Can You Really Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?

If you are a single parent, chances are you have found yourself constantly having to choose between your family and your job. I am guessing that since you also love your family and would like to spend more time with them you have thought a few times about work at home job opportunities.

I have been there.

You may also have come across many online job as well as business opportunities and wonder about them.

Is that possible? Can I make that amount of money doing this?

One of these business opportunities is Affiliate Marketing.

Many people see affiliate marketing as a get-rich-quick scheme where you are able to make a significant amount of money with little effort.

Many would tell you that you can make money while you sleep.

The last part is indeed true. However, it is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

Before I answer whether you can actually make a significant amount of money from affiliate marketing I need to address a few other things.

Note Well

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Table Of Content

• What Is Affiliate Marketing?
• The Advantages Of Affiliate Marketing
• The Disadvantages Of Affiliate Marketing
• Can You Make A Significant Amount Of Money With Affiliate Marketing?
• Earning Consistently With Affiliate Marketing
• Conclusion

What Is Affiliate Marketing

According to OptinMonster, ” Affiliate Marketing is when an online retailer pays you a commission for traffic or sales generated from your referrals.”

Smart Passive Income defines Affiliate Marketing as, “the process of earning a commission by promoting another company’s product(or service).

You find a product, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.”

Affiliate Marketing is where persons (Affiliate Marketers) promote other people’s products and in return they earn a commission on each sale.

Analogy:

Benn’s Inc is a spare parts dealer. However, it is relatively unknown. In fact there is so much competition in this niche that Benn’s Inc is barely turning a profit.

So the marketing team at Benn’s Inc, as part of their strategy to help the company grow, decided to offer affiliate marketers a share of their profit (a commission) to market their products.

They decided to give each marketer a unique code. They are to use the code in their marketing campaigns so that when they refer a customer to their business the customer will produce the code each time they enter the store.

When the customer makes a purchase the merchant links each item to the unique code the affiliate marketer has.

In this way the affiliate marketer will earn a percentage or commission on each item the customer purchase.

A running total is kept and when the minimum requirement in revenue for pay out is reached, the affiliate is able to withdraw the commission he has earned.

The affiliate will continue to go out and advertise this business and others if he wishes. Because he is not an actual employee of the company there is no restriction on how many business he can promote for.

The customers will continue to collect his code and make purchases, and the cycle continues.

This is affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketers have no products of their own but are still considered business owners.

Related Article: Affiliate Marketing For Beginners

The Advantages Of Affiliate Marketing

1. Top Affiliate marketers earn thousands of dollars per month by marketing other people’s products.

This is one of the main reasons why so many people hype up this particular field. The potential earnings are huge if you can do it successfully.

2. It is a business that requires a small capital to get started

For those of us who do not have a lot of money for a startup, with affiliate marketing you do not need a lot of money It is quite easy to start an affiliate marketing business on a shoestring budget. I certainly did.

In its simplest form I’d say you need to buy your own domain name and pay for hosting.

However, if you are a definite newbie, you will want to learn many of the tips and tricks required to become successful at it.

With my limited funds I started my affiliate journey at Wealthy Affiliate University. It is a great place for beginners.

Read more about all that their program has to offer as well as the pros and cons of learning affiliate marketing on that particular platform. Hosting and site support is included in the package they offer. They also offer free domains but those free domains are useless if you wish to become successful at affiliate marketing.

I also made use of lots of the free resources available on Neil Patel’s site.

3. An affiliate marketing business can be easily run by a single person

When we think of starting our own business we often think of the funds required to pay workers. However, in this instance an affiliate marketer can easily operate a business without any staff.

All you need is your computer and the internet.

4. No products to sell

Affiliate marketers do not need to have their own products at all. What this mean is that as an affiliate marketer their is no need to worry about shipping or distribution at all.

Your simple task is to us different means to call attention to the merchant’s products. This can be done through content creation (blogs and videos) or by sharing on different platforms (usually social media).

5. No need for face to face contact

Since affiliate marketers typically work on the internet this is pretty obvious. For those of us who are more introverted and don’t like having to deal with people in a face to face setting this type of business may the perfect fit.

Additionally, for single parents who wish to start their own business but at the same time wish to be around for the children more this is perfect.

This type of business can be run completely from the comfort of your own home or anywhere else for that matter at whatever time is comfortable for you.

