I have been in the affiliate marketing business for a very long time, and I have had a lot of wins (and failures too), but the biggest benefit that has come from all the ups and downs is the fact that I managed to step out of the 9-5 grind.
Let’s be real; people who get into affiliate marketing get into not because they have some deep passion for marketing; but rather to create and secure another source of income that can potentially earn them enough for them to be able to quit their job.
& I totally get this.
While I do believe you need that little special spark and a brain for marketing in order to be mega-millionaire type successful online; anyone – and I do mean anyone – can make a decent full-time income online and step out of the rat race.
I’m one of them.
I’m the unemployable-type where I can not hold down a job. I never had a bad boss to deal with, but I just don’t like being told what to do.
Many years ago, I believe around 2010/2011 – I came across the idea of affiliate marketing and making money online and I was instantly hooked, but very much like you;
I was working a 9-5 and at that time I was also still a teenager so my mind was on what teenage boys think about more rather than affiliate marketing strategies.
To make a longs story short; after many attempts I made it happen and today I’m sitting at home in my newly re-decorated office writing this blog post to you with the hopes of showing you how to do affiliate marketing with a 9-5 job-chain stuck to your heels.
I’m going to make the assumption here that you already know what the whole affiliate marketing business model is all about – if not; you can read my introductory guide here.
I’m also going to assume that you are itching to finally end your 9-5 days and that is why I have to start off with the most important point that is;
Do Not Quit Your Day Job
There’s a surprise for you.
While I am all for leaving a job in pursuit of online riches, I can also tell the dream will turn into a nightmare if you jump ship too early.
I’ve never admitted this publicly until now, but I had quit my job once (when I was killing it as a Fiverr freelancer) only to have that all go to zero and having to go ask for my job back.
Luckily for me; it was a family business so I had no problem getting my job back – the embarrassment however still haunts me.
So when is it time to quit your job and go full-time affiliate marketer?
I waited till I at least was earning as much as I do offline but in hindsight, I probably should’ve waited a bit longer and amassed a bigger “small fortune” that I can fall back on, which brings me to my second point:
Have a cash reserve:
Unless you have six months worth of expenses covered – ideally 12 – do not even think about jumping ship.
I was raised with the mentality of hoarding and saving money which may not be a good overall lesson for life, but for that specific time of my life it served me well, and I walked away well comfortable knowing that if it all goes to 0, I have more than enough cash stored to last till I get back on my feet.
One thing you need to keep in mind is your over-inflated expenses.
Let’s say you make $4,000 a month from your job and you make $3,000 a month from you online side-hustle; that gives you $7,000 total income.
This will obviously not happen quickly and getting to $3,000 a month would probably take you a year or so to get there and in the meantime; you may be accumulating expenses fit for a $7,000 p/month budget.
What many forget is that once you quit your job; you’ll be back to $4,000 a month (or less) and all of a sudden those expenses that were easily covered by $7K are suddenly a major headache.
I know this is pretty obvious stuff but believe me; when you start making money online, it tends to blind you out and you just look forward to the day you can chill by the beach and just watch affiliate commissions roll in, which by the way; is a total sham.
(You can’t work at the beach. Anybody who tells you so is either a lier or doesn’t know what he’s talking about).
As for the “what comes next” part of quitting your day job to focus on affiliate marketing, I will leave you with a great video from IncomeSchool.com.
In this video, Ricky goes through all you need to know and prepare for to make sure your transition is as smooth as ever.
How To Start Doing Affiliate Marketing
The first thing you need to do in order to get to the day where you can email in your “fuck you I quit” letter is;
Getting started:
If you haven’t even begun learning about affiliate marketing and are still in the sidelines waiting and observing, it’s time to get some skin in the game and make something happen.
I have an excellent affiliate marketing training course here that you can take for free so start there and come back when you’re getting closer and closer to making a full-time income with your business.
If you already have a steady income coming in from affiliate marketing and you simply want to know how to do a better job at handling both, then read on;
I’m about to show you how to optimize your life and your business for maximum results.
Affiliate Marketing In One Hour A Day
Not that it is an advisable strategy, but right now I have multiple projects going on and a lot of things on my to-do list that occupy 80% of my day.
I can do this because I am a full-timer now but you; all you need to be doing (i.e the important tasks) can be done in one hour a day.
If you have a job to attend to or a family to care for, you are going to have to find the time to work on your affiliate marketing business – there’s simply no way around this I’m afraid.
& in case you were wondering; the main bulk of your work should be content writing.
Yes I know it’s hard but it won’t be hard forever. You’ll get much better much quicker when you dedicate at least an hour or so to writing a daily blog post for your website.
You may already have been doing that so great; you must be seeing results and the more content you write; the more results you will get.
I know writing an article in an hour seems a bit tight, but believe me; once you get the hang of it, and you find your flow, it’s more than doable.
Here’s another excellent video from IncomeSchool that shows you how to go from a blank blinking page to a full-blown high-quality article (research included) in as little as 40 minutes:
What Else Do You Need To Be Doing?
Apart from writing content, there’s only one thing you must do (and yes you can do it in the 20 minutes left over from writing the article), and that is;
Learning about affiliate marketing.
You may be able to figure it out alone – but I promise you that will take you double the time to get to your goals.
It’s so much easier to follow a proven roadmap that can get you from 0 to success.
I found that formula about six years ago and today it has grown into a full-blown affiliate-community with over 1,400,000 members – yes that’s 1.4 million; no typo there.
You can find out more about this affiliate community here >>
Apart from learning and doing, there’s really not much else you need to be working on.
Sure if you have more time feel free to explore a few more bits but this guide is for those people strapped for time that want to know how to actually get the job done and get things moving.
How To Go From An Average Joe To Super Affiliate
The only thing you need to go from being a 9-5er to making affiliate commissions as a super-affiliate.
The climax-ending all your work will lead to, and it goes like this:
Content > Traffic > Sales (repeat).
That’s all there is to it,
Focus on content, and the rest will take care of itself – if it sounds too good to be true, trust me it isn’t.
Content is the “hardest” part in this journey and you are going to need to write a lot of content to be able to get enough visitors to make enough commissions for you to quit the 9-5.
This is where many end up failing – they simply cannot stomach the fact that they need to work hard now to see the results in 9 months.
Yeah; it takes that long (sometimes).
My Parting Advice To You
One last thing I want to add before I let you be to get started with your affiliate marketing hustle is to have fun with it.
After having a failed attempt at quitting (only to have to go back to working a full-time job), my second time around I was dead serious and lethal in my execution.
While it has worked well, it’s not a strategy I advise.
You need to be able to have fun with what you’re doing; otherwise there’s no way you can survive the long journey ahead.
I wish you luck in your endeavors.
Christian Lee.
