Is Affiliate Marketing a Real Business – Now Boldly Work Home?
Owning an online business is the dream of many people. The good news is that just about anyone can have an online business career with affiliate marketing. I can see your gears turning! You’re thinking, is affiliate marketing a real business? Yes, it absolutely is!
In the simplest terms, affiliate marketing is where you promote merchants’ products for a paid commission. If you are confused about affiliate marketing, see here for a full explanation about how affiliate marketing works.
I know people who are suffering from disabilities and they have careers with online affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is an opportunity for college students, people with disabilities, stay-at-home-moms, or anyone for that matter. It can be a part-time or full-time business. A good affiliate training platform can show you how to build a business home.
Take control of your life!
If you are tired of that 9 to 5 grind of working only to help someone else make money, then affiliate marketing is the perfect alternative to having a conventional job. Working for yourself allows you so much more freedom to explore your own ideas.
You get to work from home and no longer have to endure the heavy rush hour traffic commuting to the work place. Start up funding is a very small amount; probably less than a hundred dollars!. You will only need a desktop computer or a laptop and a small work area that you can call your own.
What is the Earnings Potential?
Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous people out there that take advantage of those who are trying to earn additional money so they can taste the financial freedom that others have.
So called “Gurus” have swindled hard working people (including myself) out of thousands of dollars, thereby causing affiliate marketers to have a bad reputation. I guess there are a few bad apples in every bunch. But, the majority of affiliate marketers are honest, hard-working people running legitimate businesses.
Most people wonder if anyone can truly make money online with affiliate marketing. The answer to that question is, yes they can. But, I say that with a qualification. Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick deal. Honestly, it requires motivation, patience, dedication and a lot of hard work and time on the front end to be successful.
To be honest, many people don’t make any money with affiliate marketing. That’s because they usually give up and can’t handle the work that has to be put in to build a good foundation for their business. However, there are several ways to earn income by using multiple streams of income.
There are plenty of top marketers who earn 6 to 7 figures every year, but this takes time and experience. It takes time to earn a decent income. You must have realistic expectations. It’s not like having a regular job where your hours of pay begin with the first hour you begin the job.
Compare it with starting a brick and mortar business. Initially, most business don’t see any net profit for up 2 to 5 years. Don’t worry; it shouldn’t take you that long to start making money as an affiliate marketer! Just trying to make a point here!
That point being, it will take time to get your foundation set up to begin to earn passive income. It will slowly increase based on the time and effort you put forth. Basically, you have control of how little or how much you can earn.
You most likely will be working hard for several months without seeing any income during the time you are building your business. Just hold tight and stay focused on the goal. If you don’t quit and persevere the income will eventually start coming in.
Success means: motivation, determination, patience and perseverance.
A Better Lifestyle
When your business gets to the point of earning substantial passive income from affiliate marketing, you will be able to enjoy financial freedom and your life will change for the better.
You can choose to work as little or as much as you like. But, don’t get so complacent that you let your business falter. However, if you want to take a few vacations you will be able to. And, you have the luxury of working anywhere because you can take a laptop wherever you go. The only thing you will need is an internet connection, which every hotel/resort have these days.
Believe in your self. Believe in your success
Make a Plan
At this point, I hope that you understand that affiliate marketing is a real honest to goodness business. In order to succeed you have to know how to provide value to people. To own a legitimate online business you should consider making a plan; how will you run your business from your home.
The first thing you need to do is to find an affiliate marketing training platform that will teach you everything you need to know from building your own website using WordPress to monetizing it and getting traffic.
Find a Training Platform That Empowers You
If you own a business you should “know” your business from the ground up. If you need to rely on others to provide their “proven system”, then you really don’t own your business because you are dependent on a system that you don’t own.
Learn how to build your own business system from the ground up. Learn how to build your affiliate marketing business with a training platform that will teach you how to create your online business step-by-step. This is the training platform I used to learn how to build and grow my business. Their goal is not to train people how to line their pockets with gold. What they do teach is how to create and run a legitimate online business. Their motto is “help others, pay it forward”.
Getting Started
For most people, the hardest thing to do is getting started, but we all had to start somewhere. As I said earlier, many people who do start will fall by the wayside shortly after because they don’t have what it takes to forge ahead.
