For those looking to make an online stream of income, there is a great deal of information about Affiliate Marketing available today. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of misinformation.
Because of that, many people are left asking the questions–Is Affiliate Marketing hard? Can I really do it?
The answers are: No, it’s not hard if you’re committed and get the right training, and Yes, you really can do it!
Let’s take a closer look at what an Affiliate Marketing business really is and what you need to get started.
How Does An Affiliate Marketing Business Work?
The way an affiliate marketing business works is by using your own website or blog to communicate with people about products or services that you like.
If your readers are interested in checking out the product from a retailer, they do so by clicking on a link from your site.
If they decide to purchase an item, this makes money for you in the form of a commission. Commissions can be anywhere from 5% to 80% of the sale, depending upon the retailer’s affiliate program.
The retailer will pay you a commission for anything that the customer purchases, it doesn’t even have to be the product you were promoting!
For those who may think that you need marketing expertise or programming experience, here’s a video from a 21-year-old successful affiliate marketer with no degree or technical experience who has grown his business into a full time income:
For a more details about affiliate marketing, see What is an Online Marketing Business and How Do I Get Started?
What You Need To Start
The only equipment you need is a laptop or desktop computer and an internet connection. You could use a mobile device, but it will be much more difficult than using a laptop.
Using your laptop, you need to create your own website. Many people think that it’s extremely difficult to build a website and expensive to have someone else build it for you.
Years ago, that may have been true–but not today! One of the most powerful website platforms that you can use is WordPress, and you can set up your own site with them in no time.
The first time I tried to make money online, I sold products online with a business model called dropshipping. I spent hundreds of dollars getting someone to build my site.
Today, you can set up your own website by choosing a domain name and a theme, and it takes under 3 minutes!
Check out this video that shows you just how easy it is:
Figuring out what you want your affiliate marketing business to be about is your next step, and that is called choosing your niche.
Every business needs to have a focus, and the great thing about running your own affiliate marketing business is that you can focus on any interest or passion that you have–it’s all up to you!
You can see the best way to find your perfect niche at What is an Affiliate Marketing Niche and How Do I Choose One?
Once you choose your niche, you’ll need a domain name. What you do is purchase the rights to a domain on a yearly basis, and the cost is typically about $14 a year.
This domain name can be anything you want that is available, but you’ll need to be sure it’s easy to remember and relevant to the niche you’ve chosen.
Those are the basic items you need to start an affiliate marketing business, so now let’s look at the skills you’ll need.
Skills You Need
Most people think that you need to be very computer savvy to have an online business. While great computer skills will certainly help you get going faster, there are many online tools that enable anyone to learn the skills necessary to be a success.
One of the things you’ll be doing very often is writing content, which consists of articles that inform and educate your readers as well as promote products. Every article, or post, that you write will be your avenue to attract people to your site and what you offer.
There are basic writing skills that you will need to have, such as constructing understandable sentences and being able to convey your ideas in a way that readers can understand.
If writing is not your strong suit, think of it as having a conversation and explaining your topic to your readers as if they were standing in front of you.
Some marketers use free voice recognition software and dictate their articles because it’s more comfortable for them instead of writing it down on paper.
If correct sentence structure and grammar are not your best skills, there are tools you can use to check your article and show you where corrections need to be made. Having someone proofread your article for you, like a friend or your spouse, can also be a big help.
When I first started my online business, I had my husband proofread my articles and give me feedback on how well he could understand it.
Since he was not at all interested in building an online business, I knew if he could understand what I was saying, I was definitely going in the right direction for my readers who would want my information!
Another skill that is necessary for affiliate marketing is the ability and willingness to do research on a topic.
Your articles need to convey information that your readers are interested in, and you want to be viewed as an authority in your niche. In order to do that, you need to explain your topic thoroughly and accurately.
To research data for your content, you could go online, ask questions from an expert in the field, experiment with various things related to your niche–anything that gives you enough information to be sure your readers are getting a quality, informative experience on your site.
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What You Don’t Need To Start
For someone who’s interested in affiliate marketing, knowing what you don’t need is as important as knowing what you do need.
You don’t need scam programs that offer you the world for a little bit of money and then try to upsell you expensive add ons in the name of “training”.
As someone who has an online marketing business, I get very frustrated at the number of programs out there that want to convince people that they can make money overnight working an hour a day with a system that does it all for them.
It won’t, and if you’re like me, you could spend hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars before you realize these programs won’t get you anywhere!
Here at BuildYourEarlyRetirement.com I’ve reviewed several programs, and will continue to review more, in order to weed out the scams and programs that simply aren’t worth your time and money.
