few months after that, I got an email from the main product (I one that I was actively using) indicting that they were also shutting down their affiliate program... talk about a kick in my affiliate nuts!
Now I had created a couple other websites within other niches, but I really hadn't been paying much attention to those... so, the commissions I received from those weren't much.
Coupled with that, my websites got hacked (they were all being hosted on Hostgator, which is why I cannot recommend them as a web-host. My sites got really messed up... some of the critical pages didn't show anything!... and in speaking with Hostgator's support, they basically indicated that I would have to rebuild the sites from scratch!
So there I was.. my websites were a mess... the main affiliate programs that provided the most commissions to me had shut down...
... I was surely discouraged and frustrated.
Lessons Learnt
- It's a good idea to be promoting more that one affiliate product as an affiliate marketer (whether it be in the same niche or in different niches)... of course, don't spread yourself too thin trying to be involved in too many niches.... 1-2 is fine.
- Ensure that your sites are hosted on a reliable, high quality web hosting platform. Because of my experience, I cannot recommend Hostgator. After my sites got hacked, I started doing some in-depth research and discovered that Hostgator is part of a parent group called Endurance International Group, which is the parent group of many other web hosting companies. I also realized that Hostgator is quite popular largely due to the relatively high commission rate paid out to affiliates. The web host that I use now (after lots of research) is SiteGround. They are high-quality, and their customer support is superb.
It was around this same time that I had gotten a promotion at work, with an increase in salary... but it also came with greater responsibilities.
I started to pay much more attention to my job and neglected building my online income.
As the years went by, my dislike for my job grew... it was becoming more and more frustrating, stressful, soul-sucking, exhausting...
I came to the realization that I didn't have control of my time or income...
... I was working hard, really hard... but it seemed as though I was doing it to get others rich.
Ever so often I made an attempt to re-kindle my love with affiliate marketing, but in a half-hearted manner.
I got burnt... badly (this is the "Ugly" part)
A few years had passed... I got married, I had a son, was still working at the same job (yup, I'm a sucker for misery).
Back in December 2016, my dad passed away. My dad was one of the most carefree people that I knew. He always preached to me (and everybody really) that you shouldn't worry too much.
It was a few weeks after dad's passing, that I was home at my computer... it was close to mid-night... I was sending an email to a friend, but at the same time, I was thinking about my situation... about being so unsatisfied with my job... all the stress, tiredness, affect on my health... and I remember thinking "this isn't what dad would have wanted for me.... this isn't what I want for myself".
I started thinking too that I needed to start back focusing on earning an income online... and you know, get control of my time and income... and it so happened that I came across an email that offered training on how to build a 6-figure per year online business... so I clicked on the link to check it out.
To be honest with you, the website really spoke to me... that night all that was going through my mind was "this could finally be the way to escape from my job and really have my own business.. be my own boss... get rid of the stress"
... The cost of the training was US$2997... I thought that it was a significant amount of money... but, I just about had it... So I enrolled.
I communicated with the guy a few times and even met on Skype once.. He said he and is team would start creating a product for me... even showed me the outline... and after the product was created he would help "launch" it... Then, he'd teach me all how he did it... He said it would take him a few weeks and he would update me as things progressed.
... I never, ever heard back from him... no response to my emails, no response on Skype, no response via phone... nothing!...
It was a real blow for me...
Just so that you don't fall prey to this guy like I and many others did, you can read about his scams here.
I started to rebuild...
It took me over a year to really recover from that blow...
There was still that undying passion inside me to build an internet-based source of income... and my dislike for my job continued to grow (I really only stayed to support my family... my wife, my son and my mom)... but if you're not happy, what's the point?
I decided to "get back in the game"... but where do I start?
Now, even after all those years, I was still getting a commission check ever so often from the marketing I did in the natural vision improvement niche... I had created some really good content on the topic, and so I decided to rebuild a website about natural vision improvement and eye exercises - you can make a visit and see how I've structured the site and the content I created.
It essentially promotes the Ocu-Plus vision supplement from RebuildYourVision.com and the Program for Better Vision eye exercise program.
Below is a screenshot of the commissions made from promoting the Ocu-Plus supplement.
Commissions from the Ocu-Plus Eye Supplement
Next, I decided to recreate Affiliatemarketinglessons.com
There's a saying from Even Carmichael, an online entrepreneur, that I think sums up why I needed to create this website... The saying goes like this...
"Your purpose comes from your pain. If you don't know what your purpose is, think about the most painful moments in your life. Your purpose is to serve others who are going through that same pain." - Evan Carmichael
Where I am Now
I resigned from my job at the end of 2019 and started focusing my efforts on building my online business, fueled by affiliate marketing, digital marketing consulting and website development.
I am no longer searching for the “secret” to making money online. I know what it takes to make money online and I am taking action. I am committed to working everyday to build my business.
I have strategic ideas and plans about growing my income online... and I am passionate about helping others along the way.