Is Affiliate Marketing Worth it? Or Is It Dead? Truth And Myths exposed!
When I started the business of affiliate marketing a few years ago, I did not know what I was doing and what to expect. I was trying to see if I should invest time and money in affiliate marketing. Let me share with you in this article what I found.
Affiliate marketing is worth investing time and money because it has a high earning potential and a low barrier of entry. Beginners can recommend products and make decent money in small non-competitive niches. Affiliate marketing is for you if you are willing to learn traffic generation, online marketing, and content creation.
Most big brands and small businesses work with partners or affiliates to expand their reach. They understand the value of traffic and are willing to share revenue with those who can help them acquire new customers. Companies like Apple, eBay, and Amazon all have affiliate programs.
Affiliate marketing is neither hard nor easy, but it requires work and specific skills like all online occupations. Although it is much easier for people with an already established online presence to succeed as affiliates, anyone can build an affiliate marketing business.
10 reasons why you should try affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has a low barrier to entry
Most private affiliate programs and networks will ask you to have a website. You can have Webhosting for less than $30 a year. You do not initially need to spend on expensive tools or software. Many platforms like Amazon Associates, Clickbank, and Digistore24 welcome beginners.
Affiliate marketing is a scalable business
Even though affiliate marketing is not entirely a passive income stream, you will not trade time for money. Your income relies upon the time spent and how well you implement a method. One strategy is to earn from multiple products and profit from recurring commissions.
Start with a reliable offer in a small and easy niche. When you start to see consistent sales, think about promoting another product. When you have 3-4 offers that are doing well, it is time to double down on the one with the highest earning potential. At some point, you may need to invest in tools or software to gain time and hire a virtual assistant.
Can affiliate marketing make you rich?
The sky is the limit for people with a large audience, good marketers, and those who master how to drive traffic. For example, some Aversity members, Franklin Hatchett from Savage Affiliates and Marcus from Affiliate Marketing Dude, have made millions with affiliate marketing.
You can get rich with affiliate marketing but treat it like a real business. Start by learning the skills to be an online entrepreneur and plan to achieve your goal. Promoting high-converting offers, products with recurring commissions, and high-ticket offers are how affiliate marketers become wealthy.
They didn’t get rich overnight but have built a highly profitable business over the years. Most people will not become rich, but they can surely earn a living with it. The most common examples are people with a blog or a YouTube channel and using referral links in their content.
Another good strategy is combining social media traffic and blogging to drive traffic to your affiliate links. For example, Anastasia from Anastasia Blogger made $40k blogging monthly with free traffic from Pinterest.
Work from anywhere at a flexible time
Affiliate marketing is a remote online job that only requires a laptop and an internet connection. It is also suitable for digital nomads that want to combine traveling and working. People with a nine-to-five job looking for a side hustle can dedicate a few hours a week to get started online.
Any time frame or location does not limit you. Plus, many influencer marketers use cell phones to promote affiliate products on social media. Building a web-based income stream is about accomplishing small tasks every day.
A wide choice of offers in multiple niches
You can find something to promote related to your knowledge or hobbies with some research. Affiliates have been making good money in weird or unexpected niches such as garbage disposal and how to grow succulents.
There are ways to make money regardless of your previous knowledge. By finding what people are searching for online, you will know what offers may help them. If you provide value in your content, you increase the odds of making affiliate sales.
As you become more experienced, you may get the opportunity to work with a big brand running a private affiliate program. It is much easier to promote a well-known and reliable company.
Affiliate marketing has a shallow learning curve
Multiple elements will make you a prosperous affiliate marketer, but you only need three things to get started:
- Find affiliate programs in your niche
- Apply and get accepted
- Produce content and drive traffic to your links
In the beginning, you can always apply for beginner-friendly affiliate programs. Depending on your existing online presence and your choice of traffic source, you will have to learn different skills.
An Instagram influencer must post short infographics or videos almost daily to keep engagement and grow followers. But online entrepreneurs using platforms like a blog or YouTube may schedule weekly posts and benefit from search engine ranking.
Many successful affiliates have started with launch jacking.
You can build an automated affiliate marketing business
Many people fail to understand how to use search engine traffic, free social media traffic, or paid advertising. Learning SEO and creating evergreen content can help you to build a nearly passive income stream. For example, you can make an affiliate website around gardening by targeting low-competition topics.
Knowing that an average person buys after being exposed seven times to a specific product, it would be best to build an email list. ActiveCampaign and Getresponse are email automation tools allowing you to set up automated email sequences. You do the work once, and each time someone subscribes to your email list, they will receive all your emails in your series.
Pay-per-sale affiliate marketing
When someone purchases through your referral link, you get a commission. Each affiliate network has its way of determining which affiliate receives the commission. They also have a specific policy regarding affiliate payouts to avoid paying on canceled orders, for example.
You can receive a commission for only the recommended product on an entire funnel or website. For example, you earn any purchase made within 24 hours if you refer someone to Amazon. The Legendary Marketer commission structure lets you benefit from your leads’ sales.
