Affiliate marketing has caught on in a big way lately, and I for one couldn’t be happier. If you’re not sure how affiliate marketing works, you’re paid by companies to promote a product or service. You may have more questions about affiliate marketing, like is it worth doing?
Here are 7 reasons to supplement your income with affiliate marketing:
- It’s easy
- Doesn’t demand a lot of time
- It’s low-risk
- Doesn’t require a lot of marketing experience
- Great way to boost your brand
- Work from anywhere
- No cap on earnings
If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and how you can reap the most benefits, this guide is for you. Ahead, I’ll elaborate more on the above perks so you can decide whether to try affiliate marketing as an extra source of income!
7 Very Convincing Reasons to Elevate Your Income with Affiliate Marketing
It’s Easy
I promise you, getting started with affiliate marketing is easy, even if you’re a complete beginner.
Let’s say, for example, that you do Amazon affiliate marketing as so many blog owners do.
You’d have to apply for the Amazon Affiliate Program, also known as Amazon Associates, and get accepted (which, if I can do it, you can do it).
As a member of the program, you can then share affiliate links in your blog posts.
You’d recommend products that you’re truly passionate about because you’ve used them yourself and love them.
When a blog reader clicks on one of your Amazon links, it’s not an ordinary link. It’s a tracking link.
However, the link still takes the customer to the Amazon product page. They can put the product in their cart and checkout like usual.
When they do, the Amazon Associates program notes that a customer made a purchase using your affiliate link. Then you get paid a commission!
Sure, that may sound like a lot of steps, but it really isn’t. Once you get the hang of affiliate marketing, you’ll realize how easy it is to get started and succeed.
You Don’t Need a Lot of Time
Listen, I’m a single mother trying to juggle a full-time job, and–at one point–several side hustles. I know how quickly 24 hours can go by, especially when you have to do these pesky little things called sleeping and eating.
You may want to make more money, but who has time? You do!
Affiliate marketing is a form of passive income. I’ve already proven how affiliate marketing for beginners works, so now let me tell you more about the time requirements.
The amount of time you have to spend on affiliate marketing is however long it takes you to produce content on a product.
Whether you blog like I do, or you make YouTube videos or Instagram clips, you only have to take the time to talk about your affiliated product.
Then you can sit back and allow your audience to do all the work.
You’re convincing and impassioned enough that your audience will feel inclined to check out the products you recommend to them. You’ve also earned their trust, so they know you won’t steer them wrong.
Now let’s say you earn $100 as a commission after a few customers buy a product. How long would you have to drive an Uber or Lyft to earn $100?
How long would you have to work your freelance gig taking photos, making websites, or writing content? How many store items on your Etsy shop would you have to sell to earn $100?
Those things take time. Sure, an Etsy shop is passive income too, but you still have to take the time to procure the materials, design what you’ll make, and then make the product.
Then you still have to photograph your product, upload the images, write a listing, and make the listing active. It’s time-consuming!
Affiliate marketing requires far less time. Even if you’re the busiest single parent ever with a very demanding job, you should have time for affiliate marketing.
It’s Low-Risk
Of course, in this world, it usually takes money to make money. The Etsy shop example from the last section proves that. You need materials to make a product to sell.
In the case of affiliate marketing, you need a platform to recommend your products. Maybe that’s a blog.
Sure, a blog isn’t a physical item, but you have to pay for things like web design (well, sometimes) and hosting.
The money you put into affiliate marketing will not be thousands of dollars though. It’s more like a few hundred.
You have a computer to write a blog just as you have a smartphone to record YouTube videos if that’s how you recommend products to your audience.
You’re not going out of your way to buy supplies or equipment like you would when you start an Etsy shop or begin driving for Uber.
If it just so happens that your affiliate marketing ventures fail (which I doubt they will), you’re not out a lot of money.
You’re probably considering a passive income stream like affiliate marketing because you’re very tight on cash. You don’t want to waste your money, and you wouldn’t.
