Let’s Look at the Myths and Facts of Affiliate Marketing

If you want to do affiliate marketing, you want the facts and you don’t want to come into it with illusions. That’s why in this article we are going to have a look at the myths and facts of affiliate marketing.

Having been in this industry for several years now, I have had my time of believing myths and overlooking facts. Now I am able to look back and see what’s what.

Affiliate Marketing Myths:

Let’s start with looking at some of the common myths associated with affiliate marketing:

• You can get rich quick with affiliate marketing
• The long/legit way is too difficult and technical for me!
• The affiliate marketing niche is too saturated
• I can succeed with a DFY system – just need to find the right one!

Well, these are some myths I myself have believed before eventually seeing through them, in some cases, to my great loss!

Any of them sound familiar?

Let’s look at them individually – we’re going to take them apart!

You Can Get Rich Quick with Affiliate Marketing

Nearly everyone falls for this one. Some never give up on the idea and spend years trying different programs that promise lots of consistent money in a short time.

We’d all like it and many of us are willing to risk a lot of money to get there.

But it’s hard to blame anyone who falls for this idea. So many scams or low quality programs are out there with hyped up sales pages, telling people that it is possible to amass great wealth in a short time with their secret system, bla, bla, we’ve heard all the usual jargon.

Let’s get real, you can’t be a successful, long-term online entrepreneur at the same time as being lazy, spammy and always on the look out for shortcuts and never really learning how to do marketing properly.

The amount of money people waste on get rich quick schemes is staggering. First there’s the product, you buy that, then there’s usually a load of upsells and extra costs, often some or all of which are required if you want to really make money with the program. Then there’s questionable paid traffic sources that they expect you to get traffic from. And what usually happens is that people either make no money at all (after wasting their budget) or they make very little and inconsistent money with no profit, and while learning nothing about all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and setting up a business of their own.

And if the product you depend on to get-rich-quick goes off the market, then you are back to square one!

The process of affiliate marketing is actually quite simple – that much is true. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It also doesn’t mean you don’t require experience or a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning.

Making an online business from affiliate marketing is a gradual, steady process of learning and taking action, making mistakes but then fixing them and continually improving your skills and marketing content.

It’s too Technical and Difficult for Me!

If you tell someone that making money online with affiliate marketing isn’t actually an easy process of driving paid traffic to some affiliate link and waiting for the commissions to roll in, they are often tempted to give up.

Or they see a flashy website or YouTube channel that is doing well and getting results and get discouraged.

But as a top affiliate, Dale says, these days it’s easy to make a newish website look great – very professional.

You can do affiliate marketing the slower, more authentic way.

It’s an illusion to think you can’t do things like set up a website, produce blog content and make good, informative videos.

It takes some learning and practice.

But the more you do something, the better you get at it.

I do affiliate marketing with websites mostly and I do some videos as well. I also run a fragrance reviews channel. I knew what I wanted but was just very much an armature at both blogging and YouTube. It all got better just by doing it, and learning tips from other people here and there but mostly just by applying myself to it consistently.

Well in the case of the videos it was more not giving up than regularity. But the point is if you want to do something like blogging and/or videos, it’s really not difficult.

These days people are scared off by the idea of needing to be a writer to run a blog. Well, we communicate all the time with writing these days, lots of informal writing but still writing.

A blog doesn’t have to have a very formal style either by the way; who said that?

You can write pretty much the way you talk. And again, the more you write, the better you get at it.

The Affiliate Marketing Niche is too Saturated

Here’s another one we come across quite a lot: I can’t realistically do affiliate marketing because the niche I like is too saturated. Or affiliate marketing as a business is too saturated. Everyone’s doing it! Too much competition.

Well, that’s another myth. This industry is NOT over saturated.

Why?

Because only about one in a hundred succeed at this business.  Another huge portion of affiliates are inactive. So while it’s true that there are indeed a massive amount of affiliates out there, most of them are inactive, or ex-affiliates – people who have given up or who are barking up the wrong tree, not doing it properly and are bound to fail.

Very few actually succeed in affiliate marketing but all that do, follow a pretty simple formula: they take massive action on a consistent basis.

Later on down the road, they get to relax a bit since they are then making passive income, but in most cases, the joy of the whole business has got to them and marketing becomes like a hobby and they love their work. Those are your real affiliates – the ones to look up to, admire and learn from.

You want what they have?  Just throw yourself in!  Never say “I can’t.”  It really is that simple.

The countless occasions where people will say it comes down to your inner drive, hard work and just not giving up, is overwhelming, and that’s because it’s absolutely true.

I Can Succeed with a DFY System – Just need to find the right one!

Okay, we’ve already covered this really, but it gives me the opportunity to tell you about the craziest thing I did while looking for the secret to online success.

I wanted to go for DFY system called Profits Passport.  It’s a blatant pyramid scheme… Crazy right?  But for income stream no. 1 you needed to fork out $2,000 as well as a $500 admin fee.

So to get that $2,000 I searched online for a way to get a loan.

Well, I ran into a fraudulent loan company, who very cleverly got a whole load of money off me before sending me a fake dispatch from Barcleys Bank!

Depending on a DFY system not only exposes you to great risk of losing a lot of money, but also deprives you of moving forward and really owning an online business.

It’s much the same thing as gambling, shooting in the dark, hoping for results.  You might have a bit of luck but only to be followed by a string of bad luck.  It’s very hard to profit and never predictable or reliable.

Investing in a DFY system is much the same thing as saying you want a Doctor’s salary or a Lawyer’s salary but without learning to be a Doctor or a Lawyer.

It’s not going to happen because you’re not doing the work of a Doctor or a Lawyer.

The same applies to online marketing. You need to learn the skill – you need to learn marketing if you want to be an affiliate marketer and make good money online.

A DFY system can be used to boost your profits, as long as whatever you’re selling actually helps the person buying it.  But again, I would never depend on one of these as my main source of income and I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone else to do so either.

Affiliate Marketing Facts

As to facts, here are three that I’ve discovered and know from extensive research and experience to be true:

• It is possible to make a full time income with affiliate marketing
• It’s a skill that needs to be learned – there’s no sustainable shortcut
• The measure of success depends on the amount you put in to your business

Well the good news is that with time and experience, you can make it to a point of earning a full time wage, and much more!  Affiliate marketing has been around a long time now and it works!

It is a sustainable business model and a wonderful way to be self-employed, with more time on your hands and more money.

It is the journey to passive income, but not to a life of no work at all.  You’ll need to keep your business fresh and updated and heck! you’ll want to expand once you’re good at it! It’s an exciting journey and once you’re rolling, you’ll enjoy the ride and not want to slow down. Well, you’ll want to slow down a little here and there for the sake of doing things you love and enjoying the fruits of your work, but your business ends up becoming your hobby, your passion.

The internet is a mind bogglingly huge place; you just need to find your audience and there’s no real limit as to how many people you can reach and the amount of money you can make.

You need to learn how it works and give just keep at it.

If you ask ‘how much can I make?’ the answer is that it depends on how much you put in. Lots of work produces big results. A little work here and there will produce small results.

Found this content useful? Inspiring? Share your thoughts down below in the comments! We’d love to hear from you.

Happy marketing!