You want to make money online in 2020 but you don’t know how…
Well, the most obvious question you may have…Is Affiliate marketing worth it in 2020?
If you want to learn every aspect of this question and its answer, you are in the right place!
Affiliate marketing is worth it in 2020 because it is a way to make money online and create financial freedom. It is the process of promoting other people’s products or services for a commission. It requires little to no money and gives you financial and time freedom.
There are many business models online that claim that can make you money. I have tested everything online. Literally everything, but it was only when I found out about affiliate marketing and focused on it that I made money.
I don’t say that everything else doesn’t work. For example, dropshipping can work, Amazon FBA can work, etc. But, affiliate marketing is more beginner’s friendly and it is a much easier and faster way to make money.
In this article, we will discuss why affiliate marketing can still work in 2020, its pros and cons, and how you can make money using it.
So stay tuned!
Contents
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing Definition
Affiliate marketing is a type of online marketing in which you promote other people’s products or services for a commission.
For example, you may have observed that YouTube is growing rapidly over the last few years. More and more people use YouTube and spend many hours watching videos. But why someone should create a video on YouTube for you to see?
Creating a very well search-engine-optimized video for YouTube with great quality and content is definitely not an easy process. People are creating all these videos because for the most part, they want to make money.
Youtube, after a certain amount of subscribers and depending on views, ads, etc, pays Youtubers so that they continue to make videos.
But, especially at the beginning, Youtube gives very little money. People make money from YouTube through affiliate marketing. Yes, you read correctly.
When you are out of the game of marketing, you don’t observe carefully many things. But, I am doing this stuff for quite a long time so I understand immediately what and how they want to promote.
Every single video on YouTube has a description right? The description helps search engines to understand when to show the video and to what kind of people. But here is the trick.
In the description, most people place links to various sources.
Either, they recommend that you should try ‘this and that’ or they claim that they personally use ‘this and that'(making you feel that you should use this too) or even they give you bonuses so that you click the link and buy this and that.
For example, you want to lose weight. I can make an exceptional video of explaining the process of losing weight, the calories, the metabolism, the workouts, etc.
But, at the end of the video, I can say something like ”Yes, it is very good to exercise but if you want to speed up the process as I did (and I have this amazing body) you can try this fat burner supplement that I have tested. It does wonders.”
Or something like “Yes training at the gym is great but sometimes you can’t even go to the gym, it can be cold outside, you may be bored to drive to it, they may be closed due to Corona-Virus or anything. So, you can buy this amazing training machine to train at home exactly the same way as you were doing in the gym. Cool?”
These examples are very basic but you can clearly understand the concept and that I can sell anything I want, I am very confident and good at it.
But, this is not because I have a special talent. I am just like you, I am just doing this for years…
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing, in my opinion, is the easiest and fastest way to make money online. I truly believe that. But why?
- You don’t need to create a product.
- You don’t need to ship, package or design a product
- You don’t mess with customer support and refunds
- It is very profitable
- It can become passive(depending on the traffic source you choose)
- You don’t need a lot of money to start
- You will be your own boss
- You will have time for family
- You will be able to work from home
- You can also work while traveling.
These are some of the reasons why affiliate marketing is the easiest and fastest way to make money online. Creating a product can be very tiring.
You can always create your own product or course during the process. For example, if you promote a training machine and some supplements for weight loss after becoming an expert you can write an ebook that you can sell.
This is good because you are the one that takes 100% of the payment. Don’t try to create your own physical product. It is tough. I have tested Amazon FBA.
You must find products from sites like Alibaba but you should also try to be innovative because everybody else is using the same sites and products. Then, you have to contact the manufacturer to create a different version of their current product.
They do not always agree and then you must order large quantities and the sample to see what they have done. And the story goes on…You need a lot of money and effort to make it happen that way. Trust me.
