A get asked quite a bit why I don’t show screenshots of earnings or talk about income reports like most other blogs. Long time readers of the blog know that I only actually showed 1 screenshot of a 4 hour period about a year and a half ago, but nothing since. Not to knock anyone at all who posts earnings or screenshots, but these are my own personal reasons for avoiding the subject.
- I don’t think earnings claims alone provide any credibility. That comes from the quality of your posts and the depth of the information you provide. I would much rather have a reader subscribe to my blog because they think I provide useful information every week, rather than because I make $X amount of money everyday. Telling people how much I make does them no benefit.
- I’m a pretty private guy. I was raised that you never discuss your income, even with your own family. I am certainly not going to post it on the Internet
- I was advised against it by my business lawyer. He recommends against any public posting of income by private individuals or companies. “Unless you are publicly traded company and are required to, don’t do it”, he said.
- I have nothing to prove or impress on anyone. I don’t rely on this blog for income, so I’m not trying to sell myself to anyone. My company is doing well, and that’s good enough for me! Hopefully that provides the same inspiration or motivation that a screenshot would.
Again, not faulting anyone else for showing earnings, almost all my online friends do it. But its just not for me.
I completely agree. All these people posting their earnings everywhere are just trying to get more subscribers. I call BS.
I agree. hence why you never see me posting my earnings. I think it shows a little more character by not posting them and that the reason people do post earnings is they feel they have to prove it to people or trying to get a boost to quick status, i dont knock them for doing it cause it does work.
I do share some things with my family but not exact figures etc.. Friends just know i run my own online business and i do well.
Not “even with your own family”? Wow! that’s too private. I guess whatever makes you comfortable. I would not discuss it with my friends or even relatives because people seem to get jealous. But if I’ve no problem discussing it with my significant other, parents or even siblings.
I started my new blog and I guess I was going to post my earnings every month NOT to show off but to rather keep a reminder or a record to myself that I was earning this much or of course to the world to see its possible.
Chad, your blog, imo, is the best out there for PPC and CPA info. There is no reason for you to post any sort of income proof. If people don’t know through what you post that you know what you’re talking about, then they simply don’t understand affiliate marketing.
I check your blog daily for updates because your information has helped me tremendously. Thank you.
Thats commendable. Your blog is the only one that gives off a non hype feel, as some of the others do now. Plus the information here is one hundred percent useful and gets me thinking! Thanks.
Thank you for answering my questions too.
Don’t blame you for not posting because I’m private too…
Hi Chad - I couldn’t agree with you more. Sharing my earnings results is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made as an affiliate. Here are just a few of the problems I’ve experienced:
1 - Friends and family you haven’t talked to in 5-10 years wanting to get together “just to see how you’re doing”. 9 times out of 10 these reunions are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to get help with an affiliate business.
2 - I have a bigger target on my back than the average affiliate. Every time I make a move into a new market I have to worry about affiliates ripping off my campaigns and stealing my sites. Most of the time this clone strategy fails, but it creates a lot of temporary headaches.
3 - You attract a lot of new affiliates looking for a magic pill. When I respond back telling them how much work is required they often fade out very fast.
4 - Every merchant thinks you’re going to be their next super affiliate. Most of the time I find the best offers on my own. I can only think of a few instances where a merchant recruiting me into their program actually worked out. This isn’t because recruiting doesn’t work, but most affiliate managers use the shotgun approach, rather than the sniper rifle approach - http://www.quityourdayjob.com/node/1466
Q: Did it help my credibility?
A: I doubt it. Like Chad mentioned - you can build credibility by posting good information on a regular basis. I think CDF Networks is a shining example of that.
Q: Did I get more site visitors?
A: Yes, but it also attracted the wrong kind of visitors - people looking to get rich quick.
Q: Does it make me think twice about connecting with friends and family from the past?
A: Yes. I always have to wonder what their agenda is. I shouldn’t be so jaded, but experience has taught me to be that way.
Great post Chad - I can tell you’re the real deal.
Best,
Jeremy
IMO, showing your earnings from a single campaign can be useful for illustrating a case study. I’d certainly not show my income tax return, but showing a certain segment might be instructional and illustrative as per Robert Cialdini’s social proof principles.
There’s a different in showing figures/stats/hard data to impress UPON the audience certain principles, rather than merely impressing them alone.
I’d use revenue/profit generated in conjunction with other statistically meaningful data such as visitor numbers, conversion stats, which are useful reference data for new marketers.
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Obviously experienced marketers will be able to take the broad strokes, macro strategies that Chad and yourself parcel out and run with it.
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As the industry moves towards branded site, I believe affiliates are going to move towards creating high authority, branded sites, like Scott Jangro and his CostumZee site and Connie Berg’s FatWallet site.
The branded approach does open up the possibility of selling your affiliate site as an exit strategy (similar to what Coupon Mountain did a couple of months ago). Although if it’s highly profitable, I don’t think you would seriously consider the option.
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Being hassled/cloned, etc, it does create growing pains for a developing site, but once you’re established in the market place, the cloners and keyword scrapers are just a minor nuisance. Imagine yourself as the “Apple iPod” in the marketplace against a legion of wannabees…
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On disclosing your total income, there’re a number of legal and regulatory implications associated with that. And unless you’re a rabid fan of the IRS, I don’t think you should be publishing your tax filings online…
I am fairly new to your blog, but I have found it the most useful of all the other affiliate blogs I frequent so far. You have definitely inspired me to do some other things in this business I never thought possible. I am glad you have the approach you do because I think I can continue counting on this blog to provide me more information to grow. Thanks a million!
If you don’t rely on your blog for income and are not trying to sell anything on your blog… why do you blog? Just curious, you post a lot of useful information, give up some stuff that could possibly hurt your income, and more importantly… put a ton of time into your blog. What do you get out of it?
Good question. The main benefit is the networking opportunity. I have met people through this blog that I would have never met otherwise. I also do it to spread some good karma around.
I applaud you for this posting and the reasons you are giving. For a while I gave ballpark numbers away, but have not in a long time. It’s the quality of the content that counts - and you are ranking high up for that.
I hadn’t thought of this until now when you brought it up Chad. Your blog is popular for the right reasons. Other affiliate marketing blogs get caught up with trying to impress their readers with $ but little or no content. This is also understandably why WF hates such blogs. However, you have a trait which differentiates you from the other hundred affiliate marketing blogs floating around the net- you are humble.
Other bloggers could all learn from you and get past their pride by showing earnings.
cool, although I’d argue it still brings in traffic. Especially when others are not doing it as much, and some continue to do it and build it. But either way I respect whatever anyone does if they show it or not. The best asset protection is when people don’t even know you have assets to begin with. - Bill Reed
To Jared, CPA Affiliates, Niche Affiliate Marketing, David, Toki, Juice, Jeremy, Andrew, Sipboy, Kyle, Christoph, Jason, and Was - Thanks to everyone who responded with the kind words and encouragement! I’m glad you guys appreciate what I am doing to do here. I’ll keep trying to write quality posts while keeping the hype to a minimum. The great part is, by doing so I have found my own niche in a very crowded space.
There is something to be said about the unstated… it’s always the quiet guys who are up to something.
Thank you for saving us the self promotion. By the way love you blog.
[...] from CDF Networks wrote an interesting post about why he does not post screenshots. It actually had me second thinking posting some of my own CX Digital screenshots. Here is another [...]