The other day I sat down to re-read and compare Affiliate “Project X” (with a recently released update) against Google Wealth Wizard (that sales page needs better graphics) and Dominating CB (very, very hyped), both for my own edification and for possible review up on GeekAffiliate. Of the three, I'd say go for Affiliate “Project X” (APX), it's by far the best value for the money, and I like the variety of money-making affiliate marketing methods it describes as well as the details it gives on how to implement the various steps. (Oops, so much for the review!) But am I dominating any affiliate niche yet? Are the ClickBank cheques rolling in yet?
Sadly, no. Certainly not through lack of want, though, or lack of understanding. No, what I suffer from is a common malady that many people suffer from: lack of time.
With Internet marketing it's easy to get swept up in the all the excitement, but try it out for a while and you'll see that the common thread that underlies it all is often missing from these e-books: you need to spend significant amounts of time working on your Internet marketing strategy and then implementing it. If you're successful, it will usually reach a point where you can devote minimal time to maintaining it, but there's a big hill to climb to get there. And it's the same with AdSense.
Take the Easy Profit Auctions membership site that's being promoted recently on several lists. It says you can inexpensively build a massive mailing list using eBay and that the list will in turn make you lots of money. Of course, nowhere in the sales promos does it tell you what the technique involves. Well, I'm pretty sure I know what it's all about: putting up autoresponder signups on your eBay auction listings. As long as the autoresponder redirects the user back to the eBay listing after the signup, it's OK. So even if you put something up for auction that doesn't actually sell, you can still build yourself up (with the right sales page, mind you) a decent list for nothing more than the eBay listing fees. It's actually not a bad idea, really, because eBay gets a high amount of traffic from all kinds of people looking to buy things. And that's what you want on any mailing list you're creating: people looking to buy things.
Conceptually, then, Easy Profit Auctions is very simple. Same thing with the different strategies described by APX. But they all take time to implement. At least the creator of APX is upfront about this and says you need to spend many hours upfront to make that “autopilot” money start coming in. And if you're an AdSense publisher, creating new content and getting traffic to your sites/blogs is what you need to be doing. And it takes time.
So if you're serious about making money with AdSense or with affiliate selling, don't forget that intangible element that people rarely discuss. Can you afford to spend several hours (or more) a week on your project? You can't expect to make a lot of money without a real investment in time. Sure, buy yourself a system to get going, but don't just spend an hour trying things out, getting no results, and then moving on to something else. Approach it seriously, focus on it exclusively, and dedicate a few weeks to nurturing the project. That's the only way you'll know if it's going to work or not. Otherwise, you're just wasting your money buying and reading ebooks — I believe The Rich Jerk said that this was something many ebook authors actually capitalize on and what allows them to sell new material to the same audience over and over again.
Think about it. Approach your money-making project as an enterprise. Set realistic goals. Invest time and money to get it going. Measure and analyze your returns. These are the steps you need to really succeed at this game.