You’ve been looking for a way to make extra money online and stumbled upon affiliate marketing. Someone may have even told you that affiliate marketing can make you rich.
Maybe they claimed to be rich themselves.
It sounds great, right? Getting rich with a laptop from home, while traveling, or sunbathing on a beach?
Most, if not everyone, wants to be rich. So it’s probably safe to assume you’d like to be rich too, and I get it. You're certainly not alone.
But what you’d really like to know is if affiliate marketing can get you there, so let’s discuss that…
Can Affiliate Marketing Make You Rich?
The short answer is yes, affiliate marketing can make you rich. But, of course, that depends on a few different things. The first is what your definitely of rich is.
For example, you will probably not become a billionaire from affiliate marketing. At least not from affiliate marketing alone.
But can you make six, seven, or even eight figures?
That's possible, yes…
Whether or not you're turning “clicks” into gold is debatable, but that's not too far from the truth if you do it right, and I'll share some examples below.
There are, however, more factors that will determine your success. And not all affiliate marketers are rich.
Again, “rich” is subjective.
I've earned multiple six figures through affiliate marketing, but where I live, that is far from rich. It's not even close.
However, multiple six figures will go a long way in some places, and in those places, it can afford you a life that's “relatively” rich.
But generally speaking, a home business with multi-million dollar potential is, for most people, a rich life.
So, let's start by with what affiliate marketing is…
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a method of earning money online through commission-based sales of products and services. It's a way to leverage the power of your audience/network (and the internet) to increase your income without creating or manufacturing anything yourself.
With affiliate marketing, you can promote products and services you believe in while getting paid for each sale you generate at no extra cost to the customer. While the term affiliate marketing has some negative connotations in some circles, it's actually a “win-win-win” for everyone involved…
- Your supplier, or affiliate partner, benefits from market exposure, your trusted recommendation, and an increase in sales and revenue.
- Your audience benefits from your product knowledge, experience, and recommendation at no additional cost. This may come from tutorials, demonstrations, and unbiased, in-depth analysis that the supplier themselves cannot provide.
- In turn, you benefit from earning income without the operational expenses of production and distribution.
Affiliate marketers use various strategies such as email marketing, content publishing, social media campaigns, and advertising to drive traffic to their affiliate links.
An affiliate link is a unique URL that contains a tracking code, which allows the affiliate (you) to be credited for the sales you refer.
With the right strategies, affiliates can earn a substantial income and, yes, become rich. This is because affiliate marketing has the unique advantage of leverage and scale along with other benefits.
The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing provides many benefits compared to traditional business models and professional careers.
These advantages include…
- Scale and leverage.
- Does not require advanced education or a degree of any kind.
- Very inexpensive to start
- No customers to deal with and no customer complaints.
- No purchasing and no inventory.
- No shipping or receiving.
- No invoicing.
- No product returns or warranties.
- Market/industry mobility and adaptability.
- Time and effort flexibility.
The Drawbacks of Affiliate Marketing
All things being equal, affiliate marketing is probably the best way for someone to get started making money online. It allows you to develop the required online marketing skills for any online business without worrying about products, purchasing, logistics, customers, etc.
Building an audience is challenging enough, especially if you're new to online marketing.
However, there are some drawbacks to affiliate marketing:
- Relatively low margins
- Lacking exclusivity
- Requires significant traffic to overcome low(ish) conversion rates.
- It has a negative public perception and is often misunderstood.
For example, years ago, I explained to a friend how people earn commissions by promoting other people's products online. His immediate perception and response were, “oh, that's greasy”, as though the buyer was getting ripped off somehow.
But it's important to understand that the buyer is NOT paying more than they would if they bought the product directly without using your affiliate link. Instead, your commission is paid by the seller, which is a part of the seller's marketing strategy and budget. - It sometimes gets misrepresented as network marketing or multi-level marketing, which it is not.
Having said that, some networking marketing and MLM companies incorporate affiliate marketing into their organizations because their downlines are a potential source of sales.
Also, some MLM organizations and representatives, as well as pyramid schemes, have co-opted the term affiliate marketing (even though it is not) to avoid negative connotations and questions they get about what they are really doing.
How (And Why) Affiliate Marking Can Make You Rich
Affiliate marketing can make you rich because of two principles… scale and leverage.
The internet has over 5 billion users, allowing you to scale your business (from home) to a magnitude impossible for traditional local companies.
In other words, your laptop is a portal to the entire globe, and everyone is a potential customer.
