Affiliate marketing is a much-discussed way to make money online. If you look at what people are doing or are saying they are doing to make money online, a lot of it involves affiliate marketing. People claim to be sending emails promoting affiliate offers, others claim that they’re buying ads. YouTubers and podcasters are often affiliated with different products, and it’s common to hear a link code during a YouTube video. Many of the blogs you see online are affiliate blogs, and the ones that aren’t completely dedicated to products often have an affiliate marketing aspect to them. If you go on Twitter, there are a bunch of people claiming to be direct response marketers lurking and posting. These people claim to be making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars every year selling junk products to people. Affiliate marketing is big business, whether or not these individuals are telling the truth. It’s one of the most popular ways of making money online, and something that every newbie should try at least once.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
A lot of my readers probably already know and understand affiliate marketing, but allow me to re-explain what it is. Affiliate marketing is a sales process in which a person (called the affiliate) promotes a product for a seller, often using a link or specific code, used to keep track of the product being sold. When the product is purchased, the seller pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale price. This allows the seller to outsource the marketing, while the affiliate is able to earn money without taking the risk of creating a product. This creates a win-win situation in which both parties can profit more than they otherwise would have.
So…does it work?
Yes, affiliate marketing does actually work! If you have a blog or YouTube channel, affiliate marketing is a great way to boost your revenues. When you promote products to a large audience, a certain amount of people are bound to buy them. I’ve said it in other articles: there’s no way to truly know how much money affiliates are making. Officially speaking, affiliate marketing is a $17 billion industry. This isn’t anything to scoff at, and the market is likely much larger as a result of the deals that weren’t able to be measured. Affiliate marketing is a large, viable, and established way of making money, and most of your favorite creators engage in some form of it.
So… what’s the catch?
The catch to affiliate marketing is that unless you’re getting a lot of traffic, revenues tend to be quite low. I figured this out by looking at blog revenues. I got my information from this survey. If you scroll down, you’ll be able to see that blogs that earn most of their money from affiliate products, don’t earn much more than blogs that monetize through ads. In contrast, blogs that monetize using digital products are making an average of $365/1000 views. This means that for some reason, affiliate marketing is never as lucrative as selling your own product. So it works, but it shouldn’t be your main source of income unless you have a talent for marketing and sales. Being an affiliate is a great side hustle, but the best way to make money will always be by selling and doing stuff.
How Can I Actually Make Money Affiliate Marketing?
If you want to make money from affiliate marketing, you need to start an affiliate marketing-based business. These businesses come in two forms. The first is the affiliate blog or the affiliate-based YouTube Channel. These are two sides of the same code. Affiliate blogs are blogs that are filled with content designed to review and promote different affiliate products. They drive traffic using Search Engine Optimization and/or social media, and because they are known to be review sites, a large percentage of their users buy from them. Affiliate blogs are highly work intensive. You need a lot of products and articles to rank on Google, and you’ll need to work consistently to retain the attention of your audience. The second type of affiliate business you can run is a direct response business. Direct response marketing happens when prospective clients are hit with an advertisement of some sort, capture the interested ones to an email or SMS list, and sell them a bunch of products. The main assets in a direct marketer’s arsenal are their advertising budget and their list. I personally know nothing about this business, but it’s a well-known way of making money.
Affiliate marketing is tough, and in many ways a bit overrated. In spite of this, it’s important to know what it is, so that you have the option to make money from it as you make your career in content creation. It’s definitely a good side hustle, and creators should always be on the lookout for good programs to promote. If you’re looking to affiliate market, I recommend you go for high-ticket stuff. The more money you make per sale, the easier it is to make a living. Niches like software, health, gambling, and dating are great money, and if you choose a great product to promote, your audience will be happy to buy from you. Be ethical, work hard, and good luck.
