Super Affiliate
As we discussed in detail in the prior article, super affiliates have mindsets that push them to make mistakes faster because they realize that learning from their mistakes is the fastest path to success. They are also persistent and have a never-quite attitude. In addition to that, super affiliates know that to succeed they must reinvest the money they make in training, software, pay-per-click advertising, etc., if they hope to build their business into the 5-, 6-, and 7-figure range, and beyond.
The mindset of super affiliates is one that would rather build websites then spend their free time watching TV and they know they can succeed and never dwell on the failure stories of others. Rather than being a person who dreams about their dreams, the super affiliate takes action and makes their dreams come true.
A Step-by-Step Plan of Action
While no two affiliates follow exactly the same process, the first thing you must do to be a successful affiliate is to put a step-by-step plan of action into place and follow it daily. The following is an example plan of action that you should use as a starting point and modify to fit you and your work style:
- Daily Actions: Make sure your plan includes spending time each day working on something that actually furthers your business. This is extremely important, especially when starting out in business. You can be too easily distracted and get involved in things that take up your time but aren’t moving you closer to making a profit in your business.
- Major Time and Money Wasters: Don’t get into the habit of spending hours reading your email unless that email is currently bringing in cash. If your email is just loaded with offers that other affiliate marketers are trying to sell to you, then that’s not making you money but potentially spending your money. This is how so many marketers fall into the “shiny object” syndrome, where they constantly purchase training and software that they never apply to their business. And at the end of the year, they find they’ve wasted thousands of dollars buying products that they haven’t even implemented in their business. A good rule of thumb is to never by anything for your business that you don’t need and will not make use of right now.
- Time Management: The best way to avoid wasting time during your business day is to split your work day up between critical work and non-critical work. For example, schedule 50% of your day to work on projects that have the potential to bring money into your business while the remaining 50% of your day is devoted to less critical projects such as reading/answering emails, brainstorming new ideas to improve cash flow, etc.
- Develop Specific, Measured Goals: Without goals you won’t have any idea of how successful or unsuccessful you are. So make a list of both short and long term goals but make them reasonable goals. For example, rather than a goal that says you want to make seven figures in seven months, shoot for making over a thousand dollars a month in four months. Not that you can’t make seven figures in affiliate marketing, but chances are that it will take you a bit longer than seven months to do it. Goals that are more easily attainable will keep you excited and build up your energy and ideas while difficult goals that you find you can’s reach only serve to bring you down.
- Never Stop Learning: Even the top marketers are constantly studying and learning new things to help improve their businesses. Take their lead and gain as much knowledge as you can by taking courses, reading books, watching videos, podcasts, etc. But don’t let the learning take the place of your action! Especially beginning marketers often fall into the trap of constantly learning subject after subject and end up never taking any action. Remember, the only thing that will make you any money is taking action.
- Stay Fit and Healthy: Nothing is as bad for your body as sitting in front of a computer for eight or more hours a day. Even so, there are some things you can do to counteract the bad effects on your body. First, decide whether you’re going to sit or stand at your computer. Both have their pluses and minuses with the best option being to easily be able to switch between sitting and standing. But, if that’s not possible, here’s another option that been found to be one of the best (and simplest) things you can do to increase your health. If you sit all day, simply stand up every 20 minutes. You don’t have to walk around or do jumping jacks or anything else for this to be effective. Just the act of standing up for a few seconds works the magic. On the other hand, if you stand at your desk all day, sit down for a few seconds every 20 minutes. As crazy as this may seem, this was found to be effective in keeping you in better shape than standing or sitting all day long by a scientist who formerly worked with NASA astronauts to keep them in shape during space travel. Aside from that little trick, eating good food, drinking pure water, doing moderate exercise (simply walking works fine) and getting enough sleep regularly can work wonders for keeping you fit and healthy.
While some experts recommend that you hire help as soon as possible, I don’t. From the very beginning, I structured my business as a one-man band. Every course I took or software tool that I purchased was done to help me run my business solo. Why hire someone (and have to pay them) to do a certain job if you can buy a piece of software to do the same job as well or even better? Now I had a bit of a leg up in this department because I’m a musician and a computer programmer who has also had the opportunity to product video for major corporations and I also know my way around image design software. So I coded my own website, I developed my own logos, and videos, etc.
But if you don’t the benefit of that knowledge base, it’s not difficult to outsource it. There are many sites you can go to hire a freelancer to do whatever you need from logo design to entire website development. The best thing about hiring a freelancer is that you pay them to do a specific job and that’s the end of it. You don’t have to keep them on the payroll. Of course, this may change when you start making millions but you’ll be able to afford to hire employees once you start making that kind of cash.
Before we close this section, a final word of warning: When building your action plan and deciding how many hours to devote to your business on a daily basis, don’t forget to include room for your family, hobbies, and other things that are important in your life. If you devote 16 hours a day to your business and you have a significant other and/or family, your personal life will suffer. It’s not hard to balance business and pleasure but you’ve got to build it into your plan right from the start!
Starting Your Super Affiliate Biz
As important as it is to have a positive super affiliate mindset before you start your business, you must have realistic expectations. Regardless of what you do, you most likely won’t make a million dollars on day one! Becoming successful takes time. If you think that you can ramp up your business and make lots of money in not time at all, you’re going to be discouraged. Sure, that may happen for some marketers but not for the vast majority. If you get nothing else from this article other than a completed action plan, you’ve got a great start. Congrats! You’re already ahead of most marketers who start out in business flying by the seat of their pants!
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