Today I made the break. I left my day job and booked my flights to Cape Verde. Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the central Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa, opposite Mauritania and Senegal.
The current temperature is 28 degrees and the weather is fine, clear and sunny! Here’s to my new affiliate life…
If only. I’m actually getting married and this is the destination of our honeymoon. We’re getting married on Thursday and then jetting off to sunnier times on Monday morning. Today was my last day at the day job for 3 weeks.
But is this really just a pipe dream? The thought that it is not is about 80% of the reason why I keep grinding away at the affiliate duties. You might like the sound of my daily schedule for the holiday:
- Get up bright and early each day and gym it for an hour and half
- Go for a 30 min cool down in the pool (or sea, whichever I feel like at the time)
- Have some breakfast
- Go outside and sunbathe in the pool bar (with all inclusive drinks) until about 5pm
- Get changed and have some dinner
- Turn in for the evening on the old WiFi and do some AM for 4 hours
Now is it just me or does that sound like the perfect lifestyle? This next few weeks will be my first real chance to experience this kind of living for real and I just can’t see how this kind of experience will not motivate me more than anything else to make this affiliate marketing stuff work!
If you’ve been following the bar stools series, you’ll know I’ve currently hit a brick wall with rankings and much of the advice I’ve received is to continue to build links and add new content but the other major piece of advice that simply can’t be ignored is to start the next site.
I guess the philosophy here is that there’s no way around the age thing in google so just keep the site up to date and build more links whilst making the best use of the ‘idle’ time to launch the next site. In my case, this new site will be a drastic shift from the retail/bar stools site and will move into a highly competitive vertical – travel.
My thinking here is that if it’s tough and competitive, there’s money in it and I’m tired of fighting for the small commissions when it seems to me like a better use of the same time would be to put that energy into products/offerings that pay higher commissions…
I’m not looking for a golden goose but I’m looking for a £500 a month site and if it means I have to punch a little higher than my weight then so be it! When I’m leading my 4 hour day affiliate lifestyle on a desert island I’m sure I’ll feel like it was all worth it.
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May 18th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Congrats on the wedding.
One of the biggest motivations for me at the minute is knowing that WHEN I make this work and I can leave the day job I will be able to work from anywhere, at any time! I would love nothing more than to jet off to sunnier climates for a couple of months at a time, do a couple of hours first thing (9-11ish), spend the rest of the day chilling in the sun and doing whatever I want, and then work from 5ish for 4 hours or so. And also know that if I want to take the day off, I can!
All my sites are based on SEO at the minute, but now I’ve built up a half decent cashflow im looking at stepping into PPC – I see you make a half decent amount from it, any suggestions? Feel free to drop me an email if you want.
Also I’ve sent you an email with a few SEO tips for the bar stools site.
May 19th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Congratulations, i dont see any number on your list specifying time with wife though!
Have great time you’ll come back refreshed and ready to crack on with new sites, you may also find your rankings have changed.
Mike
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:36 am
I have the same dream and know that with some hard work and determination I can make it. Due to circumstances beyond my control I lost my job in December 2009 and have since been travelling around doing some AM to pay the bills.
Unfortunately I don’t earn enough from AM to jet off to nice beach resorts but can ‘get by’ in some Eastern European countries where the cost of living is quite low.
Affiliate Marketing is one hell of a rollercoaster, some months are great, others are bad. I’m 100% SEO these days and know with some hard work I will be living the dream one day. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I wish I discovered AM 7 years ago rather than last summmer!
May 24th, 2010 at 1:34 am
I hope your not reading this and your enjoying your honeymoon, but your bar stools site is up to 7th for me! Hopefully you will have a few sales to come back to!
June 14th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
@Shane – Thanks for the congrats, man, I can honestly say the last few weeks have been the best in my life!
Yes, the wanderlust plays a big part in my own choice of promoting affiliate programs…it’s always been my goal to get something going that makes money while I play and allows me to travel and shed these 9-5 shackles!
I’ll mail you seperately about PPC when I get a bit more time. I got your mail, thanks!
@MikeG – Thanks, man! – Ah! Good point! As it happens, I actually didn’t do ANY computer-related work and spent the entire time with my wife – which was both liberating (not being attached to a computer screen) and fun.
@James – I don’t know whether to offer my condolences or congratulations for you losing your job because either way, it seems to have set you free to travel and do affiliate marketing…All I can say is that if you keep on going and don’t let these downard rollercoasters put you off your mission, then you will do far better than simply ‘getting by’ with time. The realisation for me is that this has to be treated professionally and won’t happen overnight. Like any business, it will take time to build up and you have to be focussed and committed to achieve this. Good luck to you on your journey…
@Shane – LOL..I managed to stay off the PC for the entire time and was glad to come back and see my commission coffers swelling…the mythical Bar Stools UK ranking on the other hand, had made another 24 hour appearance and by the time I checked, I was back in limbo and nowhere to be found. At least I have proof that someone else has seen it jump up…this just shows there is potential here and I’m not far off.