Your leverage comes from content creation. And it also comes from online automation tools.
For instance, millions can read a single article or watch a YouTube video. But you don't have to create a million articles or videos for each content consumer.
You can make it once, and it gets watched (or read) over and over and over.
That's leverage.
Let's say you've published a video on YouTube and between display ads and affiliate sales, the average amount of money you make per view is $1.00.
Now, over the span of 5 years, your video gets watched 10,000 times. That's $10,000 you've earned.
That might not sound like a lot of money given a 5-year time span, but you only created the video once, and it now generates income for you automatically.
An affiliate marketer can have dozens, if not hundreds, and even thousands of pieces of content working for them like a business owner has employees.
And each piece of content can earn monthly income for years. In fact, this website has articles that have made thousands of dollars and, in some cases, more than six figures.
They were created once, and they earn repeatedly.
In addition to content creation, you can use automation tools to apply leverage. These are things like landing page builders that split test campaigns, copywriting software that spits out multiple versions of an ad or sales page, and email autoresponders.
They can run routine tasks independently without supervision. Therefore, you do not have to be present, and you can instead be working on more productive tasks to grow your affiliate empire.
This kind of scale and leverage does not exist in a job or career where you're trading hours for dollars. It also doesn't exist in a business dependent on labor and hard costs like parts and materials. An automotive repair shop, for example, or a restaurant.
You can't, for example, make one meal that sells multiple times. Each meal sold is a new meal with hard costs, such as ingredients and labor.
However, if you were an affiliate marketer for a restaurant that paid you $1 per recommended patron, the content you create that drives customers to that restaurant could pay you repeatedly and indefinitely. Independent of your efforts.
That's how effective leverage can be.
Or, consider the time and effort of getting an advanced degree in any profession and starting with an entry-level position. Not to mention the cost of your post-secondary education.
It can (and will) take several years or more until you reach the position and salary that you're aiming for.
And, when you get there, you'll still be trading hours for dollars. You won't have the benefit of leverage.
A typical brick-and-mortar business comes with a lease, staff, equipment, insurance, renovations, etc. Again, it can cost tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars and take several years to see a profit.
And chances are, you won't have leverage there either. At least not for many, many years when you can build a competent staff that manages and maintains the entire business for you.
None of these costs exist with an online affiliate marketing business that you start from home with minimal expenses. It doesn't matter if you become an affiliate marketer on YouTube, social media, or your own blog or website.
Or even all of the above.
The low cost and almost non-existent barrier to entry, plus the ability to use scale and leverage, is how (and why) affiliate marketing can make you rich.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
The nuts and bolts of affiliate marketing are pretty simple. An affiliate signs up with a company and is given an affiliate link to promote the company's products or services. When someone clicks on the link, they are taken to the seller's website, and if they make a purchase, the affiliate (you) receives a commission.
There are various affiliate marketing models. In the example below, people are driven to your website through social media, search engines, YouTube, etc.
From there, a percentage will either click your affiliate link or join your email subscriber list. The affiliate link takes them directly to the seller's website, while those who join your email list can be recommended products or services over time through a sequence of emails. Sales made this way are often referred to as backend sales.
Once a sale is made, the seller ships the product to the customer and pays you a commission (as shown below).
However, while the basic mechanics of how affiliate marketing works are simple, more is involved, as you would likely expect.
For most people, it begins with choosing a niche…
Choose a Niche
A niche is a specific topic or area of interest that you can focus on when starting an affiliate marketing business. Choosing the right niche for your affiliate marketing business is critical, but I must emphasize something here…
Choosing your FIRST niche is not critical.
Of course, to be successful and make money, you need to be in the right niche FOR YOU. Not all niches are suitable for every person. For example, I know very little about fishing and don't particularly have an interest in it. So that's not the right niche for me.
But it is for someone who enjoys fishing. Even if they don't know anything about it but want to learn… that may make it the perfect niche for that person.
But when you're starting out, you might not know what you enjoy or what you're going to enjoy creating content about.
And even if you like something, that doesn't mean you'll want to make videos or write articles about it. Or share it with the world.
Some things you enjoy just for yourself.
Or, you may be skilled at accounting or insurance, for example. On paper, those seem like great niches for you.
However, you may get bored after creating content about those topics for a month or two. I've lost count of how many times that has happened to me.
And that's okay. It's not a big deal.
Finding the right niche for you is part of your affiliate marketing journey and your success. So, don't be afraid to jump in and get started, even if you're unsure about your niche.
And don't be afraid to change directions if you realize you've chosen the wrong one.
