My plan when I started full-time just over a week ago was to do a minimum of five hours work a day. This doesn’t sound like much but it was more than what I was doing before so in theory it should lead to an increase in profitbaily.

To Do List

I wrote out a rough to do list of things I would do and on Monday morning I set about working through them. Unfortunately I only managed about three hours on Monday. Oh well, it was the first day so probably best not to dive straight into it. Tuesday wasn’t much better and by Thursday I was down to maybe one hour a day!

Link Building

Although since going fulltime I’ve not been spending that much time on my actual sites I have been outsourcing a fair bit of link building. When you’ve not got much time this is probably a good way to at least get something done as it doesnt require much input from you apart from money. I’ve seen mixed results from my efforts, some sites have gone up nicely in the SERPs and some have not moved. It is confusing as it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to rating a link building service but if something works I have been using it again. Social Bookmarking seems to be doing me quite well at the moment so I’m thinking of signing up for Bookmarking Demon. Has anyone used it?

Mini Net

I’ve been reading over on Sitey.net about creating your own mini net. Or network of sites you own that link to your main site. I do like this idea and am now going to start looking for some relevant domains that have dropped. Unitl then I will start using the cheaper content writers I’ve found on Odesk to make some Web 2.0 mini sites.

Fitness Regime

I also mentioned in my last post that I was going to start a new fitness regime while I am off work. I was thinking of doing 30 mins of cardio before starting work but suprisingly that never happened. I have been doing it in the evening instead which suits me better as I’m definately not a morning person. The new fitness plan has been stuck to for the most part and I’ve been doing weights three times a week, swimming almost every afternoon and then cardio in the gym in the evening almost every night. Hopefully by the end of the seven weeks I will be in better shape than ever before.

Slow Summer

Last month I had a pretty poor month and this month the trend has contiuned. My sites aren’t getting the traffic that they were in the previous months and this has affected my sales. Fingers crossed for an Autumn revival.

First Week as a Full Time Affiliate is a post from: How I Got Rich

In prepartion for me giving up the day job and becoming a full-time affiliate marketeer in about seven months I am planning to work on a ‘big site’ from now to then with the goal of it bringing in ₤1000 a month by around July 2011.

Along with the income from my other sites this should cushion the blow of leaving my job and cover the bills until my full time earnings kick in.

The main thing stopping me from starting this big site is deciding on what area or niche to set the site in.

I’ve got three ideas I think are worth a punt but I am very wary of picking the wrong one. I am aware of ‘paralysis by analysis’ which is all too common in new affiliates starting out but seeing as I’ve never really made a successful site so far I don’t want to get it wrong.

My criteria for this project is the following:

• Products must not be seasonal – or at least not completely die out for parts of the year
• Products must cost over ₤50: so that they bring in at least ₤2.50 per sale of which I will need 400 per month at this price which is 14 a day to reach my target.  Increase the product price to ₤100 and I will need just seven sales a day.  This is very rough as commission rates vary between merchants.
• Lots of the merchants operating in this area must have affiliate programmes.  Don’t want to be competing with brands or merchants that I can’t promote on my site.
• Cannot promote with PPC.  Due to my run in with Google Adwords I can no longer get traffic via Adwords so it must be a product type/area/niche I can promote via SEO and get traffic via the organic search results.

Ideas on a postcard please!

How to Pick a Big Niche for my Big Site is a post from: How I Got Rich

Things are getting real: countdown to giving up the day job!

Due to a change in personal circumstances I will be becoming a full-time affiliate again in about eight months (July 2011).

I gave this a crack before about a year ago but didn’t use my time wisely enough to increase my profits so didn’t earn enough to keep at it and therefore had to go back to work.

I was gutted to return to work and give up the dream life of working for myself with no boss or alarm clock but hopefully I learnt something from snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and next time things will be different.

But for now at least my main focus is to increase earnings over the next eight or so months.

Ideally I want to be bringing home ₤2000 a month by July 2011 but that would mean an increase of about 66% and that sounds like an awful lot!

In theory it only needs 10 of my numerous sites to bring in ₤200 each a month but hardly any of my sites make over ₤50 a month so this too seems like a long shot.

Perhaps eight months is enough time to build a site that will bring in ₤1500 (with the other ₤500 coming from my existing sites) but so far I’ve not even come slightly close to that.

By the end of this month (November) I will have picked a strategy for how to proceed over the next eight months to realise my goal and be a successful (this time) full-time affiliate marketeer.

Countdown to Going Full-Time (Again) is a post from: How I Got Rich

Now that I am back working full-time some of the things I’d left behind are returning.

The main one is that Sunday night feeling where you know you have work the next day which is even worse after having some time off.  Last week I was off from work and was on holiday and today (Monday) is a public holiday so I am getting that Sunday night feeling a day late but it is just as strong if not stronger.  I am really fired up to do some affiliate marketing work but have lots of planning and preparation to do for the day job so can’t even do that!

I’ve set myself another goal which is to be earning £900 a month by the end of June which is about four months time.  This should be enough for me to quit the day job and go full-time again.

