The REAL Truth About Affiliate Marketing – Is It Worth Your Time?
Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate passive income. But is affiliate marketing worth it? As you may have heard, affiliate marketers are earning more than ever before!
So how can you tell if this is truly the right path for you, or whether it’s just another get-rich-quick scheme that won’t work out in the end? In this blog post, I’ll explore all of the reasons why affiliate marketing might be worth your while.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a way of earning income online by promoting products created by other people. In affiliate marketing, you don’t have to create or market your product – all you need to do is convince visitors that they should buy someone else’s stuff!
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate marketing works by using a special affiliate “link” to track when customers click on your site and make purchases through it. When you refer someone to the product’s sales page, and they buy it (or do something else that is tracked in affiliate programs like clicking an ad or viewing a video), you receive a commission.
What is the REAL Truth About Affiliate Marketing?
The fact of the matter is that affiliate marketing can be very profitable, and it’s also an easy way to generate some extra income on your time off. It takes minimal effort for you or your staff to run ads promoting someone else’s products on Facebook, Google Display Network, Twitter, and other affiliate marketing networks.
It’s not a get rich quick scheme, it takes time and work to get things going.
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth it?
Yes! Affiliate marketers may not make as much money as they could with other types of online business, but they certainly have freedom.
The ability to do what you want, when you want, and how you want, is a freedom few people enjoy. If you set your business up like we discuss in this article you will be on your way.
Affiliate Marketing Is Profitable
When done right, affiliate marketing is a completely legitimate way to earn income. The process is pretty simple: find products that you believe in, promote them on your affiliate website or social media channels. You then get paid when someone buys the product through one of your affiliate links!
Affiliate marketing can be profitable if done well. You just need to look at what the top affiliate marketers are doing. Many of them make six-figure salaries or more, and they aren’t spending hours on end working to earn that money.
It depends on how much effort you want to put into it! If you’re willing to spend a lot of time building your affiliate business, then affiliate marketing can be extremely rewarding financially.
Easy Ways to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business
One of the easiest ways to get started is by setting up a one page website and offering something of value, known as a lead magnet. This can be a checklist, ebook, short video course, white paper, or a newsletter.
The list of lead magnets is endless.
How Do I Start Affiliate Marketing Without a Website?
If you don’t have a website, affiliate marketing is still an option for you. How about starting your very own blog? It’s super easy to start a WordPress site with all of the free tutorials available online from sources like YouTube and Google AdWords.
When it comes time to monetize that blog, simply sign up as an affiliate for the products you are interested in promoting.
How Do Affiliate Marketers Promote An Offer?
Affiliate marketing is a numbers game. You might not make an immediate sale, but you’ll likely receive some visitors who may come back and buy at a later date – or tell their friends about the product!
Here are three of the most popular ways to promote affiliate offers:
- Email marketing –
- Social media marketing (and social ads)
- Display (banner and text) ads
How Can I Take Advantage of Affiliate Marketing?
Nothing is stopping you from becoming an affiliate marketer! If you already have your website or blog, all it takes is creating some compelling content about the products that interest you. It doesn’t even need to be 100 percent original – just add a few affiliate links to products you recommend, and you’re good to go.
Selecting an Affiliate Niche is a Key Part of Affiliate Marketing Success
In other words, you need to pick the types of products that you want to promote. If it’s a well-known brand like Amazon or Walmart, then chances are lots of people will be interested in buying their stuff.
It also helps to promote products from well known brands because people already know who they are. Affiliate marketing is easier than ever before thanks to social media and online ad networks.
Affiliate marketers typically fall into one of two categories: they promote products in their niche, or a completely different industry than their blog is about.
The latter is known as “affiliate diversification,” and it can be very profitable if you know what you’re doing!
How Much Can I Earn from Affiliate Marketing in 2022?
This is a very common question that I get asked all the time. It’s also normal to be skeptical of any online business model, so let me assure you upfront, affiliate marketing isn’t some kind of “get rich quick scheme” or anything like that!
It takes hard work and dedication just like anything else in life. You have to put your best foot forward if you want it bad enough.
How Long Does it Take to Make a Steady Income?
