There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. The question is, are you looking for illumination or just to get out of the tunnel?
It took me over 2 years to find some light at the end of the tunnel that was my career in the oil industry. Which surprised me a lot. I was not surprised that I lost my job because I always knew that I was a temporary hire and that someone would be taking my job. I ended up, after all, a stranger in a strange land, and I had trained many people to replace me over the years.
What did surprise me is how lost I felt after the job was over, and how long it took me to start doing something else with my life.
It is staggeringly easy to drift along with little to no purpose when you no longer have to get up and go to work every day.
Suddenly I was adrift and looking for a safe harbor. I had no idea what to do with my life. Once I was suddenly no longer required, and I was struggling for a purpose.
While I ended up being a manager of sorts, I was always more of a hands-on kind of person. I would not ask people to do something that I would not be willing to do myself.
So, what to do now?
Light at the end of the tunnel
The light at the end of my tunnel was the internet and specifically Affiliate Marketing. Like Wiley Coyote, continuously chasing the roadrunner, with no success, I had spent countless hours in front of a computer, (the oil business was an early adopter of the technology), both for work, research, and recreation. But I was not making the computer work for me.
By that, I mean the hours that we spend online are often some of the least productive in our day. Do we really need to see another video of someone taking a pratfall, or a sports highlight? How many times can you continue to watch the idiot drivers out there on the roads and how they are constantly crashing their cars?
Yes, all of the above is entertaining and I confess, I am not totally weaned off watching, or reading content that is simply entertaining, but I do much more than that these days.
Produce content that others like
This is the secret to success. Produce something that other people are interested in consuming or find a way to put yourself between the product and the consumer and take a commission off the sale. That is the whole of Affiliate Marketing right there.
“Put yourself between the product and the consumer”
It is as simple as that
People already want to buy things, I do it all the time, we all do. We need things and we want things. Sometimes we go to the store, but increasingly we look online for a solution, so we do not have to go out and search for it.
Everybody wants something.
Your job as an online affiliate marketer is to give it to them.