Habits of Highly Effective Affiliates

When asked why he robbed banks, a famous bank robber once replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” At CAP, we that sentiment applies well to the affiliate marketing world.
While we certainly don’t advocate robbing banks, we do believe that if you’re looking for good advice, you need to go straight to the source. Recently we asked some of our top CAP Community members to share the top habits of highly effective affiliates with us. The results they returned were both interesting and amusing.
Patience
The dominant theme we saw in the responses we received was to exercise patience. Too many new affiliates expect to flip a switch and start making money right away. Well, affiliate marketing doesn’t work that way, just ask CAP Community member Fonzi:
Remain committed over the long haul. Don’t worry too much about earning when you first start out. Focus on getting signups and let the casinos marketing machine take over.
RMeeuwsen had some similar thoughts on the benefits of thinking long term.
Most of the time, you will not see immediate and direct result of your effort. It helps to remember that building a successful business is like building a brick house. You must do it one brick at a time.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. You must walk before you run. In due time my pretty, due time. Wax on, wax off. And the list goes on and on ad nauseum.
Check Your Head
We also heard that affiliate marketing can be more of mental challenge than most people might anticipate. Our highly effective affiliates let us know that sitting in front of computer for an extended period of time is anything but easy.
From Fonzi:
On days when you just don’t have the motivation to work, use the time to read up on Google, SEO, marketing, etc…I’ve spent hours reading through the CAP forums and news post on these types of days. Face it, we all hit a wall at some point, so do something productive when this happens.
RMeeuwsen adds:
While most of us would love to make a living slurping margaritas on a Caribbean beach, what keeps you going in slow and low times is that you should love what you do.
Be Ready for Change
The Internet is anything but static and keeping up with the latest Department of Justice moves and Google Panda updates is a big part of the job.
Casey M’s habit for highly effective affiliate marketing is simply staying up to date.
I would say keeping on top of both SEO and industry new, nothing stand still, so neither should you.
Fonzi added a similar sentiment:
Being an affiliate is 24/7 job so if a story breaks late at night, take the time to write about it. Our biggest traffic days have come from putting in the extra effort. You can alway nap the next day of sleep in. After all, we’re affiliates.
Frustration Comes with the Turf
CAP community members definitely have a good sense of humor as we found in the words shared with us by Shotgun Pete:
What kind of tips are you looking for? How to stop banging your head against a cement wall when dealing with affiliate managers? How to set up a web page? How is it possible to send 500 hits to an affiliate and hot have one sign up or depositor, without wondering if they are ripping you off?
Something like that?
We’re Not All Highly Effective
Of course not everyone we touched base with was highly effective, or at least not willing to admit to being highly effective.
Slotplayer told us:
Thanks, but I’m not highly effective.
Good luck with the story.
What are your tips for being a highly effective affiliate? Share them with us on our General Discussion Forum page.