Looking at my earning reports, I’m well on my way to the $20K mark for 2008 (gross not net) sales. I felt this was actually pretty good with the set backs this year. I think if eBay didn’t move away from CJ, Google AdSense terms/privacy change didn’t happen and finally the YSM change didn’t mess with my expense bottom line, I would have done much better. I know those factors slowed my development. In fact, today, I launched my first EPN site since the cutover. Even with the run of bannings, and my confidence at a all time low with this affiliate program, I still punched a site out. Earlier this year, I would stress that building was the key. Build and learn, but always stay proactive. I know after the summer, I took a more passive role and maintained my earnings, while not building to earn more. That was a mistake, but I think it was necessary to ensure that these changes didn’t drastically impact my portfolio first.

Areas that I’ve been focusing on to help light a fire under me was to first join the Wealthy Affiliate program. I have to say that this is a fantastic program, and I have learned a lot. I have not been able to see great returns at this time, but the foundation is in place. I know that down the road, I will be focusing on PPC/Offers more, and this was the BEST way to understand some aspects of the game. If you’re interested in affiliate marketing, I strongly recommend joining.

The latest change I’ve done was to finally upgrade my PopShops account from Pro to Enterprise. This allows me to have multiple PIDs for my CJ campaigns by offering profiles per shop. I’ve been running PopShops on one domain, and it has shown a profit every month. The interface at PopShops is awesome to say the least. I’ll be branching off into more affiliate store fronts using Commission Junction, Google Affiliate Network and LinkShare. The commissions are so much better that EPN, and I need to focus on diversification within this 4th quarter.

I’ll also be establishing some goals for 2009 in the next few months. I’ve stated before that setting realistic goals is important, as well as planning different ‘angles’ on achieving those goals.

This month, a good affiliate friend of mine and myself, have created our own 30 day challenge. This was primarily set up to motivate while learning from each other. We set up a simple challenge where in 30 days we need to launch 3 sites and see a return net of $100 combining all 3 sites. We will compare notes when we’re done, by showing niches, techniques and strategies on how we did it. I think we’ll both be able learn a ton from each other! So far I have launched 1 site out of 3 (eBay site). I’ll be launching a PopShop site for number 2, and a product review comparison site for number 3. I’ll promote all with YSM/MSN PPC as well as general SEO/link building. If this works, I can see us pushing the sites and/or returns higher in the months to come.

Hopefully, all of you are still forging ahead and trying new things. To make it in affiliate marketing (just my opinion) you need to stick with it and constantly push yourselves.