The Affiliate Business – A Blind Man’s View

affiliate business

The affiliate business where you sell other people’s products attracts some misconceptions. The story below was part of a blog post by one of the SFM community members recently. It sheds some light on this. I’ve “nicked” part of it and repurposed it so to speak!

For my post the elephant story below highlights the misconceptions that people often have about internet affiliate business. These are true for the making money online industry in general. Here’s the story.

Online Affiliate Business – The Real Picture

It’s about six blind men!

So, the six blind men were sitting having a cup of tea one day. They were discussing exactly what each of them thought an elephant looked like. They all knew that an elephant is an unusual creature, but none of them had ever seen one before!

Once the tea cups were drained, the six blind men agreed to find an elephant to discover what one was really like. It didn’t take the blind men long to find an elephant at a nearby market (as you do!)

The first blind man approached the creature and felt the animal’s firm flat side.

“It seems to me that the elephant is just like a wall” he said to his friends.

Blind man number two reached out and touched one of the elephant’s tusks.

“No, this is round and smooth and sharp – the elephant is like a spear.”

Intrigued, the third blind man stepped up to the elephant and touched its trunk.

“Well, I can’t agree with either of you; I feel a squirming writhing thing – surely the elephant is like a snake.”

The fourth blind man was of course by now quite puzzled. So he reached out, and felt the elephant’s leg.

“You’re all talking complete nonsense,” he said, “because clearly the elephant is just like a tree.”

Utterly confused, the fifth blind man stepped forward and grabbed one of the elephant’s ears.

“You must all be mad – an elephant is exactly like a fan.”

The sixth man then approached, and, holding its tail, disagreed again.

He said: “It’s nothing like any of your descriptions – the elephant is just like a rope.”

And all six blind men continued to argue, based on their own particular experiences, as to what they thought an elephant was like.

The thing is . . .

They were never able to resolve the debate!

Each of them was concerned only with their own idea – with their own personal experience.

None of them had the full picture, and none could see any of the other’s points of view.

Each man saw the elephant as something quite different, and while in part each blind man was right, none was wholly correct.

What Does Your Mate Know About It?

Greg and Fiona who wrote the original post were describing a situation where they were talking to an offline businessman. He had been given a flawed explanation of online affiliate businesses by his mate. His mate had only been aware of one aspect of affiliate marketing.  Like one blind man’s perception of an elephant.

I’ve see this type of blind leading the blind mentality cause problems for a number of online companies. Misconceptions get passed from one person to another. Often an embellishment is added at each stage. Eventually we end up with something far removed from the truth.

Sadly most people don’t bother to check their sources or look up explanations themselves.

Again I’d like to quote an excerpt from Greg and Fiona’s post:

“Six Figure Mentors understands all aspects of online business. More importantly they provide all the tools, techniques and training needed to build and run a ‘well rounded – well grounded’ internet business.

By well rounded and well grounded, we mean that is has the three key streams of income required to happily live a digital life or live a laptop lifestyle. Those three streams of income are:

  • affiliate income
  • residual/recurring income
  • high ticket income

Six Figure Mentors ticks all those boxes.”

The Good And The Bad

Like any other type of business there are good things and bad things about running an online affiliate business. I’ve just finished writing my own blog about the joys of being able to work and travel with my affiliate businesses, running them from anywhere I can get online.

The point here is that people are prepared to listen to friends or associates who have never actually made any money online. They should really be talking to people who, like The Six Figure Mentors, have had success in abundance. Only they can offer you the whole picture – the whole elephant as it were.

Six Figure Mentors are qualified and deeply experienced to be able to explain what having an online business, a digital business, is all about and how it can change your life.

SFM and DEA founder Stuart Ross explains the affiliate marketing business model on his free webcast. Book your spot below.

affiliate business