The Affiliate Lifestyle | Finch Sells

Why I’m Trading London For Thailand

Nov 06 2010

The great appeal of affiliate marketing, besides scratching my balls in bed at 10am, is undoubtedly the ability to do my work anytime anyplace anywhere. For 18 months now, I’ve been preaching the harsh realities of running your own business. How the dream is not always what it’s cracked up to be. How it takes hard work, a lot of patience and no end of creativity to remain successful.

Well, it’s easy for me to sell the problems. But what about the rewards?

Make no mistake. If you succeed as an affiliate marketer, you’ll have one of the greatest freedoms a job is ever likely to afford you. It’s like having, quite literally, the world at your feet. I’ve been laying down the foundations of my business for what feels like an eternity now, and it’s only next month that I’ll finally begin reaping the rewards.

This December, I’m leaving London and embarking on some serious air-miles to see as much of the world as I can. I’ll be moving to Thailand and basing myself in Bangkok.

Now I know what a lot of you think when I say that I’m moving to Thailand.

It’s normally either:

1. Are you Justin Dupre’s new mystery housemate?
2. Are you moving for the ladycock?

The answer is no and no. Though I bet I could find both at Justin’s house. Come on, man. You don’t have 5000 friends on Facebook without at least a few gender benders slipping through the net. It’s the law of error.

The truth is, just two weeks ago, I was searching for a flat in Central London. There aren’t too many cities more expensive to rent in than London, believe me. I was staring at prices of $3000/month for a small two bedroom squat that a hooker probably died in.

I think it took me witnessing the smarmy look on an estate agent’s face as he insisted I wasn’t going to find any good deals at Â£1500/month before it dawned on me. What’s the point in even looking? I can afford to pay the premium to live like a king here in London if I really wanted to, but I’d have to be pretty retarded to make that decision. The grass really is greener away from the capital.

As affiliate marketers without office jobs, we have the luxury of moving anywhere in the world and still earning the same money. I’ve been operating with a disadvantage compared to other affiliates for the sheer fact that I live in a city where they charge you 30p to take a piss in a train station. The prices in London are sky-high and my cost of living is probably much greater than what other young affiliates are having to deal with. Obviously I’m discounting those of you with kids and families to support.

I want to get full value for my hard work. Given the choice between frosting my bollocks off in London or stomping around a five bedroom house with a private pool in 30c December heat, it’s pretty much a no-brainer. I hate frosty bollocks.

So I plan to work from a laptop and travel around Asia, experiencing different cultures and living on beaches while the rest of London skids on ice. It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I quit my day job. And after months of posting about the brutal home truths of surviving as an affiliate, I guess I should re-address the balance. The rewards of succeeding are totally fucking worth it.

I realize most people don’t come to this blog to read about my travels or to know which corner of the earth I’m currently festering in. So don’t worry. This is just a notice to expect less posts over the next six weeks or so. I will be busy smearing suncream on my titties and getting traditionally burnt to shit like any self-respecting Brit on his travels.

There’s More To Life Than Affiliate Marketing

Sep 10 2009

I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for over a year now. In that year I’ve earnt more money than I made in the rest of my working life. I’ve quit my day job, gone a long way to securing my future, and made a lot of good contacts in the business. All a few months shy of my 22nd birthday.

But is it really worth it?

How much money does a man need before he’s finally happy? Everywhere I look, I see bloggers throwing out tips for how to make more cash. How to turn thousands in to tens of thousands. It’s great if you’ve got your back against the wall financially. But what is the end goal? What really makes you happy?

I’m tired of working 16 hour days, six or seven days a week. It’s gruelling. I’ve paid the ultimate price for it. I’ve lost something that actually matters.

I thought I’d get a lot of happiness out of running my own business – and I do. But it’s not what I want to be thinking about when I fall asleep at night. There’s more to life than affiliate fucking marketing.

So pro tip of the day: Take a break.

Go see the kids. Tell the wife you love her. Enjoy how far you’ve come. Whatever.

Just don’t be sitting there ten years from now with your only happiness being that split second it takes to refresh stats. I think I need to take a break and reconsider what I’m trying to achieve with my career. You don’t really hear much about it through the industry blogs – but if you’re sat at your 9-5 right now dreaming of a brighter future, this path isn’t always the right one. The life of an affiliate marketer is generally lonely.

I’ve been reading a book called Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. Now I don’t normally buy in to the self-help bullshit that most of America seems to adore. But there’s a metaphor which is pretty fitting for what I’m trying to say:

Most people live what I call “The Niagra Syndrome”. I believe that life is like a river, and that most people jump on the river of life without ever really deciding where they want to end up. So, in a short period of time, they get caught up in the current: current events, current fears, current challenges. When they come to forks in the river, they don’t consciously deide where they want to go, or which is the right direction for them. They merely “go with the flow”. They become a part of the mass of people who are directed by the environment instead of by their own values. As a result, they feel out of control. They remain in this unconcious state until one day the sound of raging water awakens them, and they discover that they’re five feet from Niagra Falls in a boat with no oars. At this point, they say “Oh, shoot!” But by then it’s too late. They’re going to take a fall. Sometimes it’s an emotional fall. Sometimes it’s a physical fall. Sometimes it’s a financial fall. It’s likely that whatever challenges you have in your life currently could have been avoided by some better decisions upstream.

I remember interpreting that passage as people not taking a chance on their ambitions and one day realizing that they’ve achieved nothing. But there’s a different meaning when the river is money.

I used to think that making thousands of dollars every month would make me happy and open up the doors to chase opportunities that would otherwise be closed. It turns out, most of the things I was chasing were there all along.

Stop posting your links on Google and go do something worthwhile for the day. Better than living in regret.