The Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Is Affiliate Marketing for Me?
When it comes to affiliate marketing like other businesses there are pros and cons. This post is to help you identify bith and make an educated guess if this is the right path for you.
Pros of Affiliate Marketing
1. Billion-dollar business
The market for affiliate marketing is huge. All businesses rely on leads and advertising. So there is a lot to choose from when it comes to niches.
2. Low-cost business idea
You can start with just a laptop, internet connection, a website, and an offer.
3. No expertise needed
There is no requirement for experience, but if you can find a mentor that is in the place you want to be can speed up the process to making money.
4. Low investment costs
The cost is very low compared to other businesses. A domain is around $22 dollars a year, there is some hosting for a single site for just one dollar.
5. Secondary source of income
Affiliate marketing can give you an additional income. Even an extra $200 to a thousand a month can change a persons life.
6. Convenience and flexibility
With affiliate marketing being performance based you get out what you put in. If you start making money and can automate it you can create a schedule for the life you want.
7. You don’t have to worry about customer service
One of the great things about affiliate marketing is you are providing the lead and then the company takes it from there. You get paid and they handle all the customer service.
8. Independence
Affiliate marketing can be done from anywhere. There is no showing up at 7 every morning and having to leave at 5 everyday in the same place. You can work a few hours on it and still travel or work on another sid project.
The Cons of Affiliate Marketing
1. You don’t have control over the rules
What this means is the vendor sets the rules of what you can do and not do when acquiring a lead.
2. You don’t control your competition
Competition in certain niches can get ugly quick and some resort to blackhat methods to get ahead or attack your site.
3. You can’t establish your customer base
Here in you are promoting someone elses product so those customers are theres for that certain niche.
You could use an email capture to remarket to them, but if they are loyal to that product then you could not create a competeing product with the same customer base and expect to make the same amount of money.
4. No guarantee of revenue
Selecting a niche and throwing up a website does not mean you are going to make money. There is other things involved such as search engine optimization and paid ads.
5. Freelance jobs are not for everyone
Freelancing can make you money but the money is not guaranteed like when you have a steady job. You also must have a skill or to and be able to deliver and budget money.
6. Quantity approach
Some people use this method which is called spam thinking they can get quick sales. Sometimes it works but it is not a great business model and if your caught the vendor may ban you from doing business with them.
7. It’s possible to hijack affiliate links
Hackers and scammers are out there so you will need to protect your site with some type of security plugin or hire someone who can code it for you.
Bottom Line
Affiliate marketing is a low cost start up business that anyone can do. Making it create money is the hard part.
We would say look in to sep, paid ads, website building, and when you have a firm foundation then see if you can find a mentor to help speed the process up to start making real money.
