Is affiliate marketing profitable in 2024? As a full-time affiliate marketer, I can share with you real insights into this online business model.
The quick and short answer is yes, affiliate marketing is profitable. Affiliate marketing is not only a growing industry, but it also accounts for over 16% of all eCommerce orders in the USA and Canada. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the best ways for beginners to make money online.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a closer look into what makes affiliate marketing an appealing business to start.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
- Is affiliate marketing profitable? 5 Reasons to Start Now
- How to Start a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Business to Make Money
- Best Affiliate Program to Promote for Daily Commissions
Is Affiliate Marketing Profitable? – 5 Reasons to Start Now
Affiliate marketing is arguably one of the best ways to make money online. Let’s go over why affiliate marketing is profitable today, and why you should start now if you are considering it.
1. Affiliate Marketing Spending Continues to Grow Rapidly Each Year
In the U.S. alone, affiliate marketing spend is projected to grow from 5.4 billion in 2017 to 8.2 billion by 2022 according to statista.
This tremendous growth means there will be ample opportunity for newcomers to enter the affiliate marketing business. There will be more space to capture affiliate sales as consumer spending increases over time.
2. Affiliate Marketing Requires Little to No Money to Get Started
There are very few businesses you can start that require little to no money to get started. Affiliate marketing is one of them.
It’s a welcomed opportunity for beginners getting started online who want to test the waters, but without having to incur the risk of losing money.
Most affiliate programs are free to join, and some even provide you with free affiliate marketing training to help you make your first affiliate sale.
Generally a person that follows a guided course can make their first affiliate sale within days or weeks instead of months.
This means you can make a profit first without having to invest a single dime into your business.
3. Scale Your Business without Needing to Hire Employees
Affiliate marketing sales can be scaled these days without needing to hire employees.
By leveraging email marketing software and marketing funnels, any affiliate marketer can increase their income by simply using the latest online marketing technology.
These marketing tools essentially allow you to enlist an army of ‘online sales people’ to sell your affiliate offers, and even make suggestions of other affiliate offers.
Scaling your business without adding expensive overhead costs such as employees, is a sure fire way to keep more money in your pocket!
4. Work from Anywhere Using Only a Laptop and Internet Connection
By now, you’ve probably heard of or even know of people who run an online business that doesn’t require them to be based in any one location. An affiliate marketing business can create this sort of lifestyle for you.
The draw of the business is not only that affiliate marketing is profitable for those just getting started, but it can also be done from anywhere in the world.
Whether you desire to stay in one place or travel the world, as long as you have a laptop and internet connection, you can run an affiliate marketing business.
This is one of the reasons having an affiliate marketing business is worth it to me!
5. Promote Products that Sell Themselves
Affiliate marketing offers you a huge advantage compared to many other online business models. One such benefit is that you can choose to affiliate for any product, including popular trending items.
As an Amazon affiliate or Walmart affiliate, you can promote thousands of products from their site using your affiliate link. With the backing of these well known websites, the sales conversions are even higher for making immediate affiliate sales.
But this is not only confined to physical product sales.
You can also choose to promote hot-selling digital products, such as the ClickFunnels OFA Challenge. These higher paying affiliate sales can earn you $100 or more from just one single sale, as opposed to a few cents commission for an Amazon affiliate product sale.
Learn How to Build a Profitable Affiliate Website
(Free Step-by-Step Video Tutorials to Making Money with a Blog!)
How to Start a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Business to Make Money
The process to starting a profitable affiliate marketing business is simple. Below is a short guide for getting started today.
➡ Choose a Platform to Publish Content
This first step is the easiest one to get done.
Choose a platform where you can build a loyal following and promote your affiliate offers. This will serve as your informational hub.
With so many platforms to choose from, you can decide on one that suits your strengths the best.
For example, if you’re great on camera, then you may want to start a YouTube channel.
If you prefer to get information out by writing, then you can start a blog.
And if you feel more at ease off camera and behind the scenes, then starting a podcast can serve as your informational hub.
➡ Create Helpful Content that Solves a Problem
Making affiliate sales is more than just posting random affiliate links all over the internet.
Instead, you can use your informational hub as a place where people can come find helpful information that solves their specific problems.
Your affiliate offers should provide a solution to these problems for your audience. As you create more helpful content that serves your audience, they will begin to trust your recommendations of potential solutions.
Ultimately, the better you are able to serve your audience, the more affiliate sales you’ll be able to make!
➡ Build a Valuable Asset of Repeat Customers
Successful businesses have a rolodex of potential customers ready to buy a new offer presented to them. This valuable asset will provide you with income for years on end and is an important part to building a profitable affiliate marketing business.
One simple way to build a valuable asset of repeat customers is to capture the email addresses of your audience. This can easily be done with an email software tool.
This way, when you have a new affiliate offer, you can email your asset about it and make immediate sales. It’s about as close to printing money as you can get!
➡ Scale Your Business with Marketing Funnels
A marketing funnel is the equivalent to having a 24-hour online salesperson that never asks for a break or a raise!
These automated funnels provide the customer service needed to turn cold visitors from your informational hub into paying customers. They also have the ability to upsell your customer on other affiliate products based on their specific interest.
This means that an initial affiliate sale of say $20, can turn into an even bigger affiliate payout with your marketing funnel on the job.
Sounds almost too good to be true right?
You can try one out for free here and see for yourself how it works.
Best Affiliate Program to Promote for Daily Commissions
Not all affiliate programs are created equal.
This makes it especially important to choose the best affiliate programs that not only pay you a fair commission for your efforts, but that also convert well with your audience.
Personally, some of my best paying affiliate offers are the ones that pay me over and over again each month for a sale made one time. I curated a list of these recurring affiliate programs here.
But then there are other referral programs that convert so well that they provide you with a steady stream of daily commission checks.
Ibotta Referral Bonus
The iBotta referral program is one such program that provides me with daily commission checks.
For each new sign up that downloads the free app with your referral code and redeems an offer, you’ll earn a $10 iBotta referral bonus.
On occasion, I’ve earned upwards of $40 in iBotta referral money in a single day. I go into much more detail on how I’m able to drive tons of referral sales with iBotta in another post.
The iBotta referral program remains one of my favorite affiliate programs to promote due to the high number of referral sales it brings to me.
Update! Read how I’ve been able to make over $17, 636 with Ibotta!
Is Affiliate Marketing Profitable – My Final Thoughts
As a full-time affiliate marketer who earns daily commissions, I can tell you that yes, affiliate marketing is profitable.
The trend clearly shows that affiliate marketing spending is expected to grow over the next few years at an exponential rate. This should provide more of an incentive for newcomers to want to join now to ride the wave into the future.
Another article that may be of interest to you is how I’ve earned thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions with just one affiliate program.
So what are you waiting for?
Take this FREE affiliate marketing course and get started on your new online business today!
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