I thought I’d throw this question out there. I would love to hear some of the reasons those of you have for being in this business.

I would imagine the monetary element is one of the bigger ones. But I’m also interested to hear what other reasons makes this the best darn money making opportunity and business on the web!

I truly believe that. I do a variety of things online, but nothing can hold a candle to affiliate marketing with Adwords.

Here are a few reasons I love this business:

1. Freedom… I made my first income online from Affiliate Marketing and it financed and supported every endeavor after that. AND! Allowed me to close my offline businesses and do something I love every day. I do what I want… I go where I want… come and go as I please… all because I am in this business.
2. The Money. Can’t deny it. It’s sweeeeeeeeet! And with a method like Blasting, if I want to make more, I just need to Blast ‘X’ and I will make some more of that green stuff.
3. Variety.. it’s so interesting. There are so many different things you can do with affiliate marketing. Depending on what markets and types of products you are promoting, you can go in so many different directions: build Web 2.0 elements, community, newsletters… build networks of related sites and products.
4. Flexibility.. You are not limited to just doing Affiliate Marketing. Some markets I’m in that’s all I use to make money.. others I combine affiliate income with Adsense and selling my own products or services.
5. Long Term Opportunity and a Growing Industry - Every month 1000s of new merchants and affiliate programs open up. Other expand.. and they get better and better as technology improves.

Could I go on? Yes!

It is hard work in the beginning.. it was for me and it is for everyone that makes it in this business. But the journey and learning curve is so very worth it.

Do you feel the same about this game? Or… I’ll open this to the negatives as well. If you are just pooped out on it, tried that, done that… it doesn’t work attitudes come forward too. I know many have had bad experiences as well. I hope somewhere along the line I can flip that around for you.

-Matt Levenhagen

Desire: If you want to be a great success as an affiliate marketer, you need to possess the desire to have it. I know many people might *think* they have the desire, but do they really? Do you really want it?

Trial & Error: Are you willing to work through the failures, the trials and errors to get to profits? Can you accept the fact that you are going to need to fail a lot to learn? You will of course win a lot as well and the winners will add up to a great income over time, but in the process you are going to fall down sometimes, get some bruises.. can you keep going through that?

No eBook or guide is going to make you a success. You will gain a lot by reading many of them. There are some great systems and techniques out there to make a lot of money with Affiliate Marketing, but the elements that will find you with a highly profitable and expanding Affiliate Marketing Business lie within you and your mindset.

If you are not equiped with the desire.. real desire.. burning desire.. to win no matter what, you won’t. If you have decided that nothing will stand in your way, then nothing will. If you have decided that you can accept the obstacles, see them as learning opportunities, and move forward even when it seems you are not making much progress, then success is yours.

You must also accept the fact that you can’t put a time limit on it. Some marketers find success within days or weeks. Others it takes a few to many months. There are many determining factors as to how well you will do and how fast it will come to you.

The bottom line is you can’t say after you have put up one campaign or you have only tried this for a few weeks or months that this business doesn’t work! Have you read any success stories lately? How many times have you read it was easy for those that have found success? I’m guessing very few times.

Most of the time when you read stories of people who have built successful businesses it took effort, work and commitment combined with a solid purpose and focused direction to build a solid, profit-pulling business…

There is only one thing you need to know. Affiliate Marketing is making a lot of people a lot of money. It has been around for many years and will be here for many years to come. You don’t need a masters degree, you don’t need to know anyone, you don’t need to be good at everything, and you don’t need any expensive equipment or to invest huge amounts of money to get started.

In my opinion, this is one of the best startup businesses there is because just about anyone can do it and it takes very little investment of money.

But, there needs to be that mindset. The pure desire to succeed. You need to make up your mind that Affiliate Marketing is real, accept the fact that others are making thousands, 100s of thousands and millions in this business. And there’s no reason if you commit to the effort, have a no quit attitude and want it bad enough, that you can’t make a lot of money yourself.

Of course, it’s also true like all things in life, it’s not for everyone. You must enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy this type of work, you don’t like numbers, you don’t like studying stats, you can’t handle failing even on a small scale to learn and to get to profit, you don’t have patience and aren’t willing to go through the learning curve, then you will fail before you even get started.

Some people simply don’t have the aptitude for this type of business. Some people want to chase the opportunities that promise overnight riches, they follow the crowd, the next big opportunity, they don’t want to work, commit and build a real business. Those type of peple will find businesses like Affiliate Marketing are not for them… They will never see big success.

Anyone can do this business, but they must WANT IT BAD ENOUGH. Do you?

-Matt Levenhagen