[figment88]

I was having an argument with my brother.

How many 1-person affiliates do you think there are that generate more than $100,000 a year in commissions?

[Heyder]

I don't think there are all that many single one person operations making that kind of dough.

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
- Thomas Jefferson

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

Heyder,

It CAN be done!

For the Dupers this is paperclip money ... it is a case of work smarter now ... not a case of lack of information.

$0.02

<font size="2" face="Verdana">Haiko


The secret of success is constancy of purpose. ~ Disraeli</font></p>

[markymark]

I would have thought it would be fairly easily achievable - you only need eight or so sites bringing in $1,000 a month and you're pretty much there.

There must be hundreds of top end gambling and porn affiliates that are doing this without much problem. I think I could get to $8-$9K a month through affiliate marketing by the middle of next year if I motivated myself enough.

Search Engine Positioning (http://www.1design4life.co.uk) - 1 Design 4 Life

[Leader]

I took a guess of about 500 but it's probably higher.

It's not hard to do once the nuts-and-bolts are figured out well.

As for Blues' "spending big bucks to get bigger bucks," if that's referring to advertising I must agree. I think it could be done Google-style, too, though--but after a certain point a non-Google traffic source (diversification) is required just to sleep well!

There is no knowledge that is not power.~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

[eaglefire]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> It's not hard to do once the nuts-and-bolts are figured out well.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It shouldn't be that difficult. You can always contract out all or most of the web design and development stuff; technically you'd still be a one-person operation.

{

Stuff that makes me go, "huh?"

[canfree]

Well.....I'll be the devil's advocate.

I know of 4 particular websites that did it on one site alone.

Now we have 3 people in this forum (that have said they make over $10, 000 per month) and there's probably more than that are just being very quiet. These people obviously from their chatting have done it on more than one site(according to them) and I don't know of their websites.

So in total I know of 7 different individuals who have done it one way or another. And there is how many affiliates out there?

My guess is over 1000 people.

And if you want to put people in MLM.....You'd have it right there as well.

------------------------------------------------------------Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open. Thomas Dewar

[MsMarySunshine]

I agree leader, there are probably 500 or so that do it all by themselves.

I hope to surpass the 100,000 mark this year with probably 85-90% of that $ from only four sites. I have lots of other sites that I think of as my spending money sites.

And that amount has really only been generated since May or so...before that I was at $2,000 to $3,000 per month then it just started to rock and if I can average what I've been earning each month til the end of the year I should come out at around $120,000 --

I think anyone can achieve this amount easily once they get the AM thing figured out and advertise effectively. Of course you have to find good merchants with good products that pay you a good %

It's more fun to jump on the trampoline than sit underneath it!

[Justdoit]

This is going to be a very interesting thread from the looks of it so far.
$100,000 a year can be done by one person, it's been shown here on this board and a few other places that I frequent once in a while.
Actually all you need to get started is right here all the info is right in front of you.
Everyone has basically handed you the info on a platter, if you choose to run with it that is your option.
I tried just one site not even listed in google yet, spent $185 in promos in one month, return over $1480.. Hmm wonder what this will be like when there are 10 sites up and listed in the search engines, the possiblities are endless!!
The great thing is once the sites are up and running repeat and make more money.
My goal is to hit $100,000 within 18 months and it may even be sooner depending on the time I have to make the sites.
If you read between the lines of what people say then it really becomes crystal clear on what they market and how..

Of all the things I've ever lost ... I miss my mind the most!

[Zeus]

My poll would have been "How many 1-person affiliates do you think there are that generate more than $1,000,000 a year in commissions?"

It's not the big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow. Jennings & Haughton

[SSanf]

Do most of the high producers use mall type sites, sort of a shotgun approach?

Or, are they concentrating on building single pages and mini-sites for highly demanded products?

The Wolf Credo: Respect the elders. Teach the young. Cooperate with the pack. Play when you can. Hunt when you must. Rest in between. Share your affections. Voice your feelings. Leave your mark.

[Justdoit]

Hmm, I'm getting emails of replies posted to this thread but they are not showing up here yet? Is there a bug or are posts maybe stuck in the queue waiting for mod approval?

Of all the things I've ever lost ... I miss my mind the most!

[Adam Ward]

>I think it could be done Google-style, too, though--but after a certain point a non-Google traffic source (diversification) is required just to sleep well!

Well said!

I know a guy that was making $20K per month off Google traffic. Now it's GONE /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

Diversify networks, merchants and traffic sources - imo

[Zeus]

One of my keyword has been first position with Google since their beginning (fluctuation was never below 3, for short period of time). I was there even before they went Beta testing. It shows they are pretty stable. I just follow the rules, good content, no tricks.

It's not the big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow. Jennings & Haughton

[yintercept]

The poll probably should read "cleared $100,000" over expenses. Spending $90k on Google ads and making $100,000 in commissions is still a paltry $10k a year of income.

