Peter Anderson – One Man Went To Mow

2 Years ago tomorrow (11.10.06) was the day i launched my first ever affiliate website. Well… i had actually been building it during the evenings and weekends for several weeks prior to the 11th of October, but it wasnt until i spent my first ever 36p on Yahoo PPC that it started to feel “real”.

Fast forward 3 days, and i still hadn’t made a sale.

At the time i didnt realise that that 5-10 visitors a day might take a while to convert into a sale. However, the 14th of October (start of the A4uexpo this year) marked my first ever affiliate commission! Granted, it was a member of my family, who i walked through the process of clicking on my links etc.. But it was still the first! £1.95 from IWOOT. The second most exciting commission i ever made! And it showed that the system worked, and that this was real! Now i was excited.

The most exciting commission i ever made came several days later… A massive 24p for Marks and Spencers! The feeling was amazing. Something that i had been building during my spare time over the previous weeks had actually encouraged a member of the public to buy something, and i was going to get paid for it! Granted… if i carried on at this rate, i was going to lose money in the long run… but the fact that i had one “real” sale under my belt made me all the more determined to succeed.

In the end, after a lot of tweaking and playing around, October closed out at a £4 something profit… and then November was in the (very) low 3 figure ball park (profit). By the end of December i was making more than my “real” job (which wasnt hard, as i was an intern at the time), but it still felt great!

To cut a long story short, i went part time (with my “real” job) in March 07′ and contined to work on my affiliate sites the rest of the time. My affiliate earnings never dropped below that of my “real job”, but it wasn’t until the end of August this year, that i finally took the plunge into full time affiliate marketing. (I really enjoyed my real job, and the team that i worked with).

If you had told me 2 years ago that i would have the freedom to work from home (or anywhere with an Internet connection) i don’t think i would have believed you. My current situation owes alot to affiliate marketing. From the amazing blogs that people write, to the amazing community that people take part in. And now i am lucky enough to take part in the A4uexpo, which i am hoping will turn this “virtual world” into a very real one!