The affiliate marketing industry has a reputation for being somewhat competitive — a reputation that is well-earned. At this moment in time, affiliate marketing is more popular than ever before. And, if you’re wondering how much affiliate marketing is worth, the industry currently has a global market value of more than $17 billion, demonstrating just how promising this field is.
But what exactly is affiliate marketing? In short, it is when somebody advertises a product or service and, in return, is paid a percentage of each sale made as a result of their efforts. This not only helps to propel e-commerce forward but also provides the chance to make a handsome profit.
Despite the competitiveness of the industry, it is possible for everyday individuals to succeed in this line of work. All you need is a proper understanding of how it all works. In this article, we’ll impart some key knowledge to help you work towards such an understanding, explaining exactly how to succeed in affiliate marketing.
Is Affiliate Marketing Profitable?
If you’re considering breaking into the affiliate marketing industry as a side gig, there’s likely one pressing question at the forefront of your mind: Is affiliate marketing worth it? The good news is that it absolutely can be. If you arm yourself with the appropriate knowledge and are able to crack the affiliate marketing code, you can look forward to a lifetime of passive income.
Whether you’re thinking about working as a part-time or full-time affiliate marketer, you stand a chance of bringing in a respectable profit — so long as you make savvy decisions and apply yourself. Dedication and a solid business strategy are two of the most important tools for any affiliate marketer.
Some other factors that can help you make a stable income in affiliate marketing include:
- The specific niche you work in;
- The level of experience you have with the product you are marketing;
- The size of your existing audience;
- The earnings per click (EPC) ratio of your niche.
How Much Does Affiliate Marketing Make?
So, is affiliate marketing still profitable in 2023? In short, yes, it often is!
Salaried affiliate marketers make anywhere between $58k and $158k per year, not including commission rates, tips, cash bonuses and so on. Over 50% of people who work part-time as freelance affiliate marketers make less than $10k per year, but some estimate that full-time freelance workers make as much as five times this amount.
Below, we’ve included a more detailed breakdown of average income statistics for those in the affiliate marketing game.
| Level of experience | Average monthly income ($) |
|---|---|
| Beginner | 0-1,000 |
| Intermediate | 1,000-10,000 |
| Advanced | 10,000-100,000 |
| Super Affiliate | 100,000+ |
If you’ve made it this far in our article, you can see for yourself that, although a career in this industry might require a lot of effort, affiliate marketing is worth it! As we’ve mentioned, however, you’ll only stand a chance of success in this industry if you first arm yourself with the appropriate knowledge.
How to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing
In this section, we’ll explain how to succeed in affiliate marketing. This is a great place to start if you’re looking to get a foothold in this industry yourself.
Know Your Products
The first and most important step in affiliate marketing is to be knowledgeable in the products you’re promoting. After all, you can’t be expected to give a convincing sales pitch for a product or service you know next to nothing about.
If you know your products and genuinely believe that they are beneficial, it will be much easier for you to win over customers. Additionally, if you clearly demonstrate to your audience that you have a thorough understanding of the product you’re selling, they will come to think of you as an expert in the field. This, in turn, means that they will be far more inclined to respect your opinion and take your recommendations seriously.
While researching your products can be very time-consuming, we’re sure you’ll agree that it’s all worth it in the end. If you put in a little more effort in the beginning, you’re likely to notice great results a little later down the line.
Find Affiliate Programs to Join
Another crucial step is to find an affiliate program to join. What exactly do we mean by affiliate programs? Otherwise known as associate programs, this term refers to an arrangement between an online merchant and an affiliate site in which the merchant pays the affiliate a commission to direct traffic their way. Usually, the commission amount depends on the amount of traffic sent or the number of individuals who perform a particular action on the merchant’s site — i.e., purchasing a product or subscribing to a newsletter.
Not all affiliate programs are created equally, so it’s important to be discerning when looking for one to join. Carefully review your options to stand the best chance of finding a high-paying, fulfilling program.
Create Great Content
In order to generate consistent traffic, you’ll need to establish a loyal audience who trust and enjoy your content. Of course, the best way to do this is to make sure that you’re posting quality content in the first place!
While it’s true that paid ads are a faster, easier way to generate leads and direct users, this shortcut doesn’t provide lasting results. What’s more, you’ll have to continue to spend money on additional ads to maintain the amount of leads and traffic generated. Crafting quality content represents a significant time investment, it’s true, and you may not notice the results as quickly as you would with paid ads. However, in the long term, you’ll find that you’re able to enjoy a steady revenue stream and a reliable influx of leads.
Drive Traffic to Your Affiliate Website
In order to find success in affiliate marketing, you need consistent traffic coming through your site. To that end, you should place a strong emphasis on bringing in more visitors to your website.
One of the main ways of building your audience is through effective SEO (search engine optimization) strategies. SEO is a complicated topic: there are innumerable methods of boosting your search engine performance, and knowing where to start can often be overwhelming. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:
- Post relevant, trustworthy content. High-quality content is more likely to be viewed and shared by visitors; additionally, it will set you up as a reliable voice in your little corner of the internet.
- Make sure you update your site regularly. Sites that are kept up-to-date appear first in search engine results, so it’s important that you work hard to maintain your site.
- Use relevant keywords. While you shouldn’t make the mistake of spamming keywords, using relevant keywords at appropriate intervals will help boost your SEO ranking significantly.
Track Your Affiliate Marketing Success
Keeping an eye on your performance is absolutely essential when it comes to affiliate marketing. After all, there’s no better way for you to determine how you’re doing and what methods work the best. Tracking your success will allow you to better identify what methods and practices will help you generate the best results in the long term.
Whatever affiliate network you’re with should provide you with the necessary tools to determine which activities your audience responds to. The more you grow and develop your platform, the more insight you’ll be able to derive from your site, social media and email platform, too.
