Affiliate marketing has advantages and disadvantages, just like every other business model. So, what’s the essence of affiliate marketing?
The essence of affiliate marketing is best understood with an example.
Let’s say a friend tells you he’s trying to sell his laptop but hasn’t been able to find a buyer. You run into someone searching for a laptop similar to the one your friend has for sale a few days later.
Now you link your friend with the prospective buyer, and so the deal is done.
In return, your friend gives you a share of the sale proceeds, as a token of good faith and loyalty. And, more importantly, because you were willing to do something that your friend couldn’t.
In a nutshell, what just happened is affiliate marketing.
Essentially,you advertise a company’s services or goods and are paid a commission, if a sale is made.
As per known stats, percentage commissions are most common in affiliate programs.
The average affiliate commission is between 5–30%.
From the beginner, to the seasoned internet entrepreneur, this is the fastest, and simplest way to make money online. But it isn’t just smooth sailing all the way to the top.
So if you’re a beginner let’s look at some upsides and downsides of affiliate marketing.
Downsides of Affiliate Marketing
The most significant drawback of affiliate marketing is that you have no influence over the process. A company can kick you out of its affiliate programme at any time, for any cause. Justified or not.
This is why having your own blog or website, and preferably your own product, is important.
There’s no denying that affiliate marketing will help you make a lot of money.
However, we need to always remember that someone else will still have the final say.
About how you do it.
Whether you get paid.
What you get paid.
And whether or not you should be their affiliate.
It Takes Time To Establish Yourself
Despite what many “experts” would have you believe, being a good affiliate marketer takes time.
Too many people get into affiliate marketing because they’ve lost their job, and so they need to make money quickly.
This makes me wince every time I see it.
My advice is if you need money quickly, affiliate marketing is not the way to go. Remember, affiliate marketing is a strategic plan for the long term.
Usually, it takes about one to three years to start a real income from affiliate marketing.
And that’s assuming you work on the project almost every day.
It takes time to build a following, get rated in Google search, gain reader interest, and find attractive affiliate partnerships.
As a result, the majority of active affiliate marketers usually start their affiliate marketing businesses as a side hustle.
This can be difficult if you already have a lot of duties and obligations on hand.
But you can find success online if you’re working on your site every single day and stick with it for the long haul.
Unpredictable Income
Paychecks , in affiliate marketing, can be extremely variable. Some affiliate programmes can take a long time to pay you.
For instance, if you sell goods as an Amazon affiliate, you will be paid every 30 days for the previous 30 days’ sales. Obviously this is not a good programme for you, if you’re someone who can’t wait 60 days to get paid.
However, unlike Amazon, many other businesses and consumers pay right away after a sale. That actually depends on the company.
In the debate about the upsides and downsides of affiliate marketing, one disadvantage is that you can probably end up doing business with a company that refuses to pay you.
However, this should not be an issue if you stick to reputed and credible affiliate networks.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of cases of bad paymasters online. Repeatedly, affiliates have gone through the unpleasant experience of not getting paid enough, or even at all, in a few exceptional cases.
That’s why, before becoming an associate, you should do a lot of research, because your long term success is at stake.
All Affiliate Programs Aren’t Always Alike
Often after you apply,in the selection process, certain affiliate marketing companies bring you through the meat grinder. This is undeniably a disadvantage.
Others may regard you as a “miracle cures salesman.” But be cautious about promoting “just about everything”.
Don’t forget the basic part. Finally it’s your name on the line mostly.
So the sensible thing is to represent trustworthy products and businesses that provide excellent value.
How do you ensure that?
Simply put the consumer first.
Besides this, the affiliate (that is you) are in charge of driving traffic to the product sales pages.
Essentially, you’re in charge of attracting clients. And your prime responsibility is to build traffic.
And if you can’t get enough people to see your affiliate bid, you’re not going to make a lot of money. Period.
On top of that, it is also entirely your job to create and deliver high value content to your prospective consumers and audience.
Upsides Of Affiliate Marketing
Going through the downsides is pretty discouraging, I admit.
But its not all that bad really.
In fact, it is rather too good!
Let’s look at the benefits of becoming an affiliate, now that we’ve roughed ourselves up over the drawbacks of affiliate marketing.
Fact is, frankly, if you weren’t aware of the promise, and huge success in affiliate marketing , you wouldn’t even be reading this article.
To begin with, affiliate marketing is the quickest way to launch an online company.
To get started, you don’t even need an item or brand. That means you might be literally earning money as an affiliate marketer within days, or even hours of reading this post!
Sounds incredible?
But it’s happened before. And make no mistake, this will happen in the future too.
And how’s that even possible?
Here’s the deal..