Is Affiliate Marketing Still Worth It in 2024: Here’s Our Take
Affiliate marketing used to be highly popular in the past. Everyone was talking about it, and it was an extremely effective way to create additional streams of revenue and generate a passive income.
But, in recent years, some people have started claiming that affiliate marketing is dead – and that you should start to look for other sources of income.
However, who should you trust? And how can you know what’s true?
In this post, you’ll discover our take on affiliate marketing, whether it’s still worth it, and see real-time, unbiased data that back up all of our claims.
“Affiliate Marketing Is Dead”
You might have heard that affiliate marketing is slowly dying (if it’s not dead already).
There are a lot of blog posts about it…
…and a handful of social media posts from influencers.
However, is that just a common opinion, or a truth backed up by facts?
We decided to look into the actual data, and scrutinize our affiliate earnings in the last few months to provide you with the most honest and unbiased opinion.
The Number of Searches
The first thing we checked was the number of searches conducted for the keyword the phrase “affiliate marketing”.
As you can see, there is a 335% increase in the last few years.
Spending Forecast
We also see a positive trend in the spending forecast for affiliate marketing.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
Here’s The Final Proof…
81% of brands use affiliate marketing programs, while 54% of marketers ranked affiliate marketing as the #1 source of new customers.
Source: Blogger Passion
Affiliate marketing is not dead!
Instead, it’s actually on the rise, and now is the best time to get on the affiliate marketing train and start generating a stable passive income stream.
When Should You Consider Affiliate Marketing?
Of course, affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone (and certainly not for those who claim it’s dead). You’ll certainly never get far if you’re just looking for quick cash and:
- Expect overnight success
- Promote poor-quality products
- You don’t comply with the regulations
Instead, here are some of the instances when you should consider affiliate marketing.
#1: You’re Passionate About the Topic/Product
You might not see results in just a few months. In fact, it takes around an average of 20 months to start making money with a blog.
If you’re not passionate about it, you might not see the results right away – and quit (as so many do).
You will also have more motivation and work longer hours if you’re passionate about it. Your work will also get better. This is because you’ll love what you do! That’s one of the main reasons why 27% of bloggers start earning money from blogging within just 6 months.
#2: You’re an Expert in the Niche/Product
If you’re an expert in your niche, you already have a competitive advantage:
- You can create better, more in-depth content
- You have a personal experience with using a product or service
This can help you create high-quality content that is superior to that being produced by your competitors. And it’s this difference that will massively help you attract a significant volume of traffic in only a couple of months.
Looking to Maximize Your Chances of Breaking Through?
We’re here to help you!
The Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin (AAWP) is designed specifically to help Amazon affiliates make the most of their affiliate journey – and maximize commissions.
It offers a ton of handy tools and features that will help you customize your affiliate ads for the very best results, to help you stand out and get noticed (and get better results).
With AAWP you can easily create Bestsellers, New Releases, Product boxes, and so much more.
These features will allow you to not only get the attention of potential customers, but also separate you from other affiliate marketers.
Get started with AAWP today and create a winning affiliate website right now.
#3: You Already Have an Audience/Traffic
The most difficult task of affiliate marketing is getting traffic to your affiliate products. But if you already have a decent amount of traffic, you’ll already be ahead. This might be either a high number of followers on your social media accounts, or tons of traffic to your blog…
Either way, you can monetize the traffic by promoting affiliate links on your social media or blog, and make a lot of money.
#4: You Sell Complimentary Products
If you’re selling products already, you might take advantage of affiliate marketing, and create a better shopping experience for your customers. All you have to do is to find affiliate products that will complement your existing products.
For instance, if you’re selling laptops, you might add bags or mice as affiliate products.
This can have a huge impact on your revenue…
In fact, just doing this has increased the average order value (AOV) by 10% – 30% for e-commerce businesses.
You Also Need the Right Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to create a passive income.
But if you’re looking to make the most out of it, it’s vital that you choose the right affiliate program from the start.
We highly recommend choosing the Amazon Associates affiliate scheme.
It was the world’s first online affiliate program – and it’s the biggest one in the market by far. It’s also extremely easy to set up and use, making it a great choice for beginners.
Amazon Associates packs a huge arsenal of useful features.
Here are some of our favorite things about Amazon’s affiliate program.
- Easy linking. You’ll get access to the SiteStrip tool, which is a banner at the top of every product page that will give you linking options for that product.
- Resource center. Amazon offers a large resource center with tutorials and tips to help you succeed as an Amazon Associate, and is very easy to follow.
- Banners. Create banners to advertise product categories, or promote a special event or sale, such as Mother’s Day.
However, although it’s true that Amazon does provide the ability to create product listings, they can appear fairly basic, which is why we recommend enhancing them by using our AAWP tool.
With AAWP you can transform your Amazon affiliate listings from the image on the left to the one on the right:
It’s fairly easy to see which advert is likely to be clicked on more often!
Of course, whilst Amazon is the biggest and most popular affiliate scheme, there is no one single “best” affiliate program – everyone has different needs.
The Pros & Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has a lot of pros and cons. It’s essential you learn about them, so you can decide whether it’s the industry you want to become involved with.
