Perhaps the affiliate success rate has the equivalent return of successful marriages. This season brings sun-tanned faces with star-gazed (or crossed) eyes to the altar. Pronouncements are made, and everyone heads to the bar for celebration. Sounds a bit cynical, and those sitting in the drab-gray hallways of probate court understand.

Seventeen years ago, my wife and I affiliated. Seems like a business deal; it is not. Our synergy encourages five children toward productively meaningful lives. We have not made any affiliate income from them. Just the opposite; they have cost us a lot of money. Each check written and dollar emptied from our wallets seems to work toward a productive affiliate network. Who could ask for anything more? As our son says to his Mom, “Be nice to me; I will be selecting your nursing home.”

At one time, my ideas of affiliate income from a vast directory of affiliate links would benefit me. Chagrined, I recognize this will not happen. Echievements provides affiliate links, but it differs vastly with a focus on content. Affiliate links are secondary.

Twenty years ago, the kings and queens of affiliate marketing positioned themselves. They took a risk that the rest of us shunned, or did not understand. Those were the days when you could make a ham and cheese sandwich on toast while a program downloaded. Kevin Dahl provides encouragement and warning (Affiliate Marketing, Do You Have What It Takes?). Kevin thinks that “Successful Affiliate Marketers are intelligent, computer and Internet savvy….” folks who blend tecnology and persistence to create the marks of success (that is affiliate income).

Kevin explains that there is a “…’magic difference’ between those who succeed and those who don’t….” It all “…can be found in their personalities, their brainpower and their willingness to work very hard.” Perhaps. For the past twenty years Kevin developed Windows software. This is quite telling. Twenty years tells us that Kevin persisted at what he does best: develop Windows software. Along with that, he may have affiliated with others.

His articles suggests (to me) that the key to affiliate results is a niche; something that you do uniquely. Others may do it too. No one does it like you. This is the focal point for all affilate marketing. Successful affilate marketers have a niche, and they affiliate with others to promote and expand that niche.