There’s no doubting the income potential of affiliate marketing. Hundreds, if not thousands, of affiliate marketers have successfully turned it into a 7-figure monthly income business. More, think of them in tens of thousands, are earning decent money through it.
The question is:
Is affiliate marketing going to work for YOU?
Maybe or maybe not.
Like any business, affiliate marketing has its good and bad side. Whether “YOU” can be successful with affiliate marketing depends on how well you can cope with its bad side, and how much of its good side suits your circumstances.
The Good Side of Affiliate Marketing
Well, let’s start by discussing the good side of affiliate marketing.
First, affiliate marketing is very cheap; there is hardly any setup cost involved. If you know how to build a website, your only cost will be to purchase a domain and a hosting package. If you don’t know how to build a website and neither are you interested in learning about it, you can add the website development cost to your startup budget. This again is really not that expensive.
The takeaway: If you don’t have much money and want to start a business on cheap, affiliate marketing can be a good option for you.
Second, affiliate marketing is very convenient in terms of operation handling. You don’t have to handle any sales transactions. You don’t have to handle any delivery of products. You don’t have to deal with angry customers and customer complaints. You don’t have to manage employees. All these things are taken care of by your merchant whose products you’re marketing.
The takeaway: Affiliate marketing can be a good option for you if you’re looking for a business that does not come with regular “business hassles.”
Third, affiliate marketing offers you flexibility work-wise. You can work from anywhere, any time and be your own master. You can choose the products that you want to promote. You can choose an affiliate program that suits your needs and convenience.
The takeaway: If you enjoy your work freedom, affiliate marketing can be a good option for you.
The Bad Side of Affiliate Marketing
Okay, now for the bad side.
Affiliate marketing takes a while to build momentum. In other words, it’s not a business model that immediately starts you paying money. You’ll have to work patiently and devotedly before you can expect to reap the fruits of your hard work.
The takeaway: If you need a reliable source of income “immediately,” affiliate marketing is not the right business option for you.
Also, to be a successful affiliate marketer, you first need to be a successful online marketer. Make no mistake, affiliate marketing is a highly skilled area. You need to be really good with the knowledge of search engines, social media websites and online content marketing and advertising in general to be successful at affiliate marketing. Of course, you can always outsource the content creation process to make things easier and more convenient for yourself, but then you’ll also have to give away a share of your earnings to whoever you hire for the job.
The takeaway: If you aren’t really internet-savvy, you can find it difficult to run an affiliate marketing business successfully. However, who says you can’t learn new things?
And well, that’s pretty much it!
So, what do you think? What is affiliate marketing and is it right for you?
Wondering how much you can actually earn from affiliate marketing?
Check out this blog post.
