Does affiliate marketing make money? A myth or the best home-based business you can have with unlimited income
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of contents
A six figure income or zero return for affiliates
First of all, any online business requires time and patience and is not achieved overnight.
Secondly, there are the high achievers and lots of them making the big bucks however most still scrounge around with the bottom dwellers trying to find the magic formula.
The income is possible, the opportunities are endless and the entry cost is minimal.
So what can go wrong?
What are the best affiliate sites?
You can earn money in several ways by being an affiliate.
- Getting paid a commission for a sale;
The best example of this is Amazon the largest affiliate business available. The problem is that Amazon commissions have fallen to a very low percentage so it is a matter of sales volume not value in your sales. - Recurring income products keep paying out over a period of time so it is possible to build a business that will sustain a lifestyle. I use Wealthy Affiliate as my starter for this because of the hosting, training and generous commissions they pay.
- When you build a following you can start to place advertising on your pages and be paid a nice extra income.
- Your data base becomes a genuine asset that can be sold to the highest bidder should you wish to exit the business.
Therefore you have lots of reasons to consider this as a real opportunity to make that income you have dreamed of.
Is it easy to become an affiliate?
You can become an affiliate at any time by applying to the right places. However, getting commissions requires a level of performance so you need to have a bit of an understanding before you get going.
As an example, Amazon will accept anyone as an affiliate however fail to make its mark over the quarter and you will be sacked with no right of objection.
There are millions of affiliate opportunities in any business however you may need to show a level of competence to get accepted. Most businesses want people that are proven to be able to market their product and achieve great results. That gets rid of all the newbies who just take up their time.
If you want to be an affiliate in any industry just Google the product, leave a space, and write affiliate. You then have hundreds of opportunities. Sounds good but does it work?
Does affiliate marketing make money for anyone?
Have a resume before asking to be an affiliate
This is important unless you live on rejection. Most reputable companies want a level of affiliates that produce results. Management of affiliates is difficult and many companies even outsource this responsibility to businesses that do all the work for them.
Being a good affiliate takes some time and understanding about the product you are selling.
While companies don't want to waste time on affiliates the opposite is equally true.
You don't want to wander around creating marketing channels that return little or no dividends.
This is not a quick return and takes some time to gain a following and an income.
That is why I always recommend starting by learning the basics and maybe gathering some money whilst at school.
You are building a business that can last for a lifetime but you can not build it in a day.
Start with a foundation and build the stories as you go.
There is no doubt that affiliate marketing is a great deal.
| You have no stock holding | Held by someone else |
| No invoices to be written | All done for you |
| Debtors are not a problem | No cash outlay |
| Customer service | Done by others |
| Sell as much as you want | No limits |
| Pass on the foundation | to your relatives or whoever |
Again I say if you start properly the rest comes easy so do the training and pick your targets wisely.
Knowing that you are being paid properly
This is an age-old dilemma with little that you can control.
Picking the right people to work with is a starter and even that is sometimes a mystery.
One way is to use a link Cloaker to understand how many people are going to your selected outlet.
Pretty Links is a great product and reports to you every person that clicks on the link.
I recently had a company threaten to close my account because of inactivity.
I showed them over 2000 hits over the past couple of months so the problem was not all mine.
Hits are no promise of business however it does show you are being read and that readers have an interest in your offer. If I don't receive a satisfactory response I shall change my links to another provider. The beauty is that I only need to do it once and it changes all my posts.
Conclusion and recommendation
I am an affiliate marketer because I am a blogger and it helps to pay the bills. My journey started blogging for my business site and branched out into all things business and marketing.
My primary objective is marketing however the affiliate side helps with what I do. There are affiliate links on this page carefully chosen to help you gain a foothold into a lucrative business.
Without some of these tools, your chance of success is much less and that is why I introduce them into my writing.
I have a couple of dozen companies with which I partner however only certain ones meet the needs of any information I provide
Wealthy Affiliate is the best starting place on the internet. Training, support, a forum, and affiliate links all in one place.
Wealthy Affiliate also has a link to thousands of available affiliate offers
Does affiliate marketing make money by Peter Hanley
If you ever wanted to learn Affiliate marketing there is no better place to start than here