The average affiliate marketer can expect to make a steady income after about 9 months of consistent effort.
That doesn’t mean you have to do it for years before you make good money, but I think that is a fair timeline. I recommend you build your business from the bottom up and get results over time.
How Do I Get Paid as an Affiliate Marketer?
There are lots of different affiliate networks that you can register with. Once you register then choose the products or services that you want to promote. At this point it’s time to create your affiliate links and share them.
Post links in your blog posts and articles or through social media.
To get paid through the affiliate network, first you earn a commission, then meet their minimum payout threshold, and then you’ll get monthly checks in the mail.
How Much Does the Biggest Online Marketer Make?
The top affiliate marketers in the world make millions of dollars every month.
It’s not uncommon for marketers to generate affiliate sales, six-figure incomes, or more each year. That is a great goal if your heart is set on earning a living online.
Affiliate Marketing: Uses Strategies and Tips for 2022
There are a lot of different strategies that you can implement when it comes to affiliate marketing. I will go through some of the tips and strategies that work for me.
- Make wise affiliate program choices
Not every affiliate program is created equally, and not all of them will work for your customer base. There are other considerations you’ll want to make when choosing a network:
Consider promoting products that renew monthly instead of one time purchases or subscriptions. This will give you recurring revenue when you make just one sale.
Choose vendors who provide high-quality content with good landing pages to increase conversions & Conversions rates (CR). The better the sales machine that they have the better your chances of getting a sale.
- By understanding what your audience wants
The key to success is relevance. Your content shouldn’t be trying to sell something when there’s no immediate need or want for it. The information you provide should match up with what people are looking into right now. You want to enter the conversation that is already going on in the prospects mind.
You Must Be Trustworthy
Some people use affiliate marketing only to profit their customers, not in a way that benefits everyone. They may mislead the audience with spammy ads and promotions. Some affiliates try hiding their “affiliate” link.
You should be transparent about the fact that you earn money off other sites’ sales. When readers click on these links while browsing, they should know that you are an affiliate of that company. Most people are good with that since you’re the one providing the information or review.
Create and Test Ads
The key to success in affiliate marketing is changing up your ads frequently. Figure out what customers respond best too because there are many factors at play here!
You’ll want a variety of different types of ads for Facebook and Twitter as well. Don’t just rely on one type or platform indefinitely. Test them all out until you find something that works on a consistent basis.
- Tweak One Thing at a Time
You may need to tweak the headline, the image, the content, or the offer. You never know what will work until you test your offers.
The work doesn’t stop once you find a winning offer. You always want to be testing and improving the click through rate of your ads. By doing this you are constantly lowering your costs and improving your profits.
Make sure you should create ads that will help you stand apart from the affiliate competition. It may take some time before you figure out which is best for your customers, but it’s worth taking the initiative to do so!
- Offering or Giving Incentive
When you disclose an affiliate relationship, consumers will appreciate your honesty and won’t mind contributing to the bottom line of their purchase. Of course, by doing this they still have an opportunity to go directly with vendors.
This is where offering incentives can help generate more sales which in turn helps both parties out! Incentives can include a coaching call, a short video program, or access to another affiliate offer you promote.
Stay Relevant with Your Advertising Strategy
It’s important to stay on top of the latest products and services in your niche. If you find that an old offering has been replaced with something more popular, replace it! It may also be worth exploring other avenues for ads or creating some new ones yourself if allowed by policy guidelines.
Finally, always have a lookout for what comes next so as not get left behind when trends shift again. Try to plan out your affiliate marketing offers so you have a consistent pipeline. The more offers you have the better chances of making commission.
Be Innovative
Evergreen content is the best way to stay top of mind. You may occasionally update links, specific information, and dates. For the most part, your timeless content should be “evergreen” and never go out of date! Pick topics that aren’t fads, that are here to stay.
Create new pieces on trending topics with an eye towards entertainment value. Include useful tips in addition to being informative. This can include some reviews of products or services you offer?
Don’t forget about interviews from customers who’ve used them before so they can share their personal experiences. You can never have too many testimonials.
