[unlucky]

I did affiliate marketing for about 10 months total. This was starting with not even knowing what affiliate marketing was, to making $200+ a day completely passive from ads. When the ad campaigns worked, it was one of the best feelings in the world. It is very hard to replicate the satisfaction of waking up and knowing that you had already made half your income for the day while still asleep.

The problem is with any "easy" money like this is that there is no consistency. Like most ad campaigns, the fuel behind them runs out. You are constantly having to come up with new ideas, that in which most will fail. I would say less than 10% of your work is directly profitable (just due to testing and failed ad campaigns.) So while I did have "passive" income for moments at a time, it wasn't truly "passive" because I would constantly be preparing for my next campaign. The stress that can come with the down time of not having any campaigns hitting can be brutal.

I would never do affiliate marketing again, but the taste of passive income was enough for me to completely realign my goals towards it. For me, it's not about the top end number anymore, its about the consistent one.

[jonathanjaeger]

Affiliate marketing is a tough business when you're in a niche with tons of competition. Due to my own experience (as an employee at a company, not self-employed), the best case scenario is a model that harnesses your own portals and products that ultimately generates leads for other brands/clients. But that's easier said than done with a team of one in a short period of time -- you really need a good deal of systems in place to get into the higher margin game.