I've been a professional poker player since I was 19. I'm now 23 and am probably going to try out affiliate marketing. We'll see. I'm not sure what the point of this post is, but it's not to brag.
My Considerations
1) Some days, I just can't play poker. And some days, you only can play for a few hours. You have to be in the right mood to play poker, otherwise it's easy to bleed money. If I lose too much in one day I will just quit as a preventative measure. Chances are I'm not playing that good or it would hurt my brain to continue. It would be useful to have something else to focus on when I don't play.
2) I feel like it would be nothing but a positive thing to diversify my income sources.
3) On a similar note, online poker is facing big time challenges from ignorant politicians around the world. To them, there is no difference between poker and slots...which is completely wrong. The US passed some legislation on the end of a port security bill a couple of years ago that caused a lot of poker sites to withdraw from the US market. That will go into effect December this year, and, as slow as politicians are correcting their mistakes, nothing for sure is going to prevent it from happening. I understand the government targets affiliates as well, but I don't see it going away or facing anywhere near the kind of ignorance that confronts poker.
4) Starting out, I will be making significantly less money per hour than I would if I was playing poker. That obviously feels wrong. I think this is the primary hurdle. I could spare three hours per day to learn some stuff, if that's what it took. I'd feel pretty bad about spending more time than that, except on the days I just don't feel like playing. Like most people starting out, I know next to nothing about programming/anything about websites/ad platforms.
5) I have more money than most beginners. From what I've read this can't be a bad thing.
6) I would say about 60-70% of days are winning days and the rest are losing days, and that's if you're good. You can lose even if you play well. With loss comes constant questioning of your game, which can easily bleed into the rest of your life. Even if most players are striving for this not to happen, I would say that most players overall happiness is tied to the state of their bankroll at the end of the day. If you lose three days in a row, even if you played fine and it's not really your fault, you won't be feeling so hot if those losses were big ones. The worst feeling in poker is making $30,000 in a week and losing it all back in two days, or a day, or an hour. It makes your previous week seem like a complete waste of time (even though it wasn't) and you'll feel like you have a long road ahead of you.
To sum it up: losses suck. The guarantee of losing on a regular basis is the worst thing about poker. I know you can lose money as an affiliate when testing offers, but after that, is it even close to as bad as poker (loss-wise) or is it mostly profit once you iron things out and watch everything closely?
7) I read accounts of some "super affiliates" making five figures a day. It's easy to do the same in poker (brag: I've made six in a day), but it's just as easy (no, easier) to do the opposite and lose five figures in a day (beat: I've lost six in a day). Obviously, these people are the exception rather than the rule. If you dedicate yourself, and are smart, I'm not sure how much of an exception achieving that is. I guess there's only one way to find out.
8) I feel like I might have the right personality for it. I'm obsessive when it comes to learning something I'm interested in and doing it. I am skeptical and realistic. I'm not sure if that's such a good trait to have when you're selling total junk, but it was helpful when I was reading about all of this stuff. It helped me avoid buying all of the $37 eBooks and 40 year old "newbies" in the other forums. If I read about another self-described 50yo "newb" or "newbie" I might snap. I think I've also got a good grasp on whose blogs are fluff and whose aren't.
9) Poker is always evolving and the games will continue to get harder. Which is fine and to be expected. I guess the same can be said for affiliate marketing. I think I'll always be able to make decent money playing poker, but don't want to have to rely on it when I'm 50 and all of the games are solved/overrun with pros.
..
Reading over this, it sounds like I obviously want to give it a try. I know the next thing I need to do is actually do something and stop reading. I guess I'll try to join some affiliate networks. That said, would you start if you were in my situation or would you try to play more poker and spend time on this when/if poker fails? The main obstacle is the earning less per hour part...and not having much of a clue.
Also, go ahead and ask any questions about poker or playing poker professionally if you're interested. FYI, I'm typing this after losing $7k in my first hour of play/quitting.
My Considerations
1) Some days, I just can't play poker. And some days, you only can play for a few hours. You have to be in the right mood to play poker, otherwise it's easy to bleed money. If I lose too much in one day I will just quit as a preventative measure. Chances are I'm not playing that good or it would hurt my brain to continue. It would be useful to have something else to focus on when I don't play.
2) I feel like it would be nothing but a positive thing to diversify my income sources.
3) On a similar note, online poker is facing big time challenges from ignorant politicians around the world. To them, there is no difference between poker and slots...which is completely wrong. The US passed some legislation on the end of a port security bill a couple of years ago that caused a lot of poker sites to withdraw from the US market. That will go into effect December this year, and, as slow as politicians are correcting their mistakes, nothing for sure is going to prevent it from happening. I understand the government targets affiliates as well, but I don't see it going away or facing anywhere near the kind of ignorance that confronts poker.
4) Starting out, I will be making significantly less money per hour than I would if I was playing poker. That obviously feels wrong. I think this is the primary hurdle. I could spare three hours per day to learn some stuff, if that's what it took. I'd feel pretty bad about spending more time than that, except on the days I just don't feel like playing. Like most people starting out, I know next to nothing about programming/anything about websites/ad platforms.
5) I have more money than most beginners. From what I've read this can't be a bad thing.
6) I would say about 60-70% of days are winning days and the rest are losing days, and that's if you're good. You can lose even if you play well. With loss comes constant questioning of your game, which can easily bleed into the rest of your life. Even if most players are striving for this not to happen, I would say that most players overall happiness is tied to the state of their bankroll at the end of the day. If you lose three days in a row, even if you played fine and it's not really your fault, you won't be feeling so hot if those losses were big ones. The worst feeling in poker is making $30,000 in a week and losing it all back in two days, or a day, or an hour. It makes your previous week seem like a complete waste of time (even though it wasn't) and you'll feel like you have a long road ahead of you.
To sum it up: losses suck. The guarantee of losing on a regular basis is the worst thing about poker. I know you can lose money as an affiliate when testing offers, but after that, is it even close to as bad as poker (loss-wise) or is it mostly profit once you iron things out and watch everything closely?
7) I read accounts of some "super affiliates" making five figures a day. It's easy to do the same in poker (brag: I've made six in a day), but it's just as easy (no, easier) to do the opposite and lose five figures in a day (beat: I've lost six in a day). Obviously, these people are the exception rather than the rule. If you dedicate yourself, and are smart, I'm not sure how much of an exception achieving that is. I guess there's only one way to find out.
8) I feel like I might have the right personality for it. I'm obsessive when it comes to learning something I'm interested in and doing it. I am skeptical and realistic. I'm not sure if that's such a good trait to have when you're selling total junk, but it was helpful when I was reading about all of this stuff. It helped me avoid buying all of the $37 eBooks and 40 year old "newbies" in the other forums. If I read about another self-described 50yo "newb" or "newbie" I might snap. I think I've also got a good grasp on whose blogs are fluff and whose aren't.
9) Poker is always evolving and the games will continue to get harder. Which is fine and to be expected. I guess the same can be said for affiliate marketing. I think I'll always be able to make decent money playing poker, but don't want to have to rely on it when I'm 50 and all of the games are solved/overrun with pros.
..
Reading over this, it sounds like I obviously want to give it a try. I know the next thing I need to do is actually do something and stop reading. I guess I'll try to join some affiliate networks. That said, would you start if you were in my situation or would you try to play more poker and spend time on this when/if poker fails? The main obstacle is the earning less per hour part...and not having much of a clue.
Also, go ahead and ask any questions about poker or playing poker professionally if you're interested. FYI, I'm typing this after losing $7k in my first hour of play/quitting.