I voted low after reading the TD post that they doled out only $39K in commissions a month.

I don't know about porn. Although I would think the most interesting porn would require at least two people. Probably three if you include the person holding the camera.

I also excluded spam artists, since I don't consider things that send spam as people.

Missoula (http://missoula.ws) - Short Stories (http://rgreetings.com/WRITINGS.HTM)

[josephmonuit]

pron affiliates != pron producers.. big difference /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

I'd be more interested in the $1M figures..

And are we talking net or gross or what?

etc...

[Chris - AMWSO]

Two of our top five partners are individuals, they promote 3- 5 merchants in the same business area as Mondera on their site and they bring in an average of $1500 a month from each one, so they hit around $6,000 a month in the low season....and then Christmas arrives.

Cheers

Chris

Chris Sanderson
Mondera Partner Management
Mondera : Click Here (http://www.mondera.com)
Mondera Partner Support Zone : Click Here (http://www.mondera.com/affiliate_support/index.asp)

Web Studio-1 Solutions Co., Ltd : Click Here (http://www.webstudio-1.com/)
Microsoft Certified Partner
Affiliate Management and Marketing Solutions

[Zeus]

Chris,
Now, imagine you have 1O or more business areas. And Xmas is coming... As Haiko said:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>It CAN be done!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's not the big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow. Jennings & Haughton

[TravelNow]

Many of our top partners are single people or couples. For our products (travel) mall sites do little to no traffic and our top affiliates are one or two product sellers (many have one completely different program they work for diversity) with a lot of sites all selling hotels.

Top affiliates easily clear 100,000 gross as you can see from number I have posted in the past.

Most do outsource work such as design, programming, content creation and advertising.

One of my favorites recently told me he has automated or outsourced almost everything now and spends two hours a day working. He spent his first three years with us working hours that put the restaurant industry to shame- but he made it work!

Jessica Hutson
Manager of Affiliate Relations/Development
Interactive Affiliate Network
http://affiliate.travelnow.com/affiliates/home.jsp

[webmarm]

Yeah, that stick-to-it-until-it-works factor is a big one in breaking through the barriers of "my first minimum", "my first $100", "my first $1,000", "my bills are paid"... and on up.

- - - - -
42. Yup, the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

[Ladyboss]

Seems there can be a lot of different definitions in people's minds of the word serious affiliates.
If you are talking about making a good living from this then yes it can be done, just depends on the willingness to learn and put it into practice.
If you had told me a few months ago that this would work and I could make money doing this I would have thought you were nuts.
Now actually doing it and making money at it, and more every time new pages go up it gets addictive to make new sites.
My definition of serious will have no limit, only limit will be family time and creative energy into making more sites.
If you are lucky enough to make a few good friends along the way who you can bounce ideas off of then it helps. I guess I'll be serious when I see my dream log home on 10 acres paid for and enough money in the bank to retire.

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible..

[AffJus]

The way the question is asked, it's not really helpful.

Like someone pointed out, its not what you make, but what you keep. I know for sure I could be doing $100K/year but I'd have to spend $50,000 to do it. Which, I guess isn't so bad. But I'd like to keep that spending down to $10-20K/year.

As for "the nuts and bolts" Yes, I agree, in theory, there should be no problem doing this. But I don't know how you find the time to do it all. Maybe it's because I'm still on the steep side of the curve, but there is never enough time to get done what needs to be done.

Maybe once on the top of the curve it'll be different. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

http://SearchToSale.com - Turns your search box into money.

[canfree]

Aff Justice.

I don't know who would do that. Right now I don't pay out any advertising, and I can easily afford it. But I suppose there are people out who do spend 1/2 of their earnings. Someone around here said 10% is a good starting point.

And I think most people start putting their earnings into more sites. This is what I did. So my hosting fees went quite high, but was still paying for itself.

I really don't know what the answer is. But it's all about finding what works for you.

Example I totally can't sell electronics. I try, but don't succeed. Perhaps it's because I don't know enough about them to properly promote them. But give me some shoes and I can sell lots. Weird. So I give up on electronics, and will stick to what I know.

------------------------------------------------------------Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open. Thomas Dewar

[ecomcity]

Merchants have to understand that serious affiliates have to get a ROI too. If we spend PPC SE monies on keywords to get traffic to our pre-sell pages we demand conversions. Nothing discourages us more than to drop 200.00 into generating 1200 clicks on PPC traffic and get maybe 1 lousy sale. Merchants need to promote their actual network wide conversions ratios. More affiliates will promote more traffic to you if you convert...if not then you only get a hit -n-miss banner or two.

WebMaster Mike

[lws7744]

100,000 is very possiable. I average 6-8k per month gross by myself. But i sit here 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week.