The Obsession of Affiliate Marketing

When I started my affiliate marketing venture a few months ago, I was quite determined to make it work. A few things I have discovered over the my tenure:

1) There are a LOT of affiliate products, a LOT of forums, a LOT of pay-per-click (PPC) sites, a lot of eBooks, etc. on the internet.

2) A strong understanding of all the items listed in #1 are crucial for success.

3) Any type of SEO or PPC campaign require continuous fine-tuning, tweaking and improving.

4) Page Clicks, Impressions and Sales can occur at time, any day.

Add all four of these together and you can find yourself becoming OBSESSED with Affiliate Marketing! I kind of feel that if you are determined enough to make online marketing work, you will ultimate find yourself becoming addicted to it. I have to admit, I do work a normal 40 hour work week, but I do find myself (about 4 times per day) checking my Adsense account, my Adwords account, my Counter account, and my Clickbank account. One of the most fun aspects of this business is the real-time interaction with the internet. Getting a sale builds adrenaline! Getting low click-through-rates (CTR) drives you to develop better ads. Broken links on your website make you literally want to cry. And every success promotes further drive and desire to do more!

So here is were I (the San Diegan Marketer) says: "Chill out, dude!" I found myself spending every day on this stupid computer for about 2 months. This kind of pissed off my wife and kids a fair bit. Just like any job, you must learn to manage both your work and family appropriately. Therefore, about a month ago, I vowed that on Saturdays I would not even turn the computer on at all. Let me tell you, if is tough and I look at the computer about 3 times a day and think about checking it really quickly, but I do restrain myself. I also no longer jump on the computer first thing when I get home from work...I wait until the kids go to bed.

I always stress perseverance to succeed in internet marketing, but you need to be smart about it. One great thing about affiliate marketing is that you really are not under a time crunch. You control you own destiny and life; Don't let some like a silly money making venture take control of you!