Success seems elusive to many people, perhaps that’s why you’re here reading this now. It doesn’t have to be though. The secret to success in any endeavor is the journey. From the thought that conceived it, to the results it produces. That journey, or process, has been well documented over the years.
The problem most people encounter is defeat, and the natural human response to “give up” when faced with temporary defeat. And often enough many people give up at the step right before success. We are all guilty of this at some point or another in our lives. We must understand that in any endeavor we are sure to encounter temporary defeat and setbacks.
As Napoleon Hill wrote “Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach“. In this article, we will delve into the process of how we ensure our success and learn how to be successful at Affiliate Marketing. I will also have a FREE copy of Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” waiting for you and the end of the article. Although this book was written nearly 80 years ago, its principles are sound, and in one form or another still used today by business owners and successful marketers alike. I highly encourage you to download this PDF, print it out if you need to, read it, more than once and reference it often.
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The Creative Source Behind Your Affiliate Business
The creative source behind any endeavor is our thought, or desire to have or become something. In our case it’s the desire to become successful at our Affiliate Marketing business and make X amount of money doing it. Napoleon Hill breaks it out into 6 steps whereby you define the amount of money you wish to make in your business, what you intend to give for the money you receive, a definite date that you will possess the money, create a plan to carry out your desire, and write out a concise statement stating the above, and read it aloud twice daily. While reading it, you must see and feel as though you already possess the money from your successful Affiliate Marketing Business.
You’ve probably heard this before in some shape or form, but I assure it does work. See chapter 1 in Think and Grow Rich for great detail.
I’ll tell you my own first encounter with this process. When I was in my early 20’s I came across a book that outlined this exact process. I was skeptical about it, but I had a burning desire to own a new Ford Mustang but didn’t really have the finances to buy one. I read my statement aloud twice a day, once upon waking, then again before bed. I did it for about a month, then I moved and lost the paper I had written it on, but I always had the basic premise of the statement in the back of my mind.
I owned a Ford Probe, a small sporty car, I had gotten from a used car lot. The car was continually having transmission problems, most of which was covered under my warranty, fortunately. It had been about two years since I had first followed the process of reading my desire about the Ford Mustang aloud. One day on a trip to Nashville, Tn the dang car started smoking, blowing transmission fluid out. I had it towed to the service center where they checked it out and was then running fine again. I was at wit’s end with the stupid Probe, and drove straight to my local Ford dealership and told them I wanted to trade it in for a Mustang. This was a spur of the moment thing, and I didn’t really think I’d be able to get a new Mustang. To my surprise, they gave me much more trade-in value than it was worth, and it happened to be late autumn and they were trying to get rid of the old year’s inventory. Long story short, I got a new silver Mustang, 5 speed, no cash down, and a monthly payment I could afford.
A few months later I opened an old picture album and out fell the original paper I had written my desire for a new Ford Mustang! It blew my mind. I had gotten the object of my desire, just as I had penned it down two years earlier. However, I had still not fully grasped the entire process need to obtain more burning desires in my life.
Knowledge, Imagination, and Planning
In order to understand how to be successful at Affiliate Marketing vs. obtaining a new Ford Mustang, we need to do a little more than trade in our car and take out a loan. This has to do with obtaining the knowledge we need concerning Affiliate Marketing and putting that knowledge to good use in a plan.
In the days of Napoleon Hill, knowledge was obtained through experience, higher education, libraries, or finding others that had the knowledge you needed and somehow convincing them to cooperate with you. Today, we have the internet. And what a blessing it is. Knowledge for just about anything you desire is available at your fingertips, as well as access to all the people that will pay YOU for some specialized knowledge or product.
Everything we need to know about Affiliate Marketing is out there on the internet. Most of it free for the taking. But how do we know what information we need, and which is the right plan to implement. We can research the internet until we think we’ve found the right formula or try to re-invent the wheel, but that doesn’t sound very fruitful. A better way would be to follow those who have already done it, and are continuing to do it, day in and day out. The best place I know of that you can do that is Wealthy Affiliate. We can find all the right knowledge, all the right people, the right tools, and all the right plans in order for us to learn how to be successful at Affiliate Marketing, plus it’s FREE to join, no credit card needed!
