Is affiliate marketing dead? This is the question that I often see on the internet. As a matter of fact, “is — dead?” is generally a question related to business that I come across very often. Is Amazon FBA dead? Are cryptocurrencies dead? Is real estate dead? Is affiliate marketing dead? It’s usually asked by people who are interested in a certain business idea, but haven’t yet made the decision to try it out for themselves.
P.S. If you have come to this page, and you want to do affiliate marketing, then I highly recommend Affiliate Marketing Mastery, the course that has taught me how to make money this way.
Of course, it always makes sense to ask these types of questions. You never want to put your time, money and effort into something that doesn’t work anymore. But the problem is that this question, other than confirming your own belief about whether something is dead or not, doesn’t do you any good.
Recommended: How I Made 6,5k in Two Weeks as an Affiliate (+Mistakes)
For example, is it dead in comparison to what? Compared to last year? Could everything have changed that dramatically in only one or two years? Probably not.
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Also, it really depends on who you ask. In any business, you will see people that are doing really well and people that aren’t. Their results depend on so many variables, including the business that they are engaged in, the number of years they have been in it, the age when they started, how much their initial investment was, were they mentored, etc.
If you are looking online for an answer to the question “is something dead?”, you most likely know nothing about the person that is answering it and their background. Therefore, the answer they provide may be completely misleading and unhelpful to you.
Say, you did ask, “is affiliate marketing dead?” You are then told that yes, it’s definitely dead and that it is a bad way to make money online these days. You then say to yourself, “aha, I knew it!”, and as a result, you don’t even bother with it.
However, what you don’t know is that the person that answered your question has only two months of experience with affiliate marketing. They have no social media following whatsoever and a really poor blog with only one page of content. Of course they aren’t earning a dime!!!
Now try asking the same question from someone that is earning hundreds of thousands with affiliate marketing. See the difference.
My background
Everyone has a different story and different results. So before I share with you my answer to “is affiliated marketing dead?”, I think you should first get some information about my affiliate marketing background.
I started my blog in June 2016. It’s a blog dedicated to all questions in self-development. Already at that moment, I knew that I would monetize my blog at some point, but I really didn’t know yet how. Nevertheless, I began to create content.
By the end of 2016, I tried to do some affiliate marketing, but with no success. I realized that I needed more organic visitors coming through different search engines, a bigger following on social media and a bigger email list. I had none of these.
As a result, I stopped trying to do affiliate marketing. Instead, I focused on creating more content and on things that did earn me money, which in my case was Amazon FBA and coaching. I decided that blogging would remain as a hobby for the time being.
My income
I wasn’t until mid-2017 that I began to see some traction. My blog finally began to receive organic traffic, and that inevitably led to some affiliate sales. Most of the time, it was just $5-$15. I was in no way enough to support me, but it still was something. Hey, if you love what you do and you don’t expect to be paid for it, but you do anyway, you’ll feel good about it regardless of the amount.
Towards the end of 2017, I suddenly started to see bigger numbers emerge. The funny part was that I wasn’t even trying as much as I did when I first learned about affiliate marketing. But simply because my blog had more visitors, affiliate marketing now was finally a thing for me.
The screenshot above is an example of my affiliate marketing income. You can see what I have earned in the past 7 days from one affiliate program.
The pending number, however, in reality, is much bigger than the one you see in the screenshot. It’s just that some payments are recurring monthly payments, which means that I don’t get paid everything at once. Sometimes, one affiliate income is paid over a period of six months. At other times, it can even be a couple of years. This is actually how many affiliate programs work. They pay you monthly.
Here is another example of one of my recurring affiliate commissions:
Is affiliate marketing dead? – my thoughts
Is affiliate marketing dead? No, I personally don’t think so. The only way to tell whether something is really “dead” or not is to try it out for yourself.
I tried out affiliate marketing a year ago and had absolutely no results. But because I am into self-development and I love sharing this information with other people, I kept creating content for absolutely no money. If it would have been any other niche, I would have probably given up on the third month. And then I would be one of those people online shouting that affiliate marketing doesn’t work.. just kidding. 🙂
That being said, anyone who does affiliate marketing for a living will tell you that it is not a get rich quick scheme. It requires a lot of work and a lot of time. It’s great because it costs you almost nothing, but that makes it more difficult in terms of how much time and effort you will need to put in.
Recommended: How to Make Money with a Blog for Beginners
Also, I now understand that self-development is one of the worst niches to be in if you want to make money with affiliate marketing. The reason for this is that the niche is extremely broad. For example, you are now reading about affiliate marketing, which is related to the money, business and wealth categories, but I also write about topics such as health, sports, food, spirituality, etc. Chances are that you care only about the business side. And that’s ok, that’s how it is with most of my readers. They are interested usually in one specific topic.
Unfortunately, that makes it a lot harder for me to attract people that would keep returning to my blog, as opposed to someone who just writes about Apple products and attracts Apple fans that are ready to invest some money.
Yes, it’s true that certain bloggers that have been around for long earn tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from affiliate marketing alone. But it’s important to remember that they started when there weren’t yet that many blogs around, and they have been doing it for very many years now. But does that make affiliate marketing dead for you and me though? Absolutely not!
