What is affiliate marketing?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, this is the official definition of affiliate marketing:
The use of one website to advertise the products and services of another website.
As the definition above says, affiliate marketing really just means you’re promoting somebody else’s business. You’re the go-between from the customer to the business, and you take a small cut of the sale in return.
Is affiliate marketing really worth it?
Well, yes, if you’re in it for the long-term.
With the rise of the internet, affiliate marketing has become a whole business model in itself. You can recommend a product to thousands of people visiting your website and make a huge amount of money, without having to create or ship a single product.
What skills and experience do affiliate marketers need?
Just because affiliate marketing comes with less risk than having a product-based business, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Affiliate marketing is unique in the sense that pretty much anybody can do it, but most just won’t become very successful.
The best affiliate marketers will have some overlapping experience in other areas that they can use to their advantage, such as the ones below.
- Self-discipline
- Trendspotter
- Personal brand or authority in a niche
- Writing and marketing
- SEO
- Creating websites
The pros and cons of affiliate marketing
A lot of people dream of making an income from affiliate marketing, and for good reason. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some cons amongst the many pros.
It’s important to consider both sides before you dive into affiliate marketing and decide if it’s the lifestyle for you.
The pros of affiliate marketing
- Huge income potential
- Write about what you love
- No start-up investment needed
- Passive income potential
The cons of affiliate marketing
- It can take a lot of time to build up a good income
- There’s a lot of competition
- It can be lonely
Helpful resources for affiliate marketers
The affiliate method is my free course for anybody new to affiliate marketing. It walks you through each step in the journey in a simple and easy-to-follow format so that you can skip the mistakes I had to learn from and start making your own affiliate income.
One of the challenges for every affiliate marketer is finding trusted affiliate networks and programs. I have compiled a list of all of the best networks available, which is listed in order of user votes to give a fair and honest view of who to consider, depending on your specific niche.
