Truth be told I’ve met a number of people that have become legit millionaires through affiliate marketing. They were smart and leveraged the massive amount of Internet traffic to the right offers and sustained a solid net worth, many at a young age. Some of the millionaires I’ve met have been under the age of 25. Personally, I made my first million dollars with affiliate marketing at the age of 24. But is this the way to get rich?
Chances are, what I just wrote above will send some people into a day dream. “One million dollars by the age of 24…” The dream then starts with how it would change your life, what you’d spend the money on, how all your problems would instantly be fixed. You’re now in a motivated state of mind to read, learn, and find out how you can accomplish this. Nothing else matters right now other than getting your piece of the “millionaire pie.”
Is it that easy Ryan? No. To become a millionaire in any industry you have to become an expert. The Internet has scalability, so once you get things working, you can blast through the barrier that you would have with a “traditional” bricks and mortar business. This doesn’t mean that it’s easy. If you don’t know the first thing about HTML or how to create a basic web page, then how are you going to become a millionaire in an industry that relies on these skills to gain a competitive advantage? If you don’t know how to register a domain and setup adequate web hosting, then how do you expect to even begin this venture?
When we started our Private Forum back in 2011 we had a simple vision; to teach people of all skill levels how to become successful online. Regardless of previous experience we have thousands of pages of content, that if followed correctly, will teach you how to either get started or further leverage your online business. Both Ruck and I had to start somewhere. We weren’t born with HTML or programming skills. We had to learn them and eventually master them to get to where we are today. Therefore we wanted to create a site where we could share our knowledge to save you hours of sorting through all the clutter online.
Here at IMGrind we have never promised instant riches. However, over the last two years, we have seen some people accomplish great things. We’ve also seen a lot of people give up. People that think just because they have an Internet connection, a computer, and a Facebook account, they can instantly be enriched, are misguided. Perhaps they’ve stayed up and watched one to many late night infomercials or bought into a sales pitch.
Affiliate marketing isn’t the key to instant riches. Just like any offline business, if you don’t have liquid capital to invest and start your business, then you have no business buying traffic. Do you know I’ve actually talked to affiliates that have buried themselves in credit card debt just to start buying traffic? I’m sorry but that’s just stupid. If you’re pinching pennies to ensure you have food on the table at night, then you also don’t need to spend $99/month to join our forum. You need to get another job, save your money, focus on generating income before making the “next step.”
Will you get rich with affiliate marketing? Let’s rephrase: Will your new business be successful? That sounds much better. Don’t get caught up in the hype, hard work pays off, and there is no substitute. Affiliate marketing is just like any business. You will get out what you put in!
Ryan Gray is the founder and CEO of NameHero, one of the fastest growing independent web hosts in the United States. Ryan has been working online since 1998 and has over two-decades experience in Internet Entrepreneurship.
Fantastic!! We can’t deny Businesses nowadays no longer look the way it was before. Though, the great
thing there were more and more people Innovate themselves and the new wave of billionaire emerges.
I agree.. When I started out, I focused more on SEO and made some good money. Then when Google’s animal updates came into the picture my websites were wiped out. So I tried other so called “free traffic” methods with little success. I had no choice but to get a day job and set a small budget for advertising and listbuilding (solo ads, Aweber.. etc.. Nowadays the only method I use for affiliate marketing is Youtube which works wonders if you know what you are doing. I use listbuilding for promoting my own products and “product creation” to build a “buyers list”..
This can really be deflating especially when you’ve set your mind on becoming rich through affiliate marketing. Then again, one should know the hard truth to become realistic with goals. One can actually get rich, but with much hard work, knowledge, skills, and stamina to stay in this field.
Great post, and a reality check that is needed for a lot of newbies. One additional question, what is the minimum investment you would tell new affiliate business owners should have prior to attempting any scaled campaign? $5k, $10k, more/less?