Have you tried the best new strategies? “But I already tried everything.” Did you, though? This is one of the most common things I hear from people considering giving affiliate marketing another shot.
And I want to mention it, because it’s rarely as true as it feels.
What “Everything” Usually Actually Means
When people say they’ve “tried everything.”
They usually mean they tried one or two approaches inconsistently for a fairly short stretch of time.
A blog for a few weeks. A social account for a month.
It feels exhaustive in memory, because it felt exhausting to live through.
But it’s rarely the comprehensive attempt it feels like in hindsight.
Have you tried the best new strategies?
Why This Feeling Happens
When something doesn’t work, and it costs you real effort and hope, the disappointment tends to expand in memory.
A few weeks of scattered effort can feel, emotionally, like months of dedicated work, especially once frustration and self-doubt get mixed in.
This isn’t a character flaw—it’s just how disappointment distorts memory for pretty much everyone.
The Honest Inventory Worth Taking
Before accepting “I’ve tried everything” as true.
To me, it’s worth listing exactly what you tried:
- Which platform.
- For how long.
- How consistently.
- And what your content actually looked like.
Most people doing this exercise honestly discover their previous attempt was narrower and shorter than they remember.
Often a single platform for a matter of weeks, without an email list, and with little revision or improvement along the way.
Have you tried the best new strategies?
What This Means for Trying Again
If your actual previous attempt was narrower than “everything.”
Then trying again isn’t repeating a failed experiment, it’s running a genuinely different one.
Informed by what you now know didn’t work the first time.
That’s not stubbornness.
That’s iteration, which is how basically every successful business actually gets built, in any industry.
The Difference Between Repeating and Iterating
Repeating would mean doing the same thing again, the same way, expecting a different result.
Iterating means taking specific lessons from what happened—maybe you know now you gave up too early.
Picked a niche without enough depth, or never started an email list.
And adjusting deliberately based on that knowledge. This blog post is designed to help you do the second one, not the first.
Permit Yourself to Have Learned Something
It’s easy to frame a first attempt purely as a failure.
It’s more accurate, and more useful, to frame it as information.
You now know things you didn’t know before you started the first time.
What platforms felt sustainable to you, what kind of content you actually enjoyed creating, where your motivation tends to run out.
That’s nothing. That’s a genuine head start on attempt number two.
Have you tried the best new strategies?
A Gentle Challenge
If part of you is using “I already tried everything” to avoid the vulnerability of trying again and possibly being disappointed once more.
That’s worth naming honestly to yourself.
It’s a completely understandable instinct.
It’s not evidence that this can’t work for you; it’s a form of self-protection that, if you let it, will keep you exactly where you are indefinitely.
What a Real Second Attempt Looks Like
It’s specific about what’s different this time.
It has a realistic timeline, ideally at least six months before judging results.
It includes something you didn’t do the first time:
- An email list.
- More consistent publishing.
- Deeper content.
- A more carefully chosen niche.
It’s not a repeat. It’s a revision.
Do the honest inventory.
Write down exactly what your previous attempt actually involved — the real details, not the emotional summary.
Then identify one specific thing you’ll do differently this time, based on that honest look back.
What does your honest inventory actually show?
Have you tried the best new strategies?
Do you currently promote a specific product or service? If not, it can be a tough choice. Need a suggestion? Use what’s already working. (No experience needed)
Also, reading my other blog posts might help you get clarity.
And if this post helped you, share it with someone else.
That’s genuinely the best way to help me keep writing more of this.
Sheldon Mohl
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