Affiliate Marketing as a Passive Income

31. Jul 2007 | 16 Comments

The title of this post says it all really. That is the sole number 1 reason I got into Affiliate Marketing. Not to quit my job, but instead to create an entirely separate stream of passive income that I could rely upon in many different circumstances.

Many Affiliate Marketers decide to leave their boss behind relatively early on in the game, perhaps when they’re making $150/day, or $200/day. I read a lot of these types of posts on forums. I have also (unfortunately) see a lot of horror stories. Like Adsense smart pricing for example. I knew a guy who easily was making $1,000/day consistently for about 6 months with Adsense. Life for him was good, that was until Google introduced their Smart Pricing algorithm & his earnings took a nosedive. Now he was left with little more than $100/day & all his eggs in one basket. He now runs a much more diverse range of Affiliate Programs like Textlinkads, Auctionads & Private Advertising.

For me, the thought of doing this was always too risky for me, I like the idea of having security at work yet still having the additional security that I’m making just as much online too. I also find that I work better in the evenings after work than if I was left to my own devices during the day.

It wasn’t easy though, from both angles. I worked hard to build up a stable online income & I also worked hard to get a solid SEO related job that would continually push me & help me learn in parallel with my own projects.

Ask yourself this question. If you’ve given up your Job for Affiliate marketing, start making some good money & then for one reason or another it all goes belly up. Where does that leave you?

Whilst a good Affiliate Marketer will learn to evolve with the times, not everyone is going to find the going that easy.

This is why I think that Affiliate Marketing is the perfect compliment to anyones normal income stream, allowing you to save more money & increase your wealth through various savings schemes, budgeting & smart investing. You could invest your Passive Income in savings accounts, or perhaps even shares or property. In Australia, if you have roughly around $50,000 saved in a normal savings account you’ll pocket $300/month alone in interest. Which is yet another income stream you can rely on.

So next time you think you earn enough to kick your boss out of his own office, step back & think about whether you’re really in the right job first. Secondly, take some time to evaluate how rock solid your affiliate programs are. If most of your income comes from Textlinkads think to yourself:

If textlinkads went out of business tomorrow, could I still make enough money to survive?

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16 Comments on "Affiliate Marketing as a Passive Income"

Leo Dimilo 31. Jul 2007, 2:14 pm

Very good post. I think that this stuff happens all the way across the board- From investments and banking all the way to gambling and of course, Marketing.

TextAdSearch 31. Jul 2007, 9:51 pm

It’s as if you wrote that article just for me. Yes I do need to diversify.

But you may also find that there are a growing number of people who have lost there jobs due to outsourcing so have come to internet marketing from a different avenue.

Scott Murdaugh 01. Aug 2007, 1:27 am

I’m at the point now where I think I could pull $500 a day if I could put 40 hours a week into this stuff. Not just affiliate marketing, but with ebay and other online income streams. Personally I’m going to make the jump soon just because I’m confident that I’ll make more money that way then by keeping my job. If my income was coming just from adwords, or just one affiliate network, I’d be a lot more nervous about it.

Tarik 01. Aug 2007, 3:05 am

Passive is the most desirable method of income b/c it requires little maintenance. I hit $100/day for a while, and considered leaving my job, but instead scaled down my hours a bit. Going from 8 to 6, which leaves me with 2 extra hours to work on aff marketing, SEO, and other things.

Now I have more energy to spend on my projects, instead of coming home everyday and feeling drained.

adventures in money making 01. Aug 2007, 9:12 am

good post!

My goal is replace my job income through several income streams apart from my job. I’m already at ~$1,000/month from 3 different sources.

Funnily enough, I didn’t count bank interest at all!

you can read about it here.
http://moneyshaker.blogspot.com/2007/06/buying-canadian-income-funds-for.html

Joey 02. Aug 2007, 4:57 am

Great post. I think a lot of people get caught up in success and don’t think about the what ifs? For example the trouble that auction ads had this month with downtime and not serving up the correct ads killed my clickthroughs. I had my biggest traffic month in July but my ctr dropped from just under 2% to .54% killing what would have been my best month with auction ads.

Tarik brings up another good angle about cutting your hours on the “Real” job to be more effective.

Francesco 02. Aug 2007, 8:58 pm

I wish I was good on it. I am learning and your blog and posts are great elearning resources.
I sent you a message through your contact form, is it working?

If it is not, why do not you shoot me an email?

Thanks
Francesco

Josh Mullineaux 07. Aug 2007, 12:19 pm

This is a great post. I actually just left my position as a banker in favor of developing income streams online. Before I did this, I made sure that my financial situation would allow it, and lowered all of my expenses as well. The transition to being self-employed is great thus far but I am anticipating fluctuations. I think there is a lot of sense in using online income as supplementary income however, I am ready to take the leap.

juicyegg.com 14. Aug 2007, 2:15 pm

Great info! I am experimenting with this passiveinternetincome.
contact me if you wish to know the result!

Mike 24. Aug 2007, 7:15 am

I have done this for a while also. I am a ’super’ affiliate and have been for the past 4 years. I make twice as much with my affiliate income as I do with my day job as.. an SEO. They compliment one another nicely.

Although, I always wonder what it would be like if I would have concentrated full time on new ideas instead of making money for my bosses at work.

Did I make a grave error in staying working my day job.

huma 06. Oct 2007, 11:20 am

first i had no job then i got a job with an online marketing firm, left the firm after gathering some ideas and to prove my real skills, its hard you have to be on your toes all the time to make money, to keep an eye on your ROI, buts its more fun!

Codrut Turcanu - AdSenseProfitTips.com 29. May 2008, 6:03 am

Nice information Stuart.

Every aspect of marketing or business has its pros and cons and affiliate marketing is not an exception. The only thing that matter at the end of the day is how much you earn on continuous basis (with ethical means) as it all depends upon person to person. For some $100/day is enough, for others $500/day is not a good sign to quit their job.

Cheers,
Codrut Turcanu – “Succeeding Against All Odds!”

Chings - Start-up Business Resource 02. Jun 2008, 3:13 am

Hie

Hie its interesting how this topic is hot these days. All the talk about Passive income streams (with adsense). Guys like Jo Han Mok, Ewen Chia, James Allen claimto be making several thousands a month. And the cool thing is that they also show you proof of earnings,and a step by step formula.

There must be bucks to be made if you know the formula. And have the right tools.
Thanks guys.

kadmiel 19. Feb 2009, 3:26 am

Its hard to deermine what passive income streams that you are doing but sometimes it fluctuates so much that it is hard to try and keep up with it all. just have to keep plugging along with both jobs for a while.. i like the fact of a safty net on one side and the idea of another stream on the other