This is a special guest blog post from one of the most hard working affiliates I know, Kevin (Poker69) on PAL. Kevin is a great example of a hard working affiliate that is now enjoying the rewards of all his hard work. Kevin runs too many sites to list here, but some of my favorite are Poker Bonuses and Play Roulette Online which are both great examples of how to build a website the right way!
I was recently reading through some old blog posts from various poker affiliate blogs and came across a couple good posts that focused on things such as working hard, working smart, and managing your time well. As a poker affiliate these are three things that if done properly will bring you a lot of success. The three of them all go hand in hand in some way or another, and once you can get a hang of doing all three you WILL become a successful affiliate.
If you are a new affiliate and have started affiliating because you have heard how affiliates are lazy and only work 10 or 20 hours a week – you’re dead wrong and you are in the wrong mindset. Sure, there are some affiliates who are making a great living only working 10 or 20 hours a week (or even less), but these are affiliates who have busted their asses for a couple years working long hours each and every day.
In 2009 you won’t be able to start up as a poker affiliate and put in a couple hours here and there and become successful. Becoming successful these days is going to require long hours of work, research and more work. When talking about working I am talking about actually writing content, building links, working on your design, etc. If you can do WORK for even just 30 hours a week I can guarantee you will see some success shortly.
Things like chatting on affiliate forums or through IM, checking stats or reading blogs all are important to do in moderation, but you can’t consider that work if you are serious about making money. Believe me, it is very easy to waste half of your day doing things like surfing forums and checking stats, but it will get you no where in the end.
So what do I do if I have a full time 9-5 job or if I go to school? This is where time management comes into play. I realize everyone has different things that will interfere with when or how much they work, such as family, jobs or school – but I believe with proper time management anyone can fit in 30 hours of affiliate work into their schedules. It all comes down to how bad you want it and what you’re willing to sacrifice.
Take me for example. I am heading back to college this September after a year off of school all together. To get where I want to be in life and as an affiliate I am still going to need to put in 30+ hours of affiliate work in each week. I have school through the day, find it an important to exercise 4-5 times a week, and enjoy hanging out with my friends on weekends – so how the heck am I going to fit in all this affiliate work? Well lets see…I often have hour breaks between classes which I can work on my affiliate stuff, my nights are usually free allowing me to work for a couple quality hours instead of playing Xbox or watching TV, and hey my weekend days are always free so instead of my nursing my hangover from the night before I will be on the computer getting work done!
Whether you are a new or experienced poker affiliate think about your work ethic. Is it good enough to take you to where you want to be a couple years down the road? Make no excuses are start working harder and smarter as an affiliate than you have ever worked before and I will bet you will see the hard work pay off in a few months time!
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