With that said, there are some important things to consider (but again, don't worry about getting these things perfect at first. You can change and adapt as you learn).
Some niche selection considerations include…
- What topics are people interested in? Are their products or services available that solve problems related to that particular topic or interest?
- How competitive is the market? This is important and goes hand in hand with your marketing strategy, which I'll discuss further below.
For example, if you're going to grow your audience with search engine optimization (SEO), you'll want to stay away from competitive topics.
However, if you're going after social media readers or YouTube viewers or using paid marketing strategies, a competitive niche may be better because competitive niches are also popular and lucrative.
And those strategies are not as dependent on the limited spots available in search rankings. So competition is often less of a concern. - The previous bullet point aside, a narrow and specific niche is generally easier to build a loyal audience and fanbase. It's also easier, as mentioned above, to rank in search engines.
- Once you have a general idea of the direction you want to go, do deeper research into things like keyword opportunities, affiliate product commission rates, and product/service availability.
- This one is controversial, but if you can… choose a niche you are passionate about or have knowledge in. Especially when you're new and learning, and it’s even more important if it's only YOU creating all of the content.
It's next to impossible to generate sustainable enthusiasm and confidence around a topic you don't care about.
Having said that, as you gain experience and move into a management role (rather than a content creation role), you can use freelancers to explore other niches that you may not be passionate about.
For example, you might have zero interest in high-end audio equipment, but you can hire a writer, reviewer, and photographer who does.
When you're affiliate marketing business reaches a multiple content creator level, you will need to do a deeper market analysis to assess potential profitability. You can go broke quickly paying freelancers if you can’t recover those costs later.
Choose a Marketing Strategy
Now that you've chosen a niche, you must select a strategy for your affiliate marketing business. There are many online marketing strategies, but they all require one thing: online traffic.
In other words, you must get eyeballs on your offers.
Some methods of generating online traffic are…
Write articles, tutorials, reviews, etc., to drive search traffic (organic traffic) to your website.
Build a social media audience in your niche and recommend niche-related products and services.
Utilize email marketing campaigns to reach potential customers.
Use paid advertising to increase the visibility of your content and affiliate offers.
Collaborate with influencers to grow your following.
Create YouTube videos to build your audience.
Start a podcast and discuss topics related to your niche.
These are just a few strategies to drive traffic to your affiliate offers. While it may be tempting to deploy every strategy, each has its own skill set and nuances.
You're more likely to succeed by choosing just one or two methods you feel comfortable with and focusing on those. More than one or two is likely to lead to overwhelm and burnout. That's been the case in my experience and for many others, I know who earn their living this way.
That doesn't mean you can't eventually implement more strategies. You can. But you should get really good at just one or two before shifting your focus to others.
Regardless of which strategy you choose, there is one thing I recommend. Build your own website.
Build a Website
Building a website today is incredibly easy, and there is no reason for an affiliate marketer not to have one. And there's an important reason why.
It's because YOU own it.
For example, when you build your affiliate marketing business on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter… you're playing in someone else's sandbox. It's not yours.
It might be a lucrative sandbox, but you're effectively renting the land on which your business is built. And, in a way, you're also renting your audience.
What happens if they change the rules or the algorithm? What if they sell the platform to a new owner?
The platform you build your business on could also get shut down. This is the fear of many affiliate marketers who built their audience on TikTok.
Some US lawmakers have already introduced a bill to ban TicTok in the US. So it may be shut down already (or not), depending on when you're reading this.
The point is that there's a lot of uncertainty and risk when you don't own your own online property, such as a website.
Third-party platforms are great to help build your audience, but you should always find ways to drive followers to your own website. And to an email subscribers list.
You can use free offers, giveaways, contests, exclusive content, etc.
Establish Strong Affiliate Relationships
Trust and credibility are essential when establishing an affiliate relationship with product suppliers.
Building a solid relationship with your suppliers is vital to successful affiliate marketing. In addition, creating an environment of mutual respect and understanding between you and your affiliate partner is essential.
If your supplier doesn't trust you (the affiliate), they won't be willing to commit to any long-term deals or partnerships. In some cases, they may refuse your affiliate application entirely.
Furthermore, affiliates must build credibility to get the best products and commission rates from their suppliers. This is because you are effectively representing your supplier.
Therefore, credibility means being honest and respectful of your audience.
Don't make promises that your supplier can't fulfill. Don't aggressively bombard and annoy your audience with offers. And don't use deceptive marketing practices to get clicks and sales.
