Has Affiliate Marketing Tainted My Leadership Side?

I have been a bit down lately. I began writing in earnest about leadership several months back. I have over 20 years of experience as a successful senior leader and entrepreneur and I found the process and practice of writing about leadership to be an extension form me. I had a passion for the topic and was driven internally. Then I discovered affiliate marketing and it seemed to be the perfect wedding of passion and potential income.

I wrote stories on leadership and was amazed at the number of affiliates that would pay a percentage of sales to anyone who could drive them a customer. I wrote and pasted a variety of advertisements with my articles. Time passed and no one bought anything.

Of course this was okay, because I was really simply interested in the writing process; the affiliate marketing was really only an afterthought. Perhaps if I selected my promotional products a bit better I would see a return. Rather than mindlessly link to an unrelated topic, I chose only those products that were relative to the article I wrote. More time passed and no one bought anything.

I wrote more articles on leadership, and began a bit to study affiliate marketing. I can be a bit obsessive-compulsive after hearing a whispered suggestion and I was beginning to slide. I examined niche markets, of which leadership surely qualified. I began to tinker with the tools of the affiliate world. I studies key words, site-engine-optimization, comments, guest blogging, backlinks, and on, and on, and on. Even more time passed and still no one bought anything.

I wrote articles laced with key words, backlinks, and incorporated leadership articles on affiliate marketing. I got more aggressive with my promotional placements and catered to the reader, customer, at large. I bought some per click media advertising to draw more readers to my leadership and affiliate marketing blog. Days had gone to weeks and weeks to months yet still no one bought anything.

I was now writing a majority of my articles about affiliate marketing and even the underground world of driving traffic and luring customers to buy items that I was highlighting for sale. I was shameless in my promotion of various items that I thought were supported by my articles. Some one bought a set of head phones from me. Really, why even bother with something that small?

Then it happened. I was contacted by a company to write an article about their product. I would be paid with every click of a backlink. I wrote the article immediately and posted it. I had been writing articles on my selected topic and then partnering it with a product. This time I was partnering a selected product with my topic. I did not even feel any guilt.

So here I am, a distorted marketing junkie looking for another quick sale. I am just a lost leader looking to ensure my passive income success with the next affiliate offering.

Thanks for reading.


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