The question is…“Is affiliate marketing worth the effort?”
This is a question that too few people looking at affiliate marketing as a home based business ask themselves. It’s a proven fact, you can make money with affiliate marketing with the help and support of some basic steps. I’m one of many who earns an income with affiliate marketing and I started part-time.
But was it easy to get to this point? Absolutely not! I struggled, gave up, and became so frustrated that I looked else where for a way to earn money part-time.
If your looking at this business or have a business you will find that affiliate marketing does take a lot of effort.
The basic skills required are really simple to catch on to, and by learning them, you could start earning real money in a fairly short period of time.
What is a fairly short time? For the novice, total beginner, give yourself 6 months to see a few dollars. For the more advanced, with some basic skills, 90 days is a good goal and for the professional affiliate marketer, continual learning new skills.
Affiliate marketing is all about finding a good niche!
If you find a product niche you’re passionate about, you could earn good money by simply expressing your genuine love for a product you believe in, and feel good knowing you’re sharing your experience with others who will love the product as well.
However, affiliate marketing is not worth the effort for everyone. In fact, I’d say that affiliate marketing is not worth the effort for a lot of people, simply because most people wouldn’t enjoy the work affiliate marketing entails.
The point I’m making here is, “affiliate marketing is not easy, but it’s also not hard.”
The Efforts Involved With A Successful Affiliate Marketing Business
As mentioned, “affiliate marketing is not easy, but it’s also not hard.” the efforts involved with affiliate marketing are actually quite simple, and they don’t need to take up your entire day.
Every affiliate marketer operates their business in a different ways. After learning a few basic skills, I soon found a method that I was comfortable with.
Let me share a few tips that are involved with my own marketing methods.
- The first and most important, you’ll want to find a product category (niche) you believe in and focus on it.
You don’t want to spread your affiliate marketing out too much with multiple products. By focusing on one specific product category, you’ll be able to pinpoint audiences to market to and establish yourself as a trusted source on that particular subject.
If you spread your product line out too much, you’re going to need a lot more effort to attract much smaller audiences, rather than allowing your knowledge on one particular subject which will bring people back again and again. Here’s a bit more info on how to choose a good niche.
Mistake I made in the beginning, was too many products. I started a Tea Affiliate Business. It started out okay with Herbal Teas of different flavors. But I expanded too soon in providing, cups, tea pots, recipes, tea assortments, packages, and too many teas that it became confusing to my customers. I went back to the basics, and my business started to grow again.
2. Next, you’ll want to target your audience and figure out what type of information they are searching for in the search engines. Google is an excellent source to find that information.
In order to attract the audiences most likely to be interested in your products, you’ll want to answer the questions your audience is search for. Entice, and provide enough information on your product that will interest them, to read more, and eventually make a purchase.
3. Don’t make the mistake of not keeping up with changes.
The world wide web is a fast moving mechanism all its own, with its own trends, and its own life. Stay current with the changes. Develop new marketing skill. Drop methods that are not working and study what is working today. Always keep in mind, affiliate marketing worth the effort.
The area that really breathes life into the “Is affiliate marketing worth the effort?” question is trial and error.
Successful affiliate marketing will take quite a bit of trial and error. You shouldn’t expect to build your website or blog one day, and be flooded with commissions from sales the next.
This is where many people give up on affiliate marketing. They get the wrong impression that just because success isn’t instant, it must not be for them. You’re not going to hit every mark from the get-go, and you’re going to need to look at your statistics to see what’s working and what’s not in terms of attracting audiences and turning their visits into new sales.
Remember my mistake with too many choices with my Tea Company.
4. Another effort you’ll regularly undertake is promotion. You’ll want to promote the website or blog you’re hosting regularly in order to keep your audiences reminded to come back. Using social media platforms, leave your link to interested audiences along with valuable information, and entice them to visit you over and over again.
