The lies that give affiliate marketing such a bad name…

“17k in 48 hours, even as a complete beginner…”

That’s the Facebook post that triggered me to grab my camera and shoot my latest video for this week.

I’ve had enough of all the BS in the industry and I think it’s time to speak out…

I mean, SERIOUSLY, come on! 17 grand in a weekend??? Who believes this kind of stuff????

Well, sadly, many people! I’d love to think that everyone sees through the lies, but unfortunately so many don’t! And I can’t blame them!

The promise of making a HUGE lot of money FAST is sooooo appealing. Who wouldn’t want to jump on a webinar that promises to make nearly a year’s salary in a couple of days?

I know I would! If I didn’t know better, that is.

Now if you’re starting out, “from scratch with ZERO experience”, you don’t need this kind of cr*p – seriously you don’t! It will mess up your brain and give you completely false expectations – and that’s the LAST thing you need, especially if you’re in desperate need for money.

Now just to be clear: affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable. As I write this, on July 18th, I’ve already made over 2k this month, and I’m spending a lot of my time at the pool with my kids, making the most of the boiling hot summer we have in my part of the world.

I’m NOT saying that affiliate marketing is a scam, because it’s NOT, not at all!

But telling people that they can make 17k in 48 hours, even if they’re complete beginners is just like telling people “you can be a millionaire tomorrow if you buy a lottery ticket”. It can happen, but it’s EXTREMELY unlikely – I mean, really, really, REALLY unlikely.

This kind of post makes me so mad, because I truly feel for all the people who’ll waste precious time and money as a result.

Wild income claims mess up with your brain, you see. If you go into affiliate marketing with this kind of expectation, you’re then going to think you’re doing something wrong if you don’t make a ton of cash fast; you’ll then beat yourself up; you’ll be highly likely to then go and buy another program or course, that promises you yet other massively unrealistic things… and when that doesn’t bring you the money you hoped for, you’ll move onto something else… Before you know it, you’ll have wasted months, if not years, chasing an illusion. Not to mention the money you’ll have spent.

And I don’t want this for you!

I SO want you to learn the essential skills needed to create, grow, and scale a real, profitable affiliate marketing business.

This is why these posts make me so angry! And I’ve just had enough – I’m not going to stay polite and quiet anymore about it!

Here’s my video about this ?

If you’re starting out in this, please, please be careful: don’t be taken in by wild claims of big money fast. Learn from ethical marketers (like me lol) and you’ll spend a lot less money than if you chase shiny objects. Always remember the saying: “all that glitters is not gold”. It’s true…

My free training is here for you if you want it – just click here to grab it :-).

See you next week for more news!

affiliate marketing, Internet Profits, Make money online

It’s been a crazy year… but I’m back!

July 8, 2023 Sophie Sion

I know, I know… it looks like I disappeared, right? My last post was over a year ago, it’s crazy!!

I’m writing this on a Saturday morning, and as I sit here at my desk, I look back at the last 14 or so months and can’t believe how I survived it all.

Just in case you’re wondering: NO, I did NOT stop doing affiliate marketing! In fact, I’ve been doing better than ever – more about this a little later.

The reason for my silence was personal. Can I tell you a little more about it?

I’m guessing you’re saying yes ?

So, here it goes: in April-May 2022, something happened to me in my personal life that triggered some ugly past trauma… in a massive way.

And I had a breakdown.

I feel shy about talking about it, yet I also believe it’s important to share. Mental health issues can be such taboos, can’t they? And when you start having a bit of a following on social media, it can be even harder to share that you’re going through a hard time.

But there you go, it happened to me. Luckily, in a strange sort of way, it wasn’t my first breakdown. I had another major one in 1991, and a couple minor ones between 2000 and 2010.

So I’m good at recognising the signs. And that allows me to go and get help fast. Which is what I did in June last year. I got help and by the end of the summer, I was back to my usual happy smiley self.

Sadly, shortly after that, my Dad landed in hospital… and a truly tragic time started.

It’s a long story, but after he got back home from the hospital, it became clear that he couldn’t cope on his own anymore, even with all the help he was getting from myself, my family and the care team.

We had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him into a home against his will. That was December 12th, 2022, and I truly hope with all my heart and soul I never, ever have to do this ever again, to anyone I love.

The care home, which was supposed to be a great, safe place for my Dad, turned out to be a nightmare. Medication was changed without his knowledge or consent – and without mine either. My Dad became depressed, angry and frail.

He caught cov*d and was confined to his room, not even allowed to go to the toilet. After that, he was so weak he couldn’t walk anymore. Then he was given an extremely strong painkiller he’d never had before, again without his or my consent. This drug made him delirious, drowsy and very unwell.

We asked the medical team to take him off it, but they insisted he was in terrible pain and needed it. He got so drowsy he could hardly move at all… Things then went from bad to worse as he started to have necrosis on one of his feet, probably as a result of not moving at all and not getting anticoagulant injections.

