Online marketers' lifestyles differ vastly from those who spend their lives working for wages.
Take a look at the following two scenarios and decide which you prefer.
Does any part of the following scenario describe your average workday? You are frightened awake at some time between 4 and 8 am.
(There's a reason they're called 'alarm' clocks.
) You are immediately disappointed to realize that this is another workday.
Perhaps grudgingly, you get out of bed, perform your daily ablutions, and try to swallow a piece of burnt toast.
You kiss the family goodbye and head out the door.
You struggle against horrendous vehicular traffic or a swarm of humanity on public transit and feel totally frazzled long before you arrive at workplace.
You toil between 35 and 70 hours a week.
Your boss reserves pats on the back for his pets.
You are paid less than your work is worth.
Paltry remuneration in hand, you share the highway on your way home with likewise disgruntled motorists.
You and your spouse share similar tales of working woe over dinner.
After work you are too tired to do anything but watch TV.
Relaxation and fun is reserved for weekends.
Too soon, it is time to prepare for the following day's work.
You make a lunch, put out your clothes, and head for bed.
You hope to beat the odds of company downsizing and rapidly advancing technology so that you can repeat this daily scenario for decades to come.
After thirty-five years, someone will thank you for your contribution, shake your hand, and show you to the door.
To reward a lifetime of effort, you'll receive a pension.
However, if your take-home pay while you were working was meager, your retirement check will be even smaller.
You now have more leisure time, but less money to pursue your hobbies.
What's worse is that your retirement income probably won't cover even basic necessities in ten or twenty years unless it is indexed for inflation.
From that perspective, working for 'the company' is a dismal prospect.
But life doesn't have to be that way.
Your day could look more like this...
You awake to the sensation of the warm morning sun on your face.
Smiling at the prospect of a new day, you open your eyes and greet the morning happily with your spouse.
After savoring a glass of juice and stretching your muscles, you head out for your morning run.
You soak in beautiful vistas and fresh air.
After a shower, you sit down to a healthy breakfast with your partner.
You're both energized in anticipation of a productive day ahead.
After breakfast, you eagerly walk to your home office, with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in hand.
The commute takes 20 seconds.
You take between 5 and 30 minutes to check and reply to your email.
Next you check your overnight income statistics, and see that you made about a thousand dollars while enjoying your beauty sleep.
You might at this point decide to work on a project, or call it a day.
Choosing the former, you spend an hour writing an endorsement for a product that you know will add between fifty and a few hundred dollars per day to your income.
Around mid-day a friend calls to invite you for lunch.
After a two-hour friendly gab session over a delicious meal, you return home and decide to work for an hour or two on your latest e-book.
You and your spouse dine that evening at a delightful new restaurant, and later attend a play that has received rave reviews.
All in all, you think that this has been a perfect day.
Generally speaking, whether your days are challenging or fun-filled, you are very happy.
You've discovered that lifestyle and freedom of choice, are the true benefits of self-employment.
Granted, as an entrepreneur, there won't be anyone to shake your hand and show you the door in thirty-five years.
However, based on the incomes of successful Internet marketing entrepreneurs, you probably won't have to work for thirty-five years.
With careful planning, it may take no more than five or ten years for you to build a VERY comfortable retirement fund.
After achieving that goal, you'll still be having too much fun too stop working.
From my perspective, this lifestyle portrait of an affiliate marketer is completely accurate - your commute may be a little shorter.