All of these things reflect poorly on your affiliate partner. Your supplier.
A good reputation in the industry will help ensure you have access to the best products available from the best suppliers. You may also be given better commission rates than competitors and exclusive discounts and bonuses to offer your audience.
With strong relationships and credibility established with product suppliers, affiliates can maximize their profits and become very wealthy in the long run.
Promoting Products and Services as an Affiliate Marketer
You can be an ethical affiliate marketer, or you can be an unethical affiliate marketer.
Unethical affiliate marketers lie to their followers. For example, they may promote low-quality or scammy products by telling their readers (watchers or listeners) that they are the best products on the market.
Even when they are not.
And while these tactics may make money in the short term, they don't last.
Having been in this industry for several years, I've seen many dishonest affiliate marketers come and go. Some come back with a new name and brand and, again, rip off their customers.
You can do this for a while, but ultimately, it's unsustainable (although some who continue creating their own new scams have challenged that notion).
Most likely, though, you'll ruin relationships with affiliate partners and payment processors. And you could even get kicked off social media and other marketing platforms.
Not to mention you need a new audience each time.
The key to long-term success and general respect in affiliate marketing is promoting products you believe in. They should also be products you've used and tested yourself. This will build trust and credibility with your audience.
Be honest with your audience about the products you are promoting. This includes disclosing potential conflicts of interest or commissions received from the product.
Provide unbiased reviews of the products and services you recommend. Make sure they meet your personal standards for quality and value.
It's also essential to stay true to yourself and create content that reflects your values and interests. Focus on creating quality content that provides value for your readers. You will eventually build a highly successful affiliate marketing business that generates a substantial income.
Factors that Influence Success in Affiliate Marketing
While honesty and integrity are important to building a long-term successful affiliate marketing business, there are other factors you must consider.
Lucrative Niches
The difference between a lucrative and non-lucrative niche may be the second most important factor in whether affiliate marketing can make you rich (just in case you're curious, the first most important factor is whether you give up and quit).
Lucrative niches offer the potential for high profits, usually due to the popularity of the niche and high commission rates.
Popular niches include finance, business, productivity, fashion, technology, health, fitness, and travel. While these are lucrative niches, they are also competitive. So, your earning potential may be high, but the time and effort involved are also high.
In some cases, it may require a significant financial investment. That may come from costs associated with content producers like writers, editors, videographers, etc. Or, it could also be a financial investment in advertising to get your message out.
On the other hand, non-lucrative niches have less potential for profit because of a smaller market size. Examples can include:
- Certain antiques.
- Unique hobbies like home brewing.
- Relatively unpopular activities like beekeeping.
The advantage, however, is that these niches are less competitive and easier to gain traction.
When deciding whether affiliate marketing can make you rich, it is essential to consider whether your chosen niche is lucrative. Obviously, selecting a highly profitable niche provides more potential for earning.
If you choose a less popular niche, you can still get rich. But the path is different.
Affiliate marketers in non-lucrative niches often outsource much of their work and manage a team to promote many products in several niches or more.
You should also keep an eye out for emerging and growing niches. Niches like virtual reality, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence are all growing niches. I'm not saying you jump into these niches without further research or expertise… but they are likely to become more popular and more lucrative tomorrow than they are today.
Other good examples of niches that were once unpopular but have gained momentum are drones, smartwatches, Bluetooth earbuds, and electric car brand accessories.
Lucrative Affiliate Products and Services
Just as there are lucrative affiliate niches, some affiliate products and services are also more lucrative than others.
This is most evident when comparing physical affiliate products and digital affiliate products.
Digital affiliate products, such as e-books, software, web hosting, and online courses, exist in a digital format. They can be instantly downloaded or accessed by the customer.
Digital products generally provide higher commission rates than physical products because there are no costs associated with shipping, stocking inventory, or manufacturing additional units. Therefore, commission rates can be as high as 50 percent or more.
Furthermore, many digital affiliate programs offer recurring commissions on each sale. In other words, you can earn an ongoing commission from the same customer for each additional purchase, such as a monthly subscription.
On the other hand, physical affiliate products are items that must be manufactured, packaged, warehoused, and shipped. There are also costs associated with warranties, customer complaints, and lost or damaged shipments.
Therefore, physical affiliate products offer significantly lower commission rates than digital products. Usually below 10 percent, and sometimes just 1 or 2 percent.
So the number of units you must sell to get rich is obviously much higher. And the numbers are easy to run.