I wish I could tell you we rushed him to hospital and looked after that necrosis right away… but sadly, we were told there wasn’t much we could do… so he stayed in the care home, and his foot got worse, and worse, as did his pain, in spite of the drugs.

In extremis, my sister and I asked for him to be seen at the hospital and they amputated his leg, giving him blissful relief from the horrendous pain he’d been in.

We thought he was saved, but sadly he had a few more blood clots that travelled to his brain and lungs, and he continued to go steadily downhill.

Eventually, he was transferred to palliative care, where he was looked after in the absolutely best possible way.

At 1.51 on the morning of April 6th, 2023, he took his last breath. I was with him, holding his hand the whole time. He died in peace, without pain, and with dignity. I’m so grateful for that.

So now you know why I’ve been silent. I’m lost for words to describe how painful this all was – and still is when I think about it.

There’s one thing I know about my Dad, and that’s that he always went for his dreams… and he wanted me to go for mine. So I’m pretty sure he’s proud of what I’m about to share:

Throughout this time, however, my business never stopped. In fact, 2022 was my best year ever and I made 5 figures in affiliate commissions!

In March 2023, I had the honour of joining Dean Holland’s coaching team! I now work alongside Dean and the awesome Glenn Shepherd, answering questions from members of the community 5 days a week. I couldn’t be happier with this, it’s truly amazing!

It’s taken me a while, but I’m getting back to “normal” and I started publishing on YouTube again.

With that in mind, I want to turn up on this blog again, to record my journey – hope that’s good news lol!

I’ve decided that I would go live every Friday on YouTube, to record a bit of my journey – and then I’ll write a blog post on here, related to that video, on Saturday mornings.

How does that sound? I hope you’ll find value, encouragement and inspiration from this, dear reader. Because at the end of the day, that’s what I always want to do: encourage you and show you that this is possible! You CAN do it too, I promise!

See you next week for news ?

PS: if you want to know more about how I made 5 figures in 2022, in spite of all this horrid stuff I went through, watch the live video I made at the very end of the year ?

Make money online, Uncategorized

Millionaires Challenge System… what happened next?

April 4, 2022 Sophie Sion

In my last post, I told you to watch this space for an update on what happened after I decided not to promote Zach Crawford’s Millionaires Challenge System anymore…

Quick reminder: I was mentored by Zach for a year, from January 2020. This was my first time being mentored and it was great! I made a lot of progress thanks to Zach and became a 4-figure earner.

It was only natural for me to promote Zach’s course and mentorship, as it was helping me so much on my affiliate marketing journey. So until recently, I did! I was an affiliate for his course, just like I’m an affiliate for other courses and tools that have helped me and I feel will be useful to my audience.

But then, as I explained in my last post, I began to feel uncomfortable about promoting MCS and finally, a few weeks ago, I came to the decision that I would stop. I went public about it on my YouTube channel with this video here, feeling that I needed to tell my audience clearly about it.

I’d been so positive about Zach Crawford’s program, that it was only fair to tell my audience that I’d somewhat changed my mind.

Anyway… fast forward 2 days after I published that first video… and…

I found out that I was unable to log in to my members’ area of the course!!!

I checked my password, requested a new one, waited 10 minutes, checked the promotions tab and spam folder…

But NOTHING. Just to be sure, 2 weeks later, I tried again, did all the same things, but nothing. Try as I might, I couldn’t log into the course that I bought!

I paid $3k for the course and mentorship – and whilst I totally got my money’s worth, I’m pretty shocked that I’m denied access to the course now, simply because I announced that I wasn’t going to promote it as an affiliate anymore!

At least I’m assuming that’s what it is. I haven’t been contacted by Zach Crawford or any member of his team. Zach has blocked me on Facebook, so I have no way of reaching out to him.

***

To me, this brings to light something really important about affiliate marketing:

Being an affiliate for a product and having access as a user are two entirely separate things.

There are some excellent courses out there that have no affiliate program.

A product owner has the right to decide whether he/she wants affiliates, how people qualify to be affiliates, what the conditions are to keep affiliate status, etc.

BUT once you’ve bought a product, you should have access to it, always, regardless of your affiliate status. I mean, unless you’re doing something illegal like copying the course and selling it as your own, or something like that.

To me, my “ban” makes ZERO sense at all.

I’d completely understand if Zach had reached out to me and said something like “ok Sophie, I see you’re not promoting my course anymore, just so you know, if you ever change your mind I won’t let you be an affiliate anymore.”

That would be absolutely fine. I would totally get that.

But not letting me have access to the learning area? The course I bought and learned from?

That’s just wrong! That’s unethical! In fact, that’s stealing!

That’s like Amazon telling me “you gave this book a bad review, you need to send it back to us and we won’t give you your money back”!

So… I had to make another video, telling my audience what happened.

People need to know about this.

***

Anyway, that’s it from me for today… next I’ll write about some interesting reactions I had to that video… very interesting indeed, to say the least! Watch this space ?

And here’s the full video story ?

