If you’re wondering how difficult it is to make money with affiliate marketing you’re not alone. If you’ve ever investigated affiliate marketing at all, you’ll know there’s lots of affiliates waiting in the wings telling you that you can earn money in no time, with a simple flick of the wrist! Well, maybe not that easily, but you get the picture.
It’s obvious why many affiliates would embellish the truth here because they’re much more likely to receive a sale (and a commission) if they do so and their lead turns into a sale. In truth, some affiliates struggle much more than others. It’s difficult to know exactly how much affiliates actually struggle and how many have an easier time of it, and get fast results.
What I can tell you is my own personal journey in affiliate marketing. I’m just breaking the surface in terms of results too, so I’m no super affiliate either. But I’ve tried many strategies and some have been more successful than others. I’ve also made many mistakes and I can help you not make them and save a heap of time. See 23 affiliate mistakes newbie affiliates should avoid.
How Difficult Is Affiliate Marketing? My Affiliate Journey
My own personal affiliate marketing journey started around 10 years ago. I jumped from one strategy to another in a desperate attempt to earn some money from the internet. I have to say this is probably the worst strategy possible! Not only did I not know what I was doing, I kept doing this for a long time. It was a case of enthusiasm over experience. My saving grace was never giving up, but I’m sure any sensible person would have thrown in the towel long ago, based on the results I was getting!
I kept going because I knew the alternatives were not what I wanted. I didn’t have money to get started or pay for any training so I took to cheapest route possible, try and figure it all out alone.
One of the main things that changed for me over the years was joining an online community and getting the help I so desperately needed.
I also learned about using a different kind of business model. Before I joined The SFM, I wasn’t aware of the things I was doing that weren’t helping me. One of these was using products from Amazon which paid only 3-10% commissions. I was writing blogs and promoting books which really wasn’t helping me get anywhere. Both my traffic building and monetisation strategies were flawed!
As I learned through the training and mentorship offered through the back office, training seminars and live workshops, I realised I had been doing things in a very backwards way!
One of my major breakthroughs came just from the realisation that it was subscription affiliate programs which would lead to my first taste of real success online. With subscription products like memberships, software products and in particular digital products, not only could you earn 40-50% commissions on sales but you can also earn month after month from each sale.
The community at The SFM allows you to surround yourself with others on the same path. Without this you are very much alone as an affiliate marketer. You can connect with other members and arrange to meet up with them if they are nearby too. I found other members in the North of England and connected with them on local meet-ups.
Without all this support and just as important validation, that the business is real, my skepticism would have definitely got the better of me. Affiliate marketing is not that complicated, not really. It’s just that we are! We complicate affiliate marketing for a number of reasons: we don’t believe in ourselves, we don’t believe it’s possible, or we don’t believe it’s possible for us.
See why affiliate marketing does not work.
People fail at affiliate marketing for a number of reasons. It’s certainly no magic pill and you should come into it with your eyes open; not expecting money for nothing. You wouldn’t expect that in any other business but for some reason, (sometimes it’s the advertising), people expect to press a button and immediately make money.
For me, affiliate marketing was incredibly difficult at first. Some days I still fight with the computer but over time I have learned to control my mental state much more easily. I can see what strategies I have tried which work and those which don’t. Over time this allows you to focus on the best activities which work the best.
How Difficult Is Affiliate Marketing? Paid Marketing Vs. Content Marketing
If those activities are scalable ones, so much the better. If you have chosen to use paid marketing strategies, and they start working, you can scale up much more quickly than if you focus on content marketing strategies. I’ve seen people make much quicker progress than me, even if they were working a full time job!
The reason; they use paid marketing and scaled up when they saw it working. Content marketing is what I mostly used up to more recently when I have used some paid marketing strategies. I can definitely see why those with big budgets for marketing can make much faster progress than those who don’t have the dough.
Yes You Can Do This
What puts a lot of people off affiliate marketing is the belief that they simply can’t do it. It’s not true and anyone can learn how to make money through affiliate marketing. This is especially true today where you don’t need to be especially technically minded to learn and follow the basic steps needed to throw up a website, for example.
Website building programs (available through The SFM) allow you to build a site in minutes, not days! See the video below:
Patience & Tenacity
Patience & Persistance
If you’re not able to be patient or persistent, I wouldn’t recommend affiliate marketing. It’s a difficult process learning and growing and building your online business. Unless you’re invested in building a life around your online efforts, it’s going to be tough.
You need a reason to do it which is bigger than your impulse to quit! There’s a huge benefit for building a successful online business and you need to keep your eye on the prize! Ultimately it can offer you a passive income and a business model which can be automated and scaled up globally. However, you need to keep reminding yourself of this when it gets tough.
Not many business models can offer the kind of freedom and flexibility which comes with the affiliate marketing model. Most people want out of their current circumstances badly enough to work hard at it for long enough to produce the results needed for it to become sustainable.
I Can Help You!
Sometimes you just need a leap of faith to get started with a venture like an online business. I’m going to offer to help you if you take the step of purchasing the app today. The SFM “App”, or application allows you to access Module 1 of the SFM digital training back office. You can also access a consultant who can answer any questions you might have. The App is completely refundable so if within 30 days you feel it’s not for you, for any reason, you can get a full no quibble refund.
So there’s no reason not to start by taking a small leap of faith in the right direction today. Plus, I’m going to offer a personal Zoom call where I’ll answer any questions you might have and address any problems. Just mention this article after you purchase the App, and I’ll book a personal session with you.