For example, Amazon currently pays a 4.5 percent commission on books. So if the average book sold is $15.00, your commission per sale is roughly $0.68.
So, if earning a million dollars as an affiliate marketer is your goal (not that a million dollars today is considered “rich”), books are probably not the best choice. You'll need to sell nearly 1.5 million of them, and that's not a small task.
Books alone will not likely make you a rich affiliate marketer unless you have a massive audience with millions of people.
If getting rich with physical products is your goal, consider higher-ticket items like furniture, appliances, sporting equipment, and even niche products like pre-fabricated homes.
Also, some niches provide the opportunity to recommend both physical and digital products.
For example, hundreds, if not thousands, of guitars and guitar-related accessories can be recommended to your audience in the guitar niche. Accessories can range from guitar stands and cases to amplifiers and recording equipment.
At the same time, you can also become an affiliate for various digital products such as guitar courses, online lessons, and membership programs.
If you're ambitious, you can even create your own course and teach guitar online.
Examples of Successful Affiliate Marketers
Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn started his affiliate marketing journey in 2008 with sites like SecurityGuardtrainingHQ and is also the owner of Smart Passive Income.
Pat's famous for making over six figures per month with his online business. Well, that's not the only thing he's famous for, but it certainly helps capture people's attention. At one time, Pat published monthly income reports on his website.
Of course, this isn't all from affiliate marketing. Pat still makes more per month from affiliate marketing than most people earn in a year, but he also makes money with things like books, courses, and membership sales.
Jon Morrow
Another affiliate marketer known for earning six figures and more per month is Jon Morrow, the founder of SmartBlogger.
Jon has a unique story, and he shares it in one of his most popular blog posts, 7 Life Lessons from a Guy Who Can't Move Anything but His Face.
Despite adversity, he has built one of the biggest affiliate marketing empires online. Like Pat Flynn above, in addition to affiliate income, he also earns money through things like course sales.
Michelle Shroeder-Gardner
Michelle owns personal finance and lifestyle blog, Making Sense of Cents. She also earns seven figures per year as an affiliate marketer and has published detailed income reports in the past.
Michelle is known for being open and transparent about her online journey and income. She also teaches others how to become successful affiliate marketers themselves.
Jon Dykstra
Jon Dykstra is a Canadian affiliate marketer and content publisher. In addition to owning several niche websites that collectively bring in high five figures and often six figures each month, he also owns the popular Fat Stacks Blog that teaches others how to do it too.
Jon is well known for his SEO (search engine optimization) and traffic generation methods, as well as his writer management strategies.
Adam Enfroy
Another popular affiliate marketer known for his rapid rise from an affiliate manager to a successful affiliate marketer earning seven figures is Adam Enfroy.
Whereas most affiliate marketers take many years to reach that level of success, Adam earned his first million in just two years.
He is also the owner of AdamEnfroy.com and one of the best blogging courses I've purchased called Blog Growth Engine.
Ali Abdaal
While affiliate marketing is often associated with bloggers and website owners, it's not limited to bloggers. There are many famous YouTubers who are successful affiliate marketers.
Ali Abdaal is one of them.
While Ali Abdaal makes most of his income from YouTube ads and course sales, affiliate marketing makes up a significant portion of his income.
Tim Ferris
You may or may not be familiar with Tim Ferris, author of the Four-Hour Work Week and host of the Tim Ferris podcast.
While I'm sure affiliate income is a tiny, if not insignificant, portion of Tim's overall income, I thought it was important to include someone on this list who is not known specifically as an “affiliate marketer”.
I have no idea how much Tim earns through affiliate marketing. However, being an influential podcaster and author in the personal performance type niche provides him endless affiliate opportunities.
Whether it's affiliate links to Amazon from the Tim Ferris Book Club or branded or coded links to products mentioned during podcasts, building a loyal audience and fanbase has provided him with many opportunities to earn money through affiliate commissions.
Now that you know what affiliate marketing is, how it works, and what to look for… you will see it everywhere and realize how many affiliate marketers there actually are.
Successful affiliate marketers come in all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. Countless influencers (on all platforms), artists, musicians, actors, athletes, doctors, political commentators, and even conspiracy theorists sell affiliate products.
Tips for Becoming a Successful Affiliate Marketer
1. Know Your Audience
To effectively promote products as an affiliate marketer, it's important to know who your target audience is and what their pain points and interests are.
For example, what is the average age of your reader/viewer? More importantly… what do they worry about?
What keeps them up at night? What are the deepest fears and desires?
You can't solve your audience's problem if you don't know what those problems are or how they affect them.
So if you can't help your readers, viewers, etc., because you don't really know them, then how can you recommend products and services they want or need?
You can't.
All you can do is cross your fingers and hope for the best. You'll still make some sales and earn commissions, but your conversion rates will be low and your traffic requirements high.
To put it another way, your revenue will be low, and your cost of acquisition will be high… whether it's the cost of producing more content or paying for clicks.
2. Choose The Right Topic For YOU
Choose a topic/niche that you are interested in and knowledgeable about. Even better, as mentioned earlier… try picking a niche you have a passion for.
3. Choose The Right Affiliate Programs
Identify high-converting affiliate programs as well as products and services your audience wants.
Don't overlook this point. The number one reason people don't click on your affiliate links is simply that they don't want to. It's not because your link is the wrong color or in the wrong location.
It's also not because you're not “convincing” enough.
In other words, it's usually because you're recommending the wrong products and services to your audience. They don't solve your readers'/viewers'/listeners' problems.
Furthermore, if you can, find relevant affiliate programs that offer high commission rates and have a strong track record of paying their affiliates on time.
It's also essential your audience can access the products and services you're recommending.
For example, if most of your audience is in the US but the product you're recommending ships from Australia, there's a good chance they'll jump on Amazon to find an equivalent product that's more accessible.
I use that example because it happened to me when trying to buy BLUblox blue light filtering glasses. It was easier for me to find something from Amazon with a single click and next-day delivery. Getting them from Australia would take too long and be too complicated… even though the product was superior.
4. Create High-Quality, Relevant Content
Create high-quality, relevant content that speaks directly to your target audience and provides real value. Give them something they can't get anywhere else, like personal knowledge of a particular product or service.
Or it might be a detailed tutorial. In some cases, it could be genuine empathy and understanding for their challenges because you've gone through those same challenges too.
5. Build a Relationship With Your Audience
Build a relationship with your audience through email lists, social media, and/or YouTube. But regardless of which platforms you choose, as mentioned above, the key to building a relationship with your audience is by providing genuine value.
So, create and share real content that helps your audience solve their specific problems and achieve their goals. Also, engage with your followers, and respond to their comments, questions, and emails. Listen to their feedback.
By building trust and providing value, you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche and increase your chances of success as an affiliate marketer.
6. Test Your Marketing Strategies
Test different marketing strategies to see what works best for your audience.
To do this, start by setting measurable goals. For example, identify what you will measure. Do you want to increase your conversion rate, click-through rate, revenue, audience engagement, brand awareness, or authoritativeness?
When testing specific campaigns, testing ONLY one variable at a time is critical. This is the only way you can identify which change had the most significant impact on your results.
For example, you may test different headlines, calls to action (CTAs), follow-up emails, sales letters, and even the offer itself.
But if you change the offer and the headline, for example, and your campaign performs better or worse… you won't know why? Was it the headline, or was it the offer?
You can use tools like landing page builders, link rotators, and email autoresponders to help you split (or A/B) test each variable.
7. Keep Improving Your Skills and Knowledge
Keep improving your skills and knowledge through courses, webinars, and other educational resources.
This is essential to staying competitive and successful as an affiliate marketer.
Yes, there are tried and true principles that always stay the same, like providing value and solving people's problems. But strategies, technology, and people's behaviors will change over time.
In addition to courses, you should read blogs and industry publications, join online communities, and experiment and test new strategies and methods. Stay as current as possible, and at least be aware of the latest trends and best practices.
You don't have to jump on every new shiny tactic or trend, but keep an eye on them to see which ones may or may not take off.
8. Be Patient and Persistent
Affiliate marketing takes time and effort to become successful. In fact, this is the most important tip.
I've seen no other factors cause as many affiliate marketer failures as simply giving up. So don't quit.
Look, affiliate marketing and making money online is a skill. It's no different than learning to play guitar or basketball.
Just because you know “how” something is done does not mean you can do it. And it certainly doesn't mean you are any good at it. Most people know how a guitar is played.
They also know that a basketball is thrown into a hoop.
But you only get good at those things by doing them. By practicing. You must play the game, whatever that game is.
And to be clear, when you play the game, you're going to lose sometimes. You'll probably lose a lot. But that's okay because that’s how you get better.
Those who fail the most usually succeed the most as well.
So what are you waiting for? Starting an affiliate marketing business is easily within reach. It won’t be the easiest thing you do. In fact, it will even be hard at times. But you can start anytime. In fact, you can start today.
