[JamesP26]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?
What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?
What are the challenges you come across the most?

[loxly]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?

You work for yourself.

What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?

You work for yourself.

What are the challenges you come across the most?
Discipline. Because you work for yourself.

:)

Seriously, you are going to be working toward your own goals, no one can or will tell you what to do and you need to make your own decisions about what direction to go in and what to work on.

You will make mistakes and have no one to blame.

You will accomplish your goals through hard work and discipline.

[JamesP26]

what about creating a web page? or finding a decent product to advertise?

[Julian]

You need to do some reading. Take a look around this forum

[Freeman727]

I must admit I smile at your question because I asked myself the same question when I first started. Then the next morning I got into my car and got into one of the worst traffic jams in texas history, Then I got to work and had one of the worst days not a person could possibly have. So later on that day I went to sit in my car to get away from my "Cube" and said to myself, THATS IT! NO MORE WILL I DO FOR SOMEONE WHO COULD GIVE A RATS A*% ABOUT ME OR MY VALUABLE TIME! Started my car, drove off and have not been in a traffic jam or dealt with a idiot boss or depend on a corporation for anything in 6 yrs. So you ask why be a affiliate? Ask yourself that question on your way to work, and if you dont get your answer then stay in the corporate world.

[Alan Hamilton]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?"
What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?
What are the challenges you come across the most?

1.) you can work for yourself
2.) you work for yourself
3.) you work for yourself

[Geno Prussakov]

1.) you can work for yourself
2.) you work for yourself
3.) you work for yourself+ what loxly said = serious independence (keep in mind though that before you reach it, there's some serious work to be done; but don't let that scare you! go for it!)

Geno

[affninja]

The real question should be "why not become an affiliate?" It's free to you, you have nothing to lose but your time, and everything to gain -- including the huge benefits of independence and freedom cited above.

I'm not even a year removed from Corporate America and I can't imagine going back!

[AffiliateHound]

It's more than just working for yourself. The nature of the business can and does vary greatly.

You can be self employed and have to jump through hoops for licensing boards, you can have hundreds, or thousands, of clients, each one of whom is actually a "boss", you can have employees and have to pay employee taxes, maintain workers' comp insurance, pay employee benefits, and keep your employees from killing each other. You may need to rent an office, pay rent, liability insurance, buy office furnishing and equipment, and the list goes on.

I did all that for 2-1/2 decades. Now, as an affiliate, I work alone (except for some writing that MrsHound does for me), work at home, and only need a computer. No traffic, no office, no employees, no office lease, no ongoing licensing requirements such as that dastardly concept, "continuing education units", etc.

[Jiyoui]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?
Like some have said already, it's the working for yourself. Your earning potential is limitless. (flows into next question)

What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?
Your earning potential is limitless but this all depends on how much work you're willing to put into it. This includes educating yourself as well as taking calculated risks. There's no company to fall back on if you a make mistakes. You'll have to eat the losses as they come.

What are the challenges you come across the most?
Deciding when you think you know enough and ready to act upon what you know.

[affgem]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?
What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?
What are the challenges you come across the most?

Hi,
The best few things about becoming an affiliate are: you work for yourself , your set your own working hours, you keep all the money that you earn.

The hardest part about becoming an affiliate is to stay focused and consitent.

The challenges you come across are plenty..

[lovekanewangbo]

make money

[MLChris]

There are tons of great reasons why someone would become an affiliate. I think the previous posts mentioned most of them. If you are new to the affiliate marketing industry, this is a great place to start researching the advantages of becoming an affiliate. There are also tons of blogs and forums out there that can help you get started. Do your homework and research as much as you can before you attempt to get started. Once you join a few networks, they should have dedicated affiliate managers that can point you in the right direction as far as which offers would best suit your business. Good luck!

[lulav]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?

You can work in your bathrobe, no boss, no coworkers, the money you make is for the most part based on your hard work, not someone else's opinion of you.

What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?

The courage to get it started and give it a good faith effort, maintaining work ethic, resisting the urge to procrastinate, etc.


What are the challenges you come across the most?

Merchants who take too long to pay, lazy/incompetent affiliate managers, Google's moodswings and algo changes, the drought of quality affiliate programs as opposed to the abundance of crappy ones, the accounting part of this can be a real pain, etc.

[Rossleadgen]

And don't forget, you get to work with other great entrepreneurs, which makes it a lot more exciting than other industries!

[Dina - MarketLeverage Blogger]

What is so good about becoming an affiliate?
You're completely in control of your schedule and success.

What is the hardest part about becoming an affiliate?
It's not an overnight millionaire kind of job, no matter what you're told. You have to work at it, and work hard, to build successful campaigns that generate revenue.