I plan to do this via my existing sites and the addition of one big site which I am yet to start.

Can it be done? Watch this space.

That Sunday Night Feeling is a post from: How I Got Rich

Well being a full-time affiliate again didn’t last long.  Less than a week later I have a new job but will be working full-time not part-time like before.  This means my time for affiliate marketing will be greatly reduced.  I wasn’t looking for work but something landed in my lap and was offered ito me and I am not in a position to turn work down so I will be starting next week.

Maybe this will spur me on and give me an incentive to put more effort into my affiliate marketing sites.  I must admit I had been getting lazy.  Around my previous job in England I still managed to put in quite a bit of effort into affiliate stuff and got to a level of earnings I have yet to go above (apart from Christmas) after trying affiliate marketing full-time for the past few months.

I’m setting myself the goal of writing four new product review pages/posts a day to one of my existing sites (rotating through the sites) and also adding one new product review page to each of my two big sites.

With the extra money coming in I will be reinvesting some of my profits from Internet marketing into my sites by buying content and looking into link building and how much that costs.  Anyone know any thing about that?

My long term goal is still to get from my current earnings of about 400 pound a month to 2,000 a month by the end of 2010.  Will I be able to do it?

Back to Work, Full Time! is a post from: How I Got Rich

I have now finished my part-time contract I was on and am now back to being a full-time Internet marketer again.  I will be looking for a new job (hopefully part-time) as I am still earning bugger all from this lark but hopefully before I find one my fortunes will pick up.

Last month was amazing but this month has been back to normal and I think I will be lucky to clear £400 which is nowhere near enough.

I am starting to wonder at what point do you call it quits and admit that something isn’t going to work out for you and move onto something else?  I guess if I have another month without any rise in profits then I will have to have a long hard look at where I am.

Back to being a Full-Time Affiliate Marketer again is a post from: How I Got Rich

Today I decided to setup an ‘office’ in the spare bedroom.  So far since we moved I’ve been working on the sofa in the living room which has been very comfy and I hadn’t even thought about moving until I had a look around the spare room today and realised it would be prefect for a little office.  It even has a desk in already!

So far I have just moved my laptop in but have plans to make it more office-y.  My progress has stalled over the past few months so I am hoping a change of scenery to a slightly more professional environment might help me stay motivated.

I plan to put in a whiteboard behind my laptop so I can write down ideas and targets and maybe even stick up a few inspiring images of a nice car, house or holiday destination.

There is no TV in here which is a good thing as it was too tempting to put it on during the day and watch some Premier League re-runs from the weekend or an old film.  Working in here should keep me focused and on track.  There is even air-con to keep me cool.

Things to get for my new office:

• whiteboard
• post it notes for ideas
• notepad (a paper one)
• speakers for my laptop
• money cat
• cool lamp

Where do you work from?  Purpose built office or wherever you lay your laptop?

As requested here are some photos.  It doesn’t look very inspiring yet but hopefully in a few weeks it should look more homely.

First Post from my Home Office is a post from: How I Got Rich

After a week off from any kind of work I am now starting my full-time assualt on the world of Internet affiliate marketing. To ensure no time is wasted I am going to make a timetable for each day and also do a work list for that day so I know what I should be doing at any given time.  The schedule for this week will look something like this but I will tweak it as necessary:

• 6.30: get up
• 7.00: have breakfast
• 7.30: check sales from previous day, check emails, tracking data and forums
• 8.00: Go to the gym, have a shower etc
• 9.00: Have some food and do task list for the day
• 9.30: Work!
• 12.30: Go for lunch
• 13.15: Go for a swin, sunbathe, read and learn a bit of Thai
• 14.00: Work some more
• 15.00: Chores and non-am related tasks
• 16.00: End of day

Not a very stressful day with only four hours of actual work but if I am focused and consistent I think I should be ok.  I’m not adverse to working extra hours outside of this and on the weekends and this will be my minimum workload to ensure I get the basics done.

I am currently doing about £450 a month so will be looking to improve this with extra hours I am putting in.

Update: I didn’t do the 13.15 swim, read & learn Thai bit and worked instead.   I wrote out what I wanted to do that day and didn’t get anywhere near finishing it.  I don’t think four hours is enough really.

Going Full-Time is a post from: How I Got Rich

Friday was my last day of work and I am now unemployed so I guess that makes me a full-time affiliate marketer!

I’m only earning (from affiliate marketing) about a third of the monthly take home pay I was getting from my job so I can’t say my affiliate marketing earnings  have allowed me to give up the day job.

I’m off on my travels next week so I am hoping the £400 I am making from affiliate marketing a month (plus my final paycheck, returned deposit from flat, etc) will allow me to  give affiliate marketing a go full-time.

My goal is to be making £2,000 per month from affiliate marketing by the time I return to England as I believe this will be enough for me to go full-time in England.  Wish me luck!

PS It feels good staying up until 11.30 on a Sunday night and not have to worry about getting up for work the following day.

Giving up the Day Job is a post from: How I Got Rich