Chapter 5: Chasing Fast Money: My Hard Lesson with Affiliate Marketing
In the early days of my blogging journey, I was constantly thinking about making quick money. I was fascinated by the concept of affiliate marketing and genuinely enjoyed the process of joining new programs. There was something exciting about signing up for new programs and imagining the passive income that would follow. Convinced that more banners meant more clicks (and money), I flooded my blog posts with affiliate links, hoping for an overnight breakthrough. Whenever I added a banner to my blog, I’d check my account the following day with anticipation… only to find nothing. No clicks, no earnings, just silence. Not being one to give up easily, I also enrolled in Google AdSense. Unlike affiliate programs, it gave me a sliver of hope—I was earning a few cents here and there. After a couple of years, I was finally getting there. I was only 50 cents away from reaching the $100 withdrawal threshold. But then, out of nowhere, everything came crashing down. Google disabled my AdSense ...