When I started out as an affiliate marketer I worked from 4 to 7 in the morning. This is because I work better first thing in the morning but also because (with my children still asleep) it is the time I have the least amount of distractions.

6. No technical skills or experience required

While you do not need to have any previous experience or skills to get started, there is much to learn if you wish to become successful as an affiliate marketer.

7. Anyone can do it

This is not quite what the statement implies. The door is open for anyone to do it. However, as I said before not just anyone can be successful at it.

This is not because it is so difficult. There are many reasons why Affiliate marketers fail. Two main reasons are the lack of patience and lack of knowledge.

While you can get started with no knowledge, there is a need to learn what it takes to become successful at it.

8. Side Hustle

Because of the flexible hours, affiliate marketing can be used as a side hustle. There is no need to quit your day job.

In fact many successful affiliates that I know, got started this way and were later able to leave their day jobs.

This makes it perfect for single parents who cannot afford to leave their jobs in order to start their own business.

9. Earning From Several Sources

Affiliate marketers are able to market for many businesses at the same time on the same website, as long as they are in the same niche. This mean that you do not need to depend on any one program as an earning source.

You can also leave those affiliate programs that are not performing well at any time.

10. Independence

You are your own boss with the freedom that comes with owning your own business. From location to time and duration of your working hours, it is all in your hands.

11. Passive Income – Earning While You Sleep

As an affiliate marketer you really do have the potential to earn while you sleep.

Your business is open 24/7, even when you are away from you desk.

Since people are always on the internet in different time zones, you have the opportunity to earn while you sleep. No one needs to be ‘tending the store,’ for this to happen.

12. Ready Made Marketing Kit

As a general rule merchants provide links/banners for their products. This mean that there is no need for you to create your own.

Disadvantages Of Affiliate Marketing

1. It takes time to become successful as an affiliate marketer

Unlike many brick and mortar companies where some amount of income is being generated in the early months, it is not unheard-of for an affiliate marketing site to go for an entire year without generating income.

Many people become discouraged at the poor performance of their blogs/websites long before it reaches this point.

One of the most important things you need to make it as an affiliate marketer is Patience.

2. Lack Of Control

Since the product is not yours you may find your self promoting a product which impacts the customer negatively.

Alternatively it may be the merchant’s service that is bad and therefore negatively impacts your business.

This is why it important to know your partner and have a good understanding of the products you promote.

4. Competition

Affiliate Marketing is a highly competitive field. There are many affiliates promoting the same products.

As such it can be difficult to break through the masses.

5. Lack Of Relationship With The Customer

As an affiliate marketer, the customer belong to the merchant.

While you would have sent the initial sale, the merchant now knows who bought what and can target them again and again cutting you out of any future commissions from that customer.

Can You Make A Significant Amount Of Money With Affiliate Marketing?

To answer the question, can you make a significant amount of money with Affiliate Marketing, the answer is absolutely.

Someone who is great at affiliate marketing has the potential to earn an impressive amount of money from it.

Whether you will or not will depend on your patience, persistence, ability to learn and adopt. It takes a significant investment of time rather than money.

The top affiliate marketers earn in the 6/7 figure bracket. There are many lesser known marketers who are also earning a thousand of dollars monthly.

Earning Consistently With Affiliate Marketing

According to Affise, It usually, “takes from 6 months to several years to start making profits with affiliate marketing.”

J-KWest says it took him up to two years to begin to see significant profit from affiliate marketing.

The truth is there is no definite timeline for becoming successful as an affiliate marketer. The minimum requirement for seeing significant earnings is six months. However, for most it takes much longer than that.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a great field for a single parent, with a limited free time, to get into if you wish to build a successful online business.

It is open to anyone who wishes to do it, has a low startup cost, has flexible work hours and the earning potential is huge.

It is not for everyone but if you wish to do it you will need to be patient and consistent in publishing your blogs.

If you are new to the field of affiliate marketing and are serious about starting an online business feel free to reach out to Wealthy Affiliate.

The cost is affordable, the first ten courses are free(no credit card required), the training is well laid out in a step by step task based format with a host of mentors available.

If you wish to read more about what the program has to offer be sure to check out my Wealthy Affiliate University Review.

You may also contact me to ask more questions. I will get back to you within 24 hours.

Candy Benn

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