Freelance writers are always looking to balance two things: writing something good and getting paid for it. It can be a tough line to straddle, but that’s always the goal.

Writing an affiliate post is the most direct way to provide value and get paid…as long as it’s done right.

What is an Affiliate Post?

Are Affiliate Posts Sleazy?

• It’s filled with useful information
• It’s on a respected site
• The author clearly calls out the links as affiliate links

Is the Content Awesome?

Where do you Get Affiliate Links?

The Checklist

• Join an affiliate program (again, the big ones are Linkshare (affiliate link), Commission Junction, Google Affiliates, and Amazon Associates.
• Find a product or service you want to write about and become an expert on it.
• Create a fantastic, useful article that helps readers learn more about that product or service.
• Identify your links as affiliate links.
• Publish it on a respected online site (could be your site or a guest post somewhere else).
• Stay up on the comments to answer any additional questions readers might have.

If you’ve created something truly useful for readers, they will have no problem rewarding you buy clicking on your affiliate links if they want to sign up for a service or buy a product.

Image by CarbonNYC

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I was almost done with week 1 and I had a blog post ready to discuss a bunch of stuff I’d “learned.” But here we are, a week later, and I haven’t had any progress.

What happened?

Excuses are a Dime a Dozen

I got sick.

The baby got sick.

M got sick.

Work was busy.

You’ve heard all these before. Where I failed was in handling these setbacks. Instead of attacking the problems and finding a way around them, I just sat back in a daze and let them happen. Hence: no progress.

So here I am, at the start of week #3 and instead of starting with the material for week #3 I’m still on week #2. And yet I still think there are a couple of things to learn from here:

Shit Happens

Deal with it or fail.

Don’t Delay Defeat

I was going to try to just “make up” the week I lost by doubling up and faking my way through it. Instead, I’m writing a post that basically says I failed. The sooner I accept that I failed, the better off I’ll be moving forward.

Never Stop

It’s really easy to hit a roadblock like this and say “this course really wasn’t working for me anyway.” Then that one week turns into two and three and the next thing you know you’re grabbing a bag of chips to watch opening day instead of grabbing the laptop to get some work done.

That’s just the way it is.

But if you’re truly committed you have to own up to the failures and just keep plugging along.

Momentum  Matters

This is HUGE and it’s something Ramit actually goes into in the course. He calls it “quick wins” but the idea is the same: you need to build and maintain momentum to make it through large projects where you’re basically pushing yourself to get things done.

In short, the idea to set up smaller, easier goals to get you on your way. This week I lost totally broke up all the momentum I had when I wrote that post two weeks ago. The excitement, the focus, that youthful zeal—I lost it.

Now I have to start over again.

Off I go.

Image by styro

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Here is what this site looks like:

Yikes! Way too much cell phone stuff and way too little about money. I better get on it…

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I’ve read a lot of books about investing, and the general assumption that’s made for long-term investors is that the market will return an average of 8% per year. Some people get greedy and punch 10% into their compound-interest calculators, but if you look back far enough at the history of the overall market, you’ll find 8% is a much more accurate average.

Besides, it’s better to lower your expectations in case you’re wrong. When you’re 75 and out of money, it won’t do you any good to whine that your math was wrong.

The difference between 8% and 10% (and over time this is a HUGE difference), however, will rarely have anything to do with how good we are at picking stocks or knowing when to buy and sell them. As this Yahoo Finance story says, it’s all about luck. The article’s subtitle says it all: Start early, save aggressively, and hope.

A study by Ibbotson Associates found that the amount of money you make in a given 30-year period changes dramatically.

For instance, $100,000 invested in 1946 would have grown to about $1.15 million in 1976, but the same amount invested in 1976 would have delivered about $2.27 million in 2006.

If you’re lucky, you’ll be alive during a 30-year period where the stock market in general has “a good run.”

It might be pretty scary to think that your retirement is more dependent on luck than on your stock-picking prowess or your ability to re-balance your portfolio every year. But hey, that’s investing for you.

Even Warren Buffett hints at the important role that luck plays in our lives, and he’s one of the greatest stock pickers in the world.

Beyond Investing

The more I thought about this, the more I realized that luck plays a HUGE role in our lives. And that’s kind of scary. What if you work hard, do your best, say all the right things, make all the right moves, and you don’t get any luck coming your way? What if you’re struck with insurmountable bad luck that keeps you from improving yourself and your life?

