What separates the best from the rest?

[Clickbooth CMO]

I have been an affiliate and now sit from a birds eye view and watch countless affiliates fail, and watch a few really take it to an insane level. The one common trait that they all have is obviously, a drive to become wealthy, but the one differentiator is the love for the shit they are doing. You have to truly love this shit man. I see guys come in all pumped up, eager to learn everything they can, and after 3 months of struggling give up and move on because they never really had a passion for aff. marketing, they just wanted to make a quick buck. If you are here JUST to make a quick buck get out, b/c you will inevitably fail. The guys you are competing against will have more passion and will outwork your ass and in the end win.

So what I'm trying to say is, its not about what aff tracking software you use, what software you set up your lp's on, where your buying traffic from etc. in the end, if you have the passion and the love for this shit, that will all fall in place and you will mack it. If you really love what your doing you never give up on it....if you are contemplating giving up, you've already lost, because you dont have the mindset needed to succeed in this game.

 

[Aplchian]

their online handle

 

[jdomaha]

If you have people depending on you to put food on the table, don't listen to the guys telling you to take risks.

Play conservatively. Do not spend more than you can afford to lose, and be conservative with how much you tell yourself you can afford to lose.

Take it slow until you can take it up a notch. Put money away, both for re-investment in your business and for an emergency.

When you run overbudget, don't chase it by spending more. Take a break. Look over your stats. See if you can figure out what you did right and wrong. Work on some projects that you've been keeping on the back burner that won't cost you. Build links. Network.

Refine your process. When you get something profitable, try to scale it. You've already done the basic research, so there's less investment cost there as you scale up an already successful formula.

Don't lose that fucking health insurance if someone's depending on you. My 3 month old kid's going in for surgery to put tubes in his ears to keep ear infections from coming back every week. It'd cost $50k (probably more) if I didn't have insurance.

 

[mfishy]

When you find something that works, hammer the living shit out of it. Do not get distracted by "what's next" - milk it for every dollar possible. IME many opps never come around again.

As for sustainable, I do not believe in "long term". Only opportunity. The largest companies in the world, with some of the best and brightest, plan and plan but still often sink. They all have one thing in common though. The founders/bosses cash out HUGE.

 

[EvanCPC]

1 thing separates the best from the rest: work ethic. 6 figs a month doesn't mean shit if you can't sustain it. You won't be able to sustain it unless you focus and work hard.

Simple, but well said. I've worked with 5,000+ different marketers in my career and aside from 'deep pockets,' what really separates the elite from the marginal partners is tireless dedication and constant willingness to learn. This space is for the tireless & the curious, and those that keep learning and are able to apply that knowledge on a daily (hourly? minute-ly?) basis are the ones that succeed. Take NeverBlue, for instance - they were a partner of mine in 2003 when Todd Dunlop (CEO that sold out in 2007 to Vertrue) was a one-man operation. He was available all day and night, and would contact me at 8am, Noon, 6pm, midnight on weekdays, weekends, Holidays. He simply busted his ass, and now you all see the results of that labor. Obviously each person has different goals, but that ethos is what made him different than some equally-talented partners.


Ev

 

[Fiver]

I have a couple of kick ass one column landing page style WP themes so theres no sidebar distractions. I also integrate an aff banner as the header image so all clicks there go straight to the offer. eg: WordPress Themes for Internet Marketers | How Internet Marketers Can Use Blogs (scroll down to 'download all 3 free themes')

Veering off topic and i should probably start a new thread on this, but is Tracking 202 recommended for low traffic sites? I read on the prosper202 site that you should use prosper if you want to protect your keywords (makes sense), but i also read its a large script. Does it need to be installed on every site, or can i track many sites from one installation?

Im currently using a cheapie reseller account so dont know if prosper202 would be ok on that.

As for passing keywords keywords to the landing page.. i have no idea how to do that but i know its something i need to learn.

Prosper is a breeze to install. Tracking each ad on the other hand is somewhat of a pain.

 

[ruins411]

you know the more and more i play in this game the more i think this testing thing is a smokescreen. sure, testing can take you from 7-8% (or more) CR but its the research that makes the difference to me. i guess what i mean i mean is i wouldn't walk into a gunfight with my cock in my hand. knowing my market has proved far more profitable and quicker to me.

From what I've seen and heard I definitely agree with everything itchy has say in this post. You've gotta be a stat nerd and always testing, and you gotta be a research nerd and know how to do that shit too.

One of my top affiliates put it really well I though "Think of every campaign like you're starting a business. You can think its a good idea and just try it and then tweak from there. Or you can do your research and see if you have the resources available to make it happen. I wouldn't try to start a car company with no capital and a shitty product..."

Same holds true here. Do your research, figure out if you can do it better, and then test n optimize the shit out of your stuff.

I think you've all missed out on the creativity thing too. You gotta be able to think up an angle and get creative to be really succesful.