My love for AM came from a HATE for work.
I think almost everyone reaches a point throughout their career where they question if this is the best lifestyle choice they can possibly have. It happened to me fairly early. One year into my career and I was doubting the whole thing.
Two years in and I quit work to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. I had NO clue what I was in for but I knew I wanted to make this work. Sacrificing my work and career to make this happen was proof to me of how far I was willing to go to make this happen.
Transitioning to entrepreneurship let alone AM is usually a long windy path. It’s usually that way because we don’t give it the time it deserves.
Ask yourself this, if you gave your current full-time job 2 hours a day as opposed to a full-time 9-5 focus 5 days a week, how long would it have taken you to get to the level your at now?
you’re probably a pro at work which is great, but there were a lot of hours of work, blood, sweat and tears that were put in for you to get to that level. Why would it be any different for AM?
Affiliate marketing is no different. Think of it like a career. If you want to make it your dream, give it the focus it deserves. i know some affiliates that would come home after a 10 hour work shift and put in another 6 hours towards AM. It didn’t take them long to hit the numbers they wanted and quit work.
I understand that everyone’s situation is different but the reality is the same. You need to put in good quality, productive hours of hard labor to get this working. Below I’ll list down a bunch of changes I made that helped me become more productive with AM. Whether you’re doing it for 2 hours or full-time the below should help,
Eat Healthy
If you don’t eat healthy, start doing so. How are you going to find the focus and energy to work on something else once you’re done with work? I have 2-3 raw smoothies a day which amount to 1000-1500 calories of healthy fruits and veggies.
I bounce out of bed at 5:00am ready to go, focused on my work and with enough energy to last me the whole day. I used to take sleep breaks, now I don’t feel sleepy at all.
Sleep Early – Wake up Early
The morning is one of the most beautiful parts of the day. It’s quiet and there is nothing that can distract you. If you can get a good 2-3 hours of work in before the rest of the world wakes up, I can guarantee you they’ll be the most productive of your day.
NO SOCIAL MEDIA
Mark Zucherberg and his team are so damn good at distracting us that I’ve banned myself on checking FB during the day. The less distractions the better.
Immerse Yourself in Affiliate Knowledge
Long drive to work and back? Listen to AM podcasts/interviews on the way. Got some time to kill at work? Instead of going for a smoke break, open up Affiliate forums. I’m part of both Aff Playbook and STM and they’re both gold to me. Gold nuggets there are endless and 90% of my income was generated from ideas that were inspired by information in the forum.
Put Some Money In – See What Happens
A big part of the transition is to detach yourself from money. It’s hard to put your hard earned money in to something you’ve probably never made money in but at some stage throughout you’re journey you need to be able to leverage good quality traffic sources/tools/programs and general products that make your affiliate life more achievable. Set aside $10-$20 a day and put it in a traffic source. You learn quickest when your money is at stake.
Hopefully everyone reading this has a long time to live so at the end of the day you don’t HAVE to give it 8 hours a day but the reality is, if you want to make this an income source that can match or surpass your work income, you need to make it a top priority and not something you give an hour here and there to.
All the best
~ Mateen
Another Awesome Post!
I hear you mate and i feel yah!
Hey mateen,
great post, but would love to hear more on how did you plan your day while you were working fulltime ?
I am part of affplaybook , and bit woried to start follow along as i am scared what if ppl would steal
the ideas , keywords etc.
I know its my limited mindset ,which probably is a road block to my success.
I read almost all your follow along which are just great , thats making me to think of starting the same and ramp up my success with ppv.
“If you are loosing money , Competition is the last thing you should worry about -Chris Record ” This line made me to decide to start a follow along.
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Hey Samir,
Actually when I was working I did very little affiliate marketing, (I actually was looking into starting a franchise), and so when I came home I’d go straight to my whiteboard and map out what steps I needed to make to get this franchise going.
I finally realized that I need to just jump in and see what happens so I quit work and started entrepreneuring full-time.
Don’t worry about competition, it’s best to show as much as you’re comfortable so you can advance at the fastest pace possible. The more you reveal, the more you can be guided but at the end of the day it’s whatever you’re comfortable with.
The morning is one of the most beautiful parts of the day. It’s quiet and there is nothing that can distract you….
That sounds a lot like the night too 🙂 I’ve been an online affiliate marketer 10 years straight and i go to bed 3-4 am. those 3-4 hours after midnight can be the most productive.
I used to do a lot of my university studies late in the night. Basically any time period people aren’t around to bug you, there’s not much else you can do but work. 10 years? I wish I had gotten in that early!