Alright, it has been a while since I last posted. I’ve been away setting up my home network because I just bought a new mac. Hurray for me. No more windows. And I’m loving it.

Switching to Mac

I want to talk about the importance of having a goal. The most important thing to get ahead in life is to have a goal. Whatever it may be, looking for a job, prosperous business, gorgeous girlfriend, better car, more money on your paypal account, bigger checks, or better life. You must have a goal to be successful.

I want to state a simple scenario. For example you are applying for a job, and the boss asked you how much salary do you expect. One applicant says, “anything decent will do”. And the conversation will go as far like a game show that you can “haggle” your salary. Another applicant asked by the same question but stated the exact amount of salary he wants.

Who do you think will get hired?

If I were to bet my money, I will bet on the 2nd applicant. Because that guy has a goal set. Nobody wants a wishy washy, come what may person. Indecisiveness means lack of confidence which also means that when things got rough he’ll shit his pants and points his finger on other people.

Many people will want to get the least opportunity because they lack goals. An engineering graduate applying for a call center position just to get the money rolling for him after graduation is an indication that he lacks the goal and don’t have ambition. He might have dreams. But dreams are nothing but thoughts. If you don’t act upon those dreams you’re just satisfying your self approval that you’re doing enough.

Sure I understand, its hard to get a job these days and just take whatever come. I say, there’s nothing wrong with that and if you are really starving and needs any job today just to eat, then get it. But its always a belief of mine that the first career decision you make is crucial and it will be hard for you to stay away from as you grow older. The patterns you set when you are starting out will stick with you.

Let’s State Internet Marketing (Making Money Online) for Example

We all know adsense. How about having a goal of earning $1500 per month in adsense. Would that be good? Of course. Now, if we are to make a goal out of it, we can just say that on the first year you may want to focus your energy into earning money with adsense for just $300 per month. Not bad! $300 per month is just $10 per day. 2nd year, you want to focus earning $600 per month and so on. By your 5th year, you’ll have attained your $1500 per month on adsense. NOT THAT SHABBY!

Your Adsense Goal (5 Year Plan = $1500 per month)

1st Year: $300 / month
2nd Year: $600 / month
3rd Year: $900 / month
4th Year: $1200 / month
5th Year: $1500 / month

Having a goal rewards you. But you must work for it. How many people you know tried to make money on adsense but only to find out they gave up just on the 3rd month? Persistence, persistence, persistence. Persistence is such a great character trait. And it can be learned. Only by practice. If you have goals.. Procastination will always try to test your character and will want to kill Persistence. If you really want to be successful, 1 character trait to master is Persistence.

Why Have a Goal?

If you have a goal, your brain will ask “how”. And my friend, the best questions in the world are the questions that starts with “HOW?”. Because it stimulates the mind. Forcing you to think, to ask, and to make an action.

Based on our adsense example. If on my first year I only need to earn $300 per month, that’s $10 per day. I’ll go to my favorite web hosting provider, buy a hosting and make 10 sites that will earn me $1 per day and I’m on my way to clearing my first goal. Its not that hard when you think about it. You just need to act first and tell the “others” to shut up if they say it won’t work.

What is your goal?

“If you’re going through hell, keep going”

Winston Churchill

Sometimes, things don’t go as planned when doing affiliate marketing. You did the design of website, coded it, promoted it for months, yet, it still won’t take off. If you already exhausted all your options. There is one possible and probably the best thing to do - It’s to dump the site, save some time and move on.

I have received a mail lately asking such question: “What will I do if I can’t make my site profitable?”

It would be a waste if we just dump the site, right? After all It maybe getting traffic from the promotion you did. So the best answer I can give is to put contextual advertising in it. This should only be your last resort. Yes, you won’t be earning as much if its a full blown affiliate site. But hey, its already a dead horse, just make the best out of it.

What are Contextual Ads?

Contextual ads are a way of earning a commission by getting clicks on these ads placed on a link on your site.

Example of contextual advertising companies are:

• Adbrite
  Sign up as a publisher to sell ads. Probably one of the largest. It allows adult & warez themed sites too.
• Adsense
  The biggest contextual advertising site on the net owned by Google.

And they don’t ask you to pay for anything to join.

I’ve been sitting in my office thinking, there has been a lot of people jumping into affiliate marketing and find themselves confused and down as to why they can’t earn money from it. First of all, making money online is not just about affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is one of hundreds of ways to earn money online. It’s just a preference. I know a lot of people earning thousands of pesos per day in adsense, paid reviews, paid to click and filling online surveys and more. Affiliate marketing is just one of these ways. No other thing is better or best its just how you decide to focus and grow and be good at what you do.

First thing, if you want to dive in this industry there are things you should check first and evaluate your values if you are really into this industry and if you want to make it big. Though the promise of huge income is present in affiliate marketing, there are also consequences in return for the big prize:

• Affiliate marketing is not for the faint of heart. If you don’t want to spend money, this industry is not for you. You can lose a lot of money in this industry (big money) especially when you’re starting up. The figure below suggests that I must bid Php1,809 per click to show my ads.
• Long Hours Of Work. If you can not devote 16hrs - 24hrs working in front of the computer just to test out a niche for months and find out that it is not profitable, this is not for you. Affiliate marketing is an on going process of testing out everything. You want to know if you’ll earn big bucks in this particular niche? You have to test it for months. There is no guarantee that you can get your money back. Well, that is business. But once you got that particular niche that are doing good, it can give you money for years without doing anything.
• Frustrations. Most of the time, you’ll be dealing with google and their algorithm. Slaps are as natural as any affiliate marketer experience this. Most of the time, you’ll get slapped every week and your site will be black listed. After spending months developing the site, you have to make another one again, and again and again. If you are easily discouraged, affiliate marketing would be hard for you.
• You must be creative. People who are earning big bucks in affiliate marketing are very creative people. They know that everybody is doing this and that and that gives him the motivation to do another thing (might fail or succeed) but its worth the shot. You may lose time and money in the process but its really worth it.
• Tough Competition. If you’re doing adsense sites, you know that competition is fierce when it comes to optimizing current events. You may earn big money for that but because of competition it will diminish. Now multiply that competition by a hundred folds in affiliate marketing. Competition is not really bad. Its also a way to know how much money you can earn in a particular niche by knowing how much competition there is in the niche. Which can save you time in the long run.
• There is no one way to do affiliate marketing. I am guilty of this. When I started out, I sought out mentors that would teach me how to do affiliate marketing. What I learned from each person I asked is that, there is no one way to do affiliate marketing. You just have to know the basics (which you can get for free on the internet) and get out there and do it. Do not be afraid to lose money and fail because everything is a learning experience. Then after that, you will develop your own way.