Is Affiliate Marketing Worth it in 2023?
Are you considering affiliate marketing but unsure if it’s worth your time and efforts? You may have heard that affiliate marketing is too competitive. Is it too late to start this year!?
In this post, we’ll take a look at how does affiliate work? and how to be a successful marketer? We’ll also discuss the pros and cons of affiliate marketing, so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not to pursue this venture. By the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of whether affiliate marketing is right for you!
What is Affiliate Marketing? - How does it Work?
Affiliate marketing simply means selling others’ goods and services. As an affiliate marketer, you sign up with a merchant or a company – and promote that merchant’s products or services to customers. If someone clicks on your personal affiliate link and signs up for the service you’re promoting, you’ll earn a commission from the sale. Or if the person makes a purchase using your promo code, you will get a portion of that sale.
Let’s say you earn 10% commission, if you sell a $200 product then you will receive a $20 commission. Affiliates commissions vary between 2% to 30%, a fixed amount in some cases or on a monthly recurring bas
Is It Worth Starting Affiliate Marketing Today?
Yes, here is why. Affiliate marketing has been around since 1996, but only recently everyone started talking about it and millions of people worldwide became affiliates overnight. This is because the affiliate marketing industry grew at a very high rate in 2015. Due to increase in use of social media which directly increased the amount of targeted traffic generated online. US affiliate marketing spending was estimated at $4.7 billion in 2016 and expected to exceed $6.8 billion in 2023 (Statista).
As the economy is recovering from the pandemic recession, businesses want to increase profits using advanced ways of marketing with the smallest budgets and resources possible.
Affiliate marketing offers a low budget method to drive more traffic to businesses and increase profits. It’s estimated that 80% of US brands have affiliate programs. These statistics show that affiliate marketing is growing at a fast pace and there is a lot of money to be made by YOU!
So, now is the right time for you to start affiliate marketing. What is more, information is everywhere nowadays. You can find everything to do with affiliate marketing online. Expert affiliate marketers are sharing their strategies and tactics that get them 5 and 6 figures monthly from affiliate marketing alone.
You’re convinced yet! Continue reading this article…
How to Be A Successful Affiliate Marketer?
Affiliate marketing has evolved from a get-rich-quick scheme into something that requires you to build an audience that knows who you are (as a brand). Build trust with this audience to reap the rewards of the work that you put in. If you intend to promote products without bringing real value to your audience, you will find affiliate marketing to be a short-lived source of income.
Becoming a successful affiliate marketer as a beginner requires you to nail down the fundamentals of marketing. While there are many tactics to scale your promotion, the golden rules of affiliate marketing stays the same: only promote products you like and you have tried or tested. If you choose content strategy as the main strategy to drive traffic to your affiliate links. Create authentic content and you will be on your way to building a real source of passive income.
Watch this video for more advice on how to become a successful affiliate marketer.
There are many different types of products and services in different niches. So it’s important to find one that matches your interest and/or experience. It is equally important to choose the right strategies for the type of businesses you want to promote.
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Every business has its own advantages as well as disadvantages, affiliate marketing is no exception. If you are still reading chances are you either are still looking for information or you have made your mind to get started as an affiliate marketer. In any case, there are few things that you should consider before investing time and money on it.
Pros of Affiliate Marketing
Easy to Start:
It is very easy to get started in affiliate marketing and the learning curve is short. Few months can make you a successful affiliate marketer compared to other businesses. In addition, anyone can become an affiliate marketer provided they have good knowledge of internet promotion methods such as: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing among other methods. Usually, marketing materials are provided by affiliate networks for free. This facilitates the marketing even further for you.
Low Cost to Start: Affiliate marketing needs little to no need for initial investment. If you want to know how much you need to get started in affiliate marketing read this article or watch this video.
No Product Creation: Unlike online businesses, affiliate marketing does not require you to create a product, or provide a service.
No Customer Service: As an affiliate you don’t deal with the customer’s service and returns.
Low Risk: The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to risk much or anything at all. You don’t need to justify to anyone your decision to stop promoting others products and services.
Freedom of Work: As an affiliate marketer you are free to work the hours that suits you and you can work in any location of your choice.
Easily Scalable:
You can easily scale affiliate marketing business by promoting additional products or services. You can scale the business by promoting products and services of networks and companies that offer recurring monthly commissions.
Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Growing Others’ Businesses:
You are helping to grow other businesses. Customers may reach directly to the person or company you promote their products or services.
No Control Over the Goods:
You have no control over the goods, the product or the service. Businesses can discontinue or modify it or lower the quality or stop the business altogether.
No Control Over the Marketing Materials:
There is less or no control over marketing materials created by affiliate networks.
Trust issues: With scammers rising or those who promote every and any product regardless of the low quality. It becomes hard to trust affiliates when it comes to making purchasing decisions.
Low Earnings: Without significant traffic to your website or audience on YouTube or social media you only have access to low commission products at around 10% – 15%. There are some restrictions on how much you can earn from each click as well as how many clicks you can generate per day using the network’s tracking.
No Control Over Product Pricing: You are only limited to what the merchant is willing to pay you for your promotion agreed in advance. They may change the commission or price of the product and you can’t do much about it.
Networks don’t accept affiliates with no website: If you have no website or no intention to create one, it will be difficult for you to get approval for highly paying affiliate programs. But, it is possible to start affiliate marketing without a website.
High Competition: Unless you use high-barrier-to-entry strategies you are limited to promoting the same products for the same audience as other affiliates.
No 24 Hour Support: most existing affiliate networks do not offer support since they are just a middle man between advertisers and affiliates.
Is Affiliate Marketing for You? Is affiliate marketing worth it?
If you think affiliate marketing is for you or you still need more information to decide.
Read this article about how to get started with affiliate marketing.