What are the challenges you come across the most?
Getting started! The hardest part is making the leap to full time, it's scary to get rid of that full time, steady paycheck. Taking the risk can be worth it, but you have to be prepared!

[thedogchampion]

Hi and thanks for your posting. I'm new to blogging. I have a website for my business and have begun using the affiliate programs to generate income. Do you know where I can get specific information from people who have been successful marketing their blogs or websites and are generating income from the affiliate programs? I'm looking for someone to share their technique for successfully marketing the website and blogs and, ultimately, the affiliates.

[hairy_hermit]

I gave up a good salaried job (and commuting) about 15 years ago. I already work from home.

So I already enjoy many of the advantages that people look for in making a business as an afiliate.

BUT... I still really want to make a good business and my main income as an affiliate. Here's why.

I'm an introvert: I don't want to go out; I don't want phone calls. I don't want to provide customer support. I don't want to dispatch products via the postal service or a courier service.

Also, I'm a night-owl: I don't want customers turning up here, phoning me or wanting anything on a deadline.

Also, I'm a hermit: I don't want fame. I don't want anybody to know my name.

Now, I ask myself, with what kind of a business could I achieve all that?

I have to admit I havn't yet found a decent income (a 'living') as an afiliate, but it seems worth working towards.

To recap:
What's so good...? - To me it's the income-earning-hermit-solution

What is the hardest part...?
I expect that's different for everybody: For me, making a website is relatively easy, making a big one is quite hard, mobilising a profitable PPC campaign is quite hard, putting the time in is quite easy, learning just enough about php is easy enough, reading this forum is easy - but wouldn't my time be better spent writing a new page for my site? - What am I doing here anyway? Wasn't I going to develop an AdWords campaign tonight?

What are the challenges...? You have to make it up for yourself as you go. Work out what 'business model' is right for you. Work out what activities are agreeable for you - e.g. some people become expert at advertising, others don't mind writing lots of content and building up a large site to attract visitors, some focus on SEO.

A big challenge for me is about ignoring the hype and sticking to developing something that's right for me. For example, there are always people announcing that some specific element or activity is now most crucial for anybody who has a web-based business: it could be social networks, twittering, article writing, email newsletters, claims that 'the money is in the list' (and nowhere else) and so on.
I have to keep remembering that these claims are simply not true.

Well, there's just my few thoughts for tonight.

[JamesP26]

I'm an introvert also. I don't want to have to talk to anyone. I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to get a web site once I have one on the top of search pages (google, yahoo, ASK, & all the rest). What do I do so people will go to my site. And since I'm just starting out how do I do it without paying for adwords and things? What's a good way to advertise?

[BMizzo]

Just to piggyback on what a lot of you are saying. Don't get caught into the trap of "making it quick", cause it seldom happens like that. Lot of time, lot of searching, writing e-mail scripts for auto-responders. It's not a get rich quick thing at all. Is why a lot of people fall by the waste side. But I wish ya luck!

[ProWebAddict]

I'm an introvert: I don't want to go out; I don't want phone calls. I don't want to provide customer support. I don't want to dispatch products via the postal service or a courier service.

Also, I'm a night-owl: I don't want customers turning up here, phoning me or wanting anything on a deadline.

Also, I'm a hermit: I don't want fame. I don't want anybody to know my name.



:up: My kind of person. :super:

[bibby]

The hardest part is the marketing. In a brick and mortar store, you can advertise in the paper, local TV, radio, etc but online marketing is different and your visibility is based on a number of factors that include the quality of your site.

Being ranked in Google is important and it can be hard to keep up with the factors that lead to good rankings, site visibility and traffic to your site.

So what is good about affiliate marketing?
As mentioned before, you're the boss and you call the shots. Affiliate marketing is ever changing industry. If you're looking for constant change and challenges, this is the right job for you.

[serafin]

Affiliate marketing is though, hard finding a good affiliate program though if give more time on it maybe you can find a good earning affiliates.

[Anat]

To me, it's an addiction. If you don't get the bug - you won't stick in this (in my experience from trying to teach others who were looking for an easy way to make money from home). It's like a game, where the points are real money - either you dig the game, or you don't.

[SuccessInAction]

I'm an introvert also. I don't want to have to talk to anyone. I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to get a web site once I have one on the top of search pages (google, yahoo, ASK, & all the rest). What do I do so people will go to my site. And since I'm just starting out how do I do it without paying for adwords and things? What's a good way to advertise?

Article submission is the most powerful tool for driving traffic. Also, I've used yard signs to promote my step by step internet marketing system in the beginning and still do. It's inexpensive and effective. For more info..[snip]

Good luck!