I used to read a lot of blogs when I was new to blogging and learning affiliate marketing. I wanted to be a sponge and soak up as much information as I could find, thinking that the secrets to making money online could be found in my feed reader.

I was wrong.

Information Overload

It is easy to get caught up in the cycle of information gathering. If you are a student of whatever you do, then gathering information is an essential part of the process. The downside to gathering information is that many people fall into the trap of trying to absorb too much and doing too little.

It is pretty common for many readers to subscribe to 100 feeds or more in order to not miss any idea, thought or suggestion on how they can make money online. They will read and read and read about all the different things that other people are doing, yet do nothing themselves.

I call this “paralysis by analysis” and it’s a pretty common affliction even in the corporate world. Managers are so engrossed in reading P&L statements, emails and reports that they have no time to actually manage. That’s crazy but true.

Bad Advice

Another thing you need to consider is how much bad advice is given everyday on the Internet. Once you do know what you are doing when it comes to affiliate marketing, keyword research and making money online, it becomes very obvious that most of the people giving the advice don’t actually practice what they preach.

They will write sponsored reviews for products they don’t own, they will put affiliate links in their articles for products they have never used and have no real knowledge about. They will write an article about exploding your traffic when they have none. You get the idea.

Why would anyone listen to someone that isn’t an authority or offers no value? They shouldn’t, so if this is you then quit reading and start doing. It is a very well known fact that the reason most people fail, is because they never do anything to begin with. They think about it a lot, they want to, but they don’t.

The Best Advice

My experience has taught me a number of things, but the best thing I have learned over the last few years is that there are no rules. You cannot make money by using a top ten list of things to do to make money. The key is to experiment.

• Try AdSense, see if that works for your blog. It might and it might not.
• Try article marketing, it might send you sales, it might not.
• Try Niche Sites, they might be your thing, they might not.
• Try putting your ads in the middle of the articles instead of the top.
• Try BANS stores, try Niche blogs, try it all.

Whatever the situation is, try it for yourself. There is absolutely NO replacement for experience. What some joker says works for him, will not necessarily work for your blog or website. The key is to experiment, learn what works for you and then MAXIMIZE it.

Once you have the recipe or the formula, repeat it. Don’t stop experimenting but repeat what works and learn how to maximize it. Add to your niche site or build more using the same recipe. If one site earns you 10 dollars a day, could 100 sites earn you $1000 dollars a day?

Conclusion

Everyone wants to live the dream. Some hope they can find the dream on a blog somewhere for free and others hope to find the dream in a affiliate product for the low, low price of $97 dollars. Ninety-seven dollars will buy your ticket to millions.

Come on, how many independently wealthy people do you think are going to bother hawking a $97 dollar e-book? The real power brokers charge thousands of dollars for their information and it is an exclusive club.

The dream cannot be purchased, but it can be earned through hard work and dedication. If you aren’t willing to invest in yourself then you simply will not be successful. Affiliate tools have their place but they are TOOLS and not the answer. An affiliate product won’t make you money, but it can help you do the things that make you money.

Here is the best advice you will ever get and it’s free.

Experiment. Fail. Fall on your face. Every time you fall on your face, you are that much closer to being successful, because you are doing something most others aren’t and that is TRYING. To win the game, you’ve got to get in the game.

So how about you? Are you READING about becoming successful or are you DOING the things that will make you successful?

This post was written by Bill so if you enjoyed reading it then check out my own blog at The Blog Entrepreneur where I write on a variety of MMO topics but particularly niche site creation. I will be back next Friday to punish you some more.

Originally posted on May 16, 2008 @ 7:00 am