23 subscribers, sales holding steady — and a coaching call that could potentially change everything.
Yesterday was not just another day in this affiliate marketing journey.
Something happened that I’ve been genuinely excited to share.
I had a one-on-one coaching call with John Thornhill.
If you’ve been around affiliate marketing for any length of time, there’s a good chance you’ve come across John. He has been building online businesses for many years, has helped a huge number of people get started online, and is someone I personally consider one of the legends of the affiliate marketing space.
And yesterday, I got the opportunity to sit down and talk with him directly about my business, where I am right now, what I’ve been building, and where this could potentially go next.
I’m not going to reveal everything yet.
Partly because there are still things being worked out, and partly because I want to be able to explain it properly when the time is right.
But I can say this:
This could potentially change EVERYTHING for my online business.
And yes — I’m extremely excited.
First, the numbers
As always, I want these updates to remain transparent.
My total subscriber count has now reached:
23 subscribers.
That means another person has joined since my last update.
Is 23 a huge email list?
Of course not.
But that’s exactly why I keep sharing these numbers.
It would be very easy to wait until I had 1,000 or 10,000 subscribers and then tell everyone how simple it was to build an audience.
Instead, you’re seeing what happens before the success story.
Subscriber by subscriber.
Click by click.
Sale by sale.
And hopefully, eventually, dollar by dollar.
On the sales side, there has been no change since my previous update.
And that’s fine.
Affiliate marketing is not a straight line where every day produces another commission. Some days bring sales. Some days bring subscribers. And sometimes the most important progress happening in your business won’t show up on a dashboard at all.
Yesterday was definitely one of those days.
In my previous update, I shared more about the progress I was making with the ClickBank Profit Challenge and the work happening behind the scenes. You can read that online business progress update here.
The Challenge is still a major focus
At the same time, I’m continuing to put a lot of focus behind the ClickBank Profit Challenge.
I’ve talked about this promotion before, but it remains one of the biggest things I’m working on right now.
The reason is simple: instead of just reading about affiliate marketing, the Challenge gives you a much more structured way to start working through the process yourself.
Traffic.
Offers.
Email marketing.
Follow-up.
Conversions.
Those are the things I’m trying to understand, improve and build around every single day.
And if you’ve been following these updates thinking about starting your own affiliate marketing journey, this is one of the main opportunities I’m currently recommending.
👉 Check out the ClickBank Profit Challenge here
I also think there’s something powerful about actually getting involved rather than spending months watching videos and reading posts without ever taking action.
At some point, you have to start testing things.
You need traffic.
You need offers.
You need people clicking your links.
And eventually, you need sales.
That’s where things start becoming real.
You can learn more about the Challenge here:
👉 See the ClickBank Profit Challenge
But now there may be another level to this journey
This is where yesterday becomes particularly interesting.
Talking directly with John made me think differently about what I’m trying to build.
Up until now, much of this journey has naturally been about learning.
Finding traffic.
Building the list.
Testing promotions.
Creating content.
Making those first sales.
Trying things that work — and plenty of things that don’t.
But there comes a point where the question starts changing from:
“Can I make affiliate marketing work?”
to:
“How big can I actually build this?”
That’s a very different question.
And after yesterday’s conversation, I feel like I may be approaching that point.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself, and I certainly don’t want to make huge claims before there is something concrete to show you.
You know by now that the whole point of this Substack is to document the reality — not manufacture a fake overnight-success story.
But I also don’t want to downplay how significant yesterday felt.
There are opportunities being discussed that could potentially affect the direction of the business, the products I create, the way I build my audience, and ultimately the scale I’m aiming for.
That is exciting.
Very exciting.
And once I know exactly what the next chapter looks like, you’ll hear about it here.
23 subscribers today. What comes next?
For now, the scoreboard says:
Subscribers: 23
Sales: Unchanged
Motivation: Higher than ever
And perhaps there’s now a fourth metric:
Potential: 🚀
We’ll see.
That’s what makes documenting this from the beginning so much fun.
If things really do take off from here, we’ll be able to look back at the days when this newsletter had 23 subscribers and remember exactly where it started.
And if you’re thinking about moving from watching affiliate marketing to actually trying to build something yourself, this is still the main place I’d point you right now:
👉 Check out the ClickBank Profit Challenge here
Tomorrow, we keep building.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission if you purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you.
