This is a question,” Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?” that has been raised by many. Why though has such a question been raised?
The world that we live today, requires that we all display some measure of caution, and that we be on guard and be vigilant. In this regard, asking whether affiliate marketing is legit, is an excellent question that must be addressed.
It has to be addressed because we don’t want you the reader, to join just any program, and be preyed on by unscrupulous individuals.
We are aware of some of your goals and objectives. One of them I am sure is for you to be able to provide adequately for yourself and family. We sincerely commend you for having such a noble goal.
And because you have heard of this business model affiliate marketing, you might even be seriously thinking of using affiliate marketing as the vehicle that will enable you to realize your goals.
But you are skeptical, because you don’t want to become a prey in the jungle of online business.
We therefore commend you for your cautionary approach, and for wanting to know if affiliate marketing is legit. In the final analysis, this will spare you the grief and pain that others might experience, because they failed to exhibit caution or failed to investigate.
But before we can attempt to answer the question “Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?” It will be best to broaden your knowledge and understanding of other aspect of affiliate marketing.
What Is Affiliate Marketing ?
It is an online sales method, which helps a product owner to boost sales. How? By permitting others to earn a commission by promoting their products or services, using unique link that is issued to the affiliate by the company or merchant.
It Is essentially a commission based referral system and performance based. That is, you are rewarded, by way of a commission, only when the agreed upon desired outcome is achieved.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
It is truly a simple concept. As an affiliate marketer, the goal is to make money online. In order for that to happen, one of the things that has to be done is joining an affiliate program, it could be a brand or an affiliate network.
After joining, you will be issued an affiliate link that is unique for tracking purposes. Your responsibility as an affiliate, is to promote your given link.
There are many places you can promote your affiliate link. You can promote the link on social media, YouTube videos, use paid traffic, blog post, email campaigns etc.
As you promote your link, and if a consumer clicks on your link and buys, the vendor or company pays you a commission for your efforts.
Affiliate marketing consist of three principal players: The consumer, the affiliate and the company.
What Does It Take To Be A Successful Affiliate?
With all honesty and sincerity, it takes much effort to be a successful affiliate marketer. It is not as easy as some have claimed it to be. But this does not also mean that it is impossible.
To be successful as an affiliate marketer, You have to view it, that is affiliate marketing as a business and treat it as such. Sadly though, some who come online to start an online business, do not view affiliate marketing as a business. How so ? They don’t take it seriously.
You though, must view it as a real business. You must realize that a business can only grow and flourish, if you devote time, resources, and energy to it, and do so consistently. And affiliate marketing is no different.
Therefore, in order for you to be successful as an affiliate, you must be willing to work very hard, and do so with determination and consistency.
Furthermore, as an affiliate marketer, you are going to face challenges in your business venture, However, you never want to take the easy way out, that is to quit. Successful people never quit, they are forward-looking and problem solvers.
You have to work hard and persistently to overcome any challenges that you might encounter, only then will success come your way.
You must also be willing to change your mental attitude. That success does not happen overnight, and therefore affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
View it as a journey, it is going to take time, patience and hard work before good things start happening.
Your Success Will Also Depend On Learning
Your success is also going to depend on, educating yourself in the art of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is truly an art or even a science that must be mastered. Without mastering the how tos of affiliate marketing, then success is going to be hard to come by.
We are not speaking about the traditional method of learning, that is getting a college education. Not only does this method of education, not equip you for success as an affiliate, but it is as you may be already aware, very expensive.
Happily, there are many online education platforms, that will equip you by providing you with the skills, know-how and training which will enable you to master the art of affiliate marketing. And this training will include the following but not limited:
- How to choose a niche
- How to choose an affiliate program
- How to build a niche website
- Doing seo and keyword research, to rank your website
- How to write quality content
Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing
There are several benefits of affiliate marketing. We are going to provide an overview of some of these benefits:
- It is cost-effective: Affiliate marketing is an extremely cost effective way to promote your business. There is no need to invest any money to get started and you don’t need to spend money on advertising or marketing. The draw back to not spending money on advertising is that your progress will be slow. But it does not mean that you won’t be successful.
- It is flexible: Affiliate marketing is a highly flexible way of promoting your products. You can work for example in the morning, in the afternoon, evening or at night. You can work as much or as little as you want and you can tailor your affiliate marketing strategy to fit your business goals and objectives.
- It is profitable: Affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable. You can often earn higher commissions than other forms of online marketing, and you can build a reliable and consistent income over time, and do so passively.
- It is widely available: Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of online marketing and almost any website can become an affiliate
- Work from home: You can work from the comfort of your own home, not subject to a tyrannical boss, because you are your own boss.
Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?
As was stated in a preceding paragraph, we mentioned that the question, is “Affiliate Marketing Legit?” is indeed an excellent question and must be addressed. It must be addressed, because the world of mankind seems to be digressing, going from bad to worst.
People are willing to hurt, harm and prey on others and take much delight in doing so. Hence, to prevent this from happening to you dear reader, we will undertake to answer the question is affiliate marketing legit?
