Internet Marketing - A Drawback
Internet Marketing is awesome! I just love being able to make a living online and spend every day with my family. I am not very good at letting other people call the shots so I am glad I can be my own boss. I try to ensure a steady income by mixing it up…my own products, pay per click ads, text link ads, advertising, product reviews, ad networks, affiliate marketing, etc. Having my hands in all those cookie jars makes for a nice monthly income but one of the frustrating parts is that some of it will always be at the mercy of traffic and trends. It is hard to get a firm grasp on what I can make in any given month because it can fluctuate and it is hard to know if my income is really going up or if it is a temporary peak…sometimes ya just don’t know.
My hubs and I have made some big decisions lately. We want to move into the city by early summer and that means finding new digs. Also because of his recent career change we are more reliant on my income. My money has always been “play” money so to speak. For the past few months though I have had to pay bills with it on occasion. When he wasn’t working I paid all the bills for about two months. Housing in this new area will be double what it is where we are now. We plan to rent until we figure out what area of the city we want to live in, ie the Short North, German Village, Dublin, Clintonsville, etc. Hubby is trying to keep me away from Short North, LOL.
Anyway, when budgeting and trying to figure out what we can afford it is hard to pinpoint what I can guaruntee I can make because it can be so sporadic at times. Last month my Sharesale check was double what it usually is….is that going to be a trend from now on or was it just a super good month? I don’t know! My traffic stats in August have been awesome and I will get two big ad network checks but if traffic goes down next month…see what I mean. It is hard to say with any certainty…I can make X amount a month. The not knowing kinda sucks.
Anyone else who does Internet marketing and affiliate marketing ever get discouraged by the lack of hard numbers??
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September 25th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I have to agree with you. Hard numbers is one of the drawbacks for internet marketing.
We are never sure what our monthly income is going to be from month to month. While one month is great the next month could be awful.
But I do have to say there are so many pros to internet marketing that they seem to outweigh the cons.
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October 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Yes.
I can have one hell of a month and the next can almost tank.
I also have dry months because (usually) people aren’t looking for jobs in the summer and holiday months. That hasn’t been as true this year because people are hard up for more money, but it has in the past.
I’ve seen some people online say they don’t believe in slow months or up and down income but I know most people do see their numbers go up and down.
Wish I had some tips for you. You have a lot of different income sources (which is a good thing) and seem to have a large reach so I’m sure you’re doing a lot of things right already.