My $3,911.32 Affiliate Income Day: 8 Lessons YOU Can Learn

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At first, it was a pretty typical weekend.  I spent all of Saturday skiing and took a day off from “work”…never turning on my computer.  Then on Sunday I woke up and drove over to my friend’s house for a few hours of Texas Hold Em.

While my buddies got the table ready, I remembered the email promotion I sent that morning to my affiliate marketing list.  So I decided to quickly log into my account and see how it did.

My Best Affiliate Marketing Day...EverWhen I saw the results, I thought somebody in Clickbank made a HUGE mistake.  My earnings were at $1,300…more than I’ve ever made in a single day….and this was at 12 in the afternoon.

Seriously, I felt one of those people who check their ATM balance and discover the bank has accidentally deposited $55,000 into their account.  For a few seconds I thought I was on a bad episode of Punk’d.

But all this money really did come from a promotion I did for a new product.  It wasn’t a trick.  I was actually making a lot of money from an email that took me five minutes to write.

It kept getting better throughout the day.  Every half hour I would check my iPhone and see how much I earned…giggling like a little schoolgirl every time I looked at Clickbank.  By the end of the day, I earned a total of $3,911.32!

Okay, I didn’t tell this story to brag.  And I’m not trying to *sell* you on any particular program or website.  All I want you to do is watch this video where I detail eight lessons I learned from my best day as an affiliate marketer.

The big take-away from this video is the value of list building.  I’ve been cultivating my affiliate list for more than four years.  Sunday’s results are proof that list building is STILL the #1 way to make money on the Internet.

With that said, I’m going to give you another link.  This is to a post on Brendan’s and Lesley’s blog. Last week I did a webinar where we discussed the value of list building.  Again, there is nothing to buy.  This webinar is completely full of content with ZERO marketing.

We had technical difficulties during the first few minutes of the recording.  As a result, I was a little flustered when I started talking.  But eventually things smoothed out and the three of us had a great discussion about the importance of list building.

So go NOW to this free webinar!

Finally, I’d like to mention that there really isn’t a secret to the success of this day.  I built my list just like everyone else – One person at a time.  Plus I used 100% free traffic.  All you really need is a quality free offer and a willingness to promote the heck out of it.

Hopefully this video/post gave you a bit of inspiration before the weekend.  Let me know your thoughts in the comment box below.

Take Action. Get Results.



34 thoughts on “My $3,911.32 Affiliate Income Day: 8 Lessons YOU Can Learn”

  1. Well done! I love to hear stories like this – they’re so inspirational. I get excited every time I get an email from PayPal, even if it’s a $5 sale. It just never gets old. I wouldn’t have been able to contain myself if I logged into ClickBank and saw a $1,300 balance!

    Thanks for making me smile this morning. 🙂 Enjoy your weekend!

    • Thanks Cindy!

      I have put 4 years of work into that list so I expect a certain amount of response when I post something new. (which I do not do more than maybe 1 time a week…I don’t burn people out) But frankly I was shocked. This product converted like Crazy and it was a nice surprise.

      Some of it is luck, but the secret to luck is putting yourself in position to capitalize when it strikes.

      It certainly was a good feeling to see the extra zero from a normal day. Particularly since I had sorta been, “lazy” for the weekend.

  2. Hi Steve:

    Nice post here today, well like always. But it influenced my mind. I like how did the last Sunday go for you and the lessons you learned from it and shared with us.
    Last night I listened to a webinar and it was about the same topic. The power of list building funnel system. You are saying short ads do work. if it does it is good. Don’t be afraid. I will try not to be afraid.
    Thank you.

    Fran A

    • List building and funnels work like aces. It takes time to build it up. maybe even a lot of time, but it is worth it in the end. I think the big secret is to vet your stuff and never give anything that will “burn” poeple on your list. ALso have a “mix” of list content. Some short some long, some purely information and some slightly salesy. In other words do not use the list to JUST try to sell.

  3. Great video Steve & congratulations on a great day and idea!

    I also really like the idea of using this as a case study – surely there are tons of people out there who will be interested in following along.

    Have a good day!

    • Thanks Mark,

      I am still quite excited by this idea. Hopefully there really are some good results and lessons learned that I’ll be able to share with everybody. I guess even if it doesn’t work there are lessons learned in that.

  4. Hi Steve,

    Awesome!

    Your post speaks to the power of persistence. Stick with it when times get tough because these periods separate the winners from the losers. If you keep going, you get it. If you stop you quit and will never know what you could have accomplished.

    I too think list building is the most powerful affiliate tool out there. To buy from you customers must trust you. To trust you they must know you. To know you they must build a relationship with you, and this is done over a period of time. Enter list-building. Keep it contact with your list and eventually you hear a cyber “click” with a few members. Connection made and sale likely.

    Just keep going. Connections take time with most people because we are naturally distrustful. When somebody offers up enough good stuff we think yeah, they might be legit. That’s why it’s important to pull back from the promotional stuff when list building most of the time. Only toss in pitch tweets here and there, and make sure they aren’t over the top cause the click will never happen when you are viewed as a shill.

    Thanks for sharing your inspiration with us Steve. Yes, we can all do it with FREE marketing methods. Enjoy your weekend.

    RB

    • Ryan,

      You made some very solid points. This building is an incredible tool, I think part of the problem may be that it is a long-term tool. I may have even sacrificed a little bit of money in the first year simply to list build, and certainly have put a lot of effort into keeping the list happy over the years.

