Did you know that you can reach your goals if you form the right habits? By definition, habits are behaviours that you perform automatically, with little or no thought. From brushing your teeth to making breakfast, your habits guide your life.
Since habits are behaviours that you perform automatically, you overlook their power. The problem with Affiliate Marketers is that they do not form habits that bring positive results to their business.
They, instead, spend time on things that are not lucrative to their business. Although they seem to be busy, they hardly get anything done, in terms of generating leads, sales, and commissions.
Hence, understanding the importance of habits and building them is a great way to achieve your goals. So, to help you out, I will share the 9 essential habits of Super Affiliates that help them earn thousands every month that you must build.
Power Of Small Habits
According to my experience, small habits can have a surprisingly powerful impact on your life.
Imagine a plane taking off from Los Angeles and going to New York. During take-off, if the pilot changes the course of the plane by only 3.5 degrees (South), nobody would notice the movement.
However, over the course of the journey, the impact would be so considerable that the plane will land in Washington (DC) and not New York.
Similarly, we do not notice small changes since their immediate impact is trivial. However, over a long period of time, the impact would be huge.
For example, if you are overweight today, a 20-minute jog would not make a difference in your weight. But if you jog every day, after a few months, you would be in great shape.
Therefore, if you have to build a new skill, you should recognise that it will take time, even if you do not see immediate changes/results. Your immediate results might not be encouraging, but keep going in this direction and, in a few months or a few years, you will notice a major improvement.
And as Jim Rohn as said, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
So the top 9 habits you must form to create the life you want are, as follows:
Habit 1: Write Things Down
Although your brain is a supercomputer, not everything you keep in mind is stored permanently. For example, you may get super valuable topic ideas for your audience, but you may forget them in a few minutes (which happened with me all the time 😆), hence, I’d suggest you write them down.
If you get multiple ideas, great! Instead of keeping them in your mind, write them down and work when you get time.
The biggest mistake that I made (and have seen many Affiliate Marketers make) is that I would get ideas and assume that I will remember them after hours or days. Unfortunately, I am not good at remembering things and I would forget 60-70% of them.
So, if you get ideas and end up forgetting them, I’d suggest you keep a notepad and pen handy and jot them down. If you are not a fan of notepads and pens, you can install a note/text app on your smartphone and type the ideas there.
Once you have all of the ideas on paper (or in the app), you go back to them, ponder, find content, create strategies, and build something super-valuable for your audience.
Habit 2: Read Every Day
Oh no! Here comes the granddad’s advice: You must read every day!
I know it is old-fashioned advice in the era of high-speed Internet, but I have noticed that when I read books, I learn better. I do not know what the magic is, but when you hold a book, your brain makes a connection with the printed words and you tend to remember and learn better.
As an Affiliate Marketer, you must always learn new things and books are the treasure troves that help you build new skills, and come up with ideas, perspectives, and strategies.
You can read books related to your niche or any topic that you love until it helps you grow. Since we are talking about building habits, if you cannot spare time for reading, you can start by reading 1 page and gradually increasing it to 20-30 pages every day.
Once upon a time, I found reading to be a pain in the backside, but I started with 1 page and now, I am able to spare 30 minutes to read. The habit of reading has helped me gather knowledge and learn new things in an effective manner.
Habit 3: Create A Schedule
I am always excited to tell people about how scheduling helped me increase my productivity by 2x. There was a time when I could not publish a 10-minute podcast episode in 1 day.
My way of doing things was all over the place. I was unorganized, inconsistent, and lazy, and my business took a severe hit. My mentor says, “Your vibe attracts your tribe.” I observed that when I was lazy and unorganized, I attracted the same kind of people.
Then, one fine day, I met England’s leading time-management coach and she told me to create and keep a schedule of my daily activities.
It was painful and boring in the beginning, but as time passed by, I noticed that when I created a routine, my productivity improved to 2x. Before, I could do only 4 tasks every day, but now, I am able to tick off 9-10 tasks!
Another advantage of scheduling is that you can complete a specific task in lesser time. Previously, I would take 8 hours to write, edit, and publish a blog post. Now, I do it in 3-4 hours!
The secret of this doubled productivity is the Pomodoro technique. If you struggle with managing your time, I recommend you follow it.
The Pomodoro technique works as follows:
Step 1: For this example, let us say you start working at 10 AM.
- Work for 25 minutes without distraction.
- Take a break of 5 minutes and during the break do not think about work. Enjoy the break, it’s the reward for working.
