Affiliate Marketing Jobs

Affiliate marketing has been the route out of corporate mundanity for many internet entrepreneurs, allowing them to invest time upfront to reap the benefits of passive income later on.

While affiliate marketing certainly offers hope to those suffering ennui in their current occupation, it is a lifestyle and business commitment that is not without its cons and its pitfalls.

Within this article, the benefits and drawbacks of pursuing a new, flexible lifestyle built on affiliate marketing will be examined. Firstly, however, it is necessary to outline what affiliate marketing is.

Often, affiliate marketing generally involves three parties within a scheme:

• The affiliate (often, this person or organization is a website owner)
• The vendor (this organization advertises via the affiliate’s website)
• The buyer (this person purchases something through the adverts on the affiliate’s website.

Typically, a website owner will approach a vendor with an application to join their affiliate program. Once accepted, the website owner becomes an affiliate who is then able to use digital tools (e.g. embed codes) to advertise the vendor’s products/services.

If the affiliate is successful in promoting their website, they may receive clicks on the affiliate adverts from website users. Some of these clicks could result in a sale on the vendor’s landing page.

Using cookies (digital files stored on the computer of the buyer), the vendor is able to determine the location from where the buyer came thus allowing the vendor to reward the affiliate with a commission for referring the customer.

It is location independent

Making money as an affiliate marketer does not require you to turn up at an office every day. All you need is your computer and an internet connection and this means that you can perform all the tasks needed to be an affiliate marketer from almost any location.

Whether you wish to work from the comfort of your living room, or from a warm, sandy beach, it’s entirely possible to work as an affiliate marketer provided you can connect to the internet.

This type of remote working means you can say goodbye to the soul-destroying, energy-sapping commute-the-office that has plagued your existence for so long.

Flexible hours

While becoming a successful affiliate marketer takes time and dedication, it’s entirely up to you when you put in the hours. If you’re not a morning person and find you’re more productive late at night, working towards affiliate marketing success could be the lifestyle for you.

Similarly, if you thrive on working early in the day to have your afternoons free from work commitments, affiliate marketing provides unrivaled flexibility.

Passive income

The holy grail of income. Everyone wants to earn money while not lifting a finger in some far-flung exotic location or a tranquil setting free from the irritations of their current lifestyle.

Affiliate marketing has made the dream of passive income a tangible reality for internet entrepreneurs who took the leap into the unknown.

For instance, American internet personality, Pat Flynn, who owns smartpassiveincome.com, makes a substantial proportion of his six-figure income from affiliate marketing.

Other examples of famous internet affiliate marketers include Ramit Sethi (iwillteachingyoutoberich.com), Neil Patel (neilpatel.com), and Tim Ferris and Martin Lewis at the UK website – Money Saving Expert.

Be your own boss

Affiliate marketers don’t have bosses per se – they answer only to themselves. Even the vendors who run affiliate schemes don’t behave like bosses because in most cases, they don’t lose out if the affiliate turns out to be a dud.

Affiliate marketing offers people the chance to set up a business and work for themselves and experience the rewards and thrills of starting-up an enterprise.

The freedom from corporate hierarchies and office politics is a massive draw for the increasing number of people who are choosing life as an affiliate marketer over the standard corporate rat-race.

New Opportunities

The internet is relatively new and that means that e-commerce and internet business opportunities may not yet have been fully realized.

Recently, the global Covid-19 pandemic saw sales of surgical masks and hand sanitizer go through the roof. With every situation, comes an opportunity for profit, and savvy affiliate marketers must be poised to take full advantage of the next trend or demand-spike.

Perhaps, in the years to come, the markets for certain items could become larger and affiliate marketers can seize this opportunity to push products for which there is soaring demand.

It requires only a little capital

In the case of most traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, an entrepreneur must secure considerable capital before the business can open its doors and make its first sale.

An internet business centered around affiliate marketing, however, requires no such large injections of capital. In fact, starting a website or a blog can cost as little as pocket change to some people.

It’s not easy money

While affiliate marketing can indeed deliver a healthy stream of passive income, it does take a considerable amount of effort to get things up and running in the initial stages.

Successful affiliate marketers have invested time and much of themselves into creating content to attract and engage a loyal audience who trust them. In most instances, a following of faithful fans could potentially take years of consistent effort and constant frustration to achieve.

Let’s be absolutely clear – affiliate marketing does offer a route to riches and a better lifestyle but one must be prepared to work their socks off to see even small returns on their time investment.

It can be lonely

In the initial stages of setting up an internet business, most affiliate marketers do it alone.

Swapping a busy office or another working environment for the solitude of working at home or on the road as a digital nomad can be extremely challenging for some people. Before embarking swapping your stable day job for affiliate marketing, consider whether or not you would miss those conversations by the water cooler or the office banter.

If you’re not sure if you can handle the loneliness that comes with being a full-time affiliate marketer, consider sticking with the day job for a while longer and running an internet business on the side. If it picks up momentum, you could then ditch the 9-to-5 and hire a team to support your internet venture.

Uncertainty

The only guarantee with affiliate marketing as a full-time occupation is that there are no guarantees. Yes, it’s a cliche but that’s because it’s true!

It is not uncommon for people to invest years into building a website and trying to cultivate an audience only for it never to really gain momentum. On the other hand, it has been known for internet entrepreneurs to achieve a large following only for it to disappear when the latest trends turn heads elsewhere or market volatility decimates business sectors.

Consider fully whether or not you can handle the uncertainty that comes with the lifestyle of a full-time affiliate marketer.

It takes discipline

The flexibility of life in affiliate marketing is an enormous attraction for many. However, the caveat to this flexibility is that it can only be truly flexible if one is sufficiently disciplined to manage their own schedule.

Without a place of work to report to in the mornings, it can be all-too-easy to hit the snooze button and idle the day away. Without the routine and structure of life as an employee, one might fall into the trap of enjoying too much leisure time causing business plans and affiliate marketing dreams to crash and burn dramatically.

Affiliate marketing is not for the faint of heart – it takes drive, determination, and discipline.

Demanding learning curve

Getting started in affiliate marketing requires knowledge of content creation. You may also need knowledge of building websites if you go down the route of showcasing your content on your own domain.

Some people are well-placed to get started having acquired this knowledge at work or during study but for others, even the initial stages of affiliate marketing could pull them far from their comfort zone.

Of course, being out of one’s comfort zone can be a positive experience but it’s not for everyone and those averse to learning new things might be better off taking a second job.

Even for intermediate and advanced affiliate marketers, continual learning is necessary to ensure profit. For instance, good affiliate marketers test their content and analyze what engages their audience, spot trends, and optimize their output to maximize clicks.

Be prepared for a potentially steep learning curve at the beginning and accept that your learning as an affiliate marketer never stops.