Time Is Money…..

Well, in regards to building my future affiliate empire……(here I go again sounding like Darth Vader plotting to take over the galaxy)……I’ve been fretting A LOT about all the TIME I’ve put into building those sites.

Time is money…..so where is the money for all the time I’ve put in?!

But, it’s not just ME fretting. It’s the people I know. No one can understand how I can put so much TIME into something and NOT have some cold hard cash to show for it. People are starting to raise their eyebrows a little.

What they don’t seem to understand is that I’m trying to set up a “Passive” income model using affiliate marketing sites I’m building.

Obviously, by “passive” I do not mean there is no Work involved. It just means that all of the set-up is in the front end and the results will come later.

Well……to some LATER means I should have a paycheck coming 2 weeks from now.

This is very discouraging as you can imagine. Sure, I might spend 10 minutes to 1 hour on a blog post/page trying to optimize for a specific longtail keyword phrase and a corresponding affiliate product, but once that post/page is done……it’s done.

In fact, Lynn Terry talks about this A LOT on her site and describes how spending the time NOW to set things up will eventually create that passive income in the future. I spend a lot of time on her site and in fact was just reading this post she made back in 2007.

I’ve read it before (probably several times), but lately I have been refreshing myself on some aspects because it seems like more of this information is starting to actually sink in and take hold in my brain.

The reason that this resonates with me is because I want so much to prove to my friends and family that I’m going to see results from all of my efforts. I have to keep reminding myself of this because frankly…..some people are bringing me down with all of their doubt.

It makes me doubt.

Yes, time is money. I know this because I used to trade my time for money. I used to get a PAYCHECK for the hours that I worked. So, not getting a paycheck for all the hours I put in is just making my head spin right now. It kind of scares me. Not too mention that the waiting period on affiliate payments (if I ever get one) from most Affiliate Networks is tough to swallow. Make a sale today and get paid the following MONTH. I think Amazon makes you wait longer than that.

Anyway, my point is……not many believe me anymore or maybe they just don’t believe IN me. People refer to me sometimes as a person that “does not work” “not working right now” “does not have a job” “unemployed”. They don’t say it in a derogatory manner, but just in reference in conversations.

Maybe they thought I was SUPPOSED to be a worker bee all of my life and toil away in a call center (like I did for years which caused my health problems which cost me the job anyway).

Yes…..I made good money. Almost $15/hour which is a lot in Florida. Was not worth what it did to my health.

So, you would think that everyone would rally behind me and encourage me and motivate me in my “affiliate empire” pursuits. I’m afraid they think it’s just pie in the sky. Even if I show them examples such as Lynn Terry and others that HAVE and DO make money….it does not matter because I’M not making any money. So, it’s irrelevant in their eyes that other people are successful.

Lately though, I have been correcting people. I DO WORK. I DO HAVE A JOB (just a self-created one that happens to NOT have direct deposit or medical benefits right now) but I AM WORKING!

Seriously, they all must think that I sit around watching tv all day. I don’t.

I used to use my laptop in the living room and have the tv on. I can multi-task with the best of them. My background in customer service and accounts payable/receivable sticks with me. Now I work at my desktop located in another room that has no tv.

I did this for one main reason: My laptop is slow as heck!

But now even without the appearance of being in front of the tv…..I still get labeled as “not working”.

I will keep plugging though. I will not give up, even though I have thought about it. I really don’t have a lot of options other than to make this work. My health prevents me from commuting. My small town does not have jobs except the part-time minimum wage type jobs which are frozen out from availability right now.

I KNOW that I can do this. I’m 36 years old and spent close to 20 years working “jobs” and getting paid very little for most of them. Some of my Accounting clerk jobs over the years paid under $10-12/hr and had me doing enough work for 3 people!

I try to remember this when I think about caving in to the pressure and the negativity of friends and family.

I’ll show them! (in a nice way of course….not in an evil Darth Vader way)