The Pros and Cons of Being An Affiliate Marketer

A lot of friends been asking me what is so good about affiliate marketing. Apart from the money that I can make, the best thing that affiliate marketing has given me is freedom. Ever since I started affiliate marketing, it completely changed my life. If you have yet to join me in this industry, you may take a look on what are the pros and cons of being an affiliate marketer. If you are an existing affiliate reading this, I believe you would agree with me to certain extent, at least the pros. 😉

The Pros:

1. Freedom – This is your biggest take away I’m pretty sure. Being an affiliate, you get to work anywhere anytime without needing to report to your superior. You are your own boss! Taking myself for instance, I’ve been travelling to a different country each month for the past 10 months! From Las Vegas to Spain to Korea to Shanghai etc… I get to decide how long I want to stay, as long as an internet connection and my laptop are there. I must say, this is just something that 9-5 jobs can’t give.
2. Money – Money is the biggest motivator for everyone I guess. However, it doesn’t come easy as you thought. In affiliate marketing, once has to first lose some money (could be $x,xxx) before you start seeing your first profitable campaign that can give you $xx,xxx in profit. It really depend on your working attitude  if you want $xx,xxx or $xxx,xxx in earnings every year. But once you start mastering the art of it, the money you can generate in a day from this industry can anytime outnumber the yearly income of average white collar workers.
3. Without needing to stuck in the traffic jam – If you are someone who lives in a big city then you know this really well. I used to work part time during holidays and I know how it feel to be stuck in the jam for 1-2 hours everyday. The time is just being spent meaninglessly. A simple calculation can tell how much time one wasted if he/she gonna spend 2 hours in the jam every work day. Say one works 5 days a week, 2 hrs x 5 days x 52 weeks = 520 hours (21 days)! On the other hand, if you are someone who works from home, then you just saved 520 hours that you can invest onto something else.
4. Personal Development – I’ve seen so many people in this industry rise quick and fall quick too. This is because not everyone is good at managing money.
   • Scenario 1 – Affiliate A just made $50k net profit last month! He started to spend his money like-a-boss on things like alcohol & hookers. He didn’t manage his campaign and it eventually dies down. He is back to $0 and back to the ordinary 9-5 job.
   • Scenario 2 – Affiliate A just made $50k off his first profitable campaign. However, he did not stop testing and optimizing his campaigns. Money is being re-invested back to it and he scales to multiple sources. The next month, his campaigns made him another $80k net profit.

It is not easy to become a successful affiliate that can handle some 6-figures-campaigns consistently. You have to learn how to manage a team, manage your time well, manage people you mix with, manage your family and most importantly, managing your own wealth. I have become a better person since I started my journey as an affiliate marketer. and I am still learning it everyday. Talk about personal development, my all-time favourite is to visit Charles’s Ngo blog. If you still don’t know who this guy is, well… you better do.

The Cons:

1. Lack of Self-discipline – It is never easy to work at own comfortable home. You know very well that when you’re tired there will always be your warm-bed that you’ve slept for the past 20+ years for you. Or when you get bored, surfing Facebook, youtube might be a good option I assume? 😉 Or… when your besties/hot girls ask you out for a drink, you can leave your tasks and return to them later. What supposed to be done today, became the task for tomorrow. Also let’s not forget about the time that we wake/sleep. I do work until dawn and by the time I am ready to bed, it’s already 7am in the morning. The time I wake? All businesses/banks are closed making it so hard for you to do what you wanna do. I’ll further elaborate this later.
2. Family Gonna Take Your Time For Granted – A lot of the time your family members are gonna take your time for granted. They know what you do, and you’re physically at home. Hence they start to abuse your time. Your parents gonna ask you to send them to here and there; your girlfriend gonna ask you go out for a date; your wife is asking why are you not repairing the broken things at home; your kids are crying for daddy, wanted daddy’s hug… etc… It just make you difficult to focus on your task 100%. Yes we know what kind of damage we can do if we able to set this campaign live by today. But, our family members don’t, well, at least, most of the time. They treat working at home = you are available for them all the time!
3. Body’s Internal Clock Got Up-side-down – This is very true especially for myself. An affiliate like me who is located in Asia has to adjust my working time to match my affiliates managers/business partners who are in the Western/Northern countries. Hence I have no choice but to sleep late and wake late too. Think you need not dealing with people? You are wrong. I’ve adapted to this lifestyle. Family is complaining, girlfriend is complaining. Something that you have to bear with if you decide to be an affiliate marketer.
4. Health Condition Going Downhill – a lifestyle that sleep-late-wakeup-late is never gonna do good to our body. What more you have to sit in front of the computer more than 8 hours a day, looking at the screen for long-hours that do no good to your eyes? I started to worry about my own health lately and is taking some steps to improve it. But yeah, this is something that you gonna face.

Agree or disagree with me? Have some points to add? Let me know via the comment form!