Is extra income with affiliate marketing possible?
A lot of us are looking for ways of supplementing our incomes. We have many reasons for this. Some of us hate our 9 to 5. Others need extra money to pay off some debt or to go on vacation. Yet more people are looking to prepare for a secure retirement without a drop in standard of living.
My quest for making money online, specifically through affiliate marketing, started many years ago. As the sole earner in a large family of 6, I constantly worried about what would happen to my family if I lost my job.
My fears only grew as I saw my peers get laid off over the years. They were devastated and the impact on their families was tremendous.
I vowed to take control over my finances and have been working towards that goal ever since. I want to clarify that I still have a 9 to 5. I am fortunate because I like what I do. But the fact that enjoy my profession has not curbed my near obsession level goal to earn enough online to be safe, no matter what happens at my job.
In fact, I am even more driven, because If I get laid off, I cannot see myself working any old job just to make ends meet. I want to do what I love and taking any job that is available does not fit my goals.
Enough about me! Whatever your motivation, you have come to my site to learn about the possibilities of earning money online through affiliate marketing. I hope to help you answer that question in the next few paragraphs!
AFFILIATE MARKETING – SCAM
Unfortunately, affiliate marketing has a large number of bad players. They are called SCAMMERS. These individuals are unscrupulous and care only about lining their pockets no matter the cost. They have no morals.
The problem is that they are good marketers. They take advantage of our deepest wants. They know how to play on our desires to be financially free and the desire to provide our families with a better life.
They promote get-rich-quick schemes that promise insane amounts of money with zero effort, and overnight success.
And people for it. Millions of hard-earned dollars, often from folks who have little money to spare, make their way from the pockets of hard-working men and women to the pockets of online hucksters and tricksters.
There are a ton of SCAMs out there. You have probably fallen for a few of these before. I know I have! In 2006 my introduction to making money online came when I bought a $27 course titled: “Make $300/day With Data Entry From the Comfort of your Home”.
The sales page was slick! I was sooo excited to finally have an income opportunity for my wife to work from home while raising our 4 little kids. We really needed the money.
It turned out to be an Adwords scheme. I lost a few hundred dollars running campaigns I had no business running.
It sucked! I fell for a few more scams but by then I had learned of the possibility, as slight as it seemed at the time, of making money on the internet. It changed my life!
AFFILIATE MARKETING – HYPE
There is also a lot of Hype out there. Affiliate marketing is sold as “easy”. It is portrayed as something that can be done with little effort and little knowledge.
The problem with this claim is that it is a half-truth. The things you need to know and implement to succeed at affiliate marketing are not hard. Anyone can learn them!
While Affiliate marketing is not hard, it requires a lot of hard work! It is like any other business out there! You have to learn a few skills (that are not difficult to master), but you need to implement those skills with a relentless discipline and unwavering focus.
Expect to work for months without any pay whatsoever. In fact it can take 3 months to 6 months before you start seeing income trickling in. You must be prepared to work hard and be disciplined if you want to succeed.
This is why most people that try affiliate marketing fail. It is not because they can’t do it. It is because they quit too soon. Do not make the same mistake! If you expect to get paid immediately for the work you do, I suggest you consider a normal job. This way you know that you will be paid for every hour you work.
But if you dream bigger, If you want your income potential to be unlimited, you need to take on an entrepreneurial mindset. Put in the work now, for the financial benefits you will reap over and over down the road.
This is the true definition of passive income. Passive does not mean you do nothing and get paid for it. It means that you perform some work and get paid for that work over and over down the road, even after you have moved on to different tasks and activities.
AFFILIATE MARKETING – LEGIT
Affiliate marketing is absolutely a legitimate way to make money online. You can make amazing income once you learn some basic skills. After that, you need to apply your skills in a disciplined and patient way. Success is sure to follow. Here are a few key things that I can advise you on:
-Make sure that you don’t lie to, or cheat your readers. They are putting their trust in you. Do not break that trust. If you do, you will not get far in this business. Learn everything about your niche that you can. Your goal is to become the subject matter expert in your niche.
As you establish your (and your site’s) authority, you will gain more and more trust from your readers. As importantly, you will gain trust from the search engines.
The rewards of this trust cannot be overstated. A rusting readership will be more likely to purchase the products that you suggest. As you gain more trust, the search engines will reward you by placing your content further up the search results. Your goal is to get your content to the top of page 1. Trust helps in that regard.
-Keep your readers’ best interest in mind. That means you do not place your financial well-being above them. Let me explain.
In your research you will come across products that help your audience. As sure as the sun rises and sets, you will be in situations where one product is clearly better than another for your niche.
Except that the superior product offers a much lower commission than the other. The decision you make in this situation will impact your success in the future. Take my advice and offer the BEST product to your readers, even if it nets you a lower commission!
– Don’t Sell to your readers: Never lose track of the fact that your job is to help your audience. It is not to sell to them! This is an important distinction that may seem minor to you at this point.
The distinction is not minor. Your approach to your audience will be very different if your intent is to sell instead of to help. You may not see it, but your readers will. Eventually you will alienate them if you keep selling stuff to them.
Dive deeply into your niche. Every audience (niche) has some challenges and some problems that they are trying to solve.
Learn what those pain points are. Dig deep into the many solutions that are on the internet. Study each one of these solutions and select the best one. Only after you have gone through an exhaustive investigation, and you are sure that your choice is the best, should you propose it to your readers.
I am a true believer that Affiliate Marketing works. I will go a step further and state that I believe it is one of the best ways to make extra income online. I have tried EBay and Amazon FBA and while I believe they are excellent ways to supplement your income, they don’t come close to Affiliate Marketing in my opinion.
Affiliate marketing requires very little investment on your part. You can probably get by with less than $100/yr to buy a domain and hosting. You don’t have to buy inventory. You don’t have to track and ship the inventory. Finally, you don’t have to deal with any customer service.
The merchant deals with all that! You focus only on providing your readers with the best solutions to their problems.
You will need to learn some skills and you will have to put in the work. But with a little help it is absolutely possible.
WANT TO LEARN AFFILIATE MARKETING – FOR FREE?
In keeping with my own advice, I have looked for the best solution to help my readers earn extra income with affiliate marketing.
I have purchased and tested too many products/programs to list.
I found one that absolutely opened the doors to me. It is called Wealthy Affiliate.
It is an online community that offers 2 level of membership. A free one called a “starter” membership and a paid membership called “premium”.
The starter membership is chock full of step-by-step training that will walk you through picking a niche, creating a website, and creating content on your new site.
Here is an example of what you will get access to!
The free membership also gives you access to 2 free websites so you can put your learning into practice.
It is all free. No credit card info needed and no time limits to upgrade. You can stay a starter member as long as you please.
You can start your online business in short order, all while getting a free education and access to amazing tools.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MY #1 RECOMMENDED PROGRAM!
I hope you give it a try because I think you will get immense benefits.
I hope you found value to my post. I would love to hear from you! Please leave me comments below. I will answer any questions as quickly as I can.
To your online success!
Mike