Outside of life expenses that are absolutely necessary (like mortgage payments on our homes), most of us are reluctant to purchase anything that doesn’t promise instant gratification.  Think for a second about some of the things you’ve spent money on lately – maybe lunch or dinner with friends ($30 – $100), a new pair of jeans ($75-$100), Friday drinks after work ($30+) or a $5 latte. None of these items will improve the long term quality of your life but we consume them on a regular basis anyway.  That’s because they all share one thing in common – the guarantee of instant pleasure and satisfaction.

The “Candy Bar” Trap

Behavioral scientists have long known that people are hard wired to seek pleasure and avoid pain.  And most often, the prospect of immediate pleasure (eating a candy bar) outweighs our longer term goals (having a beach body).  Even though you know the candy will make you fatter and thwart your long term goal of being thin, the immediate pleasure of eating it is much more real to you in that moment than the satisfaction you will get down the road from reaching your goal of being thin.  So, you eat the chocolate and feel good for about 5 minutes and then feel lousy because you don’t like what you see in the mirror.  Then, to make yourself feel better, you eat more chocolate and the cycle continues.

When it comes to creating a work from home internet business, most people fall into the “candy bar” trap as well.  Instead of spending their money on tools and an education that will help them build success, people are much more likely to look for a “system” that promises instant profits.  Of course, the system inevitably fails to live up to its marketing hype and the purchaser quickly gives up on it and moves on  to another get rich quick scheme only to be disappointed once again.

What Successful People Know

All really successful people know that in order to achieve dreams, you have to be willing to make at least some investment in your business and that even small expenditures on the right things now will reap huge dividends in the future.

Fortunately, when it comes to affiliate marketing, it costs very little to build your business properly.  There’s no equipment (other than your computer) and no inventory to worry about.  The key is to avoid the constant temptation to buy the next “hot” product and, instead, spend your money on those items which will actually help you build a successful affiliate marketing business.

With that in mind, here are the ONLY things that you should spend your money on when it comes to making money online:

Tools - There are a few basic tools which we recommend you start out with. These items are not expensive and but are important for success. Throughout the tutorials, We’ll introduce you to these tools, describe what they do, how much they cost and why they are a must have for success.

Educational Products –   Not all products out there are scams.  There are many ebooks, video and software products and paid membership sites  that provide excellent practical education, guidance and technical support on different aspects of affiliate marketing.  You will see reference to some of these products throughout this site.  Keep in mind that spending a small amount on the right resource now can make you thousands of dollars over the long term.

Outsourcing -  Outsourcing is optional and not something that you need to worry about for now. However, as you build your affiliate marketing business, there will be circumstances where you can save a TON of time and aggravation by delegating certain tasks to outside service providers.  Just because you can do something on your own doesn’t mean you should do it on your own.  There are lots of times where it makes more business sense to outsource.  And you’ll  discover that it can be done very inexpensively.  More about this later.  For now, just keep in mind that sometimes the money you spend on getting help from others is the best investment that you can make.

Paid Advertising – Paid advertising is also optional  depending on your business model.  You can certainly build an affiliate marketing business without any paid advertising and most of the traffic generation techniques that we will focus on are 100% free.  There are times, however, where it makes sense to use pay-per-click advertising such as Google Adwords to drive traffic to your affiliate offers.  We’ll discuss how to do pay-per-click advertising  in more detail later under the topic “PPC Marketing”.

Other than these four categories, there is really nothing else that you need to spend  money on to build a successful affiliate marketing business.  As you go forward, constantly remind yourself to avoid the temptation of falling into the “candy bar” trap and instead spend your money only on resources and tools that expand your knowledge and help you build your own business system. If you do that, you’ll not only save a lot of money but greatly increase your profit potential as well.

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