We’ve all been there. If you havent I would take a crack that you are a new entrepreneur. Dont worry, your time will come. I think alot of people who read this blog can remember when I used to blog at CashTactics. Remember the burnout that I faced? That one cost me about a month. I didnt do anything differently in that month either. I still came online everyday but nothing got done. Nothing.
You know what the worst part of being an affiliate is? It’s the part where people tell you congratulations after you make your first dollar. You see congratulations triggers certain emotions that equate to happiness. Happiness however is a snake that can bite you in the ass in more ways than one as an Affiliate Marketer. Happiness can lead to laziness, complacency and ultimately egotistical thoughts that make you feel like nothing can go wrong.
I’m not saying to NOT reward yourself. You should reward yourself but right after you do, you better be scheming the master plan on what to do next. It does not matter how deep, far or wide you scale a campaign. It can be swept out from under you in a blink of an eye. God forbid you are horrible with money and treated yourself to a Ferrari you didnt need. You may in fact be giving that car up just to pay the rent.
Let’s identify what exactly leads to burning out, then let’s identify some ways to keep from it.
When you first begin as an affiliate you have nothing and you are nothing. On top of being nothing and having nothing you have people around such as family and friends who are most likely expecting you to fail or dont even understand what you are trying to accomplish to even fathom the idea of how to provide the slightest bit of support. On top of having nothing, being nothing, and no support, you also have to deal with the fact that you probably dont know anything. Where to start? Where to being? Who to listen to? Where to go to read?
In short, Your screwed from the get-go. However…
We didnt cover what you do have.
As an aspiring affiliate/entrepreneur you do have one thing a lot of people dont. You have SPIRIT.
Just like so many negative things that can effect you, your spirit can create positive influences on you. How?
Your “want” to succeed can trigger confidence. Confidence can be a multi-trigger for all kinds of things such as a “will to succeed”, dedication, a never say die attitude and ultimately dedication.
What I am trying to tell you is this. As hard as you think it may be to make money online, it’s 10X harder to keep your momentum and drive going. It’s so much hard to keep the juice going and expanding yourself than it is to get started in the first place. It may not seem like if you are just starting but take it from someone who has done for nearly 5 years and manages nearly 500 affiliates. Affiliates will sometimes become complacent once they reach a certain amount of success. Often times they will think that if I did this once, I can do again and often times they are wrong.
A simple example would be in CPA Marketing. How many offers have you launched that were successful compared to duds? Yes, I think you will know what I mean.
You’ve got to prevent complacency and this in turn will prevent burnout. Burnout long stems from becoming bored of something. While that is not the only factor that comes into play, it is the largest one. You can become bored of launching unsuccessful campaigns. You can be bored of managing your credit to start campaigns in the first place. You can be bored of recommendations for what to promote.
Here are some things to prevent this.
Diversification – This is number one. Much like when you started out you were having fun learning all these new things right? SEO, PPC, the mechanics of optimization, split testing, all of it. It was a challenge and as a marketer a challenge present an opportunity for a multitude of different things to try. When you were trying these things it prevented boredom. After so long though these things will seem second-nature to you and even then you will reach a point where you just get fed up with it all.
If you dont know programming then get a php book or join a programming forum. If you dont know how to design graphics then get Photoshop, read blogs, join a forum. Pick up a new skill and refine it. Keep refining it until it becomes a boring thing and move to something else. A successful marketer is one who takes advantage of everything around them and decides to utilize that skill. Yes, you can hire that out yourself but even then that could becoming redundant. By picking up new skills and refining them to a point of success you will gather new self-esteem and confidence.
Networking – This has so many positive effects that I cannot explain them all. Get yourself available to attend shows and events. Get outside the office and take in truly how big the Internet really is. You will meet so many different people that will ultimately impact your life and business. You dont stay secluded. You open yourself up to potential communications, learning material, opportunities, possible acquisitions, investing and new skills. You will also feel good that you can speak to someone about advertising on MSN and not have the weird feeling that they have no idea WTF you are talking about.
