Affiliate, what?
Wiki-definition:

Affiliate marketing typically refers to an electronic commerce version of the traditional agent/referral fee sales channel concept. An e-commerce affiliate is a website which links back to an e-commerce site such as Amazon.com.

However, as the e-commerce continues to evolve, e-commerce affiliates are no longer restricted to website owners. bloggers and members of different online community forums can be affiliates as well. Many emerging affiliate programs are now accepting bloggers and individuals, not necessarily webmasters, to be affiliates.

Affiliates can also be referred as publishers. Affiliate marketers don’t necessarily have to be affiliate marketers specifically… read more.

Full time affilate, why?

What’s good about being a full time affiliate?

The best thing about going full time on aff? You don’t wake up at 7am and drive in the jam for one hour to work.

And no, you don’t punch your card before you leave the office; you don’t need a fake MC to skip work; you don’t need to look at face of the person you dislike; you don’t need to kill your working time by pretending you’re working; you don’t rush for tight lunch hour; you don’t have to attend endless useless meetings; you don’t need to go against your ethics and bring your customers for prostitution; you don’t need to be an ass kisser; you don’t need to stand your dumb manger’s stupidity…

In short, that’s quite a lot of hassles avoided when you turned full time on affiliate business and work for your own.

What’s even better being a full time affiliate as an aseans (or malaysians)?

Earn USD, spend RM (or RMB, or SGD, or Rp… depends on your location).

Majority of the affiliate commissions are paid in USD. at the time of writing, 1USD = RM3.4 (1USD=1.5SGD, = 29.75Thai Baht). in competative market, affiliates are well-reward with lucrative commissions rate: average commission for a single hosting package sales is $80 - $120; satellite TV (Dish or DirecTV) $100 - $140/sale; Forex education package $120 - $250/sale; eBay membership signups $25/lead… top up with the plus from currency exchange, you get the chance to gain extra wealth than the locals.

So is full time affiliate a decent job for Aseans?

Not really. it might be decent for some, but it’s probably a screwed up for the majority to get full time. it’s not easy to be fulltime in affiliate business, especially when you’re starting up alone with limited budget and a home to feed. the scope of the business is 100x wider than a normal brick-n-mortal: sales copy writing, web design, web hosting, spams, web marketing, SEO, pay ads monitoring (probably), web traffic tracking, competitors, continuous learning on latest web trends… it’s hell load of job.

What come worse is that as an Aseans, you’ll probably have to deal with more obstacles…

Trust me, we’re not much accepted…

Make a quick search around merchants with an affiliate program. chances are you don’t see your country name in the address form (that’s an exception for singaporean, though). this includes large affiliate network like ClickBank and RevenueAllies.

(see, M is for Maldives Malta Martinique - but not Malaysia.)

Yes, this include PayPal!

And if you’re an eBay seller, you should be aware that PayPal doesn’t accept direct widthdrawal from malaysia bank. you can either sell your PayPal credit to agents, or you better own a singapore bank account.

Language

For most, English is not our mother tongue - that’s a fact. originally, we don’t speak and write the way like american and the english do. or even if you’re grown up with english as your first language - you still dont speak in their slang. that’s an extra HUGE obstacles in doing your job…

(US/UK readers, wanna get a feel on this obstacles? try imagining yourself writing a sales letter or discussing matters with your second language - french, spanish, chinese, japanese… that’s how tough for us.)

Pitching in the right tone

In what tone you should pitch on your products? how do you approach your prospects, who are thousands miles away from you? the truth is that we don’t know the market by all means… what’s Dish Network, what’s DirecTV - who’s the big dave? how does Comcast stack up with HugesNet in term of ISP quality? what’s the latest updates on US structued settlement policy? how foreclosure biz run in the States? is thomas cook (a major travel agent with large aff network) more welcomed in UK or it’s LastMinute? we DON’T know all that first hand… unless you get the chance to stay in the States for a certain period; if not Asians affiliate just gotta ‘guess’ and ‘model’ how others pitch their sales. it’s tough, coz we are most probably pitching on something that we’ve never seen in real life before - extra home work has to be done, and i mean A LOT of it.

Social life

There’re not much of full timer freelance (i mean aff) in the region - i bet it’s more or less the same in Thailand or Taiwan. the fact is when you decide to go fulltime on aff, chances are you have to go against all your friends and family’s opinion. if you’re lucky (like me ), you’ll get their undestanding and support; if you’re not, be ready for some sour face that think you’re being lazy or you’re producing porns online.

Is it decent for me?

So after being one full year in full time affiliate business (i resigned and started at August 2006), i have to say i’m doing good with what i’m up to now. i get more free times with my parents (and my dog!); i get to travel more; i can have DotA games all night as long as i want; and i am doing okay financially. cant complain…

But what matters now is the sense of purpose… i dont feel like i’m part of my surroundings, i spent roughly 12 - 14 hours a day online, and i am losing my network from the ‘real world’ fast - which makes me considering getting back a day job… give and take, i guess.

I’ll update you the decision on my 2nd year anniversary, alright?
(to be continued one year later)