Each time I remember when I made my first affiliate sale I have to laugh. I laugh because I have come so far now since that New Year’s Eve. It doesn’t come as a shock to me any more. In fact, I know how to assess things based on the trends I’m seeing.
This blogging thing continues to surprise me every day! And I continue to be pleasantly surprised, at least with the money aspects. I want to share with you how shocked I was when I realized I had made a substantial amount of money in my first attempt at affiliate marketing.
You may know by now that I was thoroughly fed up with my teaching job and gave up to try my hand at blogging. It was a life changing decision that saw me getting better and better, and learning more and more about the basics of blogging.
The program that helped me get better at it was a course I saw being advertised. It was a blogging course! I didn’t even know at the time that there were people making a living by blogging, and even running courses to teach people how to blog!
Towards the end of the course, I saw it being discussed in a Facebook group that one of the best ways to make money from your blog is to become an affiliate for courses. Well, deciding to become an affiliate for the course I was doing was a no brainer for me. It meant that I didn’t have to spend the time making up a course, but I could actually advertise other peoples’ courses on my site and make a profit doing so.
I must say that when I made the decision to advertise Elite Blog Academy, I found the application process to become an affiliate quite easy. What was harder for me, was to dedicate the time to learning exactly how to be most effective at marketing the course. If I’m honest, I don’t think I did a good job of it. Some bloggers I noticed, were advertising all over, and I really wished I could too, but I didn’t really understand how.
Not only that, I was embarrassed to ask for help. I did reach out once to a big blogger to ask how to do something with the links I had. She promptly brushed me off! Since that day, I decided that if anyone asked me for help with their blog, that I would. I know it can be quite busy for big bloggers, but I also believe that they should remember that they got help from other bloggers when they were starting off.
Anyway, back to my money making surprise with affiliate marketing. I wasn’t happy with how little I was promoting the course and I just knew that it could be done better. In fact, I had given up because I knew that I needed help and didn’t know how. So I gave up on the thought of making any money that year (2016), telling myself that I would put more effort into it, in 2017. I really felt defeated and despondent.
As it was my first year of blogging, I decided that before the new year started, I would take stock of what went well for me and what didn’t. I also wanted to take some time to make plans for the new year. The blog was doing well, I had met lots of friends through my blog and I was even able to write and publish my first book. Then just as I finished all of that, I thought as it’s only a few minutes to midnight, I should check whether or not I had made any sales with Elite Blog Academy. After all, it is an amazing course which had helped not only me, but so many others to set up and run their own blog. I knew it had the potential to help so many other people too.
Imagine my shock when I realised that I had made $196.00 as an affiliate! I literally screamed so loud that I shocked even myself! It was possible! And I had done it! It is hard to describe the feeling one gets when one makes the first money from blogging. Suffice it to say that it is a very pleasant feeling.
I have felt that feeling several times since then, but nothing compares to the first time when I actually did make some money from my blog. And this sale came less than one year after starting my blog! I have written a post about my other favorite ways to make money from my blog. You can check that post here.
By the way, if you are thinking about starting your own blog, or you need help with anything on your blog, drop me a line or two in the comment box below and I promise to get back to you.
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Inspiring story. As a creator of and promoter of e-courses, I can say — on the face of of it — the promoting is easier. Although, once a course is developed, all you have to do is keep it updated and it can earn you money for years.
FYI, I added your success story to an ongoing series on my site, where tons of other affiliate marketers share how they got their first sales. You can see it at the link provided in my profile.
Continued success to both of you.
Yuwanda that is very kind of you! I wish you all the best with your business too. The word needs to get out there that people can make a living outside the walls of their 9 to 5. Will check out your link. Thanks again for your kindness.
i have been trying to make it big in the affiliate world but had try my attempt of setting a temporary site http://kyliestores.blogspot.com
I love that you decided to help other bloggers. I hope I can do the same one day. I hope that I can make money through affiliate links one day. I will keep Elite Academy in mind and pin this for later.
I’m sure you will one day when the chance comes up. If you want to do the short course I did to learn to become an affiliate, you can use this link: Affiliate course
For the Elite blog Academy course, use this one:EBA
I really enjoyed reading this! Although I love teaching, I did want something else to do with my time and I love writing, so I can relate. I never thought of starting a blog, but I figured it would be a great start in to writing my first novel, and I actually really like it.
Thanks so muchReginald. I can truly say that I love blogging.And the fact that I can earn money and become an author as well, are big wins in my book. All the best with yours too.Do let me know if there’s any way I can help.
I’m glad you found success with affiliate sales. Thanks for sharing your success story with us!
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience!! It is a magical feeling!
Thanks for sharing your story. With great content and dedication, I believe we can all achieve such success.
Awesome info – do I follow your link to EBA … Going to look more into this thanks
You will definitely love EBA. Good luck
This was very educational. I will be using this as a guide. I too am a strong believer of dedication. 🙂
Perfect timing! I just started my blog and have been looking into becoming an affiliate. Thanks for posting
Thank you so much for sharing this experience! I’m a newbie blogger just looking into making affiliate sales and I’m a bit nervous about it! Learning about others’ experiences makes me feel more calm. I also left teaching art at a school to become an art blogger!! 🙂
You’ll do well, Erica. The absolute best affiliate marketing course is making sense of affiliate marketing.
wow! I am inspired by this story .I would like to start a blog but I am a total newbie .I had read your story twice and got excited as you described your own excitement when you got your first paycheck !
I have signed with Clickbank recently but I am in a total limbo as to figuring out my next steps.Doing it alone is definitely challenging .
Do you take any fee for your your assitance ?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Patrick. I am happy that our story has inspired you. We don’t charge for assisting other bloggers at all. Blogging is fun, and exciting and there is enough out there for everyone. You can always email us at joleisacreed@yahoo.com if you need our help with anything. We would suggest you get a self-hosted WordPress site from the outset if you want to start blogging. We also found this course called turn your dreams into money that teaches you all the basics about setting up your blog. Good luck! It would be great to hear from you when you get your first payout too!
Perfect timing! I just started my blog and have been looking into becoming an affiliate
Thanks for stopping by and all the very best.
This is very impressive article, you have shown here your first experience, really I have not tested such an experience, thank you for sharing this.
Great job! Thanks for sharing your experiences.
I really liked the content of your blog! Thank you for sharing this information!