What is affiliate marketing and does it work?
Those are two of the most common questions people ask when they are thinking of trying an affiliate marketing business online. You are obviously asking these questions yourself. That’s how you ended up searching for and clicking through to this post you are now reading.
These are fair enough questions too, and the very questions I myself asked when I first thought about getting involved in online marketing like affiliate marketing. After all, the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time working on something, only to find out there is no payoff at the end.
It was when I was introduced to Wealthy Affiliate that I was finally convinced affiliate marketing was worth it.
Let’s answer the first question.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
For starters, it’s a very simple and stress-free business model, one of the simplest you could ever hope to find. Affiliate marketing is done primarily online, however you can promote offline to people you know as well.
What is it in a nutshell?
Affiliate marketing is promoting the products, servcies and offerings of other companies. You don’t sell anything directly, you maintain no stock, and you don’t have to pack and post anything. You are merely the go between – the sales rep between the product and the customer. Essentially you are recommending products to potential customers. When someone buys a product based on your referral, you get paid a commission.
It's that easy and basic.
Most affiliate marketers have a website dedicated to their niche; niche being the area of interest that they promote. Your niche might be weight loss products, so you write helpful posts about how to lose weight and offer up some products that you think your reader might be interested in.
Preferrably the products you promote are quality, as you won't last long in this business promoting anything that's garbage.
Every company you sign up with as an affiliate will give you a unique affiliate link for people to click through on. That way they know exactly who referred the sale and who is entitled to the commission for the sale.
It really is just so simple,and that's why I love it so much.
Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Yes, it does, but it only works as well as you do.
Some people start an affiliate marketing business thinking it’s easy money. They think all they have to do is splash a few affiliate links across social media occasionally and the money will be rolling in. Yes, it’s a simple business model, but that doesn’t mean there is no effort involved or any work to be done.
Affiliate marketing takes work and perseverance to get going. Without a good work ethic, a long-term desire to have a successful business online and the ability to persevere, you won’t succeed in this industry.
While many people push on through and do succeed, even more fail simply because they thought it would be quick, easy money. When they discovered they actually had to do some work (especially in the early phases), they quit.
Just about anyone can succeed at affiliate marketing if they both learn how to do it the right way and are dedicated to making it work.
The facts are that while many people don’t make anything because they quit way too soon, many other successful affiliate marketers enjoy incomes of anywhere between 4 – 6 figures per month.
What could you do if you had that kind of income and lifestyle freedom every month? Think about that for a moment. Imagine the kind of life you could lead.
The Many Benefits Of An Affiliate Marketing Business
Here I will just briefly list some of the top benefits of having your very own successful affiliate marketing business:
- No boss, you work for yourself
- Lifestyle freedom – time and money
- Residual and passive income
- Generally more than one income stream – financial security
- You can work from home
- You can work from anywhere in the world
- You only need a computer and internet connection
- Extremely low overheads
- You can do this business alone or team up with your partner
- No need to travel to work
- Get paid from affiliate companies directly into your bank or PayPal account
- Spend more time with family
- Work from the beach, the park or your favourite cafe
- Way less stress
- Travel and take your business with you (no work visa required)
- Work your own hours
As you can see by this growing list, there are so many advantages to setting up and running an affiliate marketing business.
For some proof that affiliate marketing works, read the following post I wrote that details the results for some successful members of a training platform called Wealthy Affiliate.
Click Here To Read The Post
What Is Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate is both a training platform as well as a community of active members who are dedicated, not only to their own success, but the success of everyone else in the WA community.
There are some good training programs out there to learn affiliate marketing, but Wealthy Affiliate is the one I like the most.
Why?
For starters, you can set up an account and do the first 10 lessons of their training completely FREE! They also have the very best training that is just so easy to follow. You can learn at your own pace, even earn while you learn, and the training is step-by-step.
Each lesson is text and video, followed by practical application of what you just learnt so you can be setting up your real life affiliate marketing business as you study.
With hundreds of thousands of active members, the community at Wealthy Affiliate is a mix of beginners right through to seasoned marketing professionals who earn big dollars. Everyone helps everyone else, and that’s the main thing I like about WA.
The only way you can hope to succeed in affiliate marketing is with some proper training, so if you are serious about online success, don't skip this most important step..
Darren Burton
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I have to admit, I was one of those people who started as an affiliate marketer thinking it was easy money. I’ve learned though that it’s not easy at all! It takes perseverance, loads and loads of work for no return at all and you really need to be passionate about what you’re doing.
I’m not saying it’s not worth it but nobody should jump into it thinking they’ll turn a profit tomorrow, next week, or even next month. It takes more time to get started but once you do the payoffs are incredible 😀
It definitely takes work. Anyone who preaches easy riches on the internet for very little effort is peddling a scam. It sound slike you’re dedicated to your business and doing well. Success to you.