The Hardest Dollar

Earning your very first affiliate dollar is usually one of the hardest dollars you’ll ever earn (assuming you weren’t around in the Great Depression making a penny an hour busting up rocks with a sledgehammer). Not only are you learning the affiliate ropes in general, but the nature of affiliate marketing means that your efforts start slowly and build, as your site gets traction and is indexed in search engines.

Likewise, earning your first $100 from affiliate marketing is the hardest hundred bucks you’ll ever make. Don’t even try to calculate your hourly wage, as it’ll likely be close to zero. You’ll have worked very hard and invested much time and finally, after months, have just a lousy $100 to show for it. This is where many affiliates abandon ship and simply say the hell with it, they could make more money working at Burger King.

Which is just about the worst decision possible, because they were just getting to the good part.

Earning your first $1,000 from affiliate marketing is probably the easiest $1,000 you’ll ever make.

Umm, excuse me, what?

The majority of successful affiliates stick to a simple formula. After much trial and effort they find something that works (i.e. it makes them $100), then they hammer on it, launching new sites, expanding existing sites, whatever. Creating new sites and content gets easier with time, so their efficiency and hourly wage rises.

Once you scratch and claw your way to your first $100, you’ve usually established all the skills and chops necessary to make money through affiliate marketing. At that point, you’re sledding downhill, with much velocity, and the hardest dollar principle falls apart. Making money suddenly gets easier, much easier, as you not only work more efficiently, with a purpose, but you have direct, motivational proof that this stuff really does work.

The Hardest Dollar and related information can be found in Getting Started