Affiliate marketing was all the rage when blogging first started and even now it’s toted as a magical way to earn passive income without having to put in much work (here are other ways to do that).
I want to set a realistic expectation for new online entrepreneurs as to what affiliate marketing is actually like, including some of the ugly aspects.
1. Don’t build your business around it (here’s why)
One thing that I’ve noticed about new companies is that they’re happy to have affiliates in the beginning to get to a “growth stage,” but after they get past that stage, they are far less likely to continue support for the program.
I’m not going to name the company, but I recently was notified about the cancelation of an affiliate program that was generating me serious dependable income. Just like that. With very little notice.
Companies don’t realize bloggers or influencers depend on this income for a living. The links that I’ve generated thus far won’t count to any sales, even though they are driving traffic to the company and leading to conversions.
Now, the company has said they are thinking of starting the program again towards the end of the year, but who’s to say.
You can’t depend solely on affiliate income or other businesses. If this happened to me and I had a family or bigger responsibilities, I could be in deeper trouble.
The safest route in the long run is to create your own products, services, and assets. If you’re a part of multiple high earning affiliate programs, that’s another diversification route.
2. Be skeptical of new companies, even if they seem legit
The startup world is extremely perilous. Companies are going to fail, get in legal trouble, or simply go out of business.
When a company first starts, they’re going to be all excited to have you write about them, link to them, or mention them in any way. But, over time, I’ve noticed that many of the companies I’ve linked to in the past are simply no longer in existence, which hurts my SEO.
I’ll tell you a warning story. I started marketing some digital products for a company in my industry about a year ago. I have a good audience, so I was seeing sales over the course of the year.
I did receive one payment from the company and I ended up racking up about $1,000 worth of affiliate commissions that I was due.
But..they weren’t being paid out. I kept emailing, tweeting, and messaging the company. I thought this was a respected company in the industry.
I started digging more, and even some of the customers who bought the product didn’t receive it. What!?!?
After I threatened to write a negative review, the company finally responded, but it’s been about 6 months since that reply and I’m convinced I will never see this money. Not only that, it seems like they have horrible customer service. I wouldn’t want to receive money if the actual customers didn’t get the product.
I’m going to be writing a horrible review of them, but I learned my lesson. Don’t put too much energy into an affiliate program unless you’re sure of the trustworthiness of the company.
3. Don’t expect magical riches
While yes, some bloggers out there are making huge sums from affiliate programs, they also have very big audiences and the exact product-audience fit for a high earning product.
When I first got started, these were the affiliate programs that I was aware of:
I tried to create content around key products, and none of it worked terribly well. I was far too monetization focused.
What HAS worked for me is to focus 100% on creating great content, and then later, monetizing that content. I’ll go back in my archives, see which posts are seeing good engagement, and then figure out ways to monetize that post. I treat each article, video, or podcast as an individual asset that can be monetized in a different way.
I think that this is a better approach. The classic newbie mistake is to try to market your entire blog, website, podcast show, or youtube channel. It makes far more sense to concentrate on one bit of content, market that, and figure out how to best monetize it.
The other thing I’d like to say on this point of “magical riches” is that while yes, it does feel pretty magical to just have money deposited in your bank account without having to ship a product, it’s not going to be huge sums in the beginning. You’re going to be building up multiple streams of income from different programs. You also must find the products that are the best fit for your audience.
Finally, riches must come from somewhere. You should value each individual person in your audience to the highest level possible. These are the people that are actually deciding to buy a product, based on your recommendation.
4. Don’t listen to the company you work with
When you join an affiliate marketing program, the company is going to provide you with assets, including banner ads, suggested text, and recommended messaging.
Most of the time, you should just ignore it. YOU know your audience better than them. You know how to speak to them, what they do or don’t pay attention to, and messaging that resonates with them.
Obviously, some companies do know what they’re doing when it comes to crafting compelling copywriting or advertising imagery, but most don’t.
I think that I had this realization when I was on the phone with an employee at one of the companies I was working with and it was quite clear, given my experience in the area, that they had NO idea what they were doing or talking about. They were probably recently hired.
But, if I was a beginning marketer, I might take that person’s recommendations seriously and it would lead to lackluster results.
Yes, listening to how the company has marketed the product previously is going to be helpful, but it doesn’t mean you need to follow their advice.
5. Don’t just follow the crowd
You’re going to see some internet marketer or blogger making thousands of dollars with Amazon, like Darren Rowse, and then you’re going to spend the next 3 months trying to make money with Amazon.
You’re going to see another person making thousands with BlueHost’s affiliate program or another hosting provider (here’s a list of them). Then, you’re going to spend another 6 months trying to make money that way.
Ultimately, I think that success in affiliate marketing comes from serving a tribe or niche and then later figuring out products or services that they’d like.
Whenever you think about “making money,” you’re likely to be met with disappointment, frustration, and you’ll probably end up spending thousands of dollars on courses or masterminds that don’t produce results.
But, that’s my experience with affiliate marketing, what yours?