Affiliate Marketing Industry Stats and Facts
This industry has literally exploded in growth since the pandemic. People are used to shopping from home and buying online. This creates a great opportunity for you, the affiliate marketer.
This Industry is Growing Rapidly in 2022
People want to save some money and time by not having to leave the house to buy every product themselves. Online stores are a great way for new businesses (and even established brands) to get more exposure and reach a wider audience.
The affiliate marketing industry is growing and expanding every day.
Affiliate marketing will always remain a popular business model. It’s a low risk side hustle with many new programs available for people who want to start their own home-based business.
People just love sharing recommendations about different products and services that they use themselves, and that’s why affiliate marketing is here to stay!
It’s Easy to Learn, but it Can Be Challenging as Well
Anything worth doing is going to take a little work. Remember this is a proven business model that has shown success over and over.
It’s still one of the best ways I know for anyone with an internet connection to make money online! Plus, there are tons of different affiliate programs available in every niche you can imagine – so why not give it a try?
Affiliate Marketing is NOT a Scam!
One of the most common misconceptions about affiliate marketing online is that it’s some kind of scam. It’s not, and I can tell you from personal experience that there are thousands of marketers out there who make good money every month in their spare time.
There are lots of different ways to make money online, but affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and most lucrative.
There are Thousands of Affiliate Programs Available
Some examples include Amazon Associates, Google Adsense Programs, CJ by Conversant (formerly Commission Junction), ShareASale, Rakuten Linkshare, Pepperjam, Link Share, and more!
Here are some facts to consider if you’re thinking about getting started in affiliate marketing:
- They earn an average commission of $58 per sale!
- There is a market for just about every single type of product or service, including digital goods like software and ebooks.
- You can start out promoting anything that interests you – there is no limit!
- You can earn a commission even if you don’t have your product to sell.
- There are affiliate programs for virtually every niche and industry – from cooking, fashion, fitness, business, finance…you name it!
Affiliate marketing is a great way for bloggers, marketers, and website owners to make money online. I’m here to tell you that it’s NOT just about the money! Knowing how much work goes into running an affiliate marketing business can be discouraging at times – but if you stick with it, then success will come!
The Pros and Cons of Making Money with Affiliate Marketing
Pros
- Low ongoing costs
- The opportunity to make money with little startup capital
- High Return of Investment
- Tons of affiliate marketing courses available which makes it easier than ever to start one’s own business. Here is one of the best.
- Low-risk
Cons
- No control over competition
- Needs a lot of patience and time
- Not everyone makes six figures for passive income (although it is possible)
- An extremely competitive field for affiliate marketers
- The majority of products are not high quality, which can be very frustrating for affiliates on the search for good deals.
- Commission based payment
Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Methods
Here are some of the best methods for you to get started. I don’t recommend you try all of them at once. Start with one that fits your personality and go all in. You can always expand your business later.
Starting a Blog
Writing your first post is the most important step of all. Make sure you write about an aspect that isn’t already saturated online but also appeals to a decent-sized audience.
Here is a great resource for step-by-step instructions on how to start a blog.
You can find out if it is worth blogging about by checking some other blogs in the same niche and seeing what kind of content they are sharing
Selling a Product
Amazon Affiliate Marketing is probably the most popular affiliate marketing strategy out there. People who know how to make money online sell an Amazon product and get paid per sale. You simply add affiliate links to your content so every time someone purchases through it, you earn commission on that purchase.
The only down side to the Amazon Affiliate Program is the low commissions.
It is important to remember that affiliate marketing isn’t all about products. Services can be sold through affiliate programs and there are plenty of big money-making opportunities in this niche too. You can sell your service or you could promote someone else’s services if it is relevant for the audience.
Start a Youtube Channel
Making your own Youtube Channel is a great platform for an affiliate marketing program. People who already have expertise in something can create courses and offer them online to people willing to pay a fee.
Video is a great way to build relationships and interact with your audience. We all buy from people that we know like and trust and YouTube is a great way to build that.
Start a Podcast
Another great platform you can implement is starting a podcast. If you have the necessary skills and knowledge and like to interview people, this might be right for you. Podcasts give people who don’t like to read or prefer listening a chance to learn something new.