But be careful here. If your new to affiliate marketing using too many social media platforms will only cause frustration. Learn one and master it before moving on to another. Over time you will be using social media as an expert.
What You’ll Be Spending Most Of Your Time Doing
If you follow the proven methods I’ve used to build my affiliate marketing business, you’ll spend the vast majority of your time Reading and WRITING.
My business is all about creating content, content, and more content.
Are there other ways of succeeding at affiliate marketing? Certainly, but I find that content marketing is by far the single most profitable method in building a good affiliate marketing business.
Most new affiliate marketers have no problem creating content…. at first. But 6 months in? Writing new content becomes a struggle. The reason is because most people simply don’t like to write as much as they think they do.
The question alway comes up as “what do I write about today?”
Once writing becomes a job instead of a hobby, motivation to keep going can easily waver. As an affiliate marketer, you’ll essentially become a full time content creator, and most of that will be in the written form.
Ask yourself, can you handle writing 1,000 or more word article every other day?
Breaking Down The Question Of “Is Affiliate Marketing Worth The Effort?”
To break down the question “Is affiliate marketing worth the effort?” take a look at the efforts I’ve laid out, and determine for yourself.
In order to be successful in affiliate marketing you’ll need to choose a product category to focus on. Learn all you can about the product. Whose’s it for? What are the benefits? How do you use it? Is there a market demand? Who is my customer?
Study your targeted audience. Create a customer Avatar. Build a website or blog audiences that trust you and your product. Create LOTS of content, and promote your content, and your product with social media. And with the right trial and error, you could be well on your way to receiving those commission checks from your chosen brands earned by referring happy customers.
In terms of regular maintenance you will need to keep up with the latest online marketing trends, promote your content regularly, continue learning about how your product category of choice, and your customers.
Your job is to:
- Stay current on new or changing trends in marketing
- Choose a product or niche in demand
- Know your customers wants and desires
- Provide answers to your customers wants and desires
- Provide valuable content on a daily or weekly basis
- Use buying “key words” in your article
- Work with a team to answer your questions and provide valuable affiliate training
- Never give-up. Your only one article away from your first and many sales
For research, promoting tips, and lessons learned in trial and error, our many resources in education will help you to stay on top of what you need to know to make your affiliate marketing continuously the best it can be.
Success In Affiliate Marketing
For those willing to put in the effort, affiliate marketing can be a profitable business in many ways.
A few of the many benefits of affiliate marketing success are:
- A business you can fall in love with – Extending your passion, and love for products feels less like a job, and more like a hobby. That is until those commission checks come rolling in.
- Be your own boss – You get to make the decisions. Affiliate marketing, is a job between you and your chosen brand. You’re your own boss determining the types of products you’re marketing, how you’re marketing them, and what type of promotion strategies give you the best chance of sales.
- Work on your schedule – Rather than adhering to a schedule that doesn’t work for you, you get to decide when and where you want to work. You can promote and make money while on vacation, or write your latest informative blog article late at night when you can’t sleep. You’re in charge of your schedule.
- There is no limit on your income – Work as hard as you want or as little as you want. The amount of time and effort you put in will determine your income.
- Success on your terms – Never worry about lay-offs, down sizing, lost a promotion, working with people you have issues with, or a demanding boss.
In Consolation
As mentioned earlier, “affiliate marketing is not easy, but it’s also not hard.”
Know a few basic steps and affiliate marketing can make you some money. Learn more and affiliate marketing can make you even more money.
Affiliate marketing is the ideal home based business. You control your time, your schedule, your passion, your income and your success with-out being told what to do as with a job.
The freedom of success in affiliate marketing alone is worth the effort for many. With the right knowledge, flexibility, and willingness to learn, affiliate marketing can have you on your way to success as “being your own boss today.”
With a little help and advice even the beginner can make affiliate marketing successful. Click the BANNER below to see what I mean.
I did and I have been very satisfied with my decision.
Cheers,
