Does Starting Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business Strike FEAR Into Your Heart?

Here’s a great quote about fear and I think there’s a lot of truth in it for me. Maybe you feel the same way. If so, join the club, but think about this:

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.” Mark Twain

I once spent 5 years building a pizza business in a small town. I worked 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week. After about three years, the business was turning a tiny profit. After five years, I could see the end of the tunnel. What I was soon to learn was that what I saw at the end of the tunnel was indeed that train coming to crash into my business and destroy it completely.

The town where I had my shop decided to renovate Main Street. The plan called for redoing a three block section where the road would be slightly widened, new sidewalks put in place with rustic street lamps, planter boxes and trees. All overhead wires would be placed underground.

The problems that created for my business were almost too many to remember. First, the underground water, gas and sewer lines were ancient. Many had to be replaced and so, for uncounted days, my business suffered unannounced periods without water or gas. When the sidewalks and roadway were ripped up, walk-in customers had no way to get to my business without parking several blocks away. When it rained or snowed, the dirt paths that were once sidewalks became quagmires.

Our delivery drivers used the alley behind the shop for leaving on deliveries. Too often, both ends of the alley were blocked by utility workers and construction equipment as the electrical, telephone and cable TV wires were placed underground. Deliveries, and soon pizza orders, ground to a halt.

Our competitor across the street and down the block a ways was the chief benefactor of the construction in front of our business because that side of the street was not torn up and those sidewalks were replaced piecemeal rather than in one extended period.

This disruption in access to and operation of the pizza shop went on for EIGHT months. Even our most dedicated customers gave up and orders for pizza soon stopped coming. We lost our business due to something completely out of our control. We looked for another location for our business but could never find any affordable place. Five years of hard work along with $100,000.00 in personal investment went down the drain.

With affiliate marketing I can choose who I work with.
I have no obligation to promote anything that I don’t personally use or believe in.
I can work when I want or just relax if I need time off.
While it is possible to be “fired” from promoting others’ people products if the company thinks I’m not producing, there are thousands of advertisers to choose from.

This is only a partial list of why I think affiliate marketing is great for retired folks. If you get into this, I know you will find your own reasons why this work is ideal for you.

I don’t know exactly yet because I haven’t finished my first affiliate sales site. But I can tell you this: It won’t be nearly as long as I’ve spent preparing for this day. Some examples I’ve seen have shown people setting up a simple site in just an hour or two.

I’m sure they spent a lot more time preparing than in actually setting it up on line. For me, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. It doesn’t even matter if it works or not. Just doing it will make me better prepared for the next one. That’s the attitude you must have in any business if you want to succeed.

I’m studying to learn how to do a better job at being an affiliate marketer. It is taking quite a while for me to get through the lessons far enough where I’m ready to implement them on a real web site. That delay is partly due to the learning process and partly due to the fear of failure. But, I’m getting out of my comfort zone just by writing and publishing these words. Soon enough I’m taking that step into the unknown and setting up my first affiliate sales site.

I hope you will follow along here at Senior Surfers Center. Maybe you can benefit from seeing me make mistakes. When I make one, I won’t hide that fact. Like any other worthwhile endeavor, there will be failures along the way. Gradually, like learning to walk, I’ll get better at affiliate marketing and I hope you will benefit.

Here’s something else I think is worth repeating. How long would you give a child to learn to walk?
I’d say as long as it takes. That’s how I’m approaching this affiliate marketing.

See you soon.

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