Who is affiliate marketing for? Anyone can become an affiliate marketer and people start learning affiliate marketing from all kinds of backgrounds. Top affiliates are often influencers with popular channels on YouTube and large numbers of followers. But that doesn’t mean you need a large following to start doing affiliate marketing. Anyone can learn affiliate marketing and it’s a very accessible business model.
To become successful with affiliate marketing you need a strong desire to succeed and a willingness to stick with it over the longer term. Affiliate marketing is definitely not a get rick quick scheme but rather a genuine business model which rewards product referrals. As a performance based business, many people from a sales background make good affiliates. But you don’t have to be a sales person in order to do affiliate marketing.
Affiliates can join program with existing sales materials and focus on activities which they enjoy, rather than focusing on selling, if they don’t consider themselves as “sales’y” people!
Who Is Affiliate Marketing For? Anyone Who Wants More Time, Freedom & Control
Anyone who wants more time, freedom and control over their life might find affiliate marketing fits the bill. Affiliate marketing can give you more autonomy, independence and the ability to live life on your own terms. So if you find working for a boss, or in a job you hate, undesirable, as many do, you may want to learn how to become an affiliate.
However, this counts for a huge amount of the population and a recent Gallop poll showed that as many as 85% of people are dissatisfied in their jobs/careers.
Can affiliate marketing be the answer for so many? Well probably not in fact because around 95% of affiliate marketers will quit. See affiliate marketing failure rate.
Affiliate marketing is after all a business. If you don’t make any sales as an affiliate, you don’t earn any money. That’s why so many drop out because they don’t make any sales early on. But if they stuck at it, would it work for them?
Who Is Affiliate Marketing For? Entrepreneurial People
Many new businesses fail too and selling affiliate products is a business like the others. The main difference with affiliate marketing is that nearly anyone can “have a go”. This “have a go” mentality combined with ease of entry perhaps explains the massive drop out rate. Most people don’t know what it takes to build an online business. When it doesn’t go as planned, they quit. Why is it that affiliate marketing does not work for these people, and who is affiliate marketing really for?
The top affiliate marketers have been at it for years, not months. Most people believe they can accomplish a lot in a short time earning online, but forget what is possible over a few years. I think this is why a lot of affiliates drop out. See also how much does the average affiliate marketer make.
Beginner affiliates start with zero traffic, and this can be tough. Months of work may not materialise as cash in the bank. But affiliate marketing is much like the Chinese Bamboo tree which takes 4-5 years of gestation period before growing 90 feet in 5 weeks! While affiliates can see income quite quickly, most affiliates will experience some set backs in the early months. This is where many will quit, believing that it doesn’t work.
You Need A “Why?”
In order to overcome the difficulties within the affiliate marketing business model, you need a strong desire to succeed. This comes from your main reason for starting an affiliate business – your “why?”. Without a strong enough “why”, you’ll never figure out the “how”, and likely you’ll join the 95% who drop out.
Many affiliates will start because they have been made redundant, hate their work, or are looking for a new challenge, or they just want another income source. I started as an affiliate back in the early 2000’s because I was struggling making ends meet with a stunt career I had chosen! See my about me page.
I wanted a way to work in my own time which would eventually give me an independent income so I didn’t need to keep doing all the jobs I was doing. I used to fill in between stunt contracts with many temp jobs since my stunt work was sporadic and limited. And I was sick of it! That was my “why”!
What’s your Why?
Can I Become An Affiliate?
Anyone can become an affiliate marketer. You only need a strong desire to learn and to be able to work on it consistently. You don’t need your own products or to deal with customers directly. Much of the technical side of an affiliate business is taken care of with software and technology which takes the difficulty out of building an online business. People can learn at any age too. However, building an online business is not easy! It can take some time to generate a consistent income and it’s not for the faint of heart!
Some affiliates have built large businesses within a year, but this isn’t typical. Most affiliates will take longer, depending on the business model they use and their marketing strategy.
If you’re interested in becoming an affiliate marketer, the best thing you can do is educate yourself. All your actions will be built on your understanding so with a greater understanding you should be a more effective affiliate.
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