This is a really disheartening niche, people. You know why?
Recently I found a WordPress plugin that lets you see what people are searching for when they use the search box on your site. Awesome! Now I have new ideas what to write about. It works great on one of my sites, where people search for stuff I hadn’t thought of writing about, which gives me ideas for new articles.
Here… at least half the searches are other affiliate bloggers searching for their names and domain names. Vanity searches.
And people wonder why affiliate marketing bloggers get stingy about giving out links and the secrets to their success. And why this niche has a bad name. It’s because everyone in it, by the nature of what it’s about, is out for themselves. Those of us who aren’t pretty damn selfish are the ones who end up stuck making a couple hundred a year.
I’m still sorting all this out in my head. I hate to say it, but there are days – many of them, lately – where I want to just get away from this niche. Just build my sites and make my money instead of talking about it. It’s just so discouraging to talk about it and realize no one’s listening* – they’re just checking in to see if they got mentioned anywhere, or to see what your keywords are, or to dissect your site or try to find your other sites so they can have a good ol’ snoop around those.
*Except for Empress, Stu and a handful of others. 
I know what you’re saying. It’s very hard to be enthusiastic about the whole niche we’ve managed to wedge ourselves into. I’ve often thought my blog has kind of meandered off the “how much I made” into more of the “look at the crazy woman talking about her emotions and how they play out in online marketing”… which wasn’t the intention – or rather the path I had wanted to walk down.
But honestly I got so tired of blethering on about money money money. Sure I’d love to make more – pay my bills and just have a more comfortable life. I’m not in it to buy luxury sports cars and the bling that a lot of people like to do (but it’s so easy to get caught up in the daydreaming about the easier life!) – I’m rather ordinary… and perhaps a tad boring – but I like to challenge myself and that is what affiliate marketing did for me.
Now I’m feeling restless – not sure that affiliate marketing is for me either – I think there are smarter ways to make money online, and I’m still trying to figure that one out
Keep your chin up and I’m sure it will all come together – like a happy accident.
I love reading about what you are doing. Having seen you grow online it reminds me that you started about where I was and just went out and worked this.
I can see where you are disheartened but this is one of the few blogs in this niche that actually speaks to me in the terms I am looking for and isn’t just a place for the person to pat themselves on the back!
Empress, that’s just it. There’s something… pretentious about a lot of other blogs in this niche. Something insincere, and it gets tiresome really quickly.
Bonnie, thanks for saying that. I’ve been thinking more and more lately about how we need a niche within a niche for… I don’t know… people who are into online marketing for practical reasons. It seems so many of the bloggers in this niche are really up to something else entirely… like, their blog is really just a way of building up clients for an SEO consultation they’re going to start, or something like that. Those of us who are just into it for what it is, no more no less, are a different breed.
I know exactly what you’re feeling. What I ended up doing this past year was basically withdrawing from my blogging about affiliate marketing – I still built my sites, but I didn’t post nearly as much as I did when I started out.
The good news is that I’ve recently felt the itch to write more at my blogs now (I have one on blogging for a living, too). Taking the time away made a difference for me. At least, it feels like good news to me – I’ve made so many friends through my blogging at Adventures, and that’s really what I’ve been missing the most – meeting new people who “speak my language”
Having said that, the other thing that is glaringly obvous when you look around the IM and affiliate marketing niches is that there are a lot less people blogging “as a blogger”, and there are a whole LOT of people blogging in order to sell various IM products. I find that disheartening because it’s hard to trust most of the IM blogs one comes across.
So I have always kept track of people who blog about their online business the way I do – you’re in my Google Reader, as many of you as I can find, and I follow along. I love reading your stories, seeing how you’re doing.
I’d say, keep blogging here if you feel good about it. And you can stop and take a break when you’re feeling disheartened. Keep your domain name, moderate your comments, and your blog will always be here for you when you start shaking the burnout feeling. At least, that’s what I did!
Exactly how I felt after spending nearly a year on my blog. In fact I put it up for sale a couple of weeks ago but had a change of heart after one week. I thought I will just forget about blogging and fully concentrate on my affiliate stores. Nobody was listening anyway. LOL.
But then something felt just not right without the blog. It was as if I have lost contact with the outside world. So a few days ago, I revived the whole thing, went and re-read everything I have written and corny as it might sound, I do like what I have written. LOL.
Like your blog! Just added you to my feeds.