This marketing is continuing to have record growth in 2022.
Using Social Media
Using Facebook to promote your content or run ads is a great way to build a following. Building a tribe of people who like you and buy your products is key on social media.
One of the fastest growing platforms right now is TikTok. This is a place where new creators can build a following fast. Here is a great article that will teach you how to use TikTok for business.
Discover The Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Partners for 2022
Share a Sale
This is an affiliate marketing platform that allows you to promote the products and services of other brands with a direct commission from each sale.
ShareASale is one of the most popular platforms in 2022 because it offers hundreds of thousands of merchants for potential affiliates to work with and has great payouts of around 50%. ShareASale has been a staple of affiliate marketing for almost 20 years.
It is no wonder that it is one of the most popular choices among affiliates all over the world and we predict it will continue to be so for many more years to come!
Flex Offers
Flex Offers is an affiliate marketing network that pays you more quickly than other companies in the industry. They have over 10 years of experience and provide a variety of tools to help with your campaigns, including fast payouts!
Flex Offers is a company that connects bloggers, content creators, and other types of publishers with advertisers & brands. They have tens of thousands of different affiliate programs to choose from.
These are divided into dozens of broad categories as well as hundreds of subcategories for niche markets. This will help you find the products you want to promote without too much hassle or wasted time!
Clickbank
ClickBank is the OG of affiliate marketing programs and has been around since the early days of the internet. After suffering from low-quality products that verged on spam back in 2012, Clickbank (or “CB” to those in this industry) revamped their review process creating a much better dashboard.
There’s no doubt why they’re still one of the top contenders despite focusing primarily on digital products. There has been a lot of question about the quality of the products on this network.
JV Zoo
JVZoo is a new company that was founded in 2011. They have managed to rocket up near the top of one of the most popular affiliate programs today because they don’t charge any upfront costs for either publishers or merchants (advertisers).
Instead, Jvzoo’s income comes solely through fees after a sale has been made. Which means their commissions are paid instantly by PayPal rather than monthly as other companies do with their payments.
JVZoo is the perfect match for experienced marketers who want access to product launches and online courses, as well as sales funnels.
Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Training Programs
I believe in all of the programs listed below and I am personally a member of all of them. Except the Free TikTok training, I created that one 🙂
Free TikTok Training with Scott Polderman
In this free video training I take you step by step through what it takes to be successful on TikTok. I was able to grow my following from zero to over 800 K in just over nine months.
In order to help others I decided to document every step I took so I could offer it for free. This training will show you how to set up your account in the right way, do research, and much more. I also go through how many videos to post each day.
It’s critical on TikTok that you used to write hashtags to get noticed. When most people start they just guess and this is a huge mistake. Join me on TikTok and watch your channel explode!
Legendary Marketer
Legendary Marketer is a university for digital entrepreneurs that provides comprehensive online training. The also offer one-on-one coaching, support groups, and even live networking events.
The founder/CEO David Sharpe, has taught this course to thousands of people around the world. This is one of the higher quality courses that I recommend.
Most affiliate programs don’t have an entry level program but this one does. The 15 Day Business Challenge is one of the best ways to begin your journey.
Spencer Mecham’s Affiliate Secrets 3.0
Spencer Mecham’s AFFILIATE SECRETS is a modern training course that teaches you how to create your own affiliate empire, no matter what niche or industry you are in!
Affiliate Secrets 3.0 will teach you how to create a thriving personal affiliate marketing business with the help of Spencer. The course covers everything from Search Engine Optimization and blogging strategies as well as how to write the perfect social media posts.
His training videos on Youtube will also show you what it takes to be monetized through ads on that platform.
One of the sections of the course that helped me the most was the one covering how to make affiliate sales with TikTok! I was able to grow from 0 follower to over 800K in less than 9 months. Here is where I documented the whole process.
I would say I was fortunate to become one of his TikTok success stories. I would have never imagined I would become one of the micro social media influencers.
Adam Enfroy’s Blog Growth Engine
Blog Growth Engine is a comprehensive and in-depth online training course that will teach you how to start, launch and monetize your blog like an expert.
