There are a LOT of things to be sad about this year. A lot of lost opportunities to be with family and friends. A lot of sickness and death. And yet we are all finding our way through it, using whatever coping strategies we can find. (sourdough bread, anyone??)
I was reflecting this morning that my job as an affiliate marketer has actually be one of the things that has helped me the most since March. While walking on the treadmill (one of MY biggest coping mechanisms this year), I started compiling a list of all of the ways that affiliate marketing has helped me get through this year with my mental health intact. Here are the ones I came up with, but I wonder if you could add some as well that I have overlooked?
- Working from home: While others were scrambling to set up office spaces or figure out how to do their jobs from their basements, I was already. I’ve worked in a well-stocked home office since 1999, so I didn’t really have to adjust at all (expect to all of the interruptions from everyone ELSE in my house now being at home all day!).
- Video meetings: I noticed since March that more people are using their cameras for meetings rather than just their phones. I started seeing the faces of people I have been “meeting” with on the phone for years. I think because everyone was getting used to doing more Zooms in general, my standard phone meetings just naturally migrated to video calls as well. It was actually nice to see the people I was talking to for once.
- Exploding workload: Given that the pandemic sent everyone online to buy everything, it created an unbelievable amount of work to keep me busy. And when you are busy, you have less time to sit and think about all of the things that you are missing. In fact, you are kind of glad you have extra time to work.
- Money: Along with that, let’s be honest. Affiliate marketers tend to be doing well right now. It feels almost gross to talk about it, but the reality is that we are making more money (in most cases) as a result of the increased online shopping. And when everything else in life sucks, it’s at least nice to have some extra money to dream about how you will spend when life gets back to normal.
- Virtual communication: For a lot of people, the loss of in-person events/meetings/work meant a loss of social connection. In some ways, it was the opposite for me. I talk to people constantly all day via Slack, Facebook messenger, email, text messages, Google Hangouts, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram…. you get the picture. I don’t go an hour without having some kind of communication that isn’t work related.
- Affiliate friendships: It’s crazy but I now feel closer to my affiliate marketing friends than I do my local friends because the online communications have overtaken the in-person communications. In fact, I have a standing weekly Happy Hour with affiliate marketing friends that has pretty much become the thing I most look forward to. While I knew all of them a little from Affiliate Summits over the years, I have gotten so much closer to all of them through our weekly meetups.
There are a lot of things that I hope will continue post-pandemic (like online ordering for restaurants!), but much will eventually go back to the way it was. I know for sure that some of the things above will continue to be what I appreciate about affiliate marketing.
