Affiliate marketing journey update: today was another day of balancing my regular work with building something of my own online.
I spent a few hours on my usual job, but a large part of the day went into preparing my second YouTube video.
This video is a little different from most of the affiliate marketing work I have focused on so far because it is based around a physical product in the fitness category.
It is still affiliate marketing, of course.
The difference is that instead of mainly working with digital products, email marketing and online business systems, I am also learning how to create useful YouTube content around physical products.
And today I thought the video might finally be ready to publish.
It wasn’t.
Sometimes more feedback is exactly what you need
My mentor for this part of the business had other plans.
He went through the video and found quite a few things that could still be improved.
At first, that can obviously feel a little frustrating when you think something is almost finished.
But he is also something of a perfectionist, and I actually think that is a good thing.
It means I can’t simply create something that is “good enough” and move on.
I have to keep improving.
That is probably one of the biggest benefits of having someone experienced review your work.
You start noticing things that you probably would have missed on your own.
And hopefully, after enough repetitions, you eventually start spotting those things yourself.
That feedback also reminded me that YouTube is only one part of my wider affiliate marketing journey.
Most of the money I’ve made from affiliate marketing so far has come through ClickBank Profit Club. It’s the system that helped me move from learning about affiliate marketing to actually generating commissions — and I’ve now earned more than $1,000 through it.
If you want to see the affiliate marketing system I’ve used to earn over $1,000, check out ClickBank Profit Club here.
The YouTube side is a different part of the same journey.
Here, I’m learning how to create useful content around physical products and use video as another way to build an affiliate business.
What needed improving in the YouTube video?
There were several things.
The thumbnail needed to be stronger.
The description and script needed more relevant keywords.
The script also needed to sound more like it was helping solve the viewer’s problem and less like it was trying to sell something.
That is a subtle difference, but an important one.
Instead of building a video around:
Here is a product and here is why you should buy it.
The better approach is closer to:
Here is a problem you might have, and here is one possible solution.
That immediately makes the content feel more helpful and less like an advertisement.
There were also a few small AI-related glitches that needed fixing.
Some of the visuals were not quite accurate enough.
A few details looked slightly wrong.
And there were other small things that are easy to miss when you have watched and edited the same video over and over again.
None of these problems were huge on their own.
But when you combine them, they can make the difference between something that simply looks acceptable and something that feels much more professional.
Two mentors with two different areas of focus
I’m fortunate to have access to two different mentors right now.
The mentor helping me with YouTube is focused specifically on creating better Amazon affiliate videos, improving thumbnails, structuring the content correctly and getting the small details right.
I only have two sessions left with him.
After that, the idea is that I should be able to handle the process myself.
That feels slightly intimidating, but it is also probably exactly how mentoring should work.
You learn.
You get feedback.
You correct mistakes.
And eventually, you become capable of making the decisions yourself.
My other mentor is John Thornhill, and that mentorship continues for almost another twelve months.
That gives me much more time to learn from his experience in affiliate marketing, online business, product creation and building assets for the long term.
I wrote more about that decision in my post about signing a 12-month mentorship agreement.
Affiliate marketing is still the part I enjoy most
If I had to choose between affiliate marketing itself and creating YouTube videos, affiliate marketing is still more fun for me.
I enjoy the strategy behind traffic, offers, funnels, content and conversions.
YouTube has often felt more technical.
There are scripts to write.
Images to create.
Voiceovers to get right.
Descriptions, thumbnails, keywords and editing.
But something is starting to change.
The more I learn, the more interesting YouTube becomes.
And perhaps even more importantly, each video is starting to take less time to create.
That is a good sign.
The first time you do almost anything online, every small step feels complicated.
You spend time trying to find the right button.
You make mistakes.
You redo things.
You wonder what order everything is supposed to happen in.
Then, slowly, the process becomes familiar.
What once took several hours can eventually take a fraction of that time.
I am starting to see that happening with YouTube now.
The goal is not perfection forever
There is also an important balance here.
Having a perfectionist mentor is useful because it forces me to raise the quality of my work.
But eventually, I also need to be able to publish without endlessly changing things.
The goal is not to spend days polishing every single video forever.
The goal is to learn what actually matters.
A stronger thumbnail.
A clearer problem-solving angle.
More natural writing.
Accurate visuals.
A better description.
Better keyword placement.
And a clear but natural call to action.
Once those things become part of the normal process, creating a good video should become much faster.
That is what I am trying to build now.
Not one perfect video.
A repeatable process for creating better videos.
Building the next stage of my online business
ClickBank Profit Club has been the system where I made my first meaningful affiliate commissions and eventually passed the $1,000 mark.
That is still the core system behind the first real money I have made from affiliate marketing.
At the same time, I am also working on the next stage of the business through Coaching Profit System.
The idea there is different.
Instead of only promoting other people’s products, I am also learning how to create and build something of my own — an online asset that can potentially grow over time.
For me, the two fit together well.
ClickBank Profit Club is helping me learn affiliate marketing, traffic, offers and conversions.
Coaching Profit System is about taking the next step toward building something I can own and scale myself.
If you want to see the system I’m using for that next stage, check out Coaching Profit System here.
The rest of today looks fairly familiar
Later today, the usual work is still waiting for me.
Publishing on social media.
Keeping the different channels active.
Engaging with people.
Continuing to build the business one small step at a time.
Nothing particularly dramatic.
Just consistency.
And tonight I think I am going to try something that I am not especially good at.
Relaxing.
I am very good at finding one more thing to work on.
One more edit.
One more post.
One more idea to test.
One more thing that could be improved.
Switching off is much harder.
So tonight I am going to make a genuine attempt to do less.
We will see how that goes. 🙂
Building an online business obviously requires work and consistency.
But I am starting to think that learning when to stop working for the day might be part of the journey too.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I only share products, tools and programs that I believe may be useful to my readers.