I personally think that those people are not ready to be a business owner because they don’t have the stamina to persevere. Or, the dream of owning a business was not really a dream at all, but only a fleeting thought.
But, if you are serious about building an online business there will be many experienced people, including myself, who will be there to help you.
Don’t let fear stifle your chance of financial success and a better life. The faster you work and the harder you work, the sooner your success will come!
Please feel free to contact me if you need help with anything. Just make a comment below or you can always get in touch with me through wealthyaffiliate.com (here is a link to my profile).
Verna
Founder of Your Trusted Affiliate
Hi there,
I love affiliate marketing and started my affiliate based business almost two years ago.
It’s great because as a website owner who strives to help others within their specific niche, you can still make a great living via affiliate commissions.
Last week I had my best day to date at $642 for the day. Ended the week just over 2,200.
So I can tell you first hand that affiliate marketing is a real business and it’s awesome if you provide value to your audience.
Hello Todd,
Helping others is the best thing about being an affiliate marketer. I have a very giving personality so being an affiliate marketer is the perfect business for me. As long as we remember to help others first, the income will come!
Looks like a great week to me too! Good for you! You are the proof that it is a real business.
Unfortunately, there have been some unscrupulous marketers that have given affiliate marketers a bad reputation and some people are leery about whether it is a scam or not. I think as affiliate marketers continue to be transparent with people and provide good, reliable information we are beginning to dispel that bad rep!
Thanks for sharing that income information with us Todd. Who wouldn’t want that passive income every week!!
Appreciate your comments. I’m here if you have any questions.
Hi Verna
I like your site and you detailed explanation about Affiliate Marketing.
I call Affiliate marketing , online salesman.
You are also right about the dedication and persistence required to be a good marketer which is the reason many do not make money.
It is important to be in the right hands and I can see you are.
Keep up the good work.
Kav
Hi Kavinah,
Yes, you are correct. I am in the right hands. I would have never gotten this far had it not been for joining WA and the help of experienced members in the WA community!
Being an affiliate marketer is a lot of work and it is not for the “meek”. You have to stand strong with determination and a huge will to succeed, no matter how long it takes!
Thanks for the encouragement. Let me know if I can help you with anything.
Verna
Boy, am I tired of working for a boss. I would love to be able to work at home for myself and not have to travel to work every day. I need to find the right business as I don’t have much money and can’t afford to pay for expensive courses. Is there any place I can learn how to start my own business without paying out any money?
Hi Christine,
There are a lot of advantages to working at home and it’s even better if you are working on your own online business! I can help you find a company where you are taught how to build your own website for free. That’s right, I did say “FREE”! In fact you can build 2 websites for free. I actually got my start with them and I would highly recommend them. You can check out my review of Wealthy Affiliate. I provide all the information that will give you a complete review of what the company offers. You can even get a 7-day free trial to try it out. The cost is affordable and if you decide it’s not for you, you still get to keep your 2 free websites. I think you will see that this is just what you are looking for if you are serious about building your own online business.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my article. Let me know if you have any questions that I can help you with. Let me know how it goes.
Verna
I didn’t know that affiliate marketing is a legit business. I thought that earning online are all scam. I actually thought this way because I was already scammed in the past and I already made a distinction that if it is online, then it is a scam. So how do I know that affiliate marketing is legit? Thanks in advance for your response.
Hi John,
Yes, affiliate marketing is definitely a real legitimate business. Every business online is not a scam. As technology has grown, many brick and mortar businesses have found that they must have a presence on the internet if they want to maintain. There are many ways to have businesses online, including affiliate marketing.
Many businesses are actually online because they can reach potential customers globally and not just locally. This allows them to expand their customer base. Many business owners actually use affiliate marketers to advertise and promote the merchant’s products because it is less costly than for them to market the products themselves. In return the merchants are willing to pay the affiliate marketers a commission when a conversion is made.
Affiliate marketing itself is not a scam, but dishonest people can use affiliate marketing in ways it is not intended to be used. However, you can find this happening in many different businesses. It’s not the business, but the dishonest people trying to get over on other people.
