New arrival - without too much optimism.

[grumpyoldman]

Hi, I've just joined this forum.
I've nothing to say about myself as I'm not the slightest bit interesting to anybody.
I'll admit that I was fascinated by the email I received today trying to get me to buy the Super Affiliate Handbook. Such promises of wealth.
I have been promoting Clickbank products in a small way (about 20 of them) for only four months but I've already achieved $0.00 in commission cheques. About the average, I think.
I've had 2 domain names registered for 6 months but I have no site as I can't afford a technician's wages to build me one and the four WYSIWYG programs I have downloaded seem to be aimed at professional web designers.
I do, however have an eBay store that, like all eBay stores, loses money each month.
I'd love to be proven wrong but, somehow I can't see that affiliate sales could ever, for the average person, cover the hosting and ongoing technician's fees that would be incurred whenever something needed to be altered on the site.
I will be watching with great interest.

[orbit2007]

Like all great adventures in life, there is an investment required. Have you done any research at the local library on internet marketing and html coding? It can be daunting, and as a fellow 'oldie', it has been quite an adventure!

Sign up for email newsletters from Rosalind, Jim Edwards, Jim Daniels, Internet Marketing Center and Yanik Silver for great tidbits of info. Take a coding class at the local community center or college and emmulate what the successful people, like Rosalind, do!

Best of luck!

[grumpyoldman]

Hi orbit,
Yes I have been to my local library. They have one volume on Windows 95 and a very old book on web page design that is all about HTML.
My local community college was going to run a course on web design, free, but unfortunately it was cancelled as I was the only one who signed up. I live in an Australian country town of 10000. This may come as a surprise, but NOT ONE local business has a website. They are not interested. The fact that I was interested in IM made me the laughing stock of the town. Everyone said that it was only for frauds and that the only people to make money on the net were scammers and that I was too honest to make a go of it. Quite a compliment, in a way.
Sad to say, I think that they're pretty close to correct. None of the software, eBooks or tutorials that are sold for outrageous prices have ever made anyone any money except the seller. I've bought hundreds of dollars worth of them and not a cent in return.

Regarding HTML, I'm afraid, it is way past my intellectual capabilities and I wouldn't even attempt it. I leave that for the computer science graduates, they're the only ones who can make head or tail of it and use it to set up a website.
I have been receiving "newsletters" from Jim Daniels,
Mike Filsaime, John Thornhill at planetsms, Yanik Silver and dozens of others for about six months now. Occasionally you will find some wisdom, but none that you can use without buying another $100 piece of junk from them.
Most I now delete without reading as they're not really newsletters, they're just thinly disguised sales pages for affiliate links to useless and very expensive products that no-one with an ounce of grey matter would buy. As I've been writing this, I've received 8 emails from some of the abovementioned telling me I "have to buy" 'guru slayer' for $77. I'm guaranteed $70,000+ in affiliate cheques in a couple of weeks just for sending a few emails.
I must admit that I take with a grain of salt the outrageous claims of wealth through affiliate marketing. Realistically, if I were making $100 per month I would be doing very well indeed. Far better than most I should imagine.
I've just had a look at my affilate links on line. In the last 10 days they have received 1821 'hits' that I can track. There would be hundreds more as I have written an eBook and I give away about 100 copies per month. The book has 23 affiliate links in it so who knows how many clicks these links have received. Total commissions earned $0.00. Surprisingly this is exactly the same amount as for the previous four months. Presumably, for the next four months as well. I expect $0.00 per month to continue ad infinitum
I can't blame my ads as I use the super-dooper sales pages supplied by the original websites.
It appears that people just don't buy through affiliate links.

I'm so glad that you're enjoying the experience. I am too, although I'm not naive enough to believe that I can make any money whatsoever out of it, or even cover my costs.
I have a friend in the UK who makes a healthy living on line but admits that, in over 2 years, he's only received about $200 from affiliate sales.
I'll just keep plodding on with my eBay shop. It only loses about $50 per month and this is only a fraction of what I'd lose if I tried to sell affiliate products from a website.
Unlike yourself, I've never had any adventures in my life. I have made it a lifetime policy to avoid anything that looked like it could be an adventure.
Taking risks, in any way, shows a dangerous lack of common sense.
My motto has always been "Expect nothing and you'll never know disappointment".
Keep on having the enjoyment but don't expect it to turn into any cash.
Very best wishes,
Grumpy.

[orbit2007]

I can only reply with the following saying:

If you believe it will work or if you believe it won't work - your right!

I know many making a living doing this and the secret is to first believe it will work, then discover what you are missing.