Many people get into affiliate marketing not just because they’ve heard about the money that’s to be made, but because they want to get away from office politics, the grumpy boss or the daily commute that can be such a pain. Or all of the above.

One of the ‘perks’ of affiliate marketing is that you can work from home, setting your own hours and sitting in your dressing gown whilst you work. Sounds great, right? Well, working from home isn’t always as peachy as it sounds. Sometimes, it just plain sucks.

First and foremost there’s the loneliness. While office work can be boring and commuting can be frustrating there’s always something to look forward to, whether it’s catching a bit of fresh air at lunch or chatting to your work mates about last night’s telly around the water cooler. Plenty of important relationships are formed at work, but working from home largely removes any chance of this happening. Of course there’s a big part of affiliate marketing that’s about forming relationships with merchants and with fellow affiliates, but there’s little chance of a face-to-face on a daily basis and reading emails or talking on the phone are not really substitutes for banter and the bustle of human proximity in an office. Interaction with other people doesn’t just have an impact on your levels of loneliness, it’s also linked to many other emotions. If you’ve gone from having a job with regular interaction to working from home there’s a high chance that your levels of motivation, productivity and general happiness could all potentially deteriorate. Being on your own in an empty house or flat doesn’t give you much incentive to get on with working and the internet itself is so full of juicy distractions that a seriously fragmented workflow can sometimes follow.

Part of this problem is a complete lack of feedback as to how you’re really doing. The size of commission payments is all very well and good as a measure of financial success but in the absence of direct feedback it can be hard to tell if you are doing as well as you could — or should. Whilst many people working from home will have family or friends around for certain portions of the day to stave off the basic loneliness, without colleagues around to give you obvious (and subliminal) hints as to your progress at work as well as your capacity as a sociable human being, some people can find themselves becoming lethargic and poorly motivated simply because they feel underappreciated and unrewarded. You may have felt under-valued in the “day job” but at least you had some feedback!

The realities of being your own boss are simple: as a boss, you tend not to treat yourself particularly kindly. Because much of the support you get from human contact at work happens at a subconscious level, when you start working from home there’s a chance that you’ll begin to feel frustrated and depressed but you simply won’t know why. Almost as mirror issue to this one, working from home might reduce your ability to cope with personal interaction as your daily conversations are limited to emails and the two dimensional medium that is the phone. Being able to interact face to face with other humans on a professional and personal level is something that needs constant practice and a home worker can all too easily lose their edge or – worse – start to actively avoid such encounters.

There are also health factors. Affiliate marketing and working from home both encourage a very sedentary lifestyle. You can spend hours writing content, seeking out keywords and scouring forums for inspiration whilst barely moving a muscle. As the old expression suggests, a healthy body is linked to a healthy mind, so your health is not something to be neglected. However, the temptation when working from home is to sit in your work area, drink sugary hot drinks and eat superficially gratifying by overly fattening foods. A lack of motivation and interaction can lead to depression and boredom which in turn lead to overeating, under exercising and an ever expanding waistline.

Finally there are the distractions. If you have a family there is a very strong chance that you’ll feel far more obliged to spend time with them that you would otherwise have spent working on your affiliate sites. This is part of the reason that so many affiliates work late into the night because their days are taken up with domestic comings and goings and other distractions: that leaking gutter can seem so appealing when faced with writing a particularly challenging piece of content . ..

Right – gutter fixed, back to work. The lack of structure to a working day and the often nocturnal working pattern can lead to irregular sleep patterns which, in turn, can exacerbate health issues and create a long term sense of weariness.

Ultimately there are plenty of drawbacks to what, on the surface of things, may seem to be an idyllic working environment. Understanding and accepting that they exist is, of course, the key to ensuring that you address them head on when embarking upon an affiliate career – or indeed any other primarily home-based role. Whilst we have to a large highlighted some of the worst-case scenarios in working from home, the truth is that your own ability to adapt to working from home is entirely subjective and different for each person. An environment which might be a struggle for some is one in which others will thrive. It’s also important to note that most people who talk about the pains of working from home are most likely still doing it many years after they gave up the office environment.

