When you make that transition from being an employee or traditional business owner into the world of affiliate marketing you bring along a lot of baggage.
An employee has been trained to follow specific rules for their position. They aren’t allowed to think outside the box and solve problems their way, usually.
Established business owners, too, get into a mindset of “if it’s not broke then don’t fix it”.
Most of them have developed traits that set limiters on their ability to grow, in business. They may not see it immediately but it would become very apparent if and when they got a start in affiliate marketing.
The following are the frequently found traits I’ve discovered – I’m also including suggestions for combatting them in order to remove these barriers and unlock true potential.
Holding back information
The problem: They’re afraid of competitor swiping.
A very common problem new-comer’s fall trap to is having a resistance to releasing business secrets, experience, and insights to the Web. They are worried that the competition will “steal their idea” so rather giving it to the community they keep it locked up.
The problem is that most, if not all, of their information is already available on the Web. The net is so vast that you’re bound to find someone willing to share. There is always someone fresh to the industry that doesn’t feel the need to hold back information because they think it should be free.
What needs to change: Become transparent and open.
Ever hear of authority?
When people are resistant of releasing content it’s crippling them because they’re not able to show their authority, online. Then, a competitor pops on the radar which does share similar information and suddenly they gain a commanding market share.
Why? The content you push online, even if you don’t want your competitors to see, becomes a vehicle for sharing your expertise, authority, and marketing offers. Every piece of content is another building block of your authority. Whoever’s first to release this information are often those that are considered leaders in the market.
From now on don’t hold back. If you have great information then share it. Find other ways to monetize your ideas that isn’t just about having people pay for information offered elsewhere.
Being a martyr for work
The problem: Working for the sake of doing work.
People loooove to be a martyr for their work. They love to tell you how many hours they’re putting in, how tired they are, how much coffee they’ve drank, and how much stress they’re under.
Why? Why do people do this?
People seem to associate long hours of work with productivity. They feel that if they put in more hours they’ll get more done but this isn’t always the case. You’re not going to get more done if you’re just piling on additional tasks – it’s about quality versus quantity.
What has a greater impact? Sending out a few sales emails this hour or spending it reading through blog comments?
The solution: Slow down, streamline, delegate, and automate.
First of all … slowwww down. Remember what they say “haste makes waste”. You’ll do far better if you take the time to understand what you’re doing, document the process, and do it right the first time than making repeated mistakes.
Secondly, work needs to be streamlined. It shouldn’t have you bouncing back and forth between activities. You should be able to compartmentalize tasks and knock the entirety of them down one-by-one without setbacks.
Third simply means you should keep communication clear when delegating tasks to others. Find the right people for the job, convey the right ideas, and it’ll get done.
Finally, start automating whatever you can. Do it for things like social sharing, link building, email newsletters, shipping, and more. Spend the money on tools and resources to automate – this is such a wonderful trade off when you consider how much time you save.
Learn to let go and stop trying to micromanage every aspect of your work. Focus on the big wins and pass off the low-value tasks to others.
Developing selective hearing
The problem: They hear the RIGHT information at the WRONG time.
It’s selective hearing.
You can preach all you want about an emerging trends and changes but it falls on deaf ears because people aren’t ready and willing to listen; then, years later, it becomes the next hot thing – missed opportunities.
Think of any time you thought “yeah, this is going to be big!” and had a lot of resistance with people telling you “no” only for it to become the norm – it’s the “I told you so!” moment.
People are always highly skeptical about change from their usual routine.
Read: The innovation adoption lifecycle.
The problem with failure to change is that it leads to a slow demise of the company as newer, younger, faster businesses spring up that DO use the same information presented to the business owner years prior. Sometimes this comes about because of bureaucracy but big decisions still fall on the shoulders of these individuals so they must be willing to take responsibility and lead.
What needs to change: Start listening to the youth and TAKE ACTION.
Seriously. The youth will generally know a lot more about trends because it’s such an engrained aspect of their daily lives. Ask them their thoughts about an industry and they’ll have an opinion – which is often drastically different than the response you’ll receive from an older individual.
The youth are the ones willing to try new products and services. They build communities around the love for these items. They’re out there writing blogs, sharing on social, and using it every day. What better way to keep tabs on how the industry is changing than using the early adopters?
The future of an industry will be determined by children; their habits aren’t yours, start changing now.