You have to care about sending the products from China mainly to the US, contacting the freight forwarder services, and also Amazon. You have to care for product price margins, packaging, branding. If it is something fragile, also good luck.
I have done it, it’s good but way more complicated. Way more.
As far as the cons of affiliate marketing are concerned, I can only see as a disadvantage the fact that you don’t take the full commission. You promote something and you only take 10-20-30-40% of its price.
But, that’s normal! You don’t create the product! You don’t care about it. You just find the best product, promote it, and make money. It is that simple.
Let’s now discuss how this is done…
How Affiliate Marketing Works?
Now, we will discuss how affiliate can be done properly to make you money. Many people think that it is very easy. You find a product, grab the affiliate link, and start spamming it everywhere until someone buys.
Well, this is exactly why most people fail in marketing in general. Making money online needs time. Why someone should buy from you?
I will try to make it really simple so that everyone understands the process.
The first step is to choose a niche and a product that you are interested in. You will need to create content for this niche and products so make sure you have an interest in it. The top 3 markets are the ”make money online” niche, the fitness niche, and the relationship niche.
However, these are really competitive niches. You can make money with any product and any niche. For example, I know a website that creates contents about succulents only and has 400,000+ page views per month. As you can easily understand this website makes over 15,000$/ month.
The second step and the third step are going together. You should create a sales process and bring traffic to it. There are many ways that you can do that but mainly it is through blogging, YouTube and social media(Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Pinterest)
For blogging, you obviously need a website. You will create content(articles) there using Search Engine Optimization and traffic will start to grow.
It is essential for an online entrepreneur to have a website both for getting traffic but also for branding himself.
Read More: How To Create A Profitable WordPress Website
YouTube is the second-best search engine and has taken the world by storm over the past few years. On YouTube, you create videos instead of articles and you try to rank them high in the search engine. You have also a chance to be seen at the ”Recommended section” and even on Google search results. In the description, you can softly promote your products.
Social Media marketing is also very good and can have faster results. However, I don’t prefer it because I don’t want to focus my businesses on a platform that may not exist in the future. How do I know that Tiktok will be used in 5 years?
This doesn’t mean you can’t do it. You can help your blog and YouTube channel with Tiktok especially at the beginning and when you grow you can stop using it if you want. You can also promote your products directly in Tiktok after you reach a certain number of followers.
On Facebook, you can create a professional profile and a Facebook group. Then, you will need to be active in communities and groups providing value to people and then they will start to join your group and chat with you.
After that, there will be a chance for you to promote something. You need to establish an honest relationship before pitching products to people. That’s the key.
You give more than you take. Especially at the beginning.
If you do any of these consistently you will find some success. But, in order to make a lot of money and have a sustainable online business, you need one more thing.
This is called email marketing. If you ask any entrepreneur what his most important asset is, he will definitely tell you about his email list.
Your email list is a traffic source you own. You don’t own Google’s traffic. You don’t own Youtube’s traffic. You don’t own social media traffic either. But, you own your email list.
With your email list, you can make money in the backend. Let’s say you want to promote a supplement but people didn’t buy this supplement from your first Youtube video or blog post. If you don’t get their email address, this prospect is lost forever.
But, if you have their email address, you can email them providing free value and establishing an honest relationship, and then you can promote the same or another product to them. Makes sense, right?
But how you can get someone’s email?
You need to create an opt-in page. This is a page that people will be given something for free in exchange for their email. This freebie should be something that is relative and has real value for the prospect so that they decide to give you their email address.
It can be a free guide, a free recipe guide for weight, a free training program, or anything like that.
The bottom line is you have to offer something for free and try to build your email list.
All in all, you choose a niche and a product. Then, you choose a platform that you want to create content. Then, you create content and build your email list. You can also check my article Affiliate marketing for beginners and grab my free Blueprint to dive deeper into the process.
Can Affiliate Marketing Make you money?
This is a question that many people have. How much money affiliate marketers earn?