Make money online, Uncategorized

Millionaires Challenge System – why I’m not promoting this anymore

March 22, 2022April 4, 2022 Sophie Sion

Some videos are tough to make… this was one of them!

In my journey as an affiliate marketer, I always promised myself that I would be honest and transparent. Honest with myself and my audience. Transparent with my results and my appreciation of the products I use, review and recommend.

This means having the courage to give my audience the whole picture – not just mention the positives of a product.

And at times, this means having the courage to stop promoting a product… and tell my audience why.

***

Here’s just a little back story:

In January 2020, I joined Zach Crawford’s community. I bought his course, Secret Affiliate Marketing Hacks, and a year’s mentorship.

This was a life-changing decision that helped me greatly! I don’t regret it at all.

Having Zach as a mentor was amazing. I had access to him and his feedback 24/7; I asked many questions and made a lot of progress. He helped me take the right action and, as a result, I became a 4 figure earner in 2020.

I promoted Zach’s course, feeling that it would help others just like it helped me. I made a few reviews on my YouTube channel, and I stand by everything I said.

Later, in May 2021, I joined Dean Holland’s Internet Profits. I needed mentorship and wanted to grow my business. I’d come to the end of my mentorship with Zach Crawford and I felt I needed a change. However, I continued to promote Zach’s Top Earner Transformation (as it was named then). I felt it was a good program and would be helpful to some people.

All good so far, right?

So what happened?

Well, as the months went by in the autumn of 2021, I saw things change in Zach’s program. It became Millionaires Challenge System, there was a new launch, the price went up, many new people joined.

That’s all fine, nothing wrong there.

However, as time went on, I became more and more uncomfortable with certain things. Some top affiliates of other programs joined, made sales really fast, and this was used as some kind of “proof” that the program was helping people make a lot of money.

I’m personally uncomfortable with that.

I feel the selling point of a product shouldn’t be how much money it’s going to help you make by selling the product itself.

I’m all about helping beginners and struggling affiliate marketers. And I don’t feel Zach Crawford’s course, as it is right now, is going to be the best choice for a beginner or struggling affiliate marketer.

***

So I made the decision to stop promoting this – and I had to make a video to tell my audience, obviously.

It was difficult and terribly uncomfortable for me to so.

It was scary too.

But having promoted this program when I felt it was in my audience’s best interests, I had to tell them that I felt differently now.

That was the right thing to do.

Here’s the video if you want to hear the full story ?

(And watch out for an update soon… there were consequences to my publishing this video ?)

affiliate marketing, Internet Profits, Make money online

Internet Profits – week 21: new coaching :-)

January 9, 2022 Sophie Sion

It’s 2022 and Internet Profits started its new coaching program 🙂

I’m only a few days in, but can already tell this is going to help tremendously! To say I’m excited is an understatement.

It’s going to be tough for me too, at times. I’m going to be held accountable and I’m going to have to face uncomfortable stuff some days.

The way it works is like this: in the back office, we can submit any questions we have. As long as the question is submitted before midnight, it will be answered on the next coaching call. We then have the call and the coaches answer the questions in great detail.

I’ve attended two coaching calls so far, and they both went well over an hour! I didn’t need to listen to the whole lot, by the way, but I learned a ton, so I did!

There are replays available, for those who are at work or otherwise occupied and can’t make the calls live.

The first question I asked was about my traffic strategy… as this blog is an honest record of my journey, I’ll just share this here in all transparency. My biggest challenge is NOT TO DO TOO MUCH. I see potential in absolutely every traffic source, and I end up having my fingers in too many pies.

So I asked the team for honest feedback about my traffic strategy, and one of the things that came up was my lack of a paid source of traffic.

My main traffic source is YouTube, and YouTube is relatively slow. There’s nothing wrong with that – it brings me commissions and it’s something I’m building for the long term. However, the fact that it’s slow also means I tend to go to other places to get eyeballs on my content – and the risk with this is that I spread myself too thin.

Anyway, one of the coaches mentioned Facebook lead generation ads, and that sounds like an epic idea. So I’ll look into that as a paid traffic strategy.

That means I’ll have YouTube as my organic strategy and Facebook lead ads as my paid one – sounds good.

Now I have to be honest here: I am also present on other platforms, always with the aim of pushing traffic towards my YouTube channel. Clubhouse is a big one for me: I do a daily morning room on the topic of affiliate marketing. I also answer questions on Quora, and I repurpose my YouTube shorts on TikTok. In addition, I still have my free Facebook group… but that’s my next question for Monday’s coaching call: do I keep it or do I ditch it?

This blog post is a little all over the place, isn’t it? I just wanted to share the kind of stuff we can ask and talk about in these coaching sessions. I’m going to make the very most of them; it’s going to help me move forward and be accountable. It’s going to help me stay focused. I can only wish that everyone starting an online business has this level of support – if I’d had this from the start, I’d be in a different place already, I’m sure.

Want to catch the video version of this? I don’t have much of a voice, you’ll see ? but the video is short! Here it is ?