How to Make Your First $1,000 in Commissions Online

Spencer Mecham (the #1 ClickFunnels Affiliate) asked the following question in his Facebook group recently, “What would you do to make your first $1,000 in affiliate commissions if you had to start from scratch?”

A myriad of answers were given, some short, some comical, but one was thorough and took the collective cake.

My buddy Sam Riksfjord gave an answer that proved he’d earned his stripes and was speaking from a place of experience.

Here is what he said.

“What would I do to make my first $1,000 in affiliate commissions if you had to start from scratch?”

The same way as the first time, with organic search traffic.

Why?

If you build a white hat search-driven platform that provides value it will grow and GROW over time.

How to Make Your First $1,000 in Commissions Online #passiveincome Click To Tweet

Was it hard? Absolutely! Was it fast? Hell no. Did I want to tear my hair out at times? Definitely! But I’m after the long term rewards, not short term wins, so that got me through the darkest hours.

By the way, this is one of those things that is SIMPLE, but not EASY:

1) Figure out your niche, have passion and knowledge in this niche so you can create content forever (if you don’t care about the niche you’ll eventually flame out)

2) Do a ton of research on your audience and the niche and keywords before starting: what do they like, want, desire, hate. Knowing all this gives you an edge

3) Build your website (or YouTube account, etc.) and understand SEO from day 1, at the very least understand basic on-page SEO for a site. If you don’t do this right away it will be a massive pain to try and fix it later. Tempted to build a blog on ClickFunnels? Hahaha. Don’t.

What would I do to make my first $1,000 in affiliate commissions if you had to start from scratch?

4) Create 20+ articles (or videos) that solve problems for your audience

5) Monetize from day 1. Find affiliate products that will help your audience, are related to their niche, and are reputable (this is key – do NOT push junk just to make a buck – goodwill is one of those funny things that grows over time like compound interest)

6) Build an email list from day 1, even with simple lead magnets

7) Do NOT Give up or give in to “horizon confusion”, that’s when your mind is telling you success is right around the corner but it’s realistically 6 months to a year away.

8) Celebrate every single tiny win, you need endorphins for the long game

9) Attach your name to everything. If you don’t build trust, why should people trust you and buy from your links. Some will, but most people are too smart for that.

10) KEEP GOING and don’t give up, create content that is better than everything else in the SERPs (search engine results pages) and you will start to see traffic

I appreciate Sam for letting me post his tips in this article. He writes over at ChillReptile.com and just finished writing a 30-hour post called How To Write A Blog Post – The Ultimate Guide.

Now let’s take Sam’s advice and get to work!