Affiliate marketing; does it work? Yes affiliate marketing can and does work for many affiliates who make their living from selling other people’s products online. But for many who attempt affiliate marketing and struggle this can be hard to believe; especially if they have been working for several months without even making a single sale!
Maybe that’s you? If you’ve been working diligently on a strategy for several months without success, is it worth carrying on? Should you change tactics?
Depending on the strategy you use to put affiliate products in front of likely customers, affiliate marketing can take weeks, months or even years before you see consistent results. The fastest way to get traction with affiliate marketing is through using paid marketing. But some affiliate products pay so little that it can be tricky even to break even when paying for your marketing.
Even with high ticket affiliate products and subscription products which pay recurring income, it can be tricky in the first instance. When you’re a beginner, you don’t have experience (or any data) to base decisions on. So you’re running blind until you “fail” a little, and collect some real experience.
It is during this time period when most affiliates quit. If only they kept on going they would see their “failures” as stepping stones to their future success.
Affiliate Marketing Does It Work: Types Of Marketing Methods
There’s many ways to skin a cat as the saying goes and it’s the same with affiliate marketing. There’s no one correct way to get products in front of customers although there’s several which stand out as the clear winners. But if you don’t have a marketing budget and a high ticket sales funnel to promote, it’s going to take a lot longer to get some successful results.
If you’re on a tight budget you will probably need to choose a cheaper marketing method such as content creation, social media strategies, blogging or v’logging (video blogging).
These strategies will take a lot longer and a lot more effort than those strategies which involve running paid ads. Plus they aren’t as scalable as paid advertising. So if you choose a cheaper route, which may be necessary, you’re in for a tougher ride! But if you’re in a high earning career and have a good marketing budget you can run ads until you hit a winner. Then you can simply scale your marketing by increasing your budget.
Affiliate Marketing Does It Work?
For whom does affiliate marketing work? Well the success rate for affiliates is remarkably low at around 5%. This means that for all who attempt to make money with affiliate marketing 95% drop out! Wow, that’s an amazing statistic! But it’s the same with most businesses and just because people assume affiliate marketing will be easy doesn’t make it so! The 5% are better prepared to stay the course, they get help and learn from failures rather than assuming the system is broken.
It’s true you can waste time as an affiliate doing all the wrong things which won’t build your business. In which case, even working for 100 years straight won’t help you! This is known as being a “busy fool” – spending time on those activities which don’t move your business forwards.
Since affiliate marketing is a performance based business, you don’t get paid for your time, as in a job. This can be a tough transition if you’re used to being paid a wage; and so many an old habit can hurt your affiliate business if you don’t become aware of it.
See affiliate psychology and 23 affiliate mistakes newbie affiliates should avoid!
Tools Which Help
There’s many tools which help affiliates succeed which not every affiliate knows about. I struggled for years before finding better tools, better products and getting help and support. Some of the best products to use are those which offer recurring commissions and high ticket commissions.
These kinds of products can make your life a lot easier. You should also use an email list, which allows you greater control over your traffic by directing traffic into a manageable list which you own. Traffic is either hard won through content creation or expensive or both, so an email autoresponder is vital to grow your business more quickly.
Affiliate marketing is tough, no doubt about it, but it does work if you stay consistent, get help and support and make a decision never to quit! Learn from others and follow coaches and mentors. When you finally break through and start making those regular affiliate sales there’s nothing quite like it!
Before that happens you need to keep an eye on your mindset and motivation levels. It’s easy to become demoralised and lose the faith. So initially, mindset is one of the most important factors in sustaining your efforts under the adversity of not having achieved success yet. See also affiliate marketing mindset. At the beginning, focus on the small easily achievable goals right in front of you. Celebrate small wins and over time they’ll turn into the big wins.
