I saw one of the AdSense ads showing that proudly proclaimed Affiliates: $537 per day – Quit your job with ClickBank.

Whoa, hold on there. If you thought that it would be great to go and quit your job to become an affiliate marketer I strongly recommend against it. Heres why:

* Affiliate Marketing is no picnic. There is no way of knowing which direction the market will go in the near future and for sure not the long term. Even if you managed to make $5,500 last month doesn’t mean you will this month. Websites lose popularity, traffic fluctuates, and relevance changes all the time. There have been sites making $200 a day suddenly nosedive to less than $20 a day for no obvious reason. You will need a lot of hard work, persistence, patience and ingenuity to make sure your income continues to grow. After you have all your expenses paid and have $12,000 in the bank maybe you can think about quitting your day job. A steady income beats dreams and hopes every time when it comes to sleeping well at night.

* Everybody is in Affiliate Marketing. This is a business that you won’t even be able to tell your family or friends the names of your websites for fear of competition. Mention of your business could accidentally lead to loss of income, especially if you are spending money to make money, Pay Per Click for example, it could really eat into your profits. Your job can only be done in your area but Affiliate Marketing can be done by anyone anywhere in the world. You may be competing with people on the other side of the world or in the other hemisphere. Anywhere there is internet connectivity. If you can’t compete in this arena then don’t quit your day job.

* You’ve never seen anything as fast moving as Affiliate Marketing. Once you click GO, traffic may start rolling in and you may be making money or not. You don’t have time to wait around, take a nap or kick back and loaf. This business runs 24 hours a day – good or bad!

Having said all that, I need to fess up that I am a full time Affiliate Marketer myself I’ll give you some reasons why I took up Affiliate Marketing full time:

1. Affiliate Marketing is SO Lucrative. In no other business can you make over $500 the day you start. I’ve seen a little eight page website with a few images make over $10,000 in profit in less than four months. Finding a way to help people do what you want them to do can provide absurd profits.

2. Affiliate Marketing changes daily. It is a new game from day to day. The challenge of trying out new things and seeing what works or doesn’t means Affiliate Marketing can be an exciting business. Once you see how much sales methods and marketing techinques change on a day to day basis you may become hooked. And you could end up running away from the competition.

3. Affiliate Marketing is TONS of Fun. It is hard not to enjoy being able to get up when I want, run errands, get my hair cut, come home and set up new marketing programs, check my stats and grin at my bank account. The knowledge that I’m being paid to loaf really makes life interesting. Did I mention it is fun?

In truth, an offline job provides steady reliable income. Continue to supplement your offline income while growing your Affiliate Marketing income. When the day comes that your are making more than $8,000 a month online, stick with the day job.