Top 7 Facts about Affiliate Marketing that You Need to Be Aware Of

Is Affiliate Marketing the same as Multi-Level Marketing? Is it true that you can earn by using different channels via following an affiliate marketing model? Is affiliate marketing hard to start?

These are very common questions that I see floating around the web. With so many stories and opinions from different folks, I will try to answer these questions in today’s article and give you my opinion as an affiliate marketer.

Before we go any further with the 7 facts of affiliate marketing, let’s first look at the definition of affiliate marketing.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

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Affiliate Marketing is simply the process whereby you(the affiliate), earns a commission that is paid to you by a merchant as a result of a successful purchase by a customer from the merchant through your affiliate link that is embedded within your website.

Here is the business flow of an affiliate marketing model.

As you can see, you need a website to show your online presence. The success of it depends on a number of things. One of the key elements that one needs to do is follow good SEO or SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques, to get your site well ranked. Don’t  worry too much about that for now, later on, I will show you an amazing training platform that teaches you all this stuff and more.

One of the attractive things about affiliate marketing is that you do not need to buy or keep any stock to become a successful affiliate marketer.

You are merely directing people to affiliate merchants like Amazon and earn commissions thereof. There are other cool advantages to affiliate marketing, click on the link below to learn more.

⇒6 Awesome Advantages of Affiliate Marketing(With InfoGraphic)⇐

Let us dive into the 7 Facts about Affiliate Marketing.

 FACT 1 : Affiliate Marketing is a Business

I bet that when you hear success stories of folks making it big with affiliate marketing you pictured the following…

A  person sitting for a few hours by the computer, making some easy money and then going out for the day.

Take it from me, this perception could not be any further from the truth.

What you don’t see are the things that go on behind the curtains. Things like..

• Putting in long hours to building a website foundation,
• Applying for affiliate programs,
• Getting rejected by certain affiliate programs,
• Spending time doing research for an upcoming blog article,
• Waiting for your site to gain trust and authority with Google,

The truth is that affiliate marketing is a business. With any business, there is a degree of sacrifice, hard work, and patience that one needs to invest within the initial phases before it can come to life and sustain itself and ultimately support you.

So treat it like a business, nurture its growth and you will be rewarded at the end of the day.

FACT 2 : Your Affiliate Marketing Business is an Extension of Yourself

 

This may sound crazy but its true. When I say an extension of yourself, I mean it literally.I can testify that the people who have built their affiliate marketing business around their passions, interests or hobbies, have generated substantial incomes with a strong online presence.

This makes perfect sense. Let me explain why.

How easy would it be for you to buy from someone once they have earned your trust and you feel that they are knowledgeable and  have an authority about what they were selling to you? Probably more often than once.

This is the secret to success in affiliate marketing. Build a business around your passion or what you love and let the rest take care of itself.

Once people start seeing that you are there to give valuable information and not just out for taking their cash, they will start buying from you.

Another plus to building this business around your passions is that you would look forward to writing new material. Things will not feel like a burden or a mundane job as its something you know well and are familiar with.

FACT 3 : Affiliate Marketing Does Not Follow an MLM Model

Your success in affiliate marketing is NOT dependent upon the recruiting of members. You don’t need to sponsor people, you don’t have to understand complicated compensation plans and you don’t have to go door to door selling anything.

Your business is online and you have access to the world, which by the way is roughly around 3.4billion people. Your commission is paid to you by an affiliate merchant or vendor upon  a successful purchase by a customer.You don’t have to stock ANY products and worry about shipping or taking payments.

 

 

FACT 4 : You CAN Earn in more ways than One with Affiliate Marketing

The ultimate success of your affiliate marketing business is dependent upon you having a website of your own. Once you have your website and are going through the process of building your foundation, you will find that this ‘piece of internet real estate‘ opens up more doors for you in terms of earning potential.

What if I told you, that you can monetize your site using 6 different ways in addition to your primary affiliate niche website.

Your site can be built and more income streams can be incorporated using these methods:

• Amazon and Multiple Independent Affiliate Programs
• Google AdSense, Bing Ads and Amazon CPM
• An e-mail marketing campaign
• Selling your own e-book
• Developing your online course- recurring  monthly income potential
• Sponsored social media posts

Success will snowball eventually as your site grows and in time you would have built a solid passive income business.

Fact 5 : Affiliate Marketing is for Anyone but may not be for Everyone

In my instance, I am not a fan of the MLM business model. I don’t like recruiting, I don’t enjoy hosting sales parties and I certainly do not enjoy door to door selling. But that’s just me. You may enjoy it and there are some good MLM’s out there.

The same applies to affiliate marketing. Perhaps you don’t enjoy building  websites, or, something about affiliate marketing just doesn’t gel with you. That’s totally fine.

We all have varied interests, and different things will resonate with each one of us.

I chose affiliate marketing because it fits perfectly into my daily routine of things. It has flexibility which allows me to build my sites whenever I have spare time available.

I can work from anywhere, from my home, my mobile, my iPad or even whilst on holiday. I get to market my business to a larger audience and my income potential is therefore not limited, to say the least.

As I’ve mentioned before, go with what resonates with you. Within that same breath, I think that you should not just say NO to affiliate marketing if you have NOT tried it all.

Check out my review of this affiliate training platform called ‘Wealthy Affiliate.’ Its perfect for beginners and you get a full free 7 day trial into what their whole program is all about. You don’t even need your credit card. This way you will know whether the business is for you without having to risk anything at all.

⇒Learn More about Wealthy Affiliate Here⇐

FACT 6 : Affiliate Marketing is NOT Expensive to Start

In terms of price, you will find that starting an online business is way cheaper that starting up an offline business.

In fact, what if I tell you that you can start your very own affiliate marketing business for as little as a price of a cup of coffee a day, would you believe it?

Check out this link to see for yourself.

⇒How much Does it Cost to Start an Online Business?⇐

To be honest with you, one of the BIGGEST expenses in affiliate marketing is not even a monetary one. Any idea of what it could be?

Guess?

It is TIME.

Yes, one of the facts is that you will need to invest some of your time. Remember, you’re building a business that will one day sustain you. So, if you’re going to invest in it, give it your best shot.

FACT 7 : Affiliate marketing Is not HARD to Start

Let’s quickly take a look at what you need in order to start up an affiliate marketing business. Say for instance that you are brand new to the online world, this is what you would need to get yourself started…

(1) A Website of your Own

(2) A niche idea( in other words what you would like your business to be built around)

(3) Training and Tools

(4) Support and Mentorship

Now, your next question would be , “Where do I get all of these things?”

Relax, if it were that hard, then I would not have written this article in the first place. The answer is that you can get every single one of these essential ingredients, at one place. Through an awesome online platform that has been around for 12 years and has a member base of over 800 000 members!

Yes, folks, I mentioned it before, and it is worthwhile mentioning again. It’s called ‘Wealthy Affiliate’. As I said earlier on, as a FREE Starter member, you can trial these guys for 7DAYS ,no obligation, and no credit card needed. You also get two FREE websites for life!

There are loads of other amazing benefits about Wealthy Affiliate which you can learn more about by clicking on this link…

⇒Wealthy Affiliate all You Ever Need to Know⇐

Conclusion

Thanks so much everyone for joining me today. In my opinion, I think these facts about affiliate marketing are the main ones that folks need to know before they make a decision.

At the end of the day, you’re making a decision about investing in your future. It is my wish that you make it a good and prosperous one.

To your Success

Regards

Roopesh