My affiliate marketing journey continues with another couple of small signs that things are moving in the right direction.
Yesterday, I made another affiliate sale.
This one was small — just under $8.
I also gained another subscriber on my email list.
Neither number is dramatic.
But after the much larger sale I wrote about yesterday, I actually think these smaller wins are useful reminders of what I am trying to build.
Not one big lucky day.
Not one impressive commission.
A system that keeps producing little signs of life.
Sometimes that means a $400 sale.
Sometimes it means $8.
Sometimes it is simply one new person joining the email list.
They all count.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you purchase through one of them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Individual results vary, and my results should not be considered a guarantee of what anyone else will earn.
If you want to see the system behind most of my early affiliate results, you can learn more about ClickBank Profit Club here
From a $400 Sale to an $8 Sale
One thing affiliate marketing is already teaching me is that income does not arrive in neat, predictable amounts.
On Saturday, I had a sale worth almost $400.
Yesterday, another commission appeared — this time for less than $8.
And I am happy about both.
Obviously, I would prefer a $400 commission every day.
Who wouldn’t?
But that is not where the business is yet.
At this stage, I think the smaller commissions are valuable because they show that transactions continue happening.
Someone is clicking.
Someone is buying.
The system is doing something.
The challenge now is turning those individual events into something more consistent.
That is still the real goal.
Another Person Joined the Email List
The new subscriber may actually be just as interesting to me as the small sale.
Every new subscriber is another real person who has chosen to enter my little online ecosystem.
My list is still small.
I am nowhere near the point where I can send an email and expect hundreds or thousands of people to see it.
But that is exactly why I think documenting this stage is useful.
Everyone talks about having a big email list.
Not many people talk about subscriber number 10.
Or 20.
Or 30.
But every big list once consisted of those first few people.
My job is simply to keep giving new visitors a reason to join — and then make sure what they receive afterwards is actually worth opening.
A Very Cold Start to the Day
Business was not the first thing on my mind this morning.
It was cold.
Really cold.
For the first time this season, the gloves and hat came out for my morning walk.
That always feels like a little seasonal milestone here in Sweden.
One week you can still convince yourself that summer is hanging around.
Then suddenly you walk outside in the morning and realise:
Nope.
Autumn has arrived.
After the walk, I got on my exercise bike for a fairly easy cycling session.
Nothing particularly heroic.
Just a calm workout before getting back to work.
People who have been following this blog for a while already know that training is a regular part of my life.
And I think it helps more than just physically.
A morning walk followed by some exercise gives me a clear dividing line between getting out of bed and sitting down to work.
Especially when much of the work is done in front of a screen.
Two Jobs in One Day
Today is another one of those days where I am effectively doing two jobs.
First, there is my regular work.
That still pays the bills.
Then there is this.
The blog.
Affiliate marketing.
Social media.
Email.
YouTube.
Tracking.
Learning.
And everything else that comes with trying to build an online business from scratch.
Today that means writing this article and then sharing it across my usual social media channels.
It may not sound particularly exciting.
But this is increasingly what the process looks like.
Do the regular work.
Then build.
Publish.
Share.
Track.
Learn.
Repeat.
I Am Starting to Like the Word “Ecosystem”
I keep coming back to the idea of an ecosystem because that is increasingly how I see what I am building around ClickBank Profit Club.
The individual parts are small.
My blog is still small.
My email list is still small.
My social accounts are not generating huge amounts of traffic.
My YouTube channel is still at the beginning.
But they are gradually becoming connected.
A social media post can bring someone to the blog.
The blog can bring someone onto the email list.
An email can bring someone back to an article or an offer.
A YouTube video can introduce somebody completely new to the business.
And eventually, one of those people may become a customer.
That is a completely different model from simply grabbing an affiliate link and posting it everywhere.
I want to build something where the different pieces support one another.
The Small Numbers Matter
It is easy to dismiss an $8 commission.
It is easy to dismiss one subscriber.
But I think that would be a mistake at this stage.
The numbers are giving me feedback.
Yesterday’s $400 sale tells me something.
Yesterday’s new subscriber tells me something.
Today’s traffic numbers will tell me something else.
Over time, enough of those signals should help me understand what deserves more attention and what I should stop spending time on.
That is also why I have been improving my tracking recently.
I do not just want to know that somebody visited.
I want to know where they came from.
What they read.
What they clicked.
Whether they subscribed.
And eventually whether that activity produced revenue.
That is when this starts becoming a measurable business rather than just a collection of online activities.
If you missed my larger update from yesterday, you can read it here:
Affiliate Marketing Journey: $400 Sale and New Subscriber
https://fredrikgustafssononline.com/affiliate-marketing-journey-400-sale/
Building Without Trying to Do Everything at Once
One thing I am trying to avoid is turning this into an endless list of things I “must” do every day.
Blog.
Substack.
Facebook.
LinkedIn.
X.
Pinterest.
YouTube.
Email.
SEO.
Analytics.
It would be very easy to spend the entire day switching between platforms and still feel as though nothing meaningful had been accomplished.
So the goal is not maximum activity.
It is gradually making each part better.
Better articles.
Better traffic.
Better tracking.
Better emails.
Better videos.
And hopefully better results.
Yesterday gave me another small sale and another subscriber.
Today I am doing the work again.
That is enough.
The Next Part of the Journey
ClickBank Profit Club has been responsible for most of my first meaningful affiliate results.
That is why I am continuing to build around it.
But over the longer term, I also want to create something that I own myself.
That is where Coaching Profit System fits into the bigger picture.
For me, the distinction is pretty simple:
ClickBank Profit Club is helping me generate my first affiliate income.
Coaching Profit System is about learning how to build my own digital product and asset.
Both are part of the same longer journey.
If you want to see what I am using for that next stage, you can learn more about Coaching Profit System here
Just Keep Building
So today’s update is not a dramatic one.
A sale of less than $8.
One new subscriber.
A cold morning walk.
The first gloves and hat of the season.
A quiet cycling session.
My regular job.
And then back to building the online business.
But I actually like days like this.
They are probably much closer to what building a business really looks like than the big milestone days.
You work.
Something small happens.
You learn from it.
And then you continue.
That is what I am doing today.
Keep building.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you purchase through one of them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I only share products and programs that I believe may be relevant to my readers. Individual results vary, and my results do not guarantee what anyone else will earn.
