5 Ways To Stay Motivated While Learning Affiliate Marketing

If you’re just getting started with affiliate marketing and want to stay motivated, here are 5 ways to do just that. Apply them all and you’ll always be pushing forward until that major success happens.

1. Do What You Love

This is very important and it may be the only thing that you need to stay motivated.
One of the first things you need to do in affiliate marketing or any business for that matter is to pick a niche market to work with. There are all kinds of ways to determine what niche market to pick but I strongly believe that if you love doing something or have a huge interest in something then you should pick that.
Picking something that you love or that you’re an expert at is a great way to stay motivated because you’ll always be involved in that niche. You’ll be able to generate content with ease and you’ll always know what you’re talking about.
You also won’t have to worry too much about niche research and keywords would be a breeze to come up with. Building a blog or website around one of your passions should be fun and not seem like work.
If it seems like you don’t have any passions, find one. Last year alone, I got into fishing and 8 ball pool as well as chess and this year I picked up a new hobby which I won’t mention here since I’m building a site in that niche market.
It’s very easy to find something you enjoy – you can find something you already enjoy doing or learn something new that you’ve always wanted to do or found interesting.
Summary: Find something you’d rather be doing right now and pick that as your affiliate marketing niche.

2. Set Easily Attainable Goals

Again, the gurus have been playing tricks with many a newbie’s head. They’ll have you believe that with no experience whatsoever, if you follow their system, you can easily make $263,000 in the next 60 days.
It is not realistic to even think that you’ll make $10,000 in the next 60 days following anyone’s system. You’re just going to end up disappointed and even angry at yourself or the gurus.
Instead set smaller attainable goals that you can work towards. Reaching these goals can give you a major motivational boost to push forward.
In my first week of affiliate marketing, I thought I would be making hundreds on a $10 budget but I was lucky to make a $28 sale. That one sale did a lot for me as it convinced me that what I was doing worked. I did not make hundreds but it also let me know what kind of earnings to expect from my input.
So instead of shooting for $1000/month when starting out, make some smaller goals such as:

• setting up my first site
• publishing my first blog post
• getting indexed in the search engines
• getting a #1 listing
• getting my first sale
• making my first $100 online
• $50/ day consistently
• getting my first $100 day
• $100 day consistently

When you work towards small attainable goals like these, you’ll get a boost when you strike them off the list and you’re working towards the next one.
$100 a day consistently sounds very attainable after you’ve made your first $100 day. You may or may not notice but this is the same as a $3000/month consistent income. It’s like that movie with Bill Murray – baby steps.
It’s also important to note that money is not the only measure of success so don’t make all your goals money oriented.
Summary: Take baby steps. Small attainable goals usually add up to big success.

3. Find a Support Group

I’ve heard lots of stories where people start doing online business and their significant other or family are less than supportive because they think it’s all a big scam.
Things gets especially tense when you’ve been at it for a while with nothing to show. You’ll probably even start believing that the family member was right and lose your motivation to move forward.
Finding a group of people who have similar interests can be a great way to keep your motivation to accomplish your goals. It may be tough finding people in your own city to meet up with but online you can find lots of groups that do affiliate marketing by looking for affiliate marketing forums and communities.
Wealthy Affiliate is an online business community filled with affiliate marketers. The great thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that there are lots of social features that allow you to interact with fellow affiliates so much that it’s kinda like one big family. If you have a problem, just open up chat and ask a question. Or post in one of the classrooms. Or on your personal blog where your followers can give you a helping hand.
People become very close at Wealthy Affiliate and because they’re all working to achieve common goals it’s easy to find solutions to whatever hurdle you might face in your affiliate marketing journey.
If you have a partner that’s very supportive of what you do or even share the same interest in affiliate marketing then things become a lot less stressful for you.
Summary: People who share a common interest can lend you excellent support especially at times when you’re thinking about throwing in the towel.

4. Get Away Every Now and Then

Sometimes when you’re feeling like giving up, the best thing you can do for yourself is to just quit.
No. Not entirely. I mean, just turn off your computer and go do something else. Especially if you’re always at the computer trying to get things done.
I’ve noticed that my best ideas come to me when I’m not sitting down at the computer. And if you picked a niche that you’re passionate about like in #1 then you’ll get some ideas when you step away to enjoy yourself  doing something you love.
Most of the time it’s just that you need a break from the computer so try to get away every now and then to do something else.
The way I do it is when I’m finished writing a blog post or done something major on my to-do list, I get up and I walk away for a couple of minutes to do something else. It could be to eat something or take a shower or even go out to shoot some pool or check my email.
Usually it disconnects and reinvigorates you, preparing you for your next set of tasks.
Summary: Getting away gives you a boost that prepares you for your next set of tasks.

5. Remind Yourself Why You’re Doing This

People have different reasons why they get into affiliate marketing. It could be that:

• they want to quit their stressful job
• they want a second income
• send their child to college
• need money for a new car
• need extra money to pay bills

Those are just some of the reasons why people get into affiliate marketing. Every now and again you should remind yourself of the reason you decided to try affiliate marketing.
When I got into affiliate marketing, my main goal was to supplement my income and even in 2006, I decided that I wanted to quit my job by August 2010.
I reminded myself about this goal everyday by naming my “company” after my goal and even giving my email address and other properties some hint of this name. So every time I went to log into my email, or my Clickbank account, I was always reminded of what I wanted to achieve.
I quit my day job 17 months before the due date. Now I have another goal and new motivations for doing affiliate marketing and I remind myself everyday with a picture on my wall above my computer.