Internet Affiliate Marketing - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Are you thinking about trying to start an internet affiliate marketing business? Or maybe you've already been working on it for a while. If you haven't already seen this, you will probably very soon start to see that that affiliate marketing has at least three sides to it - I call them the good, the bad, and the ugly. This article focuses on Part 3: The Ugly News About Affiliate Marketing.

By writing these articles, I hope to help other people who are interested in affiliate marketing avoid some of the costly mistakes I have made along the way to figuring it all out. By the way, don't miss the first two articles in this series. You should definitely not wind up believing that I am saying that affiliate marketing is all "ugly!"

But, I regret to say, there are some aspects of affiliate marketing that I personally see as truly being ugly. Specifically, I am referring to websites that promise you "instant wealth," "auto-pilot income," "just copy this system," "work only a couple of hours of week," etc. I think these "hyped up" sales pitches are ugly because they very often get people's hopes way up, convince them to buy the "secret the gurus don't want you to know," and then deliver information that simply will not result in living the glorious visions on the sales website.

Even worse, in my mind, is the fact that the people who get their hopes up and buy these "easy instant riches" products are many times the people who can least afford to lose money on an empty dream - and who, when the promises fail to materialize, tend to blame themselves for "failing."

For me, as a disabled teacher, the "ugly" started when I very quickly realized that, even though I had a lot of life experience, a lot of formal education, and years of experience as both a teacher and a learner, I was pretty much completely taken in by several affiliate marketing glitzy websites, glorious promises, and photo after photo of luxurious living that, presumably, would almost immediately become my new lifestyle if I just bought that product, and "pushed a couple of buttons."

Maybe you've been disappointed by some of those same kinds of promises, images of "guaranteed earnings," etc. Fortunately, on the other hand, it is reasonably easy to avoid those affiliate marketing low spots.

Here, quickly, is what I learned the hard (and expensive) way.

1. Don't make the costly mistake of getting pulled into the excitement that can be created by websites full of pictures of huge mansions, stacks of money, multiple luxury cars, and expensive vacation spots.

Am I saying that no one ever creates that kind of lifestyle with affiliate marketing? Not even close! People actually do make millions of dollars with affiliate marketing (I even know some of them).

But, and this is a big "but," those people didn't do it overnight, or by "just pushing a couple of computer buttons." The people I know who have achieved enormous wealth in affiliate marketing have earned their wealth - they invested a lot of time and money in their internet businesses, and they continue to do so.

2. Please don't believe that you can achieve "instant wealth" in only minutes a day. (Well, maybe if you win the lottery, or suddenly inherit a ton of money - but you're probably not expecting either of those to really happen, are you?) I have never found an "instant wealth" product that was even close to delivering on all the big promises.

3. Do not look at all those "proof of earnings" images in isolation. Sure, someone may really be earning $25,000 or more in only a few weeks. But there's a huge missing piece here! Have you ever seen statements of the expenses that went into creating those "internet paychecks?" What about the website development costs, the advertising costs, the sales copywriters who wrote those wildly exciting sales pitches, the graphic artists who created the scenes of luxurious living, etc?

So what am I telling you? Should you just give up on the whole affiliate marketing idea? Absolutely not!

But please, be careful about promises of instant wealth, no work, "secrets," etc. There are few, if any, secrets or instantaneous riches in affiliate marketing. People who promise you those things, I'm afraid, just aren't being honest with you.

On the other hand, I'm sure glad that I didn't give up during the times when I was frustrated and wondering if I would ever get it right (yes, those moments happened!). You definitely can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing - you just need to be realistic, and be sure that you are getting good, solid directions that will actually help you start collecting those affiliate marketing paychecks!

When I got all the pieces put together so that I was really making money with affiliate marketing, I wrote a complete, straight-forward, easy-to-follow guide to getting your affiliate marketing business making money for you. Click here to learn more about the book I wrote to summarize everything I learned to do (and what to avoid doing) while starting my affiliate marketing business.

CindyAnn Williams is a self-taught, successful internet affiliate marketer who began her internet business with absolutely no knowledge of affiliate marketing. She has built her business by trial and error, always trying again after every dead end, and learning from every mistake. CindyAnn's goal is to share what she has learned to help other people who want to become successful affiliate marketers avoid the many mistakes she made along the bumpy and often detour-filled road to affiliate marketing success.

http://NewbieProfitRocket.com/

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KEYWORDS: AFFILIATE, affiliate, affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing tips