Teach – Teaching has a viral effect. I will just provide a personal example. By teaching others what you know you can open yourself up to a world of business you never thought possible. A PERFECT example of this is Convert2Media. Recognizing an opportunity to actually teach publishers and provide help on a business building level to affiliates has allowed us to grow exponentially. Sure we want high volume pubs but we recognize that anyone can be such a publisher. Where we try to make the difference is to speed the process a bit. In doing so, publishers respect this and loyalty ensues. With loyalty we know we can count on publishers to keep refining themselves and expanding their business. When they expand THEIR business, they expand ours. You get to sit back and feel proud that you had a hand in making this happen for others.
These are just a couple of things that you can expand on to prevent a burnout. Trying something new, meeting other people, teaching other people are things that can allow you to gain confidence in another aspect rather than moving backwards and causing stress.
How do you prevent burnout?
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What an awesome posting Ruck. You describe my current mood nearly perfectly. The strange thing for me is I am pretty skilled with graphics/xhtml/css and a bit of php but still can’t get out and do a successful campaign.
The most success I had was 3 leads from a campaign I launched
this week – then 3 days without a lead and the spirit goes crazy. I am now on a point I don’t know what to do. Should I optimize the campaign, should I look for a new one, should I take a break, etc. etc.
I worked my ass off, launched blogs, hired article writers, changed blog themes did keyword researches and wrote ads. All this for about 3 leads? Certainly I don’t want to sound like a pussy neither to cry but again, thanks for this posting – it came just the right time.
Good post. I got lazy and content with the offers I was running. Every single one of them died and I have a grand total of $198 so far this month. Pretty much lost all the income overnight. Never stop testing new ideas.
@john – I been there bud. In a blink of an eye it’s been gone. At least now you can go into hyper test mode and potentially find some new markets.
Yeah burn outs suck. I really think finding someone that you can partner with definitely helps out. I feel more accountable for the work that I do and I know that when I slack off someone is there to give me a kick start and vice versa.
Great post Ruck!
Awesome post, I can definitely relate to this statement right now – “On top of being nothing and having nothing you have people around such as family and friends who are most likely expecting you to fail or dont even understand what you are trying to accomplish to even fathom the idea of how to provide the slightest bit of support.”
Another good thing to do as well is treat this as a full-time job. Never get lazy, never let up.
It is more than a full time job, it sometimes feels like two consecutive full time jobs when you are winning the race and staying ahead of the curve!
Stay hungry! Stay Disciplined!
Hah, good to hear I’m not the only one
I started out over a year ago full of energy, but now I get bored very quickly…
I started reading a book about self-discipline because I’m having trouble getting over that inner conflict (wanting to build campaigns but feeling resistance when I start doing it). Here’s the book if anyone else is interested: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Discipline-10-Days-Thinking-Doing/dp/1880115069/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229765117&sr=8-1 It’s basically about aligning all the different parts of your personality to pull in the same direction.
Good post. I went from doing as high as $20k per month down to as low as $1k per month in the last 6 months. I think I got lazy and thought that I was doing well when I really just put all my eggs in one basket.
It started to really suck when every single campaign I would launch would just flop. I’m barely starting to make momentum again with your guys’ help.
I’m definitely never going to let that happen again.
Thanks for the inspiration.
I agree with the classic wisdom in this post like everyone else. Also double-check your personal expectations too. Move over to an entirely different medium like video marketing if you’ve just been doing PPC/text-based marketing up until now. Just keep it moving.
I know what burnout is because it’s what I was working at getting away from when I was slaving in a cube all day. There’s one thing that I can always rely on for shocking me into taking action, and that’s the possibility of having to go back to that cage. That thought is an instant booster, much like an EKG. The ones that barrel through burnout have their own versions of what I just described. Whether or not you were raised poor, handicapped, or whatever…you just don’t want to go back to where you were at. And so when that clicks in your mind, you will “by any means necessary” go forward.
Also, I just turn the damn computer off if I catch myself doing busy work and not producing any results. To me it’s like you don’t even deserve to be tapping keys if you’re burnt out. Get up, get out, and don’t come back until you’re frothing at the mouth.
I think the sole reason why I’m staying with C2M is your desire to teach your publishers how to play this game. The heads of Azoogle, CJ, Clickbank, Ads4Dough, RocketProfit, [fill in the name], just don’t do this in the detail that you’re currently explaining to every one of us.