June was a “Character Building Month” ;)
My brother loaned me some Les Brown audios, and in one of them he says something along the lines of… “don’t say you’re having a bad day, instead say you’re having a character building day.” Well, based on Mr. Brown’s advice, June was definately a character building month.
My first 3 months I came along slowly and earned a profit each month, but this month produced my first “losing” month. Here’s my stats for the month of June:
PPC Spend = $630.77
Commission = $252.00
= $378.77 loss
A few things I learned:
- I still have a lot to learn
- I need to stop fearing the loss of money
- I need to fail faster
- Information overload & wasted time
Naturally I still have a lot to learn with June only being my 4th full month of affiliate marketing.
The fear of losing money caused me to freeze everything and start over analyzing. I budgeted $1,200 for PPC spend for the month, and only invested half of that because I didn’t pull the trigger on other campaigns.
Regarding Information overload, I have decided to trim WAAYYYY back on the amount of stuff I’m reading regarding affiliate/internet marketing. Too many opinions and approaches are not good, at least not for me. I find myself studying, reading and burning up time on all that stuff. Big waste of time.
Ok, July is here so time to put June behind and move forward. Currently I’m working on a direct linking campaign I will be testing in Yahoo as well as finishing up some site changes that a very successful/super affiliate recommended I make after reviewing one of my sites for me. I really appreciate him taking out time to look over my site!
Hey, Good Success this month!
Tim
Tough Month…
Getting my butt kicked (so far) this month.
I realize the month isn’t over yet, and I AM NOT THROWING IN THE TOWEL, but today I’m feeling pretty frustrated. After my first 3 months, I figured I’d be doing better than I am.
I fully realize that 4 months experience makes me a “noob” but this month has really driven home how much I still have to learn.
Anyway…
My plan to get things turned around includes running some things by someone with much more (successful) experience than I have. Also I will be testing another offer.
Ok, time to get back to work.
Tim
“Stop Lying to Yourself”
Wes Mahler just posted an excellent article titled “Do what you said you were going to do.”
This article not only applies to affiliate marketing, but life in general. One of the things that jumped out at me was his point about not lying to yourself.
“Stop Lying to Yourself.” Very simple but powerful. I was reading something on personal development where the writer said “we say things to ourselves we’d never say to anyone else.” He was referring to self talk and how we will put ourselves down, call our ideas stupid, etc.,. Lying to yourself is just as bad.
Anyway, check out Mr. Mahler’s article.
Tim
May Results & Goal for June
I earned $605.75
$552.00 of that was earned with Hydra Network and the remaining $53.75 with Maxbounty and Azoogle. I earned a small profit putting me just above break even.
I came up $394.25 short of my $1,000 revenue goal for the month of May, but I did hit $100+ per day for 3 straight days. I’m not happy that I missed my goal for the month, but I’ve earned a profit each of my first 3 month as an affiliate marketer, and I realize the mistakes I made and what I need to do to move forward.
*Click to enlarge:
My Goal for June is to profitably break $1,000 in Revenue.
I fully expect to surpass the $1,000 mark this month with proper time management and focus. I don’t have graphic design skills, so I have to make sure the designers I work with get my jobs completed quickly so I don’t loose many days between site changes.
Can’t Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?
Derek from Click Consultants blog posted a great article dealing with why he feels people aren’t making money with affiliate marketing. He touched on 3 areas as possible reasons for affiliate struggles.
- Lacking Time Management Skills
- Giving up on a Niche (too soon)
- Not Tracking Keywords
Time Management is definitely where I’m struggling. Distractions such as family, cell phone, email, blogs etc., are contributing to my time management issue. What’s interesting is that I often feel like I’m getting things done, but when I step back I realize that I’m doing too many things and not drawing my focus as closely as I need.
One of the tools Derek recommends is RescueTime.com, which offers FREE time management & analytics software.
I’m studying David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” Audio Book/CD which I will complete by this Sunday. My goal is to have my time management plan worked out, so Monday I can hit the ground running and make June a great month!
Tomorrow I will post an earnings update for the month of May.
Tim
My First $100 Day!
Yesterday I earned my first $100 day! (I also earned a profit!)
Here’s a screen shot showing my earnings for 5/14/2008:
*Click to enlarge*
The first 10 days of this month have been pretty tough. I made some changes to my campaign and Tuesday I made some progress, then Wednesday I hit $100+ which was my goal for the day.
Amit Mehta’s steps to reaching the top 2%…
Amit Mehta posted an article on his Super Affiliate Mindset blog on why 2% of Affiliates earn 95% of the revenues and profits. He also offers a free downloadable report on “Your Thinking,” which is the 1st of 3 reports.
The report was a quick easy read and one of the things that jumped out at me was setting goals that challenge you. So I’ve decided to set my own really big goal which is to reach $15,000/month in profit no later than the month of November.
No later than November 2008, my goal is to hit $15,000/month in profit.
Tim
Goal for May 2008
Current Goal: Earn at least $1,000 in affiliate commission for the month.
Pic of My first Check & Screen shots..
March I earned $598.50 with Maxbounty, which is my first earned affiliate commission check. I also earned a profit.
Below is a pic of that check. I blocked my biz name and address for privacy:
April wasn’t as good as March. I came down with a serious case of “paralysis of analysis” and I only earned $427.50, but I still made a (little) profit. The breakdown is $165.00 from Maxbounty and $262.50 from Azoogle. Here are the screen shots from the two networks:
Azoogle
First Post!
Ok. It’s 1:15 AM EST, and I’m making my first blog post!
I officially started affiliate marketing February 10th. I’ll be blogging about my marketing activities to help keep myself accountable. 