The Start of The Rest of My Life!

Great post. It sounds like your in this for the long haul and not about to give up which is the first essential.

If you've goofed off in the past, forget it. So have most other successful people. Learn from it first, and then get it out of your head.

Your timescales are incredibly generous on yourself. You should be able to hit those easily.

I'm going to give you my own personal advice here. I'm sure there will be others who will disagree with me.

If your goal is to sell your own products and have your own websites, just get on with it. Forget about Clickbank and affiliate marketing. You are just making things unnecessarily hard for yourself.

The affiliate marketing method APPEARS to be the easy way to make money online, but in reality it is the hardest. You take the lazy way out by not creating your own product, and end up peddling the same things everyone else is peddling after they have already blasted their promotional emails to their lists. You are like a bottom feeder fighting for the leftovers. Forget it.

Newbies should also stay well away from Clickbank, as their policies are as newbie-unfriendly as it is possible to get. Whatever sales you make, you won't get to see the money for a very long time. You will have no ability to reinvest your profits and your business will choke to death as a result. If you start by selling through PayPal you can reinvest your profits from any sales immediately.

The Clickbank model only works for those at a more advanced stage of the Internet marketing cycle. You can pay $49 to register your own product and get affiliates to promote it for you. The Clickbank affiliate model works for those who have large email lists to promote products to, and who are in no hurry to receive their commissions. Successful marketers build a real business, and a real list, and then use Clickbank to put some icing on the cake.

I suspect from the way that you spell "scepticism" and "realise" that you are a fellow Limey, in which case Clickbank will be even less friendly.

Starting a business with affiliate marketing and then expecting to move into creating your own products is like buying a tortoise and expecting it to turn into a cheetah. Forget it. If your goal is to have a proper business, start one today and get on with it.

Concentrate on LIST BUILDING and PRODUCT CREATION. Forget everything else unless it directly relates to one of these two things. For example, traffic generation is necessary to build the list and start making sales of your products.

You are clearly a good writer so use your content where it will do you the most good - in your own products and promoting your own products. If you've still got a job bringing in regular money you won't even need to sell services to get a start as so many of us had to do. You can just get started now.

That's my advice anyway, based on experience. Of course, it is your choice.

Whatever you do, you've come to the best place to get the help and support you need, all for free. I wish you every success.

Andrew

That's the spirit my friend, get up and held your head high and say this is for real. You're not alone many had stumble but were able to start again and are doing good.

Whilst I agree with our English Gentleman (Andrew) about building your own business with your own product, list etc and - above all - building a brand, Clickbank can be a good learning ground and once you have made 5 sales they pay you out on the next payday. When it doesn't work so well is if you do what I did - I made my first sale, sat back and thought WOW I've made it and took no further action!! It took me a month to wake up and smell the coffee, but all good now!!

Good luck - and welcome to the long haul with the rest of us!

Hi
From reading I realized that your problem is similar to mine. What I did not quit. Search options and try. There will be a success.

Hey Sam,

Well done you for putting your hand up and owning up to your mistakes! I have a lot of respect for you in saying that!

I hope the future works out for you!

Chris

Hi Sam! Click bank is ok as you start on a money making journey. Then you can later set up your own website and promote your products like you said.. This will help you to learn building your online business. Apart from Click bank there are other legitimate affiliate marketing programs you can promote and earn the income you desire. As you continue participating in this forum, you will realize that it is very rich with information when it comes to making money online. You will receive great ideas that will at times influence your thinking for the better. You will need to now focus on your future and not allow what happened distract you from your present and future business goals. After you have started your new money making journey putting all the necessary effort, you will receive the rewards and be consoled for the mistakes you made in the past. Making money online is very possible. Good luck.