Step 2: This one session of 25-minute working followed by a 5-minute break is called 1 Pomodoro. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for 3 more Pomodoros:
- Pomodoro 2: 10:30 AM to 11 AM
- Pomodoro 3: 11 AM to 11:30 AM
- Pomodoro 4: 11:30 AM to 12 PM
Step 3: Now, after 4 Pomodoros (or 2 hours), take a break of 60 minutes (from 12 PM to 1 PM).
Step 4: After the 1-hour break, return to work and work for 4 more Pomodoros (2 hours).
In a nutshell, using the Pomodoro technique, you divide your time into 2 chunks of work and break. You work for 25 minutes and take a break for 5 minutes. You do this for 3 more cycles and then take a 1-hour break.
You can work for 8 Pomodoros or 12 Pomodoros every day.
The beauty of the Pomodoro technique is that you can personalise it. I work for 25 minutes, but you can work for lesser or more. I take breaks of 5 minutes, but you can take bigger breaks.
Habit 4: Remove Distractions
I have observed Affiliate Marketers who seem to work, but are distracted by social media notifications all the time. Once they get distracted, it is difficult to get back to the state of focus.
Do you know it takes about 20 minutes to enter the flow state?
If you are constantly distracted, you hardly enter the flow state and that impacts your productivity.
When super successful Affiliate Marketers work they remove distractions, keep their phones in another room or put it on silent mode. They set a ‘no distraction’ or a ‘DND’ time and work until they are focused.
I have studied over 50 Super Affiliates and observed that they divide their tasks and time into chunks and this helps their efficiency and productivity.
If you struggle to stay focused, you can follow the Pomodoro technique that I shared in the previous point.
Habit 5: Track Everything
Keep track of all the activities you do every day. This will help you identify the times when your productivity drops & you waste time.
Based on the tracker, you can create a schedule and work during the most productive time or when your focus is at its peak.
The tracker will help you identify how much you achieve every day and it will also help you schedule your work.
Habit 6: Declutter
I read somewhere, “Your environment is stronger than your willpower.” So keep your environment clean and clutter-free.
Clutter in your physical space reflects the clutter in your mental space, so make sure you remove things you do not need. You can start with cleaning your table or making your bed and gradually removing unneeded stuff in your room.
Also, remove apps and files from your cell phone and laptop that you do not use. The apps you do not use and the files you do not need, only pile up digital junk. Hence, keep your digital space clutter-free, as well
Habit 7: Create More Than You Consume
Every month, I set a goal to complete a certain number of tasks. For example, for July 2022, my target was to publish (and I published) 50 blog posts on my website. In the following month (August 2022), my target was to publish (and I achieved this goal too!) 20 podcast episodes on Spotify.
So, enter a creation zone and create content that helps your audience and solves their problems. My mentor once told me, “If you create more than you consume, you become rich.”
If you see, the richest people are creators, not consumers. So, create more content and give more to your audience to consume and transform.
Habit 8: Spend Time With Friends And Family
Affiliate Marketing business is a never-ending endeavour, so don’t forget your friends and family.
What happens when you don’t spend enough time with your loved ones is:
My sister works at a multinational company and almost every day, she works for 10-12 hours. Although she lives with us, we hardly get to spend time. My biggest regret is that although I see my sister, I missed creating memories with her.
Your friends and family are your biggest blessings, so spare time for them every day. No matter what you achieve in life, nothing is more valuable than friends and family, so prioritize them.
Habit 9: Feed Positivity To Your Brain
I read somewhere, “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
So it all starts with what you think. And what you think is based on what you consume.
If you consume negativity, you will become a negative person. You will get negative thoughts, you will get panic attacks, you will suffer from anxiety, depression, etc.
So, it is crucial to be careful of what you feed your brain. If you are addicted to sensitive topics, you will never be a pleasant person, you will repel people from your life. So, from today onwards, replace negative news with positive documentaries, controversial debates with useful books, and fearful events with happy memories.
Conclusion
Did you know that you can reach your goals if you form the right habits? By definition, habits are behaviours that you perform automatically, with little or no thought. From brushing your teeth to making breakfast, your habits guide your life.
Since habits are behaviours that you perform automatically, you overlook their power. The problem with Affiliate Marketers is that they do not form habits that bring positive results to their business.
They, instead, spend time on things that are not lucrative to their business. Although they seem to be busy, they hardly get anything done, in terms of generating leads, sales, and commissions.
Hence, understanding the importance of habits and building them is a great way to achieve your goals. So, to help you out, I will share the 9 essential habits that help you become a Super Affiliate so you earn thousands every month.
- Write things down
- Read every day
- Create a schedule
- Remove distractions
- Track everything
- Declutter
- Create more than you consume
- Spend time with friends and family
- Feed positivity to your brain