You can see my reviews in the navigation bar above and learn how to avoid scams at Make Money Online Fast–Beware of the Scams!
Getting The Right Training
If you’re a beginner and not familiar with running a website or how to write great content, it is extremely beneficial to have some training.
You want this training to actually teach every step you should be doing to create a quality website that will bring in visitors and make money.
It’s also essential that the program has a platform for asking questions and where you can integrate yourself with others that have the same goal of a successful online business.
My #1 recommendation that meets all the criteria is Wealthy Affiliate. The owners of this company have
set up a program that ensures you receive updated, comprehensive training on every aspect of affiliate marketing for whatever niche you want to promote.
This is no scam, and they will tell you it takes commitment, time and a great deal of effort. But with their community platform, live chat, 1000’s of training modules, and much more, the program will give anyone the ability to become an affiliate marketer.
You can start your business with their free lifetime membership, which includes 2 WordPress websites. Their premium membership includes 50 websites and many other great features to help you take your business and money-making potential as far as you want to go!
I recommend Wealthy Affiliate as my #1 choice and you can read my review here.
Affiliate Marketing Is Not Hard If You’re Committed
Is Affiliate Marketing hard and can you do it? The real answers are that it depends on you! You have to be committed to running an online business to make money and willing to put in the time and effort it takes to be successful.
If you avoid the scams and get good quality training, affiliate marketing is not hard and you can do it!
Do you have any experience running an online business or want to become an affiliate marketer? Please share your ideas, experiences, and questions below!
Having the right training and following up with action seems to me the two main ingredients for having success in affiliate marketing – this has been the case for me anyway. Your article is spot on and I beleive it will help any budding online entreprenuer looking to become successful online and looking for that thing that will give them the edge. Support from others who have successfully achieved affiliate marketing success is also key to ones success as it was for me. Thanks again for a great article.
You’re welcome, and I agree with you 100%!
Great information
Thank you–I’m glad you found it helpful!
Affiliate marketing isn’t difficult, but like any business venture, it requires knowledge, planning, and consistent effort to make any significant income. You’ll be judged by the product or services you promote, so don’t just focus on the income, but also on the quality.
the reason why so many see it as a difficult thing to do is because fail to understand that it’s not fast, automatic, or without effort. The earlier they realize this the better for everyone.
You’re exactly right! So many people go into it with the idea that if they don’t start making a lot of money within a couple months, they’ll quit. But the fact is that it takes months to start earning commissions and it could be a year or more before they start making consistent income.
It’s not difficult with the right training and expectations!
Affiliate Marketing is as hard the individual makes it out to be. A numbers game of find and seek:) Some say it is way harder that it was from the beginning of its conception, but I say its just a matter of keeping your finger on the pulse. ?
Find a sincere recommendation like yours! in a well establish training based website and go head down bottom up.
I totally agree!
Thanks for your post. You give an honest answer to the question affiliate marketer beginners asked. The success or failure on your affiliate marketing business is depend on your attitudes and efforts. Like any business, you need to fully commit to it in order to achieve your goal.
For affiliate business, the route to success is clear. As you recommend the training from Wealthy Affiliate, you could follow the following steps, identify your niche, build your website, attract traffics, and monetize your traffics. All of these are clearly demonstrated in the Wealthy Affiliate training. You could not miss them.
Glad to hear that you’re having a great experience with Wealthy Affiliate and getting the benefit of their training. You’re absolutely right when you say that you need to fully commit to it in order to achieve your goal!
Oh you have a really great post here, for a while I was being educated by a friend about affiliate marketing and all its benefits but I wasn’t interested until she showed me her income from it. She introduced me to it and pointed out that j needed to have determination with Alot of hardwork because it’s not easy…. Interestingly, the wealthy affiliate community and the help from the platform generally is overwhelming and they’ve been helping me make the best of my time. I think anyone who wants to make anything tangible without being scammed should try wealthy affiliate
Your friend is exactly right, and I’m sure her success comes from the fact that she has worked hard to build her affiliate marketing business. For me, Wealthy Affiliate and their community has been exactly what I needed to become successful.
Good luck, and I’d love to hear updates about your progress!
This is an absolute great article on affiliate marketing. It is also refreshing to see you talking about Wealthy Affiliate. Bar none this is the best program out there.
There are so many scams out there but Wealthy Affiliate isnt one of those.
I love the one word you use. That word is misinformation.
I think an article like this needs to be seen by any wanna be affiliate marketers or veterans alike.
Thank you for a great article.
Dale
You’re welcome! I believe misinformation is what keeps most people from creating a successful affiliate marketing business.
People either think it’s super complicated or they get convinced by scammers that they can get rich quick. Without realistic information about what it involves and how long it will take to make money, it will be hard to stay motivated and stick with it.
