Is Affiliate Marketing Saturated in 2024? How to Succeed When You Think You Can’t

Starting an affiliate marketing business a few years back was one of the best decisions I’ve made in recent memory. 

The opportunities back then were abundant and things went as smoothly as I had hoped they would. This was despite facing stiff competition.

A lot of time has passed since then. 

New affiliate marketers coming onto the scene now may be wondering, “Is affiliate marketing saturated in 2024?” and “How competitive is affiliate marketing?”

The truth of the matter is that affiliate marketing was already saturated when I first got started. Yet, I didn’t let that stop me from finding a way to success, and it shouldn’t hold you back either.

Once you dig deep and find the belief in yourself, the other variables to making money in saturated and unsaturated affiliate marketing niches comes down to a few simple tactics.

Is Affiliate Marketing Saturated?

Affiliate marketing is not saturated, at least not in all affiliate niches. Everyday you hear about beginner affiliate marketers finding success and capitalizing on the $17 billion dollar affiliate marketing industry.  

It may seem challenging now but once you know the tactics to overcome the competition, you’ll find there’s a tried and true road to success.

These next tips I’ll be sharing with you come from my personal experience of learning by doing. The most important thing to remember is that you are always in control.

• You control how much time and effort you put into your business.

• You control the amount of learning you do each day to develop your skill set

• You control the circle of friends you spend time with who will either motivate or discourage you from reaching your goals.

• You control your thoughts about how highly you think of yourself

Trust yourself enough to know that with enough will and desire, truly anything is possible.

Succeeding in Saturated Affiliate Marketing Niches

Saturated affiliate marketing niches such as health and wellness, love and relationships, and money making side hustles are some of the toughest niches to break into.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do. 

It simply means that the ‘cookie-cutter’ way of doing things generally taught in many affiliate courses simply doesn’t work well in saturated niches.

For instance, when affiliate marketing first became popular in the late 90’s, having a niche affiliate blog with tons of keyword stuffing and SEO-based articles on Google was all you needed to make affiliate sales. 

It didn’t matter which niche you were in.

These days, Google weighs niche sites differently and recommends a ‘people first content’ approach versus ‘search engine first content’ approach. This along with the inception of the ‘E-E-A-T’ guidelines means that new affiliate bloggers will face an uphill battle when trying to rank for competitive niche keywords. 

To break through this barrier, you have to do things differently.

If starting an affiliate blog, establish your expertise first before going for the so-called ‘money keywords’ such as ‘XYZ Product Review.’

This can mean answering informational search queries as your first few blog posts, writing guest blog posts on relevant websites, as well as writing well researched content vs low quality content.

If you prefer not to start an affiliate blog, then use these other methods to make affiliate sales in saturated niches:

• Pin affiliate links on Pinterest Idea Pins – Pinterest affiliate marketing has long been overlooked, leaving room for beginners to capitalize on the platform’s traffic. Pinterest also recently launched new programs, including Idea Pins, for affiliate marketers to earn even more money on the platform.

• Earn On-Site Commissions with an Amazon Storefront – Apply to become an Amazon Influencer to earn Amazon on-site affiliate commissions. This is a fast way to make affiliate sales as a lifestyle, home and decor, or beauty niche affiliate. It’s by far the easiest way to earn affiliate commissions overall right now.

• YouTube Affiliate Marketing – A good chunk of my current affiliate sales comes from doing YouTube affiliate marketing. The big opportunity there is that YouTube videos can rank on Google within 24 hours and can even rank above blogs for competitive keywords.

• TikTok Reels – The new generation of content consumers, the Gen Z’s, are turning to TikTok as their new search engine of choice. Even Google has acknowledged this trend. Affiliate marketers who can create engaging TikTok reels have the opportunity to build instant audiences on the newest and most popular social media platform!

I’ve used all these methods, except for creating TikTok reels, to make affiliate sales in the highly saturated ‘make money online niche.’ Don’t let a little market saturation keep you from earning money in niches where plenty of people are already buying!

Beginners in Unsaturated Affiliate Niches – How’s It Done?

Some affiliate niches offer less competition and can be much easier to break into. Though some of the drawbacks to this can be a smaller pool of potential buyers and not enough affiliate offers to promote. Nonetheless, it’s still a strategy that many affiliates use to make money with affiliate marketing.

If that’s your preferred method then you can always use keyword research tools such as Ahrefs to find website niche ideas that are less saturated. It may take some time to find a golden egg, but once you do, you can build a content marketing strategy around it.

There’s another method I’d like to offer up if you want an easier way to make money as a beginner affiliate marketer. The method is called ‘launch jacking affiliate offers.’

Launch Jacking Affiliate Offers

Launch jacking in this case involves riding on the coattails of a new offer that’s just about to launch. These offers are some of the easiest to earn money since there’s little to no content online yet about the product.

As an affiliate, you can ride off the buzz of the new product launch and be one of the first to create content for it. As people begin to search for information online, your content can be one of the first they come across.

There are entire Facebook groups dedicated to launch jacking affiliate offers. Search for these groups and request to join if you want to discover new affiliate products to promote with little competition.

Is Affiliate Marketing Saturated – Final Thoughts

Affiliate marketing is a growing industry with new beginner affiliate marketers finding success every single day. They are doing this in saturated niches and in unsaturated niches.

In my case, I do not regret beginning my affiliate marketing journey in the saturated ‘make money online’ niche. It’s proven to be a very profitable venture. 

To that extent, I would never discourage anyone from diving into niches where there is already competition. 

That simply means there’s lots of money to be made in the niche! Go get yourself a piece of it!