The Pros:
1.
No Physical Products/Services
The biggest advantage of affiliate marketing is that there are no physical products. In fact, you’re not selling anything – you’re just making commissions.
This is great because it alleviates a lot of issues, such as:
- Creating an online store
- Shipping products
- Handling refunds
There is also no inventory, so you don’t have to worry about running out of stock.
2.
No Clients You Need to Rely On
You don’t risk losing a client (and all your revenue) like most freelancers.
This is because you “own” the audience, so even if the affiliate program you chose closes down, you can just hop on another one. This gives you a lot of stability and reliability, and secures your income.
3.
Work Your Own Hours
This pro is especially useful if you’re used to your 9-to-5 job. You will no longer have a boss – you are your own boss. You set your hours, where you work, and when you don’t.
If you can scale it up enough, you might enjoy more free time doing what you love.
Note: Of course, some people need a boss. If they don’t have one, they don’t know what to do, or slack off too much. Make sure to prevent that!
4.
Very Low Startup Cost
Affiliate marketing is not a high-risk industry since you don’t have to worry about losing tons of money.
In fact, all you need to start your affiliate marketing journey is:
- A computer
- A hosting plan
- A domain
- A website
That’s it. It will only cost you a few bucks to get started.
However, this isn’t always a good thing. For some people, this low risk makes them less invested in their affiliate business, and are also more prone to give up on it. Fortunately, if this isn’t you, you might get ahead of these people and become successful.
The Cons:
1.
Affiliate Marketing Takes Time
Affiliate marketing takes time to both learn and see results.
This is not one of those “quick cash” schemes. If you’re not looking to commit to something for years ahead, we don’t recommend it. You will also have to invest a significant amount of time from the beginning, since you’re usually a one-person team:
- Marketer
- Copywriter
- Content writer
- SEO specialist
However, you can also look at it as a challenge, and use your experience as a solo affiliate marketer to become more well-rounded. All of these roles combined will give you valuable experience which you will be able to use in almost every area of your life.
2.
High Competition
The popularity of affiliate marketing is rising, as we said earlier. Unfortunately, this also means that the competition will get greater and greater – making it more difficult to thrive.
In fact, in some niches, securing that coveted #1 position can seem near impossible.
For the biggest, most competitive terms, you’ll often see 7 or 8 of the top 10 rankings taken by giant companies with 100k+ monthly traffic.
You’ll often need to find less competitive niches and keywords to try to rank for.
How to Choose the Right Affiliate Marketing Niche
It’s essential you choose a niche that is highly profitable, so you can make a bigger profit in a short period of time.
Unfortunately, most people often confuse the terms ‘niche’ and ‘industry’.
If you look for the highest-earning blog niches, you’ll get a graphic containing these “niche” examples.
Source: RankIQ
However, these are not niches – rather they are industries.
A niche is a smaller part of an industry. For instance, if you choose a food industry, your niche might be:
- Vegan pet food
- Dairy-free weight loss diets
- Healthy Middle Eastern cuisine food
As you can see, all of these are highly specific.
Focusing on only a tiny portion of a huge industry will help you separate yourself from competitors who target the whole industry.
Moreover, you’ll also be able to provide more in-depth information and rank higher. Plus, the competition is SUPER-LOW for ultra-specific niches. For instance, let’s take a look at the competitiveness of the “food” industry.
There are 362 million blogs.
Now if we dig a little deeper and choose a more specific part/niche of the food industry, we get to 15.7 million blogs – which is way lower than it was.
You can continue this process, focusing on a more specific portion of the industry…
…and as you can see, we are all the way down to 8 results.
Now this is your opportunity to start your blog and make a lot of money. We highly advise you to do the same within your chosen industry.
However, before you jump in, full of excitement, we recommend that you check whether:
- You’re passionate about/skilled with the niche topic. That way, you can provide real-life experience and expert advice, which will make your content stand out.
- There is a clear monetization strategy. There are products you can sell, affiliate programs you can hop on, or other monetization strategies.
- There is low competition. The niche you choose should have low competition, so you’re able to get traffic early on.
- There is decent traffic. Some niches might not have enough traffic to drive revenue and help you make money.
Ready to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Journey?
Affiliate marketing is by no means DEAD.
Instead, it’s rising in popularity and becoming a hot trend to make a lot of money and build a passive stream of income. However, it’s not for everyone – and if you’re looking for a quick cash scheme, you should look elsewhere.
It’s a long process that requires a lot of effort and perseverance. But the results are definitely worth it. With a rise in popularity, there is also a massive increase in competition.
And that’s what we’re here to help you with!
AAWP is our WP plugin designed specifically to help Amazon affiliates make the most of their affiliate journey – and maximize commissions. We offer a ton of essential tools and features that will help you customize your affiliate ads for the best results.
These features will allow you to not only get the attention of potential customers but also separate you from other affiliate marketers.
Get started with AAWP today and create a winning affiliate website right now.
Start now with AAWP!
AAWP is the #1 WordPress plugin for Amazon affiliates who are serious about earning more. Get started today!