Brandon Adcock dot comMy Thoughts, Mostly on Direct Response Marketing

This may sound simple and it is, but it seems to me that learning how and when to take risks is the biggest separator between unsuccessful and successful people.  Very few people are successful in life that don’t take risks.  Me personally, I am naturally risk averse when it comes to money/business.  I don’t always play it safe, but I am rarely the one that goes for the home run.  I have found this to be good and bad.

After going to Ad Tech in San Francisco, I realized that the biggest difference between myself and the affiliates that are larger than me, is not that they know more or have access to information I don’t have, it is that at some point they took some big risks.  Now I am not an advocate of taking risks that don’t make sense, but there are times when they do make sense.  Whether it is doing a very large media buy, doing a homepage takeover, starting your own product, or taking heavy losses on a PPC campaign to break into a market, there are times when you have to take risks.  Assuming your risks make sense, the rewards can be huge.

In regards to affiliate marketing, you can’t just immediately take risks when you start.  You need to learn the ropes, save a little cash, get a feel for what works, then you can take some risks.  There comes a point in time when in order to reach the next level, to be the best, you have to start signing insertion orders for $1M, $2M, or more.  Right now in affiliate marketing, unless you’re doing mid to high six figures a day, you’re really not one of the biggest players.  The way these guys do it is by taking risks and spending a BUTTLOAD of money each day on ads.

So if you want to be average or middle of the road then it’s fine to play it safe, but if you want to be the best or in the top tier, you eventually have to start going for the home runs and hope they work out.