10 Revealing Signs You’re a Successful Affiliate

How does one measure success? Is it the money? Is it greater freedom? As a gaming affiliate, you’re likely to fall into two categories: those working tooth and nail to build their business and those that are comfortably well upon their way. Here are ten signs that will tell you that you’re going to make it as a gaming affiliate.
#1: Consistent Sales
Gaming affiliate marketing has its ups and downs – especially when you’re just starting out. There are times when you’re flush and others when you’re bust (aka a few sales and then days without any). You’ll know that you’ve made it as an affiliate when you start to see consistent sales popping up. Of course, you’ll still need to put in the time but now you’re really making progress.
#2: You’re Reinvesting Into Your Business
More than likely, you started your gaming affiliate business from your own pocket. You’re likely using your earnings to pay for the everyday items like your rent and food. The revealing sign that you’ve made it is when you’re readily investing your earnings back into your business to increase your sales – you’re earning enough to be comfortable and you’re building upon your success.
#3: You’re Not “Fiddling” With The Design
‘Design-itis’ is the laughable term given to website owners that can’t stop changing and rearranging their website layout. You’ll know when you’re well upon your way if you’ve finally settled on your website design and push forward with online marketing. You’ll be spending less time with the minutia of color theory and more about how to satisfy your affiliates to earn you more cash.
#4: You Have More Online Friends Than Real Friends
This one is a little bit odd but your online work will end up gaining you a lot more online friends than you have in the real-world. You’re going to be spending a lot of time online with your business but you still need to be social – your business “makes it” when your visitors start becoming people you can call friends and even rely on them as if you’ve known them for years.
#5: Less Time Doing Work, More Money Coming In
You’ve really made it when you’re spending less time on your business but continue to earn more money than the previous month. You’ve more than likely started as a gaming affiliate so you didn’t have to work full-time at an office but it quickly turned into something similar from home – you’ve made it when you can finally kick back, relax and enjoy the things you want without waking up each morning and jumping right into work.
#6: Your Visitors Become Brand Ambassadors
A ‘brand ambassador’ is a follower which fights for you – they’ll defend you when you’re taking flak and promote you whenever they can. Making it as a gaming affiliate is when your visitors start to do the marketing for you. You’ll be spending less time driving traffic to your website because these brand ambassadors will be linking and talking about your website which gets even more people to your website and through your affiliate programs.
#7: You’re Working On The Next Project
You’ve truly made it when you are already into work on your next big project. Your first website will be the hardest – you’ll put in the most amount of work but everything afterward is a walk in the park because you have the resources and knowledge to tackle new projects. Each new project will pull in more money and affiliate sales for your gaming websites – that’s when things get really interesting.
#8: You’re Hiring Employees
You may be working a single person operation with your gaming affiliate business but one day you could have employees. You’ve made it when you’re sourcing freelancers and developers to work on your websites – you’re putting in less of your own time because you’re earning enough to have others do it for you!
#9: You’re Going International
When you first began, you generally have a core audience you wish to target but in due time, you can take your gaming affiliates internationally. Hitting the global market opens a whole new wealth of opportunities for your affiliate business. You’ll start investing in translation services, media buys in countries and creating marketing campaigns specific to geographical locations. Your international presence steps up your gaming affiliate game to a whole new level.
#10: You’re BIG At Local Events
Perhaps you’ve considered getting out of the house, away from the computer and into the limelight of real casinos, poker rooms or using Meetup to create local groups? At this point in your gaming affiliate business, you’re on top of the world because your business is taking care of itself and you’re out there working the tables (literally) for networking opportunities and getting your name on the tips of the tongues of those players that can truly bring in a lot of additional earnings.
How do you define success as a gaming affiliate? Let us know by talking about it in the “Qualities of Online Gambling Affiliates” forum thread.