We all have different interests, different niches and we may put in a different amount of work into affiliate marketing. Some get there fast, while others are a bit slower. For this very reason, I suggest that you never start a blog on a topic that you don’t care about.
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Getting started with affiliate marketing
Before you get into it, ask yourself, “do I care enough to do it for free?” If the answer is yes, then that’s a good place to start. Also, don’t focus on affiliate marketing alone. Find other ways to make money. For example, I use my blog to coach people, and I also sell on Amazon FBA. When I realized that my blog was finally making me affiliate income, I was surprised because I had totally forgotten about it. I was so occupied with other things.
So what’s your opinion, is affiliate marketing dead? A person earning a lot of it will tell you that it works, while a person with no success will tell you the opposite. I know I could do better, but I also know that I could not write about any other topic, so I just stick to what I enjoy most.
Now, if you think affiliate marketing is for you, you can start with it right now with almost no money. All you need is a hosting and a domain name for your website/blog. I personally use Bluehost (It’s an affiliate link. If you make a purchase with it, I will get a small commission and will use it to buy myself a nice cup of coffee. 🙂 ) for that, and that is what I recommend to others. Bluehost is very cheap and has always been there to assist me. If you also need help with setting things up, you can always ask me in the comment section below. I am more than happy to help where I can.
Finally, once you get your blog set up, all you have to do is to start creating content and see where it takes you. And don’t forget to enjoy the process. Starting a blog was one of the best things that I have ever done.
Download our >>>7 SMART STRATEGIES TO GROW YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC FASTER guide for free!<<<
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March 17, 2018 at 18:15
Where can I find affiliate programs?
Thanks!
March 18, 2018 at 08:33
Simply search in google for “affiliate programs”. Also, if you have a company in mind, they may have a link to their affiliate program in the footer of their website.
March 17, 2018 at 20:12
Hey Victor,
I can really connect with you as I recently started my blog also in self development niche. 🙂 I am still learning lot of new things as you know the learning curve is huge in blogging specially when have no background in writing and moreover in promoting. I am also planning to start my service as an online life coach. So, reading your post really motivated me.
As for affiliate marketing, I can’t comment on that yet as I haven’t attempted it.
Thanks for the great and genuine post!
March 18, 2018 at 08:35
Thank you for your comment. Well, it’s great that you also want to start a coaching service, since helping people is wonderful. 🙂 I am glad I could be of motivation.
March 18, 2018 at 08:30
You can use only social networks to get results if you have a really big following, but it always makes more sense to also build an email list through your website/blog. You create better relationships with people through email lists, rather than social networks. Hope this helps.
March 18, 2018 at 10:48
I have found that you have to try various affiliate programs to see which ones work out best for your site. I am still trying to find the right programs and hoping that they will pay off.
March 18, 2018 at 12:09
I am sure some of them will, just keep at it.
March 18, 2018 at 18:05
I’m quite new to all this and trying to get my head round all the different types of marketing. Sounds like you have done really well.
March 18, 2018 at 18:07
A year and a half ago I knew nothing about marketing either. If you blog, it will come to you faster than you think 🙂 Thank you for the comment!
March 18, 2018 at 19:45
I know people who can do amazingly with affiliate marketing I know I should look to do more around it as I know money can be made, it’s just getting the ideas flowing.
March 18, 2018 at 19:51
That’s a good approach!
March 18, 2018 at 20:44
I could never do a thing to get my affiliate marketing off the ground. I gave up in the end because I didn’t know where to start. This is good advice.
March 18, 2018 at 21:22
Thank you. It’s a matter of time, I think. At some point, you will want to try it again and it will be better.
March 18, 2018 at 21:56
I don’t thin affiliate marketing is dead. This article was interesting though.
March 19, 2018 at 08:04
Thanks!
March 19, 2018 at 06:03
I don’t think affiliate marketing is dead at all. I started my blog at the same time you did and it was very slow going but I am also finally starting to gain traction. I honestly think because the blogging market is so crowded that it takes 3 to 4 years to establish a good reputation.
March 19, 2018 at 08:05
Thanks, April. That’s what I think too. 🙂
March 19, 2018 at 12:50
I honestly don’t think it’s dead at all. I think it is booming now more than ever. It just takes some work.
March 19, 2018 at 19:26
Agreed.
March 19, 2018 at 21:40
I think not dead but a bit slow these days. I usually go the traditional way.
March 20, 2018 at 06:55
What is the traditional way, if you don’t mind me asking?
March 20, 2018 at 05:27
I don’t think its dead either. I think it’s growing more than ever!
March 20, 2018 at 06:54
A very positive approach!
March 20, 2018 at 08:33
I’ve dabbled a couple of times but never really delved in. I still think about it from time to time.
March 20, 2018 at 17:25
Maybe you are waiting for the right moment to start. 🙂
March 20, 2018 at 09:42
I don’t think it’s dead at all. If anything it’s probably booming more than ever!
March 24, 2018 at 06:02
Nope. Not dead at all.
Making great income with affiliate marketing too. So many niches, so many ideas, so many ways to make affiliate marketing work. Great post. You have a great blog. Check out my too. I’m open to partnerships if your interested. http://www.craigcherlet.com
March 24, 2018 at 08:42
Thank you for your feedback. 🙂 So many opportunities indeed! Will definitely check out your blog.