Was it Aretha Franklin who said “S-U-C-C-E-S-S, that’s the way you spell success!”? Or perhaps it was Bart Simpson. Anyway, the point is that in life we are constantly asking ourselves how we’re doing, whether we’re successful day by day, year by year, and comparing our gains and losses against many different yardsticks. Self-help books and online gurus often map out routes to success in ‘10 easy steps’ and this is just as true as to how those ‘in the know’ define affiliate success.

The three affiliate groups
Although we’re loath to define the affiliate marketing spectrum in such regimented terms, for the purposes of this post it makes sense to bracket affiliate success in the ways in which it is most usually experienced. First there’s the ‘little guy’, making £100 a week or a month to top up the salary from his or her day job. There are tons of people who fall into this bracket and if you ask anyone on the street if they’d like £100 a week extra without having to put in too many more hours of work, most would probably yes in a heartbeat. For many people, £100 might just about cover their shopping expenses or rent, and the added income is a success in anyone’s book if the efforts to achieve it are not too great.

The next group are those who’ve quit the day job and made a full time affiliate commitment. Again this is a fairly large group with people taking part in the affiliate industry at all levels from site design, SEO and other affiliate activities either on their own or as part of a larger collective. Again, many see working from home and earning thousands a year as a massive improvement over office work of any kind. Success? We think so.

Finally there are the big boys. Those who make 5 or 6 figure incomes or more a year in commission alone. These are by definition a far rarer breed but not as rare as you might think. It takes skill, dedication and a bit of luck to make it to what many would consider to be the top of the affiliate ladder. Perhaps the term “ladder” here is misleading: it suggests that there is a top and a bottom and success can be easily measured, which is certainly not the case.

Whichever echelon of affiliate marketing you inhabit or aspire to, you’ll no doubt be following the examples and advice of others who’ve gone before, but should the success of the super affiliates be something to consider when defining your own affiliate success?

Measuring up and mentors
Many people pick an aspirational role model. This is part of the reason that we here at Lammo.net often pick out and profile key entrepreneurs who’ve risen from a modest background and created a multi-million or billion pound fortune. It’s heart warming to see that you don’t need to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth to make it in business. Affiliate marketing is just as enterprising and entrepreneurial as any other area, with the most successful affiliates starting from scratch, taking risks and eventually reaping the rewards.

However, there are two important “pinches of salt” that have to be taken to regulate the way in which we respond to and learn from the successes of others. Firstly, if you look at the career of anyone that you consider to be successful there’s a chance that they’ve taken years (in many cases decades) in achieving their goals and a near certainty that over the period of their lives they’ve suffered setbacks, major defeats and sometimes life changing circumstances that could easily have broken them.

The messages here are patience, perseverance and most of all flexibility. This is especially true of the affiliate marketing game, where we operate in such a volatile, cutting edge environment, and knowing when to stick with an idea to its fruition or scrap something that isn’t working is vital. The danger with some aspirational models is that you can end up valuing perseverence over common business sense!

The second lesson to take from the success of others is that you shouldn’t limit yourself through adherence to or goals based on those successes. Make sure that the only person you’re aiming to better is yourself. In this way you’ll make every day a chance to better your personal best. Whether this is generating more traffic for your affiliate site, tweaking the on-page SEO to ensure higher conversion rates or simply getting off your backside to go fishing for some links, each day in affiliate marketing can result in small successes which taken in a wider context could otherwise be dismissed.

YOU define success
Success in affiliate marketing has to be defined by you. If you operate in an environment where you’re chasing an unrealistic goal from day one then you’ll feel nothing but frustration at the end of every day. Although there are plenty of examples of a path to success that you can try and follow, ultimately you’ll need to define your own goals and forge your own path.

Not only will this stop your from tearing your hair out when things don’t go according to “plan” but it will also allow you more freedom and control over the direction of your business and indeed personal life. Sometimes making a few mistakes and taking a few wrong turns is the ONLY way in which you can possibly progress as an affiliate and no amount of advice or step by step guidance will be more valuable than first hand experiences.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

What’s a “successful” affiliate anyway?

Related posts:

1. Becoming a successful Affiliate is like eating an Elephant
2. What does Affiliate Marketing mean to you?
3. What’s a Super Affiliate, and how do I become one?