How old do you have to be for affiliate marketing? While there is no age limit set for affiliates, many programs will require you to be 18 years old to join. Some affiliate programs allow under 18’s to join, but you may also still need a valid PAN number and a bank account to get paid. Without a valid bank account you may also be able to get paid through a credit card or Paypal account. Paypal requires you to be 18 years old to legitimately open an account and this applies to credit card companies too.
If you can, enlist the help of a parent or guardian to sort out the payment factor where needed. But many programs allow you to join them without needing to be over the age of 18. Amazon affiliates is an example, and anyone can join regardless of age (*at time of writing).
How Old Do You Have To Be For Affiliate Marketing?
The good news is that you can start learning affiliate skills regardless of your age. It can take some time to build up an affiliate business to be profitable. So, if you’re under 18 and already looking at affiliate marketing as an option, time is definitely on your side!
There’s many successful affiliates who are teens, so it shows it can be done. Teens are often well ahead as affiliates because they know how to communicate online. Those who have built huge followings through TikTok, YouTube and other social media platforms are best placed to be successful with affiliate marketing. Influencers with large followings are those who become successful affiliates.
Do I need a following for affiliate marketing? You don’t have to start out with a following to become successful as an affiliate. Anyone can learn and more and more people are becoming affiliate marketers.
Successful affiliates have learned how to connect with people and direct them to products and services online to make money from referrals.
How Old Do You Have To Be For Affiliate Marketing? Platforms
Many of the online platforms which affiliates use have a limited age restriction. YouTube, for example requires you to only be 13 years old for an account. Blogger.com has the same age limit for access to their free blog platform. Hubpages.com is the same. Its age limit is 13 years old for users of the site. The same is true of Facebook and Instagram.
Joining a platform and creating content is something which teens will often do, regardless of whether they become affiliates or not! Becoming an affiliate can be a natural progression from having already created an online presence. If you’re struggling to join certain programs because of an age restriction, or if your payment setup is a problem, consider building your online presence instead.
The main problem for affiliates is often traffic. But to make sales online you need visitors/traffic. Without traffic affiliates don’t make any money. It’s the most important ingredient in affiliate marketing. Since most online publisher platforms are easily accessible to anyone, regardless of age, it’s a good place to start. YouTube, TikTok, Blogger.com, Hubpages.com are all accessible to anyone over 13.
Choosing A Niche
If you’re new to affiliate marketing you may not yet have heard the idea of choosing a niche? A niche is simply a specific topic in which you will be creating most of your content. It’s important to find a niche you can focus on because your content will be driving traffic. If that traffic is focused and specific, you can more easily monetise it with specific affiliate products. If you wander around from one topic to another, it can be difficult to define your audience and therefore monetise it with appropriate products.
Your niche is an important part of becoming an affiliate marketer. Affiliates promote other people’s products to earn commissions based on product referrals. Without a specific focus, it’s easy to fail as an affiliate because it is harder to channel your content towards a specific product.
Getting clear on your niche as an affiliate is worth taking some time over. Top affiliates have a clearly specified purpose and “mission”. This is all the more powerful if you can find a purpose within your affiliate marketing business. A deeper reason and purpose behind what you do will mean:
- You’ll stay driven and purposeful for longer – giving yourself a better chance of success
- You are able to influence more people if you’re inspired, and therefore inspiring.
- You can enjoy the process while you develop yourself and your content.
If you hate every minute of your affiliate journey, chances are good that you’ll drop out before things start happening for you! If you are aligned with a deeper purpose and mission, you’re much more likely to stay the course and create success.
Summary
Anyone can become an affiliate marketer whatever their age; although certain programs will require you to be 18 years as a minimum. You also will need to arrange payment too. This might be a barrier if you’re unable to accept certain payment methods. Paypal, for example requires a minimum age limit of 18 to use the platform; and this payment method is used by certain programs. Ideally find someone over 18 who can help you with the payment setup, which may require a credit card or bank account.
Amazon lets anyone join their program regardless of age. However, you still need to set up a payment method via bank account.
In terms of affiliate activities, regardless of whether you join a program, you can still learn the skills required for affiliate marketing. Affiliates use various platforms to build content such as:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Blogger.com
- Hubpages.com
- etc.
These platforms require only that you are 13 years of age to join. Join a platform and start creating content to build views. The traffic you generate can be used to sell your affiliate products; even if it’s at a later date. Paid for platforms such as Google Ads have an age limit of 18, so they may be harder to access if you’re under this age.