Golden Goose Marketing

When we talk about affiliate marketing tools, a lot of people immediately start thinking about things like AffPortal and AdWords Editor and TweetDeck.  What we don’t think about, though, is the set of personality traits you need to succeed. When things are going badly, you need certain inner tools to get through the hard times.

• Persistence – Without it, you’re dead in the water.  You have to have the ability to fall down and get back up, over and over and over and over…
• Optimism - If you don’t ultimately have faith that things will work out, you shouldn’t try something like affiliate marketing.  Most people will fail, and you need to have faith that you won’t be one of them.
• Intelligence – It’s a sad truth, but you have to be at least moderately intelligent to succeed with most forms of affiliate marketing.  No, you don’t need to be a genius, but there are a lot of different types of skills involved and you have to have the ability to learn.
• Curiosity – Constant learning is vital.  You need to be curious enough to seek out new methods and apply them in new and unique ways.
• Reliability – Contrary to popular belief, most successful affiliate marketers are not guys sleeping in until 3pm, eating junk food all day, and working when they feel like it.  The greatest success comes to those who treat this like what it is – a business.

What other traits do you think of as essential for affiliate marketing success?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section!