Affiliate marketing is where you promote someone else’s product for a commission. Because you get to skip like ninety-five percent of the steps required to build your own business, it’s attractive to almost everyone. It’s fast and easy to start and you can do so with almost no money. Once you’re up, running, and profiting, nobody’s bugging you, which is nice. Depending on your traffic source, it can even be pretty passive. What’s not to like, right? But that’s also the problem. I’ll explain below.
NEXT: This Is Like Affiliate Marketing But Better
Because it’s so appealing and there’s such a low barrier to entry, and your days are filled with freedom if you’re successful, just about anyone who’s ever Googled “how to make money online” has tried it or is still doing it, right? And affiliate marketing’s been around as long as there’s been an internet, so yeah, that’s a lot of years of compounding competition, huh? So whatever day you’re reading this in 2023, it’s literally never been more cutthroat. Which’ll be true every day and year thereafter.
The flip side of that? Is that aspiring affiliates have been wondering if affiliate marketing is dead for like the last decade. It’s just human nature. We always think we’re too late. And sure, sometimes we’re later than we’d like to be, but hardly any internet business model ever dies-dies. It’ll change, sure. It’ll evolve. It’ll absolutely get more and more competitive. But zoom out. Think long-term. Five years from now, 2023 will seem like the glory days of affiliate marketing.
Ya know? And the same goes for any other online business model. Blogging, ecom, drop-shipping, self-publishing, credit repair, being an influencer or a guru or a remote closer, doesn’t matter. None of those are dead or even dying; just morphing, becoming noisier, requiring you to get better if you wanna stand a chance. The software, the tools, the platforms, the rules might change (scratch that, will change), but the best practices usually stay the same. So you need to ask different questions, that’s all.
Instead of “Is affiliate marketing dead in 2023?” or “Is affiliate marketing still worth it?” or “Can you still make money with affiliate marketing?” it’s more like, “Is affiliate marketing a good business model for me and can I see myself doing it, day in and day out, for the next however many years?” I think people are way too worried about timing and chasing money when they should be worried about choosing the right vehicle and becoming the best driver, ya know?
I always say, there’s no right or wrong, just pros and cons of each money-making model. And it’s your job to be self-aware and identify your strengths and weaknesses and preferences and goals; and think about your risk tolerance and how much startup capital you have; and how much time you can devote to it; and what are your expectations; and how likely are you to give up and quit if you don’t meet them by such-and-such a date; and then, based on all that, find the perfect business for you.
And if you think that’s affiliate marketing, great, but be prepared to work like a dog cranking out organic content all day every day, or master paid ads and copywriting and funnels, because yeah, you’ll be going up against millions of super affiliates, and being able to drive and convert cold traffic is the name of the game. Ask me how I know. All that said, do I believe the average person can make, let’s say, ten K or more a month as an affiliate? Probably, yes, but it’ll take longer than it would with other models. Like the one below.
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