So now we know where to get the knowledge and how to create a plan and use that knowledge. Now we need to mix in some imagination and start implementing it. It is said that “Whatever a man can conceive, he can achieve“. Remember the Tower of Babel in the Bible? In the book of Genesis, the people were building a tower unto the heavens in order to be like God. Of course, God confused their language so they could not continue to build the tower, but he also said: “now that they have done this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them“.
Through man’s creative imagination we have passenger jets, space stations, the internet, cell phones, cars, etc. We must use our creative imaginations as we implement our Affiliate Marketing plans. By doing this we are transforming our desires into their physical form which is our Affiliate Marketing business and the money it generates for us. Imaginations generate new ideas for content, creative websites, new ideas for niches, and so on. It’s not uncommon for new people entering the world of Affiliate Marketing to be lacking a little in the creative aspect of their imagination (this was me). Once we begin using our creative imagination again, ideas and content will start pouring forth like an uncapped oil well. It just takes a little practice and patience. See chapter 6 in Think and Grow Rich.
Persistence and Power
Persistence is will-power. Persistence is absolutely essential in learning how to be successful at Affiliate Marketing. We cannot write just one article, we must utilize our will-power to continually produce content for our Affiliate Marketing websites. The same goes for your niche. You can make money in any niche as long as there are people out there who need your product. It may take several tries to get your website the way readers like it. You must be persistent and work on your business every day. It may be slow going at first, but as you get persistent, and improve, it will become second nature. It is only through persistence that defeats will be changed into victory.
The contacts we acquire within our Affiliate world, whether that be Wealthy Affiliate or some other like-minded platform of users, will aid us in becoming persistent in implementing our business. Remember our burning desire to be successful Affiliate Marketers, coupled with the persistent implementation of our plans, is what will bring forth the physical results we desire.
Power is also essential for our success as Affiliate Marketers. Power is the organized effort required to transform our desire into money. Power comes from our creative imagination, knowledge, experience, other like-minded people we work with, and research into new ideas and methods. Working in harmony with other like-minded people working toward the same goal can give you a tremendous amount of power.
Avoiding the Pitfalls
It’s prudent to understand what are some common pitfalls in any business.
- Procrastination: Waiting for tomorrow to do your keyword research, or write some content. This is a killer in any business. Don’t’ put off what you can do today. Every day you should be engaged in your business if you want it to be successful. Things won’t happen unless we take persistent action.
- Indecision: This is one of those things that all of us experience sooner or later. Don’t put off key tasks because you can’t decide on a WordPress theme for example. Pick something and move on. You can always change your theme later. You must get in the habit of making definite decisions as quickly as possible.
- Too much talking: There people out there who will engage you in continuous conversation that is of little or no value. Stay focused, and avoid this kind of distraction. Keep a closed mouth, and open ears. Don’t get me wrong, you want to engage the right people, but avoid those who aren’t in alignment with your goals, or seek to take advantage of your plans.
- Follow the plan: It happens to all of us. We start off with good intentions, but instead of keeping with the plan, we veer off in other non-productive directions. Always follow your plan, step by step, and stay on course.
- Training: Train, Train, Train. Complete all required training. We like to think we can skip certain parts and be OK. That is not the case with Affiliate Marketing.
In Conclusion
We have covered the concepts from inception to realization. When it comes to how to be successful at Affiliate Marketing there is no single task you can do to become an overnight success like some would like you to believe. But by following the steps outlined here your work will pay off. I strongly encourage you to grab your FREE copy of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich below. It covers everything mentioned here in great detail, certainly more than I could include here in a single article. I wish you all the best in your business and great success.
Feel free to comment or ask questions.
To your success,
Michael
AffiliateMarketing101.com
Grab your FREE copy of Think and Grow Rich HERE
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