The mistakes I've made so you don't have to

I've been doing affiliate marketing, on and off, for about 30 years.

Here are seven of my mistakes. For each one: what I did, what it cost, and what I'd do instead.

If something didn't make money in a couple of weeks, I moved on to the next thing.

I paid for program after program and never stayed with one long enough to find out if it worked.

And being retired made it easier. With plenty of time and no deadline, there was always room for one more new thing.

Instead: Pick one thing. Give it months, not weeks - definitely not days.

Leadpages. I bought it, never used it, and don't remember why I got it.

Then it auto-renewed. $444 for another year of not using it.

Instead: Before you buy, ask yourself two questions. What will I do with it this week? And do I already have something that does it? Then put every renewal date on your calendar.

I used to think, why in the world would anybody not want this?

Turns out, people don't necessarily want it. I proved that more times than I'd like to admit.

Instead: Find out what people are actually looking for. Then recommend that.

An easy way to start: join a few Facebook groups where your kind of reader hangs out, and just read. Look for the questions people ask over and over, and the things they complain about. That's what they want help with.

For a long time, I did the same thing over and over.

I wasn't smart enough to stop and say, hey, this isn't working.

Instead: Every month or so, look at what you're doing and ask one question: is this working? If not, change one thing.

This one goes beyond affiliate marketing. It's how I've handled investments too.

If it sounds good, I'm in. Research comes later, if it comes at all.

Instead: Check the math first. If the promise only works with impossible numbers, walk away.

I was never a big social media person, because I didn't know what to say.

So I didn't say anything. And nobody found me.

Instead: You don't have to be clever. Share what you tried and what happened. AI has made this a lot easier for me.

I started as a "hotel hobby," something to fill evenings when I traveled for work.

Even when I got serious, I worked in bursts. A lot one week, nothing the next.

Instead: Show up on a schedule. For me, that's what writing a newsletter finally fixed.

Every one of these comes back to the same thing:

Not a lack of time. A lack of patience.

👉 The slow, boring way works better than the fast, exciting way. I just had to lose some money to believe it.

Which of these mistakes have you made?

Just hit reply and send the number. One number is enough. Or more, if you're like me.

— Bob