Treating Your Affiliate Marketing Like a Business

Talk to any successful affiliate and they’ll tell you one thing – affiliate marketing is a business.  Sure, you can do it as a casual hobby, but if you want to make any real money, you have to start treating like you’d treat any other serious business.

All too often, you see promising new affiliates with all the talent and technical skills needed.  The problem, though, is that they want it to be easy.  Even though they may go to their day jobs and spend 40 or more hours each week there, these same people are often hesitant to spend more than a few hours each week on their affiliate work.  If you want to replace your job or earn a full-time income, that just won’t work – at least not right away.

Still, some people aren’t sure what “treating affiliate marketing like a business” means.  To help you out, we’ve put together a few tips:

  • Put in the hours. You wouldn’t expect to have much success if you only spent a few hours each week at your “real” job, would you?  You have to put in time to build up your business at first before you’re going to start having success.  Of course, just like with a real job, you might be able to get away with a little bit less effort once you’re established and you know what you’re doing.
  • Give yourself a real workspace if at all possible.  Find quiet time alone to write articles, create pages, or set up ads for your efforts.
  • Make it a routine. No career is going to take off if you only come in when you feel like it.  Set up a regular schedule and stick to it, then watch your marketing take off!
  • Network.  Success comes much more quickly to those with connections.  Contact your affiliate managers to get suggestions.  Talk to other affiliates on forums.  Be careful, though, that networking doesn’t take up too much of your time and distract you from real work.  You need balance.

When you treat your affiliate marketing like a business, you’re not only going to put in more work, but you’re going to send yourself a subconscious signal that you’re serious.  These simple changes are often the difference between successful affiliates and those who try forever without success.  At Chinavasion, we’re committed to helping our affiliates achieve their maximum success.  Feel free to contact us at any time with questions!