      I think this is pretty good proof to myself that is worth the effort

  5. Awesome Steve!

    Very inspirational stuff. I like how you put it man – the secret to luck is putting yourself in the right position when the luck strikes.

    Thank you for the motivation!

  6. Outstanding, Steve. Congrats on your efforts and hard work.
    These are great lesson to share with us and they are inspiring as well. From early on, we’ve always heard about building that list and this is a prime example of having done so over a prolonged period of time.

    Nice video. I’ll head on over and check out the webinar as well.

    Thanks!

  7. Steve,

    This is something that must inspire anybody watching this video! I lost interest in this stuff toward the end of the year. Anyone visiting my blog may notice this. I’m glad I came back to Steve’s site just the right time – now I’m inspired!

    Thanks!

    • Marlon,

      Awesome! I’m glad I got you a little inspiration. sometimes things really do take time, and it doesn’t always seem worth the effort, but it really can be if you keep at it. It just takes time. Glad to have you back! 🙂

  8. List building will always be important. That’s who are prospects and customers are. That’s the heart of our online businesses. Good post and great reason to never ever give up!

    • Thanks Martha, I appreciate your dropping by! List building certainly should never be under-rated. Whatever success I have had, I lay at the feet of years of list building efforts.

  9. always good to get a real video rather than the sales videos so often
    I get a bit bored of thos e saying atm puts $10,000 into my account every week!!!

    lol
    I still not even sold one clickbank thing yet even after a year !

    anyway take care

    • Yeah those adds make me really mad. I have been working for YEARS to get the returns for one of these dramatic days. 10,000 days are possible, but not for someone “brand new” and it is not something that is easy, even for experts.

      I have actually done quite well with clickbank over the past year plus, so there is possibility, but not anything that is pushbutton easy. Thanks for the comment!

  10. SS,
    Holy Schnikes dude! Hey…ps…did you get the CD’s I mailed you ?

    Anyway, that is SWWWWEEEEEETTTT.

    You travellin still? or chillin in NJ?

    Catch up to you later.

    I’ll be back.
    Brandon

    • Brandon!

      How have you been! Long time no see. Yeah that was an absurdly awesome and unexpected day. I am working on capitalizing on that now in my main niche. Seeing if it was the “product” that just converted unusually well or simply the fact that i hadn’t offered my list anything really new in a while.

      I am done with traveling for now. Though I am thinking about taking a trip “somewhere” in a couple months. Not for nearly as long though. I have been back since Thanksgiving so made it back in time for ton of crappy weather. I think I got something wrong in my planning.

  11. Hey Steve,

    What kind of content are you sending to them? I mean do you have all the emails from a single niche type?

    I watched your video and you have some valid points, especially with the going big part. If you find something that works and you know how to do it then making it even bigger.

    Also, can I make a guess on the products? Is it something about ‘leads’?

    Not you got me all pumped up , can’t wait to see your info on this case study 🙂

    • Alex,

      Yeah, I do not want to publicly state the niche yet, but it was in my main niche, where I have that nice fat email list. I generally make a fair return over time 100-200 a day is pretty normal (it is how I make my living) with occasional spikes for new products but that was crazy.

      The niche is completely different from blogging, mmo, and the like. Nothing like lead generation. It is all about fixing specific problems. It is a BIG niche, far less narrow than I would recommend for many people starting out. LOL this is getting like a game of “hot or cold”.

      Hopefully I will have more results to share if the case study works the way I hope it will. Like I said before, even if the results are lukewarm, there should be some, “well here is what NOT to do”

  12. Way to go, Steve! That’s HUGE!

    I can’t imagine how I would be reacting to something like that happening to me. Certainly makes me want to get my hands dirty at it (in a clean way, of course!).

    Liked your video too. I can see that you are getting better and better, and I am very impressed! There’s so much to learn from you about IM, especially in how you show it through what you do.

    Keep moving on…

    Cheers,
    Mark

    • Thanks Mark

      I must say I was jazzed. I have had a few “4 figure days” but that just blew them away. The important takeaway is once more: list building. that success was quick (and unexpected) but was made possible because of 4+ years of list building and networking.

      Thanks for the great comment mark!

  13. Question about ClickBank reporting Steve – we all see marketers touting specific earnings they made from a specific site. I am just starting to promote ClickBank offers, and am wondering if they show you a breakdown of earnings on a per-affiliate product basis (each product you sell) or just the account total.

    Thanks!

    • The answer is both. The Daily stats people usually clip are “all products”. to go more in dept go to reporting>analytics and it will give you a breakdown by product with all sort of good data (once you get some results to be shown.)

        • The clips you see will almost always be an “all sources” clip. Since it shows the daily numbers. the other looks a lot difference. It has every source (so someone sharp could reverse engineer) so it is unlikely anyone would use it to illustrate their traffic. It also has a ton of other good information, but things that confuse the issue. Like hops per click, clicks per purchase and hops per purchase.

          99% of the time what you see when people screenshot with clickbank earnings will be the daily.

  14. This is an awesome video, Steve. List building is something that I have been hearing more and more about, and from subscribing to several lists myself, I can see the structure of how people are using them for success.

    I haven’t listened to your interview yet, so maybe this question will be answered there, but which email list service do you recommend? Aweber appears to be the most popular, but for someone just starting out, what would you recommend? I’ve been thinking of tinyletter.com since it’s simple, but maybe there is something else out there.

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