This course teaches you how to start, launch and monetize a blog like an entrepreneur. Whether beginner or pro this training is perfect for all levels of experience.
Adam Enfroy is a 7 figure blogger, yes 7 figures per year from a blog! After completing his training you won’t even be asking “is affiliate marketing worth it”?
This new online program will teach anyone who wants more information on blogging from scratch so they don’t have any worries when publishing their own content with authority in today’s market!
Facebook Ad’s Training with Commission Hero
Commission Hero is an affiliate marketing course by Robby Blanchard. This powerful training will teach you how to make money as a commission-based entrepreneur. This program is based around running Facebook ads to your offers.
Robby Blanchard is an expert in the field of affiliate marketing, he is the #1 Clickbank Affiliate Marketer! His course, Commission Hero, teaches people how to earn money through his methods. It helps to be guided by someone who is in the trenches and having success.
Top 5 Affiliate Marketers Tools
Just like any profession, there are certain tools that you need. These are all tools that I use on a daily basis to run my business.
Clickfunnels
Click funnels are a one-stop shop for all your affiliate marketing needs. If you want to become a successful affiliate marketer, this is the platform that will help you get started and take it to greater heights.
You can immediately implement sales funnels that are working for other people. You don’t have to try to design your own or guess what affiliate marketing trends are working right now.
ClickFunnels offers a variety of tools to help you sell and market your products. The tool includes pre-made sales funnels with customizable designs and templates.
Email opt-ins have never been easier than they are with Clickfunnels. It’s not just for landing pages, in fact, this entire website was built and designed using their drag and drop templates.
Conversion AI with Jarvis
Conversion.ai is an artificial intelligence assistant named Jarvis that automatically helps create content for you. The best part is that this is relevant content that relates to your article.
You can write long-form blog posts, affiliate product reviews, digital marketing content, and much more. Jarvis will write content that will generate revenue and help your small business grow. It also gives you helpful suggestions on how to improve your writing style!
This is one of my favorite tools for writing articles fast and getting quality content. This article was written with the help of Jarvis, Surfer SEO, and outsourcing.
Surfer SEO
Surfer is one of my favorite seo tools to help writers write better content. The software will analyze your page and give helpful feedback on what needs improvement in order to rank on search engines.
It gives you details like how much time should be spent on each paragraph or sentence length. You can also use it as an SEO-optimizing service for blog posts and articles written by adding keywords in the body text!
Most affiliates aren’t using this tool, YET! A.I. is becoming main stream so jump onboard and learn it now.
SEO can be tough work, but Surfer SEO makes it easier. The cloud-based platform allows you to analyze and compare your own page against what currently ranks in the SERPs without any guesswork on our part about Google’s preferences!
Aweber for Email Marketing
I have been using Aweber for email marketing for years now. I like the fact that it’s a dependable platform and has a high delivery rate. Some of the less reputable companies get your emails put in the spam instead of delivered.
When it comes to automating your business, you must have a good auto responder. This is simply where you send emails to people on your list at predetermined times. It’s basically your automated sales person.
They have plans starting at just $19 per month.
Fiverr Outsourcing
The Fiverr platform is one of the best places to find freelancers. They offer services that range from writing code, designing graphics, video editing, logo design, and much more.
You can get just about anything done with this site and it will cost you less than hiring an employee. You can’t do everything by yourself, with Fiverr you don’t have to! This is a must have resource for every serious online business.
In Conclusion
In the end, a successful affiliate marketing business can be a great way to generate income from home. It’s been around for years and has proven itself as a viable source of passive income.
If you’re looking for ways to work remotely, start business, or try a side hustle, this might be for you. Affiliate marketers have more earning potential than ever before and it looks like this trend will just continue to rise!
Why not give it a try? Affiliate marketing can be an amazing source of passive income… but ONLY if it’s done right! It will take some effort on your part to learn the tools and practice the skills but I think it’s well worth it in the end.
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel and guess through trial and error. If you don’t like any of the training programs I recommend then find one you like. Skipping the training and going on your own will cost you valuable time and money.
Good luck on your affiliate journey, I wish you the best!
Scott Polderman