Ok. I’m going to tip my hand here. Where am I personally headed with this whole Vacant Desk thing? Not just the blog but the pursuit of the location independent lifestyle? Well, I realize that it’s not just about the amount of money I make, it’s about the time I create. It’s also not just about being free from a particular location – a cubicle or whatever the equivalent may be.
It’s a combination of the above. But what’s, possibly, the best industry to be in? Here’s what I believe it is…you ready? It’s…
(Bells, whistles, applause. Raucous noise making.)
This industry could also be characterized as Search Internet Marketing in general but for the purposes of this article we’ll stick with Affiliate Marketing.
I admit there are a ton of ways to make money out there but very few allow for the location independence and scalability of affiliate marketing. Let me give you a few compelling reasons to back this up:
- Anywhere you have an internet connection and access to a computer you can do your job.
- It’s massively scalable. Once you get a good campaign going it’s possible to ramp it up very aggressively and multiply your profits exponentially with very little extra work. Most of the work is in the front-end.
- If you’re a good affiliate marketer you’re actually learning what I consider to be the most valuable 21st century business skill: moving eyeballs (with money) from one opportunity to the next. Imagine what that’s worth to the average online retailer or business looking for leads or new business?!
- There is a massive (and by that I mean….massive) amount of individuals searching the web for products, services, and solutions to a myriad of everyday problems. i.e. What’s the best price on truck tires? How do I interview an accountant? How do I break free from my desk job?
I read recently that in August of 2007 there was around 700 million unique search queries on search engines!
I personally know people who are bringing in over $800,000 per year in profits. (Yes, profits. Not revenues. Profits) I also know people who are making a couple of thousand dollars per month but only need to work a few hours per week to maintain their income giving them a lot of time to do other things than focus on making money. (And, if you think on it, is a pretty good definition of what wealth really is.)
Rather than go into a 10,000 word treatise of how affiliate marketing works, how to get started, and what you need to know in great detail I’m going to lay out some general concepts. (Hey. This isn’t one of those annoying “Work from home and make a million!” biz opportunity sites)
O.k. Here we go: (This is a mish-mash. Sorry.)
- This isn’t an easy business. To do well you need to outperform a majority of the advertisers that are on the search engines for the niche or product you want to promote. It doesn’t, however, mean that you have to be especially clever. You’ll just need to follow some best practices consistently and innovate.
- Although it’s not absolutely critical to have technical skills – web design, coding – it sure helps. I don’t have those capabilities but I have a team that works with me. We all share in the upside. It’s possible to outsource all this if you understand how to give proper directions. No one is going to be able to produce what you need if you don’t know what you need.
- You can actually do this business from anywhere. If you’re going to do it seriously you’ll at least need the following: Laptop, Business entity – it doesn’t really make sense to be a sole-proprietor the more you get into this, and knowledge.
- Knowledge – Listen carefully here: There are many, many, many people out there publishing an ebook or newsletter that tell you how to make millions doing this. Most of it is crap . I’ve combed through quite of this and come out the other side actually doing this for a living and experiencing increasing amounts of success. Here’s what I recommend for the beginner: Jeremy Palmer’s Black Ink Project. This guy is not sensationalist and actually gives great step-by-step training on how to be a successful affiliate marketer. Other credible resources are Rosalind Gardner and Ahmit Mehta
There are probably a hundred effective ways to make money and be unchained from a desk – overseas teaching, consulting, transcribing, graphic design, photography, etc, etc. etc. – but I think affiliate marketing is one of the best.
Keep in mind, whatever you do you’ll need to “engineer” it in a way that allows for freedom.
You stay classy San Diego. (I don’t know why that’s been popping in my head lately. I’m just trying to purge it.)