It’s a depressing thought.

When I look back at the jobs I’ve had and the bosses I’ve had, I consider myself incredibly lucky. They have each contributed to my growth as a person and as an employee—I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.

For example, three years ago I was working in publishing at a job I didn’t really like. But my co-workers were awesome and my boss was the best. The job made me realize that I needed to get out. So I did: I got a job as a writer (thanks mostly to this blog) for a company that was starting a new site that taught people how to invest.

That situation propelled me into something totally different: first as an ad copywriter (which is/was awesome) and then a position as a product manager. If I would’ve applied for a job anywhere else as a product manager back then, I would’ve gotten laughed out of the room—I didn’t have any experience and I didn’t even know what that was. But because of some of the work I’d done in my own projects (this blog included), I had a teeny little sliver of experience in my background.

And my bosses had faith in me. So they took a chance and gave me a shot—without that chance I would’ve been let go a long time ago.

I was lucky.

What Can We Do?

The cliché phrase here is to be ready to receive good luck. Just like a minor-league baseball player has to be ready to take advantage of getting called up to the big leagues to make the most out of the opportunity, that’s what we all have to do.

We need to be in a perpetual state of readiness.

Or as a guy on MTV once said, “If you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.”

Image by kaibara87

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There was a deadline on when you could buy into it and the deadline ran out before I could make up my mind. So instead I visited his store and the found another guide that seemed like a “lite” version of the Empire Building Kit: The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself.

Itching as I was for some help and direction with starting Applied Analytics, I decided to buy it and see what Chris and his guides had to offer. I had already been exposed to some of his work from reading his Brief Guide to World Domination, which was a really slick, really entertaining read. And that’s something you’ll notice when you fire up his Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself—it is very pretty, very readable, and very slick.

What’s It All About?

The goal of the guide is to help readers start a micro business, which is defined as a business that can earn at least $200/month. That’s to start of course and you can always think bigger and go bigger. But the purpose is to get a small business started that makes a relatively low amount of income.

Chris does a great job of tailoring the guide to a wide variety of people. Whether you know what you want to start or not, Chris has got you covered. Personally, I felt like the guide was better tailored for people that have no idea what they’d want to start since he runs through a lot of potential businesses and possibilities. From eBay to blogging to photography, he covers a fair bit of ground that should help you make up your mind about the direction you want to go in.

Chris also does a good job of telling his own story via his experiences as an entrepreneur. You can tell that he’s actually done a lot of these things and it’s reassuring to know that you’re taking the advice of someone who knows what they’re doing.

Is it for You?

If you need a kick in the pants to get started with any type of side business, this guide will give you that bit of added motivation. The audio segments add a nice dimension to the package and Chris is very responsive to any issue that comes up with the guide. If you already know what you want to do and have done a fair amount of work, then you may want to wait until he opens up the Empire Building Kit again. Either way, there are some good marketing tips in here that anyone can benefit from.

And if you’re on the fence about this specific guide, check out his site (The Art of Non-Conformity) and his free Brief Guide to World Domination guide to get an idea of what you’re getting into.

If you’re interested, check out The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. You’ll notice that’s an affiliate link and that’s another cool thing about his guides—once you buy one you can apply to the affiliate program and make some money off every sale you drive to him. Like I’ve been saying—Chris is a smart guy. If you don’t want to go through the affiliate link, you can go straight to the guide here.

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Among my favorites (along with my gut answer):

1.  What was your best McGuyver moment? At my publishing job, the way we exported data into our layout software was all messed up. Because I had no access to the back end that fixed the output data, I set up a series of find and replace searches that cleaned up all the issues and only took a minute to run. It worked and it made the process infinitely more efficient. Setting them up took a long time, but once I had them we all finished our work faster.

4.  How would you move Mount Fuji? TNT or C-4, take your pick.

6.  Are your parents disappointed with your career aspirations? Maybe, but they would never let on and never let me find out if they were. I like the arrangement.

7.  Tell me how you would determine how many house painters there are in the United States? I would look at sales of those massive overalls they’re always wearing on those renovation shows on TV.

