If you have been quite a fan of money making blogs like John Chow, Shoemoney or Courtney Tuttle, by now you might have noticed that they all say that google adsense is not just the name of the game. They all have affiliate sites of their choice which is taking a whole lot of percentage in their monthly earnings. Sad to say, in my 6 months blogging, I made the biggest affiliate mistake ever! 

What could be a graver mistake than choosing the wrong affiliate program for blog?

OK, here’s the story, 4 months ago, Ive read in some guy’s blog that he is making money from affiliate sites and he pointed out Clickbooth and Commision Junction as his best affiliate sites ever coz hes making like a hundred a month or so, and boy, I was enticed! I was so narrow minded I didnt even have the chance to get other’s opinions, do a research about its potential money or other sites that offered better. None of these! Nadda!

So, I worked out on strategies, experiments and tactics to have better exposure of these offers and earned quite a nifty sum of money from ClickBooth coz i totally scrapped Commision Junction simply because I did not like the layout of the site. See how narrow minded I was?! Anyways, I earned around $450 or so from this site while being blindfolded from better affiliate sites.

Last week, I started to evaluate my performance in comparison with the master affiliates like Zac Johnson or Uber Affiliate and I was enlightened to the truth that I made the biggest affiliate mistake ever. Why, let me tell you this one, majority of the earnings I got was driving bloggers to Clickbooth and be a publisher as well and that made me $10 per person i refer them. As it turns out, I couldve had more if I joined another site like MoreNiche.com who is offering $20 per person referral. Hows that for a bad loss? I couldve made $900 or more by now, this is not including offers ranging from a few dollars to $160 per sale. God, the moment I saw this, I had trouble sleeping.

So, here’s the catch for today’s lesson:

1. Think Big - Dont just take a blogger’s word for it. Research, ask opinions and compare yourself to the master affiliates, dont just try to earn a penny, aim to earn even more than what the master’s are.  This takes patience and persistence but hey, take my word for this one : “No hardwork is left unnoticed“. (thanks Greg Hawkins!)
2.  Be updated - Another mistake I committed was being contented. That was it, I was never aware that people around me are making twice as I was and I got blinfolded from the mere cents I was earning. God, i can get over it still.
3. Believe in yourself - Dont just wait for your masters to make your jaw drop each month when they post their monthly income reports, try to have some goals on how to make money more than them.

That’s it for today’s lesson lads! Dont follow my mistake and be spared of this feeling I am having right now, I tell you, its not pretty.