How to become successful, lets do it!
Mar 13, 2008 I site.Almost daily I have people complaining about how they can’t seem to make more than a buck or two a day online. These are good, hard working people, almost all of them are really intellegent. Why can a guy like me make money, but they cant?
- Time Commitment
- Lack of Focus
- Lack of Skillset
- Lack of Connections
- No Killer Instinct
Time Commitment
Some of you jokers waste a lot of time. I am challenging you this - if you are new to this game, set aside 6 hours a night to it. Wow, deStone, thats a lot of time for a guy like me. No crap. I did it. I worked an 8am to 6:30pm job every day. I’d come home, log into irc, open up my eclipse dev setup, and start. A lot of times I would work until 3am, go to bed, and start again at 8am. Yeah, it sucks, but if your going to learn and be successful, you got to put in your time. Unfortunately, not all of us got to learn about Affiliate Marketing while we were in high school or college.
Lack of Focus
Go buy an nice, expensive moleskinne notepad from Borders. Write down all of your goals for the night in it — everything you need to get done. Use a new page every day, carry over the stuff you didnt finish to the next day. Jot ideas down in it. This book is your new lifeblood.
Find good mood music, and start lighting up your projects - be it creating a mass amount of PPC campaigns, facebook ads, or building a cloaking system for your super-duper-blackhat control center. Journal everything.
Quit wasting time in irc pestering people! I see so many people just sitting there on irc, waiting for someone to drop this super idea that is going to turn them into a millionaire. Guess what, the only way to strike it rich is to do it first and keep quiet about it!
Lack of Skillset
I’m putting this on the list just because I think a lot of people think they are too good to code their own stuff. I’ve met them, they continue to tell me on email “deStone, I’ll just outsource it”. Yeah, ok, whatever, Why are these jokers emailing me asking for tips if they are so sharp and have enough cash to outsource everything. Don’t get me wrong, outsourcing has its place, but a fundamental understanding of how to code and create systems is going to make you a winner in this business.
Lack of Connections
The ultimate fear, I remember it — talking to my first affiliate manager. Guess what guys, very few of those affiliate managers have a clue on how to drive traffic, build websites, or scale systems. All they do is interface offers to people. If your a newbie, guess what, your getting an affiliate manager that probably knows less about the business then you do! But guess what, those people hold the keys to success. Dont be scared to call them, dont freak out when they call you wanting to join their programs. Having a ton of affiliate programs, and good people to work with — that’s key!
Another important way to get connections — irc! Don’t be a douchebag - join our channels, idle, jump in every once and a while and share something but DO NOT COME IN ACTING LIKE YOU’RE GOD and start demanding people tell you how to do stuff.
No Killer Instinct
I’ve had terrible headaches for nearly 4 months now, daily. I have an amazing girlfriend that wants to spend more time with me. Trust me, I have 1000x more reasons to not be working on projects then you do. Hell, I didn’t feel like writing this blog post. But guess what, I have a killer instinct. I MUST SUCCEED. I will not let myself fail. And that drives me insane. It pushes me to staying focused. It forces me to meet new people and network. That instinct made me become a php ninja and css junkie last year. I can not fail. I will not allow it. Do you have that? If not, your not going to make big bucks in this business. I know a lot of people that have that kind of drive and desire — to be the best, and those people arent going to let ANY of you out-do them, especially if you’re lazy.
In conclusion
I know this post wasn’t technical at all - I just feel like every once and a while, a person needs to hear something like this to encourage them to keep building systems, keep starting new streams, and to continue to strive to be their best. Hell, I feel energized right now while I’m reviewing this — lets get to work, mates!
vich Says:
Great post.
And btw I finally got rid of that damned trojan so I’ll be online more often.
Vic
Mar 13, 2008, 9:02 pmShane Says:
Good stuff.
Like the moleskin notepad - I use a pad of plain lined paper myself … you can run a multi-million dollar operation with that and a stack of sticky notes.
Mar 13, 2008, 10:44 pmNenad ristic Says:
Nice ideas. I also used to carry a moleskine book, but recently switched to using a palmtop (I just find it easier to work with).
Do you use some sort of system to keep your time/projects/actions organised? I am a believer in GTD myself, although I am curious to see what other people do.
thanks for an interesting blog!
Mar 13, 2008, 3:23 ambarman Says:
LOL @ your killer instinct. You fuckin predator you
Mar 13, 2008, 8:20 amJason Says:
Hey deStone,
Your correct on every line of this post. Way to go.
Take myself for an example, I’ve been doing web design ( HTML ) since 1994, PHP since 1996 ( back in the FI days ) and Internet marketing since 1998. Sadly this was always for someone else ( the man ) and trying to improve and build on my skillsets to land a nice phat job in the corporate world. I had no experience in working for myself though or in selling a tangible/digital product on a site.
I did have the desire to earn my own money, but I took the route of freelancing for that, it wasn’t until about 2 years ago I got into Adsense part time ( full time was my corp job AND then what time I had at end of day was freelancing ) and I started to see I could make some income without working for others ( corp or freelance ). I didn’t get “serious” though until I tried some affiliate marketing along with adsense a few months ago and seen I could make “gas and lunch” money from it daily. I knew if I could make $10 a day from what little I invested into it, I could make $100 day and then move into higher goals.
I am at the point that I know I have a lot of the skills to do this on my own, but I am trying to shed my freelance clients and get more devoted to my own projects so that the time is there. I am already going to bed at 3am myself a lot of time, its just changing my focus of that time to my own ventures.
I most likely fail at the connections part at the moment. Im not a people person at all.. and I think this is what might be holding me back.
Mar 13, 2008, 8:49 amroiBert Says:
You are right on in so many points. And it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Calvin Coolidge:
” Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not - nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not - unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not - the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Another one of my favorites is a little more modern:
“Just F’n Do It!”
And you are right, it is all about that killer instinct… that attitude to succeed… to press on.
Mar 13, 2008, 10:26 amdrusam Says:
Step 1: Check affiliate stats.
Mar 13, 2008, 2:04 pmStep 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!
Amin Says:
deStone you’re fuckin’ Chuck Norris that’s who you are.
Mar 13, 2008, 4:33 pmPeter Bordes Says:
destone great post and thank you for mentioning us as a good network to work with. The members of our Advaliant division MediaTrust work very hard to build long term proactive relationships with our affiliate and advertisers partners. Here is a link to a post that is out of our “beliefs book” that every member gets when they join. It will give you a little further insight into our culture http://www.relevantlyspeaking.com/rs/2008/3/3/mediatrust-beliefs.html
all the best!
Peter Bordes
Mar 13, 2008, 10:48 pmCEO
MediaTrust
marketingtips Says:
Truly an excellent post explaining how to be become successful in affiliate marketing and making more money by having a good time commitment, focus and skillset.
Mar 13, 2008, 1:36 am