9.  If I put you in a sealed room with a phone that had no dial tone, how would you fix it? Cut and peel the wire, then start pretending I was starting a car or diffusing a bomb, whichever works first. If it worked, it would immediately become my top MacGuyver moment ever.

10. If you could be any animal, what would you be and why? Bird. One word: flight.

12.  If both a taxi and a limo were priced the exact same, which one would you choose? Taxi: I would feel too self conscious getting into and out of a limo. Plus I’m frugal, even with other people’s money.

21.  How would you sell me eggnog in Florida in the summer? In a Santa outfit.

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Right?

Doing anything the way you think it should be done has a fatal flaw: you take yourself out of the equation. It took me a VERY long time to figure this out, but nobody becomes a passionate user of a site because it “sounds” like every other site out there. There has to be something special or unique about it.

Guess what that something is? You!

That’s what makes The Simple Dollar and IWillTeachYouToBeRich so special—Trent and Ramit ooze through in every post. Instead of checking their personality and style at the door, they come full force into every post they write.

And that’s why we all tune in, day in and day out. It’s what makes their sites different than the rest.

I still struggle with this. Should I use the first word that comes to mind or a less vulgar alternative? What I’ve learned is that, if I feel like saying I’m pissed off, there are tons of other people out there that feel the same.

By putting yourself out there in your writing (and anything else too), you’re more likely to make that connection with readers that can take your site from being an also-ran to a must-have destination.

Take Financial Samurai: this guy has been all over the major (and some minor) PF blogs. His comments tell you right away the kind of person he/she is: energetic, outgoing, and loud. Maybe I’m wrong about him, but that’s what I get from his site and his comments.

And you know what? I remember energetic, outgoing, and loud—it stands out. There are tons of other bloggers and commenters out there, and I can’t tell one from the other. But this guy stands out and it’s because he puts himself out there in everything he writes.

You can’t fault a guy for being real.

Some of the other bloggers out there that really stand out for me are Tough Money Love, Ben Casnocha, and Lazy Man and Money. They commit themselves fully to everything they write, and that’s why I enjoy reading their perspective on things.

So next time you’re feeling pissed off, don’t tell them you’re “upset.” Tell them you’re pissed off.

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To wrap up the new year, I decided to round up my five favorite posts of the year and two of my favorites from Wisebread. Hope you enjoy them and I’ll see you next year!

• Am I a Thief or an Entrepreneur?: I try to start a side business and get—ummm…sidetracked.
• The Threshold of Specificity: I coined this phrase all on my own! It’s all about how far we can go to learn something new by ourselves.
• The Importance of Having a Plan and Sticking with It: I learned a monumental lesson about sticking to the plan after running the 2009 Urbanathlon.
• The Steve Prefontaine Guide to Getting Rich: Never heard of Steve Prefontaine? He was a long distance runner that can make you rich.
• 3 Ways Viktor Frankl Inspired Me to Deal With Adversity: One of my favorite posts of all time. Frankl and his book positively inspired me in a whole new way.

And from Wisebread:

• Do What You Love: Is this idealistic nonsense or practical advice?
• Buying a Home Without the Money: The most comments I’ve ever gotten on any post I’ve ever written.

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Hope everyone out there is having a great day, filled with family, food, and fun times. What are you doing on The Writer’s Coin on Christmas day??

Get back to your presents and your family already!

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As Christmas gets closer and closer, I decided to link to some old posts that might make your last-minute holiday shopping a little easier by brainstorming some ideas.

Good luck out there!

• Kindle: My post on the gadget of the year explains why I think this is going to be the next “it” gift for gadget freaks. It may already be, but it’s only going to get bigger.
• Was Buying the Wii a Huge Mistake? Not really, and it’s even cheaper now than when I bought it. It’s a great gaming console for parties and for bringing families together.
• Valentine’s Surprise: This one was specifically about Valentine’s presents, but I think it applies to any occasion. The best present you can give is to surprise someone.
• Magazine Subscriptions: Can’t think of what to give as a present? A magazine subscription to a hobby or interest is the gift that keeps giving…for a full 12 months. That’s a great deal. And right now Amazon has a $5 sale on magazines like Golf and Entertainment.
• My Cyber Monday Wish List: In case you know someone who loves to write, read, take pictures, and play the occasional video game…then they might also want what I want for Christmas…just sayin’.

Cute image by Tuija2005

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