Pier 5 Condo

I saw one of the AdSense ads showing that proudly proclaimed Affiliates: $537 per day – Quit your job with ClickBank.

Now, just a darn minute – Don’t go thinking you can quit your job and become an affiliate marketer overnight. I’ll explain why:

* Affiliate Marketing can be tricky – You never know which way the market will go for the next 30 days, six months, year or especially five years. If you managed to make $5,600 in the past month doesn’t mean you will do that next month as well. Traffic to websites fluctuates, popularity wanes as does relevance of topics or products. I’ve seen sites making $250 a day suddenly drop to less than $20 for no apparent reason. You will put in a lot of work, your patience and persistence will be tried and your ingenuity tested to make sure your income continues to increase. Don’t even think about quitting your day job until you have over $10,000 in the bank with all your expenses paid. Don’t throw away a steady income for pie in the sky dreams.

* Affiliate marketing is competitive – Were talking about a business where you wont even be able to tell your friends or family what your websites are. Any competition that you bring up inadvertently could be taking away from your income, and if you are spending money to make money (PPC advertising, for example), that can really take its toll on your profits. Unlike the job landscape in your area, affiliate marketing can be done from anywhere in the world. Are you comfortable having competition from people in Thailand, Brazil, India, China, the UK, the United States, Canada, and any other internet-enabled nation? If not, stick to your day job.

* Affiliate marketing is fast-paced – Once you have your marketing campaigns going and the traffic starts coming in you are either going to be making money or not. There are no wait times, rest periods, of times when you can kick back and take it easy. This is a business that runs 24/7.

After all that negativity, I need to confess that I do work full time as an Affiliate Marketer. Many of the reasons you may decide to become an Affiliate Marketer follow:

1. It is Lucrative. No other business start-up allows you to make $500 the day you start. I’ve seen programs bring in over $10,000 in less than four months from a dinky little website with a few pages and images. Should you find a way to get people to buy from you then you could end up making unlimited profits.

2. Affiliate Marketing changes daily. It is a new game from day to day. The challenge of trying out new things and seeing what works or doesn’t means Affiliate Marketing can be an exciting business. Once you see how much sales methods and marketing techinques change on a day to day basis you may become hooked. And you could end up running away from the competition.

3. Talk about FUN! It is hard not to get a thrill out of Affiliate Marketing. I get up, go work out, come home, work on my marketing, check my bank account and grin all the way to the bank. All the while knowing I’m being paid to sleep or go to the park which really makes my life.

In truth, an offline job provides steady reliable income. Continue to supplement your offline income while growing your Affiliate Marketing income. When the day comes that your are making more than $8,000 a month online, stick with the day job.