Like you, I have spent thousands of dollars on so-called Gurus, who know just what to say to pull you in so they could make a buck. Because of that I am leery about who I do business with on the web. So, individually we have to do our due diligence to make sure we know who we are dealing with. Research the company before doing business with them, read reviews that you can find, contact the business and talk to those in charge. Ask questions.
The main thing you should know is that all businesses online are not scams. Today, online is the way to go.
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing check out one of my other articles. It explains what affiliate marketing is and the process.
Thanks for dropping by and checking out my article. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can help you with.
Verna
Affiliate marketing is an amazing business method made possible by internet. How many other business are there you can set up with zero to little upfront investments? Not many!
That shouldn’t, however, fool you into thinking it takes no effort on your part. Despite low costs it should still be treated as a real business as it takes some time to get running and making a profit. Done right, it can be a very profitable business.
Hi Matthew,
I agree with you totally. I think part of the problem that people fail in this business is because they are impatient and don’t give it the time that is needed to to get going. The other problem that I see is that people don’t invest themselves in doing the business each day – they treat it more as a hobby than a business.
Admittedly, it can get overwhelming when first starting out, but if you keep at it things will start to fall into place.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my article. Stop by again anytime. Let me know if you have any questions. I am here to help.
Verna
Hey Verna,
You’ve pretty much hit it on the head. Unfortunately people learn about affiliate marketing in bad ways from people that are teaching it as a get rich scheme. But you’ve laid out some real expectations of this business. I’ve been doing it for over a decade and it’s definitely led to a life that I could have never achieved with a JOB. As long as your patient and willing to work hard, the sky is the limit with affiliate marketing. But you have to go in it with a long term mindset. And you can’t approach it like a job where if you put in x hours you’ll get x dollars. It doesn’t work like that. It’s an investment where you see the returns later. But its worth it. So great post!
Thanks Eddy. I appreciate your comments. Yes, people come into this business with unrealistic expectations and are disappointed when they don’t get rich over night. I really try to be totally transparent with people when I talk about my business of affiliate marketing.
At times we work so hard we do get frustrated that things are going faster (I know I have), but we have to remind our selves that our time is coming!
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. I’m glad you found my article to be useful. I wish continued success for you.
Verna
Your review of MailChimp is the the most thorough, well written review about MailChimp that I have ever come across, and I have spend hours researching for information about (both paid and free) email marketing programs.
And now I understand that as an affiliate, I am not qualified to use MailChimp but that it is still legit and of good quality. My WA website is unique and it’s NOT about promoting WA itself, but I would still like to be a WA affiliate with a link in my WA website. After reading your review, I have decided to find another email marketing program that I can use for both building my niche and my WA affiliate programs.
My suggestion about your header photo is to make sure it is focused, bright and clear. Also, include something personal about yourself. A photo with you sitting at the desk or with photos of your family on the desk.
Something that says: Verna!
Also, you have a tab that says: Home and a tab that has a home – isn’t that redundant? And they both lead to the same page.
Just trying to be be, so so helpful for you!
I really like your title and domain name: Mom’s Trusted Affiliate. It does indeed say that you are trustworthy and that we can indeed trust Mom!
“Success is not a one-time thing. It is a habit and a way of life.â€
And I truly wish you success, Verna.
Hi MyraBeth,
I appreciate that you took some time to review my website and offer honest feedback.
I have already made the decision to change the header. I was actually thinking of taking a pic of myself and one of my granddaughters while I am working at the computer to reflect a mom working from home.
I make my home page a static page and it automatically did that when I selected the page I wanted to make my home page. I never gave a second thought about the home icon. In fact, I never really noticed it. I will check into that. I’m not sure if I can delete the home icon, but I will take that suggestion into consideration.
I choose that domain name because I was looking at stay at home moms as my main target audience and I did want my brand to appeal to people that I was trustworthy.
I will take all of your suggestions under advisement and make the necessary changes. Oh yes, I would also like to recommend AWeber as another great email service provider you could use. It isn’t free, but MailChimp runs neck and neck with it and it is very dependable. Check out my review of AWeber.
Thanks again for an honest feedback. That means a lot to me.
Verna