You might be reading this because through pursuing one thing that you thought was the long-term, ‘way to go’ for you, it turned out that you discovered your passion and dare I say, ‘calling,’ to be a fiction writer instead; or at least first and foremost.
For me, the long-term ‘way to go,’ was affiliate marketing, and Oh boy! What a journey that was. Looking back, I think the lack of big success was good for me. It must be hard to ever take up something different if you are actually making big bucks as an affiliate marketer, or through some other online money making program, most of which are rubbish by the way, but that’s beside the point.
You see, I wanted the money, but that was about it. And the problem with just wanting money, is that you can miss out on what you potentially have to offer in your own unique way to other people. This can lead to feeling generally discontent, as well as dry and empty inside, and other negative mental states. To give an example, there is this guy called David Deckle, who once told his fans that he was working on shame issues and a program to tackle these issues in men. I don’t mean to judge what was causing those issues for himself, but I’ll happily point out that he was the creator of Profits Passport, which is classic pyramid scheme that sells high-ticket offers to people so that they can immediately promote the same thing to others.
What most people really want when they get caught up in all this make money online stuff, and ‘online business opportunities,’ is fast and basically free money with little or no work. It is hard for them to succeed and that’s the way it should be. And the internet is full of lies telling people that there are push-button ways to make money, and make it fast. Honestly, when it comes to online business models, the market is absolutely saturated with get-rich-quick scams and pyramid schemes.
I did eventually find Wealthy Affiliate, which teaches people to turn a passion into a business, and have made my share of money in promoting it. After all, it is a program I really believe in and support. But still, a career centering around me promoting a program to other people, simply didn’t satisfy me.
Finding Myself
So, what did satisfy me? Well, you guessed it – fantasy fiction writing. That’s what I really want to do. And I can still use Wealthy Affiliate to promote my own work, rather than all these random products on Amazon or Clickbank. It’s just far more fulfilling.
I used to struggle a lot in creating affiliate business blog posts and that’s because I had a deeper need inside me – a story that I needed to get out there. A story that will likely become a series. Essentially, I have found my niche, and myself at the same time.
If you want to do affiliate marketing, by all means, go for it. But it is extremely difficult to succeed with and isn’t always that satisfying either. I still do a little bit of it here and there, but it can be a hell of a rabbit hole to get stuck in and we can get very obsessive about it. I’ll also say that what most people promote as affiliates is absolute trash – scammy make money programs that drain you of cash and leave you with nothing. It’s not a nice road either for the affiliate or the customer to go down.