I left school back in 1989 and trained as a chef at catering college, so building an online business is about as far from my background as you can get. But here I am, starting this blog to talk about it properly — no filter, no polish, just what’s actually happening as I go.
I’ve decided to start building an online business, and I’ve chosen affiliate marketing as the way in. This post is about why, and about a free programme I’ve joined called the ClickBank Profit Club, which is where I’m doing most of my learning right now.
I want to be upfront from the start: this isn’t a get-rich-quick thing, and I’m not going to pretend it is. If anyone ever tells you it is, I’d take that with a pinch of salt. I’m simply getting started with ClickBank affiliate marketing, and my plan with this blog is to document the journey honestly as I go — what I try, what works, what doesn’t, and everything in between. No polished success story, just an ordinary account of someone figuring it out in real time.
I also want this blog to be a place I can be a bit more myself. Most of what I do online is deliberately faceless — no videos, no photos, just content doing the talking. This blog is going to be a little different, and I’ll be sharing more of the actual person behind it as it goes on.
Why I chose affiliate marketing
I looked at a few different ways to build something online before settling on this one. I didn’t want to create my own product from scratch, hold stock, or handle customer service for something I’d built myself — not with everything else going on in life. Affiliate marketing meant I could promote things that already exist and already work, and earn a commission when someone else finds them useful too.
It also fits around real life, which matters a lot to me. I don’t work a traditional 9 to 5 — I build this in short pockets of time, whenever I can find them, around a schedule that changes from week to week. Affiliate marketing is something I can pick up and put down without the whole thing falling apart, and that flexibility is a big part of why it appealed to me over anything else I looked at. I’m not chasing something flashy — I just wanted a way in that I could realistically stick with.
Why list building matters
One of the things that stood out to me early on was the idea of building an email list alongside whatever I’m promoting. Rather than just sending someone off to a sales page and hoping for the best, building a list means I’m building something that’s actually mine — a way to stay in touch with people, share what I’m learning along the way, and keep the conversation going rather than losing someone after a single click.
It’s a slower way of doing things, and it takes more patience than chasing quick traffic ever would. But I like that it’s building towards something longer term. Every person who joins my list is someone I can keep talking to, rather than a stranger I had to win over from scratch the next time round.
Why I joined the ClickBank Profit Club
I joined the ClickBank Profit Club because it gave me an actual starting point, rather than a pile of random advice I’d have had to piece together myself. It comes with training, a clear setup process, and follow-up emails that walk you through what to do next — which, as someone completely new to this, is exactly what I needed.
I haven’t made any money from this yet, and I won’t pretend otherwise. What I can say honestly is that it’s given me a simple, structured path to follow, at a point where everything else I’d looked at felt a bit scattered and overwhelming. Having a proper starting line made the difference between actually beginning and just thinking about beginning.
What I’ll be doing next
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be working through the setup steps inside the ClickBank Profit Club, getting my own systems properly in place, and writing about it here as I go — the parts that go smoothly and the parts that don’t. This blog is going to be a genuine record of that process, not a highlight reel.
If you’re thinking about starting something similar, or you’re just curious what this actually looks like day to day for a complete beginner, I’d like you to follow along. I’ll be sharing the setup, what I’m learning, what I’d do differently with hindsight, and the bits that don’t go to plan — because that’s most of it, if I’m honest.
A quick, honest note before you go: I can’t promise you’ll get any particular result from doing this. What you get out of it depends on your own effort, how consistent you are, and plenty of things that are outside anyone’s control. I’m sharing my own experience here, not making any guarantees.
If you’d like to see what I’m working through, you can check out the ClickBank Profit Club through my link below:
