Things Nobody is Telling You About Affiliate Marketing

From the outside, affiliate marketing can seem ambiguous and, frankly, a little bit intimidating. With all the stories we hear about people making thousands of dollars through their affiliate marketing business, it’s normal to believe it’s too good to be true or too complex for you to try.

That’s why it helps to get an insider’s perspective about the world of affiliate marketing, like joining a community of affiliate marketers and simply take a peek at different points of their affiliate marketing journey to see what it actually looks like (Wealthy Affiliate offers an excellent affiliate marketing platform, sort of like a social media dedicated to affiliate marketers).

Here are some inside secrets from the world of Affiliate Marketing and hardcore facts to help you understand what it’s really like.

 

 

1. You don’t need to know much to start.

You see affiliate marketers, and you immediately believe that they’re marketing specialists who knew everything about digital marketing since birth, but that’s not the case!

You don’t need to know everything about affiliate marketing to begin. The beautiful thing about affiliate marketing is that you can learn as you earn. You can sign up for the introductory course by Wealthy Affiliate, which includes a free program to get a genuine feel of what affiliate marketing is really about, and then as you continue educating yourself, you’ll see the fruits of your knowledge come to life.

 

2. You shouldn’t quit your job right away.

Affiliate marketers often romanticize how they left their toxic job behind and now enjoying their financial freedom, but that doesn’t mean you should quit your job beforehand.

When you see affiliate marketers making hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars every month, it’s tempting to get carried away and fantasize about that type of life. However, put in mind that those, who succeed put in a lot of time and work in the start, which is just now paying off.

Besides, the flexibility of affiliate marketing allows you to try it out as a side hustle while you’re starting to get the hang of it just to see how much you can squeeze out of it as a source of income.

 

3. The money isn’t consistent

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based income, which can be a good thing or a bad one. Just like freelancing jobs and any other type of business, you’ll have good months and bad ones.

Allow yourself six months to a year after you begin affiliate marketing to determine if it works for you and generates a reasonable commission. Remember, persistence is crucial here and it’s what makes some affiliate marketing stories successful and others not. It takes time but it’s definitely worth it.

That being said, many affiliate marketing businesses have grown steadily over time, even exponentially at times, and became a reliable source of income for many affiliates.

 

 

4. It’s passive income but you can’t be passive about it.

You’ll make money while you’re asleep, but you’ll have to put in the work while you’re awake, especially in the beginning. The work you’re going to be doing includes:

• Building your website and optimizing it
• Keyword research and integrating it into your content
• Searching for affiliate programs
• Updating your content regularly
• Seeking out better partnerships and expanding your business

Luckily, Wealthy Affiliate provides a set of tools all integrated inside its platform that makes these tasks a lot easier. In your affiliate marketing journey, there are a lot of things you’ll need to keep an eye on, so it’s an extra bonus if you can have everything gathered in one place, instead of jumping from one site to another.

 

5. You don’t have control over everything.

While it’s nice to think about your affiliate marketing business as something you fully operate, there are some aspects that you simply don’t have any say about. One of the most bugging factors is your lack of control over affiliate programs.

Since you do not control the affiliate program, you must rely on your merchant’s terms and conditions. In some cases, a program may appear enticing at first, but it can gradually become less competitive, and you will be unable to alter it accordingly. All you can do is explain the need for more modifications and wait for the merchant to make the necessary changes.

That’s why it’s best to use a powerful affiliate program search tool like Wealthy Affiliate to make sure you have proper insight.

 

6. The competition is rough.

Affiliate marketing is a ruthless business. Because many affiliates promote the same items and compete for the same traffic and clients, highly skilled affiliate marketers from the same niche create a fierce rivalry, which is an obvious threat to your performance and a huge disadvantage.

However, don’t get too concerned about the high level of competition in affiliate marketing. It’s just another sign that the industry is flourishing and expanding, and hence there will also be significant growth in the available opportunities.

While we can’t control the growth of our competitors, we can get some insight into how well we’re performing to see if anything needs to be adjusted and find out how we can do better. Wealthy Affiliate has all the integrated tools to help you with such as competition analysis and finding out how your site is ranking in comparison to your rivals.

 

 

7. It’s not as lonely as it looks.

We often think of affiliate marketing as a journey you have to make alone, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, one of the qualities that make an affiliate successful is his capability to stay connected. Connecting with other affiliate marketers will only help you grow as a person and help your business thrive.

Wealthy Affiliate’s community is considered one of the strongest and tightest ones out there. You’ll always find a helping hand from someone who’s met the same challenges you’re going through and you’ll constantly come across stories and triumphs that help you put things in perspective.

Not only are these personal relationships motivating, but they can also directly help you grow professionally through the business relationships you make there. So don’t abandon all your communication skills yet!