Glad you were able to find Wealthy Affiliate and are having a great experience with them!
Affiliate marketing is an amazing opportunity to build an online business.
There are many affiliate marketing companies out there today, but let me tell you that I couldn’t agree with you more about Wealthy Affiliate being the best there is!
It’s something that anyone, even beginners can do. You only need 4 things. First, choose a niche that you’re passionate about, Next, build a website, Third, get traffic, and fourth create an income.
You’re so right in stating that you don’t need any skills because you really don’t.You get the best training and support anywhere. Join for free and change your life!Would you suggest going premium right away?
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about your experience with Wealthy Affiliate! As far as going Premium right away, I don’t recommend it for a beginner simply because it’s not necessary.
One of the best features of WA is that you get to experience what they have to offer free of charge. It’s a good idea to look things over and see the value of the program before signing up for Premium. If they want to start making money online, the value of the platform’s hosting, training, and community will be evident!
Janelle,
This is an excellent synopsis of what affiliate marketing is all about. You really hit the nail on the head with what it takes to start an affiliate marketing business. Wealthy Affiliate is an excellent way to get started in affiliate marketing.
Thank you for an excellent article.
You’re welcome, and I appreciate you stopping by!
For me, it has been a bit hard. I began knowing nothing, I have learned a lot but I feel like there are missing things I need to know to have traffic in my site. Also, I am not a very good writer. But as I am committed to do… I am doing, no matter how hard is it. The main thing is writing good content in our posts, like yours. Thank you for this post 😊
Many people who have started as a complete newbie have been successful with affiliate marketing. You are definitely right about writing good content–there’s no substitute for quality, consistent posting.
If you’re looking for a few tips on how to get more traffic to your site, you can read my blog I Need To Get More Traffic To My Blog! 7 Top Tips. Good luck with your site!
Hi Janelle,
No affiliate marketing is not hard. All you need do is write for your audience as if writing for one person. Make sure to research and get correct information and put relevant imagery or photos up. Add affiliate links in strategic places. Then join affiliate programs.
These could be Amazon or Clickbank, ShareASale, etc.
When I joined Wealthy Affiliate, I found their training stuck in my mind. Also if I did not know how to move forward on a task, I just asked and someone was always there to help.
There are many people making a living with WA training, as it is really cost effective!
I find that affiliate marketing is not hard, but there is so much conflicting information out there. Once I found Wealthy Affiliate and looked everything over with their starter membership, it was easy to see that they offered quality training, hosting, and a wonderful community of marketers who are happy to help.
For me, WA was the difference between me creating a quality website or still struggling to make money online.
From this article, it seems very easy to do affiliate marketing at any age. I think it can be the best solution to the retrenched, retired and the people who would like to do a drastic change to their career.
I really love the idea of early retirement and venturing into Affiliate marketing but I wonder how this can be applicable to anyone without any typing skills. I have a friend who wants to get involved with Affiliate marketing but his problem is typing, can it be applicable to him in any way and how?
You friend can absolutely do affiliate marketing even with poor typing skills! There are many voice recognition software applications out there that work well for dictating posts. The best free option is Google Voice Recognition, and a highly rated fee based option is Dragon Naturally Speaking.
Good luck to both of you!
Hallo there,
I have been hearing from many folks that affiliate marketing needs an expert to succeed at it because the market is saturated and there is huge competition.
But the way you have explained things has made see how workable it really is and the possibility of making a full-time income out of it. Thanks a lot for the positive energy. 🙂
You’re welcome, and I’m so glad that you found it helpful! There are billions of people online every day searching for everything from groceries to spiritual guidance. You don’t need all of those people coming to your site, you just need enough that will convert into the sales you need.
A lot of marketers get lured by the latest and hottest topic trending on the internet and then wonder why there’s so much competition for those sales. One of the most important strategies I learned to be successful with is to find something you’re passionate about as your niche and then narrow it down to something specific that doesn’t have a lot of competition.
Thank you for stopping by!
Hey Janelle:
Thanks for your take on affiliate marketing. You’ve covered the important points well, I think.
Commitment and just showing up, learning more about the market and how to market, and doing what needs to be done to make a good connection to your customers and your fans are pretty much the basic requirements.
It’s the same no matter what business you start, I think — either online virtual reality world or the brick-and-mortar analog world.
And, yeah, every one of us can do it…if we want to enough and keep on going for it.
You’ve hit the nail on the head about wanting it enough to keep on going for it. Just like any business, there’s going to be things you do well and things you need to learn to be successful. It takes time, commitment, and effort, but it’s possible for anyone to have their own online business if they want it bad enough!
Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment!