Affiliate marketing in a nutshell is pretty much like this: have a site, join an affiliate network, choose merchants, choose banners, display them, get traffic, get paid, buy Ferrari, buy big house, take photos with you in the Ferrari nearby your mansion, sell newbies your methods, live happily ever after.
If it were that easy, how comes some of us are still driving their good old Citroen? Not that I don’t like my car, but I haven’t bought it from affiliate marketing money, that’s for sure. If you are new to internet marketing, you probably seek for models to follow: if this or that guy made no more than $100 – $500 a month in their first year and now they are millionaires, I’m on the right path because I’m also making now $100 per month, so all I need is keep working and wait for the time to pass by and make me rich.
Well, this is theory and it’s the “demo version” of internet marketing as sold to you by shady characters, by those so-called “gurus”: the weight loss guru, the make money online guru, the sleep and get rich guru and so on. In reality, you can learn more from myths and history. Two characters, Sisif and Damocles are the perfect summary of the internet marketer’s life. I’ll explain you why in a second, if you haven’t got it by now.
Damocles was a character in the Greek antiquity who remained famous for a sword. One day, Damocles was offered by Dionysus, the tyrant of Syracuse, the chance of switching places for one day. Damocles enjoyed very much his new life as a king, and only by the end of the day he noticed that during all that time, a sword was hanging directly above his head by a single hair.
What does the sword of Damocles have to do with internet marketing? For example, somebody could click your ads like crazy to get you excluded from PPC programs. Or you could wake up one day with all your websites injected with malware and before having the chance to clean the all, the Commission Junction quality patrol would exclude you from their affiliate network without even blinking and without giving you the slightest chance to explain it wasn’t your fault, as you’re not a network security specialist. If you think that you’d at least get paid the amounts you had in your accounts with those networks, think again: you won’t! So, you’ll always be at risk of losing your last month’s virtual earnings. If you’re new, you may even lose your half year’s earnings, as you may not have reached the payment threshold yet.
Now, Sisif comes into our story. Sisif comes from mythology, and he was damned to push a huge rock up the hill. When he almost reached the top, the rock would collapse to the bottom of the hill and Sisif would need to push it again and again, for his whole life, which was equal to an eternity in those times.
Why Sisif? Simply because when CJ kicked your criminal, malware injector arse, out of their network, you had about 1000 affiliate links, if not more, which now have to be replaced with links to merchants from other affiliate networks. You have to do it fast, because you lose sales with every hour people buy from links that are not longer generating you revenue.
Add to this some insights on how Google profiles SEOs, see if you match this SEO profile and you have the whole picture of how it feels being an affiliate marketer.
If by now you’re already thinking that nine to five jobs are better, please be aware that the sword of Damocles is there too and it may fall on your head at any given time, regardless how good your Sisif job may be, or how high your position in that company may be. I’ve seen people fired with no explanation; actually that was the spark that determined me to turn my back on corporate jobs for good.
So, what do you think it’s best: regular jobs or internet marketing?
Did I make you sad? Here’s a motivational photo to keep you going. Guess who’s the girl working that hard in the hammock by the pool:
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