Affiliate Marketing is very lucrative. Many people have been millions of dollars over the past year.
For example, I am promoting a product which cost 97$/ month. This product makes me 38,80$/month each time someone decides to become a customer of this company.
Let’s say for the first month I have 5 sales. This is 38,80 x 5= 194$
In the second month let’s say I don’t invest my 194$ to grow my business but I make the same amount of work. I have again 5 sales. So, this month I will earn 194+194=388/month.
Let’s say that with this money I hire some writers to write more articles for me and I spend all this money. For this month, I grow my website significantly and I make 10 sales. This means 388$. But, I will also have 388$ from my former customers that are still paying. So, this month I make 776$.
And so on, and so on. This is how fast you grow. Do this for 1 year and do the maths. The compounding effect is real. It snowballs really fast. And this is only 1 product. I have many products that I promote and you can also promote.
Another way to make money with affiliate marketing is high ticket products. High ticket products are expensive products that have high commissions.
For example, for a product that costs 2,500$, I get a 1000$ commission. This is insane if you think of it. Only a few sales of this a month can make you really good money from just one product, right?
These can be digital products and especially courses and live events.
Affiliate marketing is very lucrative and really profitable. Just do the maths.
Is Affiliate Marketing Dead?
Some people claim that affiliate marketing is dead. Yes, the competition is getting bigger, yes it is more difficult than it was in the past. But, many people still make huge amounts of money with it. That’s a fact.
I just laugh at whoever thinks that affiliate marketing is dead because I personally make a lot of money with it.
Paid advertising has become very competitive and it is extremely difficult to become profitable or break even in affiliate marketing with Facebook and Google ads. but, if you are a hard-worker and you like to learn, you read books, you take courses, you read blogs, etc you can find success.
The best way to start affiliate marketing especially as a beginner is with organic traffic which means free traffic.
You will lose money on paid ads. I promise and I don’t want my readers to lose money. Start with organic ways and if you want to grow and scale you can use paid ads later on. But, don’t mess with them at the beginning.
Blogging, Youtube, Social Media. It is not rocket science. If I would start again right now I would make a Youtube channel and a website as soon as possible. I would use videos from Youtube on my website and links from Youtube to my website to grow them faster.
Then, I would place affiliate links and create an opt-in page for Youtube and a pop up for my website to collect emails. It is that simple.
The difficult part is putting the effort. The difficult part is to create the content. Do 4-5-6 blog posts per week. Do 5-6 Youtube videos a week for 1 year. Then slow down to 2-3 per week. You will find success.
Disclaimer, I am not God to predict your future and your mistakes but I am very confident that you can do it because I have done it multiple times and it works.
You put the work, you make money. It is that simple. But, don’t skip step one. You have to put the work. There are no shortcuts. I have tried many times to cheat Google. It does not work. Trust me and learn from my mistakes.
Final Words: Is Affiliate Marketing Worth it in 2020?
Absolutely. Affiliate marketing is the easiest and fastest way to make money online. The competition has grown but there are still many opportunities out there. New products, new tactics.
Keep learning each and every day and most importantly put the work. Don’t search for loopholes and shortcuts.
You have to be able to provide the best quality content for your readers or watchers. Give free value and people will love you. That’s the way you make money. People will trust you and they may follow your advice and buy the products that you recommend. But, all of this because you gave them value first.
You gave them solutions to their problems. This is how marketing works. Give first.
This is affiliate marketing and marketing in general. This is the most important part. I have many articles on my website and I am writing more each and every week for you. This article was not meant to explain the details and the technical stuff. I have other articles for Search engine optimization. for keyword research, how to create websites, and much more.
I hope you understood that affiliate marketing still works. Start as soon as possible and start seeing the results.
You can achieve financial freedom and time freedom. It is up to you if you want it bad enough. Do you love traveling? Do you love working from home? Do you love being your own boss?
Take action!
