These 10 affiliate programs are just the beginning of phone number lead possible. There are hundreds of ways to earn affiliate commissions with your website, including product reviews, top 10 lists, how-to guides, and more
But what about traffic and conversions? How do you make sure your affiliate links get clicked?
I used the affiliate training here to turn my brand new top 10 seo tips for retailers into a six-figure income generator in less than two years. Build a business, not just a pocket-money side project!
Though those two experiences, I learned that it’s possible to start at zero, knowing nothing, and become an expert at something if you practice every day. Cool right?
I also learned that spending a lot of time learning useless stuff means that when you stop finding value in a skill, you lose it and are no longer an expert. I stopped playing guitar after high school and quickly reverted to playing cowboy chords. After leaving the Czech Republic to move to China and learn Chinese, I found myself singapore phone list Czech words daily.
If you don’t use it, you lose it.
Both ideas ended up being 100% correct. 10 years after starting my first blog, I’m still blogging. I make more money each year, and learn new skills to improve my business.
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A Blog Business Is Multidisciplinary
Actually, one very cool thing I learned about affiliate blogging is that as my interest waxes and wanes, I can shift the focus of my business and still grow my income.
Some years, I may want to focus on getting my hands dirty and writing personalized, top-tier content. Other years, I may want to broaden my traffic base and spend a bunch of money outsourcing. I can work on branding, or I can work on building an effective team. There’s no single “build a business” skill, so there’s always something to improve.
Whether it’s learning how to get more traffic, or optimize current sales, or outsource tasks and free up more time to think about high level business strategy, I’m on an “up and to the right” trajectory. If I burn out or get bored of one thing, I can move onto the next and not completely lose all that I’ve built so far.
The shifting, flowing nature of affiliate blogging is what makes it such a great hobby. There’s always something to do. Always something to get better at.
The Hobby That Pays
I’ve found that with other hobbies I hit a wall at some point where the choice is to “go pro”, or forever be disappointed in my skills.
I learned how to play guitar pretty well. I knew lots of cool songs, and could rip some guitar solos too. I never did join a band though. It just seemed like so much time to practice and I really wasn’t that into it. I was good, but not that good, and so I lost interest after a while.
The same with Czech, and then Chinese. I became fluent in these languages, but only conversationally. The level of dedication required to take my skills to the next level would have required a severe increase in time spent studying – time I wasn’t willing to sacrifice. I pretty much hit a wall at “excellent conversationist” and never progressed past that.
With my business, it’s different.
For one, I can’t quit not. I’ve got a mortgage. So there’s always that fire lit under my ass to get the work done.
You Can Make As Much (Or Little) Money As You Want
On top of that however, there’s literally no ceiling to the income I could earn, so I can dream all day and work towards those dreams. I’ve got a lifetime to get there.
Want a house? Work hard to get one. Want a Dodge Viper? Work hard to get one. Want a vacation house in the Caribbean? Work hard to get one. Those are within my reach, and they push me to work harder to make my business better.
Building a business that I can rely on to support my family and that allows me to dream of financial freedom and luxury (even if it’s just the luxury of time) is never boring.
I highly recommend adopting making money online as your hobby as well. There will always be a new Netflix movie. There will always be another PS5 game. You can never claw back that time though. You can’t get paid to watch Netflix. The PS5 isn’t going to improve your quality of life.
Contrast that with blogging to make money online, which can help you achieve your life goals of freedom and luxury, and it’s hard to imagine that you just need to spend a few hours per day to become a blogging expert.