ForestAffiliate.com Blog

Part of the title of this blog is “learning as you go”, but today I would like to deemphasize that part. There is nothing wrong with “learning as you go” but it’s more efficient to do your research first. When I started out, I used the “learn as you go” approach, but you don’t have to. I am creating this blog so that you don’t have to. Research can cut down the amount of time you spend fixing errors and tweaking your venture. Research allows you to discover some of the hurdles you might have run into. This may seem like obvious information, but you’d be surprised by the way your thought process could change things. Thinking of new ideas and realizing that others could beat you to implementing this new idea in the market can make you extremely excited; so excited that you are ready to just jump in and start swimming immediately. The problem is that although the pool looks really tempting, you haven’t researched the mechanics of swimming yet. Who knows? You might be a natural in the pool and start treading water with ease immediately. But if you’re not a natural you’ll start thrashing your way to the edge. Thrashing only makes the problem worse and you start to sink. Jumping into a new idea is very similar to this swimming analogy. If you jump into a new venture without any research and you aren’t a natural business guru, you might start making more irrational decisions that don’t help the situation (thrashing). You won’t literally face physical death like you could in the swimming analogy, but you could face a figurative death. This figurative death entails a diminution of your business reputation. Demonstrating inadequacies in your preferred area of expertise could tremendously harm your credibility. It is possible to recover but your journey will be much harder than it needs to be. It may be impossible to recover the attention of the viewers who lost interest because of your initial mishap. Remember that a good idea is only as good as its execution. Perfecting execution requires research. Save yourself some time and keep your venture’s credibility level high by doing your research.

Don’t let this scare you away from making a change. If you have a new idea that you think might work better than your current plan, don’t be afraid to go after it. Just make sure you make the appropriate cost benefit analysis. Do the potential benefits of this new change significantly outweigh the cost if things don’t work out? Is the new change a rational one and is it realistically feasible? If not, you may want to reconsider undergoing change or at least put it off until you’ve flushed out your plan more.

If you could view all the changes that ForestAffiliate.com has gone through since its inception, you’d understand the benefits of doing your research beforehand. So many times I would completely change the entire layout and concept of my website as soon as I thought of a new way to function as an affiliate-based entity. I was so moved by these impulses for change and improvement that I didn’t give myself enough time to rationally determine how I would be affecting other aspects such as the viewers (the most important aspect of a website). I can’t imagine how people may have come to my website and were completely confused either because they didn’t understand the relevance or because the site had been something entirely different the day before. By the time I made the appropriate adjustments to make the concept of the site self-evident, it was already too late. During the entire time of constant changes, I would be losing viewers who saw that my site was still in the development stage. I am sure I lost a lot of potential viewers due to such situations. I made these mistakes over and over again. You don’t have to make these mistakes. Research first before you jump in. Sit down and write out your plan before you jump in. You’ll thank yourself later.

Once you’ve done your research, the learning is not done yet. This is where “learning as you go” comes in. When you undergo an internet, affiliate-based venture, you’ve got to understand one thing. The internet is constantly changing and evolving. You must learn how to adapt as the internet changes, the markets change, and the way society interacts with these two things changes. Doing your research before you jump in is important for establishing a sturdy foundation of knowledge in your area of expertise, but it is not the end of your journey. If you want to survive in your journey, it is imperative that you continue to “learn as you go” so that you can make the appropriate adjustments to adapt to new trends and niches in your respective market. That is the only way to stay competitive. When you undergo a venture on the internet, you are entering untamed land. Only the strong survive.

It has been approximately one year since I started ForestAffiliate.com. The site has gone through many drastic changes as I’ve pursued various concept settings and method implementations. Some changes have been for the better and some have been for the worse. All have been a valuable learning experience. That is why I have decided to start this blog. I’m not sure how long this will last, but I’ll go with it for a while and see what happens. I’ll use this blog to share with you some of the things that have worked for me and other things that didn’t. As I continue to develop and revamp ForestAffiliate.com or other internet projects I pursue, I’ll use this blog to keep you updated with new tips that work and how to deal with the obstacles or shortcomings that you may face. This blog is my guide to the affiliate experience: learning as you go.