- August 8, 2023
- Kaitlyn
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It? – An Honest Review!
If you’re interested in becoming a blogger or an influencer, you’ve probably heard that affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to grow your passive income. But you have to research, continually create posts, and even create ads for these products. Then you only receive a percentage of the final price, excluding taxes. So, is affiliate marketing worth it? Or should you put your energy into other money-making ideas? Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I appreciate your support! You can read my full disclaimer here.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when a creator of a product or service partners with others to market their product or service. In exchange for every product or service package sold, the affiliate marketer receives a percentage of the product’s price.
Usually, this is from a unique link or code that the affiliate marketer provides to their audience or friends and family. Every creator is different, but you can earn anywhere from 5%-50% from every sold product or service package. So, this can add up very quickly.
So, the affiliate marketer is doing all of the marketing for the creator. Purchasing from an affiliate marketer comes at no cost to the purchaser!
Who Is Affiliate Marketing For?
Most people will become affiliate marketers if they have a platform already established. Beginning your affiliate marketing journey with an already-built audience is excellent if you want to earn money as soon as possible by advertising their affiliate products to their audience.
But people who don’t have a large audience can still become affiliate marketers. You can share your links or codes with friends and family and still receive some good money.
Affiliate marketing can be for anyone! Most affiliate marketers are:
- Influencers
- Bloggers
- Service providers
- Anyone who loves a product
- Anyone!
Anyone can do affiliate marketing; the tricky part is deciding if affiliate marketing is worth it to you.
How Much Can You Make With Affiliate Marketing?
It depends! It depends on how many people you share your links/codes with, the percentage you can earn with each product/service package, how much time and energy you put into affiliate marketing, and how much each product/service package is.
In fact, most bloggers and influencers make most of their money from affiliate marketing. So it’s entirely possible to make a living from affiliate marketing alone.
But when you’re just starting, it may take a few months to a year until you make your first $1,000 from affiliate marketing. But again, it depends! Some people make a few thousand dollars in their first month.
You can expect to make anywhere from $0-$10k+/month as an affiliate marketer.
How Can I Be Great At Affiliate Marketing?
If you want to be a fantastic affiliate marketer, you should definitely consider creating and growing an audience. Sharing your codes and links won’t do you any good if there isn’t anyone to see it!
There are lots of ways to grow your audience, but consider:
- Creating and growing on Instagram
- Creating and growing on YouTube
- Creating and growing on TikTok
- Engage with your current and potential audience
- Create valuable content!
It will take time, but if you stay consistent with posting, you’ll consistently grow!
Depending on how much you can make from a single sale, it may be worth considering running ads for this product. That way, you don’t have to worry about growing an audience before making money.
But if you only make a few dollars from a single sale, it may not be worth it. Just play around and decide what your goals are.
What Marketing Platforms Do I Need To Use For Affiliate Marketing?
I went over it a bit above, but let’s break it down some more here.
Depending on your goals and audience, you’ll need (some, maybe not all):
- Instagram – social media
- YouTube – social media
- Facebook – social media
- TikTok – social media
- Twitter – social media
- Meta Business Suite – ad management
- Canva – graphic design
- Convertkit – Email newsletter management
- Trello – link/code management
These are just some of the basics to get you started and to help you make as much money as possible with affiliate marketing.
What Other Affiliate Marketing Tools Do I Need?
If you want to jumpstart with affiliate marketing, there are lots of platforms that you can sign up for. With these platforms, you can sign up to be an affiliate for products in bulk.
Consider signing up for:
- Amazon Associates
- ClickBank
- ShareASale
- eBay Partner Network
- Avenge Affiliate Network
- FlexOffers
- JVZoo
- WarriorPlus
If you have taken a course or bought digital products, most creators offer an affiliate program. You can sign up and market those products as well! There are endless ways to find products as an affiliate marketer.
So. Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
At the end of the day, you have to decide for yourself! Affiliate marketing may be worth it to me, but it may not be worth it to you, and vice versa. It just depends!
But make sure you take into account:
- The time and energy it takes to grow an audience
- The time and energy it takes to find products
- Money for marketing
- Money for other platforms (Canva, Convertkit, etc.)
But you can make thousands of dollars a month once you’ve created blog posts and social media posts. So, it may be worth it to make money in your sleep! It just depends on the industry, your goals, and how much time you have for this side hustle.
I personally found it very difficult at the beginning. There were very few results, so it was hard to stay motivated. But I’m grateful I kept at it! There are even affiliate links in this post! My biggest piece of advice is to find what motivates you and don’t give up hope. It’s entirely possible to earn a living from affiliate marketing.
You must know that affiliate marketing will take work. If someone tells you that it’s easy money, don’t believe them! It may be easy after building an audience, but it takes work to get there.
Try out affiliate marketing and decide for yourself if it’s worth continuing.
If you want some more side hustle ideas, check out this list of 113 side hustles organized by category and potential income. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me at hello@strivehustles.com.