Some companies pay a one-time commission, and others have recurring commissions. You will also find brands like Fiverr that let you choose your type of commission with a 30-day tracking cookie.
Pay per lead and pay per click
With PPL and PPC, an affiliate gets paid when the prospect completes a required action. PPL is when the prospects must share contact information, and PPC is when they must click on a link. Contrary to PPS, an affiliate get his commission even if people don’t buy.
In short, you have three ways to earn as an affiliate:
- make sales (PPS)
- provide leads (PPL)
- drive traffic (PPC)
Depending on your niche, you must decide which one is worth trying.
Low ticket vs high ticket programs: which one is the most profitable?
I guess you are tempted to say high-ticket programs. I wish the answer were that simple, but in reality, it depends on:
- traffic
- niches
- marketing skills
- cash flow
High-ticket products may not be worthwhile if you are a beginner in the make-money-online niche. You will compete with experienced marketers who offer bonuses and are more trustworthy than a complete newbie. It will probably be easier to promote a high-paying affiliate program like TripAdvisor.
There are many ways to build a profitable business promoting low-ticket products. It can be a front-end marketing strategy leading to an upsell. A helpful method is to go for high converting low-ticket offering recurring commission. The commission adds up quickly, and in less than a year, you can receive 200 commissions of $10 each month, representing an extra $2,000.
No need to deal with customers
Affiliate marketing is highly beneficial because, unlike other eCommerce, you do not have to deal with customer support and shipping. Your job is to focus on marketing. You are free from doing two time-consuming tasks related to running an online store.
You can work from the comfort of your home while recommending products you enjoy using without the hassle of product creation.
Affiliate marketing passive income: Truth or myth?
You have heard people talking about making passive income from affiliate marketing. But, most of them do not tell you what it takes to be a successful affiliate marketer. Marketers using paid traffic to earn affiliate commissions did not build a passive income stream.
Instead, they certainly have an extremely profitable business built upon high-income skills. You are not trading time for money like a nine-to-five job, but you still have to be actively engaged:
- ad content creation (videos, infographics, learn copywriting)
- ad campaigns set up
- split testing
- managing cash flow
- find email marketing tools and set up an email sequence
While all your efforts will pay off, you are not generating a passive income.
However, utilizing search engine traffic is the most effective way to earn passive income from affiliate marketing. But wait, before you can make money while you sleep, you must create enough content at the beginning.
Building an affiliate business might take several months, but you can benefit many years later. At some point, you will need to work only a few hours a week to keep earning affiliate commissions.
The truth about earning affiliate commissions
Many people keep thinking that it is possible to earn affiliate commissions by posting their links on any social media platform. Unfortunately, they are wrong. This tactic used to work many years ago, but now it is over, and you should also avoid adding your links in blog comments.
Another misbelief is that any product is worth promoting. The problem is most affiliate networks adopt the principle of delayed commissions. The affiliate networks generally hold your money for 60-90 days to check any refund. Low-quality products have a high refund rate, so you should stay away from them.
The truth is earning affiliate commissions become more manageable if you create valuable content, build trust before promoting, and choose only products that can benefit your visitors. Affiliate marketers who do not focus on selling but instead on helping people are the most successful ones.
For example, you could have a YouTube channel teaching people about photography. Your videos also talk about the cameras and equipment you are using to obtain the best results. You are not trying to sell but show how to use an item to achieve the desired goal.
Is affiliate marketing legit
Affiliate marketing is a real business, and most prominent brands use it to boost sales. It also helps to acquire leads without having to invest in advertising.
Affiliate marketing is a legit way to make money online, but it has gained a bad reputation due to some unethical marketers. The (Federal Trade Commission) FTC regulates affiliate marketing and requires that any affiliate discloses the use of affiliate links. Plus, affiliate income is taxable regarding the tax legislation in your country.
Many social media platforms, websites, and advertising platforms restrict the use of affiliate links. For example, using an affiliate link in a Facebook ad campaign increases the odds of getting your ad rejected. Therefore, you need to be more thoughtful and trustworthy if you intend to build a profitable business from affiliate marketing.
Is affiliate marketing dead? [Final thoughts]
William J Tobin is the first that used Affiliate marketing in 1989, only six years after the birth of the internet.
In 2021, I can say that affiliate marketing is not dead, but it has evolved. The old spammy tactics of posting links everywhere are over, and a new generation of online marketers is slowly emerging. While focusing on providing value, affiliate marketers can now count on automation tools to increase their income.
Because affiliate marketers effectively drive traffic, eCommerce and companies need them. Most brands prefer to share profits than invest millions in paid traffic.
You can try it as a side hustle and spend a few hours a week building a new income stream. Most influencers combine affiliate earnings with one of these ways of making money online. Creating multiple income streams is extremely helpful to avoid losing all your revenue during a crisis.
It can be a side hustle or how you make a living. I have seen people who earn millions with affiliate marketing. Those were the ones who started a couple of years ago and have mastered all the skills required to be an expert marketer. They avoid shady tactics and have built successful businesses using proven methods.
You can start with launch jacking to get results fast.