Is Affiliate Marketing A Legit Business?

Is affiliate marketing a legit business?

There is a lot of confusion out in the public domain about affiliate marketing.

The question arises as to whether it is a legitimate way of earning money.

In this article – “Is Affiliate Marketing A Legit Business” – we will be explaining the differences between this and some other online marketing methods.

We will demonstrate that affiliate marketing is, in fact, legitimate. It is actually possible to earn a good living as an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate Marketing Explained.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is a way in which the marketer can earn a commission for promoting a company’s products or services.

For instance, companies like Amazon have extensive affiliate marketing programs.

Affiliate marketers join the program free and are either known as Associates, Partners or Publishers. They acquire personal links to products for inclusion on their own website or landing page.

The job of the affiliate marketer is to review and promote the products he/she wishes to sell on behalf of the company.

Once a customer clicks on the link and purchases the product, the affiliate marketer will receive a commission.

Simple, indeed, because it avoids the necessity for carrying stock, handling and shipping goods or dealing with returns. This is all done by the company with which the affiliate marketer is associated.

In this way, companies can have many thousands of website owners and bloggers marketing their products.

The companies make payments when goods are sold. It is a cost effective way for the companies to do business. .

It can be highly lucrative for the affiliate marketers dependent upon their time commitment and expertise.

The Good.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “work from home and earn money online”.

This is one of the good things about affiliate marketing.

You can work from your home office or, in fact, anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection! You become your own boss – you choose your own hours of work. Time freedom at last!

To take up affiliate marketing, then, you will need to have a website (or blog) on which you will promote the products you choose.

We can show you how you can set up your first website in a matter of seconds and completely FREE.

The Not So Good.

While we have told you that affiliate marketing is a legit business, there are actually a few bad actors out there.

They often promote “get-rich-quick” schemes. I’m sure you’ve seen the many internet ads that guarantee you $100 a day for doing virtually nothing!

Then there are those scammers who guarantee you thousands for working half an hour a day!

They require you to make an investment somewhere between $300 and $1,000 for all their secrets of success.

What they omit from their presentation is the secret and you never get to know! In addition, there will usually be costly “upsells” for you to finally know the secret.

Do try to avoid such programs – there are no “get-rich-quick” schemes. The only place that SUCCESS comes before WORK is in the dictionary!

What Affiliate Marketing Isn’t!

Try not to confuse affiliate marketing with what is known as network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM). Some organizations promote MLM as affiliate marketing.

It is not!

MLM requires you to pay to join, and make payments on a monthly basis so that you remain ACTIVE and receive commissions.

MLM schemes do usually have good products to sell. Commissions are based on retail sales of products as well as the number of people enrolled on your team.

The compensation plan actually benefits those with the most people enrolled because of increased retail sales throughout the team.

Pyramid schemes, on the other hand, are illegal.

A significant investment is required to join.

Commission plans are based entirely on the number of new recruits who also make investments.

Major payments go to the investors at the top of the pyramid as more investors are signed up below.

Pyramid schemes sometimes distribute products to disguise what they are. Don’t be fooled!

Affiliate Marketing Training Is Important.

So, you’ve decided you want to be an affiliate marketer, but you don’t know where to begin. The first thing you will need is to find a reputable training program.

You should find a program that can help you build your website and teach you what you need to know.

Learning should include search engine optimization (SEO); pay-per-click marketing; e-mail marketing; content marketing and display/banner advertising.

In addition, you’ll need training in social media marketing and classified ads. All these are different aspects of a successful affiliate marketing program.

A search of Google for “affiliate marketing training” will turn up around 92 million results.

So how do you decide which are good, which are not so good and which will suit you. I’m not sure that you can and maybe you need advice on a good starting point.

Wealthy Affiliate Training

Wealthy Affiliate is one such program that will provide you with step-by-step training and teach you everything you need to know to be a successful affiliate marketer.

Kyle and Carson, the owners of Wealthy Affiliate, have been successful affiliate marketers for more than 15 years.

Training at Wealthy Affiliate is extensive:

• There are 35 lessons that teach you everything you need to know to build a successful online business. They begin with setting up your first website. This is the Online Entrepreneur Certification. During this course you will learn about niches, websites, SEO, joining affiliate programs and much more.
• Affiliate Bootcamp Training. This has 37 lessons guiding you towards becoming an affiliate marketer. It teaches you the finer points of promoting the Wealthy Affiliate platform and earning commissions.
• Live Video Classes (These are interactive and provided on a weekly basis).
• More than 1,000 Recorded Video and Text trainings are provided by experienced members of the Wealthy Affiliate Community.
• Courses, lessons and tasks guide All Training.

In addition to the above, Wealthy Affiliate provides website building and hosting as well as a very fine keyword research tool – Jaaxy. You will never be at a loss to find appropriate keywords with this tool.

Nothing is left to chance when one begins the journey with Wealthy Affiliate.

There is a huge community (1.4 million members) that provide help and support to each other.

The focus for the WA Community is “pay-it-forward”, and that is certainly what they do. Questions from newbies are answered and motivational support provided.

Is Affiliate Marketing A Legit Business?

Certainly it is. Is it likely to be a profitable business? Indeed, it is and possibly more so because of the worldwide pandemic known as COVID 19.

COVID 19 totally changed the way people live and shop.

The world population turned its face to the online shopping community.

Many more companies are offering online shopping as an option. People are even shopping online at their local grocery store!It is likely that this situation will continue for the foreseeable future.

That being the case, there will be a continued need for affiliate marketing services. As people turn to the online community to make their purchases, affiliate marketing websites will be much in demand.

Now is the time to get in and get started.

No doubt, more companies will be implementing affiliate programs to market their goods and services.

We, as affiliate marketers, will be poised to take advantage of this situation and assist customers with their purchases.

And finally:

The statistics about affiliate marketing are quite amazing.

The total worth worldwide of the affiliate marketing sector is around $12 billion. Since 2015, affiliate marketing revenues have grown by 10% annually, and are continuing to do so.

Fashion niches take top billing with 18.7% of all affiliate marketers promoting this niche.

Sports and outdoors takes second place with 14.6% and health and wellness coming in third with 11.1%.

There are many more statistics we could quote, but this article is not about statistics. It is more about our discussion of “is affiliate marketing a legit business”.

If you are still reading this, then, I think you will agree with me that affiliate marketing is a legit business.

Of course, there is much to learn and, in addition, you will need to get some good training. But if you are prepared to do the hard yards and get yourself set up properly, you will reap the benefits.

Follow the training and a whole new world will open up for you.

If you can follow the step-by-step instructions you will soon become a successful blogger. Do give yourself some time, though, because “Rome was not built in a day”, and neither will your business be.

With one touch of a button, we can have the knowledge of the world available to us in seconds. That knowledge can be used to your advantage by establishing your own affiliate marketing business.

So, if you’ve always wanted to learn how to make money online, now is your chance.

In a while, you can ditch the JOB and become your own boss with your online marketing business.

What Are You Waiting For? Get Started Now!