Always Be Testing and Improving
The final piece of wisdom we’d like to offer here is this: there’s always room for improvement! Even if you’re performing better than ever before and generating new leads left and right, we can guarantee there are still steps you can take to improve your website and generate more traffic.
To that end, be sure to constantly test your website’s performance and make improvements where necessary. For example, you could run a UX test on your site to see whether there is anything you could do to improve the experience of your visitors. Running such tests regularly will allow you to stay on top of things and will help ensure that you are performing well.
Affiliate Marketing Tips
Now that we’ve covered a few important strategies for success, we’ll now provide you with a few essential tips for affiliate marketing success that will help you make the most of your new venture. Understand that these tips shouldn’t be seen as a guide to some sort of get-rich-quick scheme; as you’ll find out for yourself if you pursue a career in this industry, success takes time, effort and dedication.
Diversify Your Partners
When it comes to affiliate partners, you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Of course, it’s good to find a niche you’re comfortable in, but you shouldn’t limit yourself to one particular audience. Diversifying means that you’ll be able to appeal to a wider group of people, increasing your chance for profit.
Likewise, you should change up your promotional strategies every now and then, too. Even if you’ve settled on one that seems to be working well, there might be another out there that would work even better!
Build a Strong Relationship With Your Audience
As we’ve already mentioned, the more faith your audience places in you, the better. Posting high-quality content, resolving customer queries quickly and maintaining an active social media presence are all things you can do to maintain a strong relationship with your audience. When thinking about how to succeed in affiliate marketing without a website, an active social media presence is especially helpful.
Share Discount Codes
Everyone loves a discount. Sharing discount codes on social media, via email or through your website can incentivize people to purchase the products you’re marketing. This can give a much-needed boost to both revenue and traffic. Make sure to add the “discount” keyword to your meta tags, as it can also help to draw in more traffic.
FAQ
Is affiliate marketing a legitimate way to make money online?
Many people ask us, “Is affiliate marketing worth it in 2023?” The answer to this question depends from person to person.
Affiliate marketing can be a very effective way to make money online, but it isn’t for the faint of heart! In order to really excel as an affiliate marketer, one must put in a consistent amount of effort. Updating your website, creating quality content and maintaining an active social media presence are just a few ways to increase your affiliate marketing performance.
How much can I potentially earn through affiliate marketing?
According to self-described “old school affiliate marketer” Niall Roche, a beginner affiliate marketer can expect to make anywhere between $0 and $1,000 per month. As the marketer grows in experience and begins to enjoy a more consistent revenue stream, this amount increases, with individuals at the intermediate level earning between $1,000 and $10,000 per month. More advanced marketers are estimated to earn between $10,000 and $100,000 per month, with some individuals — dubbed “super affiliates” by Roche — surpassing even this!
What are the advantages of affiliate marketing compared to other online income streams?
There are a number of advantages of affiliate marketing compared to other online revenue sources — far more than we have space to cover fully here! However, here are some of the most appealing advantages:
- Experience a high degree of flexibility. As with many other forms of freelance work, you get out what you put in. You can choose to work full-time, part-time or on a freelance basis, and you can structure your workday as you see fit.
- Make passive income. Having an additional revenue source is always nice, especially when you can just sit back and let the profits come to you.
- Form beneficial partnerships. Brand connections you make now could very well work to your advantage far into the future. Networking and connection-building is the name of the game!
Are there any risks or downsides to consider in affiliate marketing?
As the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained: you can’t expect to go far in life if you never take any risks. Affiliate marketing is no different in this regard.
Some of the downsides you should consider before jumping into this industry include:
- Success with affiliate marketing requires a lot of effort. As we’ve already discussed, those who succeed in affiliate marketing do so because they’re not afraid to put the effort in. Posting quality content, updating your site and remaining active on social media is just the tip of the iceberg.
- Your future may appear uncertain at first. When you’re just getting started as an affiliate marketer, the whole thing can seem a little daunting. After all, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to make a stable income.
- Freelance work comes with its challenges. It can’t be denied that freelance work just isn’t for everyone. Working from home can be isolating, and it also requires strong time management skills and self-discipline.
How long does it take to see results and make money in affiliate marketing?
This question is difficult to answer because the length of time it will take for you to see the results of your efforts depends on several key factors. Conversion rates, traffic volume, niche popularity — these elements and many others play a role in determining the rate at which you begin to notice profits. That being said, we’d estimate that it will take anywhere between a few weeks to a few months to see the fruits of your labor.
Do I need any special skills or qualifications to get started with affiliate marketing?
Strictly speaking, you don’t need any qualifications in order to get started as an affiliate marketer; although, there are some degrees out there that would no doubt be beneficial. Overall, however, the skills you possess are far more important than any grade. Writing skills, time management skills, creativity, communication skills and technical know-how are all crucial for any aspiring marketer.
Are there any costs associated with affiliate marketing?
The overheads associated with affiliate marketing are relatively low when compared to other industries, but you may have to pay out a little to earn more later down the line. You might have to cover:
- Affiliate network setup fees;
- Website hosting and maintenance;
- Site evaluations;
- Paid advertisements.
Conclusion
So, affiliate marketing — is it worth it? Well, affiliate marketing can be a very profitable venture — so long as you know what you’re doing. Armed with knowledge and the right skills, you can turn it into a highly profitable source of passive income. The trick is to learn as much as possible about the industry before diving in and to use the tools available to you.
If you’re interested in starting up as an affiliate marketer, your best bet is to create an account with MGID. We provide our users with access to a range of advanced tools, a personal manager to help guide you, creative specialists and more. Additionally, through our platform you can expand your reach to over 200 countries, setting you up for international success.
