Affiliates full or part time ?

[marky]

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Hi and Good Afternoon

My name is Mark and I am new to this forum

I know this subject has been mentioned before, but I was interested to find out now, aproximately what proportion of affiliates also have a full time 9-5 type job.

Of the the people who are affiliate marketing full time, how long did they work for someone else at the same time ?

I only ask, as I am fairly new to this game, only having started last year. I also have a full time job (which can be ludicrous hours) . I would like to work towards doing this full time in a year or so, and am also aware that time spent working for someone else is slowing my personal plans down. At what point do you say ..blow it I'm retiring from 9-5 to run my life from a laptop in the caribbean ?

I would be very interested to hear any personal stories

Many thanks

Mark

p.s. I am not a journalist ...

[KieronD]

Well I did affiliate marketing part time for a year whilst holding down a full time "real" job too. I made sure that I had enough in the bank to cover a year's worth of mortgage payments, bills etc. before I took the leap though. But what a great feeling when I did become a full time affiliate, nothing better than being your own boss and working to make yourself money, not someone else.

Cheers!

Kieron

[marky]

ohh ...its like waiting for Christmas ... the great day of resigning and everyone asking which company you are going to ...your own...congratulations for doing it.
Many thanks for the advice on the cash front. I kinda thought about the savings side of things and have the beginnings of a buffer (tried really hard to be more frugal) .
Was your job at all related to affiliate marketing ? I mean even from working for say a widgit company with an affiliate program ? My own job doesn't have any similarities ...

anyone else out there on this cold Sunday afternoon ?

Many thanks

Mark

[dungdee]

I don't live on the money i earn but its a nice extra

[marky]

similar story to me, I have yet to actualy take a penny in earnings.
Small profit made which is banked to finance new websites (only been doing this shortly) most revenue seems to cover my credit card bill which I use for ppc etc.
I started doing this thinking I could maybe get an extra holiday out of it, but I now want to do this full time. A time will come where I will either be succesful enough to leave my job, or I will have the balls to get out ...
Anyone who made the break know what it was that helped them make that desision ? ..or anyone about to do it or seriously thinking about it for the very short term ?

Rgds

Mark

[morleymouse]

well I went from full-time aff marketing (kind of) to a part-time real job. why? because I was getting fat and lazy at home all day.

currently work monday (9am-5pm), tuesday (9am-Finish > about 10pm) & Thursday (9am - 1pm ish) as the part-time real stuff.

do aff marketing when ive nothing else to do.

contract web work, design, scripting etc when it comes in.

and out of everything I do, the part-time real work pays the least.

and only reason I have a real job is because of stuff I picked up doing affiliate marketing, and from this forum. so I really do owe a lot to everyone on here.

on a side note, booked 2 weeks in crete for this summer! gotta love affiliate marketing at christmas

[marky]

I quite like that balance. There is no way my employer would go for it , but a three day week would be perfect. Never work another Monday morning again ..except in my pj's at my pc ...

has anyone else gone from full time affiliate to going back into working to someone else ? I mean this could be for more reasons than salary, like missing office atmosphere (?) to wanting to give time to help others like working for a charity or vso type organisation ? Or maybe an employee gym membership ......

Re Morleymouse at Christmas , did anyone actualy make a sale on Christmas Day ?

My stuff is mainly finance, so Christmas was quiet on the affiliate thing.

I think i need some fresh air ...

[Tauctionshop]

Hi guys I am also new at this affiliate thing but no luck yet can someone please give some cool tips that will help me and other affiliate user how to improve affiliate and make real money from it Thanks .

[marky]

Hi

I don't think any experienced guys out there are going to tell people how it is done just like that, but why don't you summarise what you do very briefly with your interests ? What have you done that works so far, and what have you done that has failed. Maybe the responses will give you some insights

Rgds

Mark

[dungdee]

Product feed is good and pays well

[morleymouse]

Re Morleymouse at Christmas , did anyone actualy make a sale on Christmas Day ?

actually, yes, made a few! scared me, why were people shopping on christma day?!

[KieronD]

Originally posted by marky
Was your job at all related to affiliate marketing ? I mean even from working for say a widgit company with an affiliate program?
Mark

No, not at all. I was a Sales Manager for Nestle Rowntree.

But I suppose that was the good thing about it, after a full day of real work talking chocolate and managing people it was nice to switch off and concentrate on something totally different.

Kieron

[Frostie]

One day I may jump ship - but first of all I have to get out of this country. My plan is to use and abuse my employer to get me into another country, continue working there for a bit, then go fulltime aff business.

My real job involves a bit of web design, but thats where any similarities stop.

One word of warning, don't forget the tax man when you are saving a little here and there or paying your credit cards / holidays etc. Even if you just ring them and say 'Look, I make an extra £50 per months which aint taxed, how do I go about it?'. Tis best to let them know, and you will probably be exempt from paying Class 2 NI contributions on small amounts.

This year, I am planning on concentraing big time on feeds - FEEDS - FEEDS Just incase networks didn't hear it. Both networks and merchanst could make it a lot easier by introducing a standrad across all networks, and inisit that merchants keep them as up to date as possible. Fingers crossed this will be the big thing this year.

1 other thing - never give in, and keep pluging away as in the long run it will be worth it. Keep this site book marked too, as we are a helpful bunch at times , and welcome on board.

[km8]

Originally posted by Tauctionshop
Hi guys I am also new at this affiliate thing but no luck yet can someone please give some cool tips that will help me and other affiliate user how to improve affiliate and make real money from it Thanks .

Traffic

[km8]

Originally posted by km8
Traffic

OK, that was brief, but none the less true.

What I meant was that you should look at doing something that will draw traffic, then monetise that traffic. Not the other way round. If you are still in employment, look at building something that people will visit - then see how you can make money from it.

My history:
Persuaded my employer I could do the work from another country
Moved.
Worked for them for another year, during which I planned and set up a website.
Told myself I wasn't making money because I didn't have enough time o: so I resigned
Spent 4 years making half what I needed to live on
Racked brains while even that income stream dwindled, as did savings
Tried everything I could to supplement income, all the while kicking myself for resigning a good salary (and spending savings at a rate of knots) - web design, fixing computers, odd-jobs, applied for real jobs, sent wife to work, economised
Finally (duh!) noticed that the traffic to my main site was making an odd sale from the totally irrelevant banners I was showing
That was 12 months ago
A light went on - so I researched ways to monetise traffic and tested for 6 months with money I couldn't afford to lose
It looked encouraging so I reinvested the return
Now, 12 months on, I wonder how I was so dim

But from all I've learned, I would say the key to success is traffic.
If you have traffic (for virtually any subject) you have *potential* income. Hence my original reply.

Go for it, but make use of that luxury of a paycheck coming in! Don't jump ship, like I did, until you know what you're doing. It's no fun supporting a family on 50% of outgoings!

Oh - and I should say, I don't remember exactly what switched on the light but there's a very good chance it was this forum - so thanks everybody