The good news is that for each and every hazard there are plenty of equally powerful positive aspects and approaches to working from home which we will examine in another post here at Lammo.net.

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

Working from Home sucks!

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Sometimes being an affiliate is absolutely brilliant and many of the benefits of working from home are immediately obvious to anyone who has ever had to deal with the daily grind of office work or the daily commute.

Here we are briefly exploring some of the more obvious benefits that make working from home a rocking alternative, as well as throwing in a few of the hidden benefits which aren’t as easy to identify without having experienced working from home for yourself.

Firstly there is of course the removal of the daily commute from your schedule. Not only does commuting take time out of your day and causes millions of people unnecessary stress on a daily basis but it is also a huge cost consideration. Commuting can cost thousands a year, whether you’re using public transport or covering the costs of running a car and that’s before you consider the impact it has upon the environment. Working from home makes you greener and better off – fact! It also generally improves your mental wellbeing as you won’t have to sit in traffic, endure the nuances of those particularly irritating fellow commuters or indeed base your home near to your office. This will further free you up to choose where you live. The internet is a truly global marketplace: as long as you’ve got access to a decent broadband connection you can take your work anywhere. Whether you’re working in a croft in the Highlands or a Penthouse in the City you’ll be able to make just as much money.

Next there’s the food. Working from home means you’ll never again have to guiltily munch on an overpriced, under-nourishing sandwich. You can not only reduce the costs of lunch every day but you can improve its health benefits by making your own healthy alternative every day. Even simply strolling to the shops without the constraints of a lunch hour is a huge benefit in its own right. You can also avoid the lunchtime rush and do whatever you need to keep your general health levels up. This means that off-peak gym membership is an option: you can skip the busiest times of the day for this – and indeed for everything you do. This is of course linked to managing your own working time and for many people their most productive period of the day isn’t defined by the set hours in an office. As an affiliate you can create your own timetable that suits you, with many people finding that working late or starting early is far better for them than adhering to the 9 to 5.

Choosing your working space and adapting it to your own requirements and tastes is yet another major benefit of working from home. Creating a room that functions as your office and which is organised to tease the best work out of you doesn’t need to take long or even cost very much and you should end up with something that is a far cry from the clutter, confinement and claustrophobia of the average soulless office cubicle.

Perhaps one of the less obvious benefits of working from home is the potential for serious, hard core concentration that you just can’t get in the office environment. Most people find that if they’re working without distraction at something that interests and stimulates them they will become more productive and able to maintain good productivity levels over a longer period of time. Working at home is conducive to getting your head in ‘the zone’ in contrast with so many office environments in which co-workers, time restrictions, endless meetings and other distractions sometimes make decent concentration levels all but impossible.

There is of course the worry that you’ll be negatively impacted by the lack of direct feedback from colleagues whilst working from home. In practice you will generally find that if you’re given the time and the opportunity to work on a project alone, make mistakes and learn lessons, you’ll have a far more enriching experience than one that is subjected to constant scrutiny and micro management by others.

Whilst most of us are essentially social beings and fear we may struggle in the absence of office-based human contact, the reality is that we simply find new means by which to interact. The affiliate industry offers plenty of events and opportunities for face to face networking and the building of lasting relationships. There are networks, fellow affiliates and merchants to engage with on the telephone, via various online forums and in meetings where appropriate. The point here is that YOU are setting the agenda and YOU can determine how much face to face contact you need and plan accordingly. If you are in a meeting with someone it is because you want to be there.

As you have probably gathered, I’m quite a fan of working from home, though I hope you’re aware that just as there are upsides there are always downsides to consider alongside them. Ultimately how you respond to working at home and how you change your habits to fit in with the new lifestyle depends upon your personal tastes. If you like the structure of an office day there’s no reason that you can’t apply similar constraints to your day whilst working from home, it all depends on your discipline levels and personal preferences.

For many of those working at home, there is, above all, one priceless benefit: they can structure their work around precious and irrecoverable time with their families. Not the other way around.

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

Working from home rocks!

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