Many people looking at how to make money online ask “Is affiliate marketing dead?”
And the answer is easy. No affiliate marketing is not dead.
While many make money online fads come and go, affiliate marketing has been around even before the internet was a common household thing. And just ask anyone that has a “referral link in the comments”, they will tell you affiliate marketing is far from dead. In-fact it is alive and well.
So now that the major question is answered, and we know that affiliate marketing is for sure not dead, what else is there to know?
*This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on the affiliate link I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
The Stats Proving The Answer To “Is Affiliate Marketing Dead?” Is No
Over 80% of Online Brands Use Affiliate Marketing
A study done by Rakuten found that over 80% of the publishers and advertisers are using affiliate marketing to help with their advertising of their products and services.
With over 80% using affiliate marketing, that shows that affiliate marketing is still performing good for brands.
Over 90% of Merchants Increased Or Kept Their Affiliate Marketing Budgets
VigLink did a study in 2017 where 91% of merchants said that they planned to either increase or keep their current affiliate marketing budgets in the future.
If affiliate marketing was dead, merchants would not keep pumping money into their affiliate programs.
35% of Affiliate Marketers With Less Than 5,000 Views Make The Most With Affiliate Marketing
In the same study as above, VigLink found that 35% of their publishers with less than 5,000 unique views per month generated revenue the most with affiliate marketing.
This shows that even if you aren’t the most popular site, raking in over 100,000 views per month, you can still make money with affiliate marketing on your website.
16 % Of Online Orders Are Generated By Affiliate Marketing
Awin shows in a report that affiliate marketing is driving 16% of online orders. That is almost 1/5th of all online orders.
With more and more people being forced to find items through the internet in 2020 and beyond, that percentage is going to keep increasing.
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth The Time?
As much as the course creators that want you to buy their “Make Easy Money Online” course want you to believe that it takes absolutely no effort whatsoever to be rolling in piles of cash from online passive income, I’m here to break it to you they just want your money.
Making money online is just like making money anywhere else. There is sweat equity. It takes work.
And affiliate marketing is one of the ways you can make money online, but it takes you putting in time and lots of work to see returns.
You have to love putting out content, creating new stuff and chasing the next conversion. It’s all part of affiliate marketing.
So is affiliate marketing worth your time and hard work?
It sure is. Well maybe.
If you don’t like working on the computer, then you probably aren’t going to think it’s worth your time.
But if you don’t mind sitting and working on the computer then it’s going to be great.
Affiliate Marketing Is Not Get Rich Quick
The thing to keep in mind with affiliate marketing, is that it takes time.
When looking to create an income using affiliate marketing, building website traffic, building a email list, and building an online presence isn’t something that happens overnight.
You will have to put in time creating content, gathering emails by creating and giving away lead magnets, creating videos, waiting for SEO to work, and building a social presence on your platform of choice. These are all things that are not quick. SEO alone can take 12 to 18 months.
So when creating your website and putting together an email sequence always think in terms of 1 to 2 years out.
Keep your content evergreen so you don’t have to create more work for yourself when fads go out of style.
Is Affiliate Marketing Still Profitable?
If you’re here for the quick and short answer…. YEP!
Even though affiliate marketing has been around for quite some time, there is still money to be made.
If there wasn’t a profit to still be made in affiliate marketing, brands would not be planning on spending the same or more in the future on affiliate marketing.
Things You Can Do To Make More With Affiliate Marketing
Invest In Yourself
Do you want to be able to hit the ground running when it comes to making an income with affiliate marketing?
Do you want to make sure you get all the info you need without having to waste months trying to scour the internet to make sure you are informed when it comes to affiliate marketing?
Then you need to make sure you invest in yourself.
Even if that investment is just your time. There are free affiliate marketing courses and webinars that can give you some great insight and ideas on how to get started with making money using affiliate marketing.
Spencer Mecham from Buildapreneur has one such webinar where he shows you 3 Secrets he’s used to help him generate 7 figures using affiliate marketing.
Check Out Spencer’s Free Webinar Here.
Focus On High Ticket Products With Good Commisions
The high ticket affiliate programs will generate more income for you. Especially if they are digital products.
Since digital products don’t have as much overhead cost for their creators like physical products do brands are able to offer higher commisions.
Some big ticket items can give you 50% (and sometimes more). So if you’re promoting a course that’s $800, that could be $400 in your pocket for each referral. Even if you only refer 2 a month that’s $800 for you. In contrast the average $1000 item sold on Amazon from your referral link, if selling 2 a month, would only give you $80. So which would you rather have $800 or $80?
Use Recurring Affiliate Programs
Recurring affiliate programs will give you a commission usually on subscription based services.
What this means for you is that instead of earning just a one time commission, you get commission every time that person pays for their subscription.
To give you an idea of how powerful this can be, lets say you’re promoting a service that has a subscription cost of $30 per month and a commission of 30%. You refer on average 5 people each month who keep paying their subscriptions each month for at least a year. That means by the end of month 12 you are pulling in $600.
Doesn’t that sound nice?
And that number keeps growing each month as you refer more people.