Some affiliate marketing programs, especially those for beginners, often don’t cost any capital at all to get started.
Sure, your earning potential is usually less, but some money is always better than no money, I say!
Doesn’t Require a Lot of Marketing Experience
Some people hear the words “affiliate marketing” and assume that the only way you can excel is if you have a master’s degree in marketing or at least a four-year degree.
Of course, the more experience and knowledge you have, the faster you’ll feel comfortable with doing affiliate marketing. That can increase your chances of success.
That said, you don’t need a master’s in marketing to start affiliate marketing. You don’t need a bachelor’s degree either or even an associate degree.
You just have to be willing to put in the time and work to learn.
Plus, you want to have a decent following online. You needn’t have a huge audience (yet), but moderate traffic to your blog and/or on your socials.
After all, you need an audience to spend money on products or your affiliate marketing ventures won’t go very far.
You Can Boost Your Brand
Speaking of your website and socials, affiliate marketing can be a great way to strengthen your brand.
And yes, you have a brand these days. Everyone does if they’re online.
You want your brand to stand out head and shoulders above everyone else, right? Affiliate marketing is one way to do that.
How so? When you engage in affiliate marketing and your customers have a good experience, they’ll usually rave about it online, likely in the comments of your blog post or YouTube video.
This builds your social proof, which is a marketing term that’s actually based in psychology.
Essentially, when you show your audience that you’re trustworthy and they have a good experience buying your products, you’re proving your trustworthiness indirectly to other customers based on what your buying customers said.
Reviews are a great example of social proof. If you read reviews on a cute dress or a nice pair of shoes and the comments are predominantly bad, you can change your mind in a hurry, right?
Everyone knows that products on the Internet are often presented to look as good as possible. You want the opinions and experiences of real people who bought and used the product to inspire your purchasing decision.
Social proof runs in the opposite direction as well. If you see enough five-star reviews for a product and lots of people say they love it, you’re likelier to give it a chance, right?
As you develop more social proof through your affiliate marketing, you build that trust in your audience.
When your audience trusts you, they’re likelier to buy what you recommend. Even if you suggest a product that’s a little out of left field, or even if the product is costlier than what you usually vouch for, the trust you’ve built allows for affiliate marketing success.
Your reputation as a trustworthy brand can also lead to more affiliate marketing opportunities. Companies will want to work with you because they see your audience trusts what you suggest to them.
You Have the Freedom to Do Affiliate Marketing from Anywhere
Can you do affiliate marketing when at your nine-to-five job? Yep. When watching the kids’ soccer game? That’s right.
You can even be in another country and your affiliate marketing dollars can go up.
Isn’t that the dream that everyone wants? The freedom to work no matter where the wind takes you?
I know it is for me, and affiliate marketing can help you realize that dream.
No Cap on Your Earnings
I saved the best reason to use affiliate marketing for last. Once you get into the swing of things, the amount of money you can earn has no limit.
According to public advertising company Taboola, if you’re in the bottom 10 percent of affiliate marketers, you can bring home $37,000 a year. The upper 10 percent makes $71,000.
The average amount of yearly income is $51,217.
Imagine being $50,000 richer. With that kind of salary, you might even be able to quit your full-time job.
Now, I must note that just because the above affiliate marketing salary is average doesn’t mean that’s what you’re going to earn. You need to produce content consistently and have a sizable audience.
Even with that audience, you need to establish your authority and trustworthiness, which you can do with high-quality recommendations, as I’ve talked about.
I’m only presenting those financial figures to give you an idea of what the earnings could look like for a successful affiliate marketer.
You will have to put money into email marketing and paid advertising over time. If you’re making five figures doing affiliate marketing though, that’s not such a big deal.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing is a form of passive income where you recommend your audience products and then receive a commission when they buy those products. Becoming an affiliate marketer can supplement your income from your full-time job.
If you’re willing to put in the hard work, then maybe someday you could even become an affiliate marketer full-time. You never know!