Yes indeed, affiliate marketing is 100% legit. It is a respected business model that has been used for many years to help businesses increase their customer base.
And we are not only going to provide you with a yes answer and live it at that, but we will provide you with solid reasons as to why we could say that it is legit. Shall we start?
Affiliate marketing is a global industry with a net worth of $12 billion as of 2022. That is lots of money won’t you agree? And it has been mentioned by industry experts, that in the coming years, it will far surpass the $12 billion figure, as more and more people are now coming online to make their purchases.
And many companies whether small or large such as Walmart, Amazon etc have affiliate programs. Now, if affiliate marketing is not legit, don’t you think that governments around the world could have taken measures to shut down this industry?
But the fact that it is still in existence, flourishing and producing massive income is an indication that it is legit.
Some Statistics
Here are some statistics to further support the fact that affiliate marketing is legit.
According to ThriveMyWay:
- 74% of US consumers will consult several affiliate marketing websites before committing to a purchase
- In 2020 the term “affiliate marketing” saw a 44% increase in search traffic on Google
- 81% of affiliate marketing websites are selling products to customers
- In 2017, there were more than five billion clicks on affiliate marketing content
- In 2017 there were more than 170 million transactions worldwide that were generated by affiliate marketing
- 80% of merchants have allocated more than 10% of their budget to affiliate marketing
- The retail sector makes up about 43% of all affiliate marketing sales.
What should these stats help us to appreciate? That affiliate marketing is a main stream industry, and therefore it is legit.
Further, Reasons
Here are further reasons why affiliate marketing must not be viewed as illegal but rather legit.
One of the best thing about affiliate marketing, is that it is unbelievably transparent. It requires the affiliate marketer to be upfront and sincerely honest. You know exactly what you are getting into, and how much you will earn. You don’t have to worry about hidden fees or unexpected cost.
And another reason for the transparency is that it is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. This means that affiliate marketers must abide by certain laws and regulation. The reason for this, is to protect consumers from fraudulent or deceptive marketing practices.
Hence, disclosure of all relevant information, website visitors might need to make a good buying decision, such as Proper On-Page Disclosure, Dedicated Policy Page, Useful Data and Content Information must be made available to all.
So then, based on what that has been discussed so far, we can again clearly see that, affiliate marketing is legit won’t you agree?
Here Are Few More Reasons
Affiliate marketing is one of the few online marketing methods that can be tracked and measured accurately. This means that you can track the success of your campaigns, and utilize the data to optimize your approach
It is a legitimate way to earn money online. We mentioned in a previous paragraph, that it is global in scope, and it affords the opportunity to millions worldwide to make money, because there is a huge market for affiliate products and services, and growing every day.
Truly, affiliate marketing is a legit business model.
Affiliate Marketing Is Legit But There Are Scammers.
Affiliate marketing is a legitimate way for anyone to make serious money online. However, even though the fact has been established that it is legit, one has to be cautious and careful, because the system has been infiltrated by the “bad” and “ugly” affiliates, known as scammers.
Their goal or design is to callously inflict pain and suffering on the innocent, by cheating and stealing. By their deceptive, dishonest and fraudulent practices, these are tarnishing the good reputation of a flourishing and prosperous industry.
We all have an obligation and a responsibility, not to allow ourselves to become prey to any of their wicked schemes, and make sure that such ones are weeded out, and sent to where they rightly belong.
So before you join any affiliate program, give out any important information and make a purchase online, it is highly recommended that you seriously do your due diligence. Take the time to research the company and the person you intend to do business with.
We don’t want you to be a victim of scammers who take much delight in destroying the lives of others.
Source: Metrobank
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Here is an overview as to how you can make money online with affiliate marketing. These are the steps:
- Choose an interest or a niche
- Build a niche website
- Get rankings and visitors
- Earn revenue- sell stuff that people want
I have written extensively on this topic in by other blogs. They will be of much help to you. Also, you can benefit much from the Wealthy Affiliate platform. This platform will help you to become a successful affiliate, if you avail yourself of the excellent training, classes and community support that it provides.
I have received much help, and I continue to use this platform to learn and grow by own business. And Wealthy Affiliate will do the same for you.
They will teach you everything you need to know about making money online, and do so with clarity and simplicity.
Conclusion
In this blog, “Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?” We mentioned that affiliate marketing is a legitimate way to make money online. It was also stated that it is cost-effective, flexible, easy to set up, and highly track able.
Furthermore, we mentioned that it is regulated by the FTC and transparent, so you know exactly what you are getting into.
Even though it was stated that affiliate marketing is legit, we advised that one has to still be cautious, because the industry has been infiltrated by scammers, who take delight in preying on the innocent. And we stated few things that you can do to protect yourself.
Finally, we said that your success is going to depend on your willingness to learn and work hard.
Hope you found this article to be helpful and beneficial.
May I also request a favor from you? Can you please share this blog with others so that they too can benefit from it? Also, should you see areas as it relate to this blog, that you feel I need to make improvements, please leave me a comment.
Sincerely.
Sten