Is Affiliate Marketing Easy or Hard?

A common question many newbies often ask. Is affiliate marketing easy or hard? Let’s check out what you can expect with affiliate marketing and what to do.

Affiliate marketing in a nutshell

As an affiliate of a particular program, you would promote someone else’s product with the unique affiliate link given to you. 

You create a website based on your selected Niche.

A visitor comes to your website, likes what they read on that topic, 

They click your unique affiliate link to the merchant’s site and buy the product or service. 

In return for your effort, the merchant will give you a percentage of that sale you have just made a commission.

How simple is that?

Affiliate marketing is not hard to do and can be easy to start. However, many who fail are unwilling to put in the work and effort to treat this as a business.

Special Note:

If you are looking for that instant fix to make money online, this is not for you, to save you time, it would be better to look for a 9-5 job, complain about life, and save your money for a better life down the track.

If you would love to learn more about affiliate marketing and are serious about wanting to be successful in life and online, please read on.

Affiliate Marketing is not a get-rich-quick method.

This is one of the main reasons why people feel this is too hard to do and not easy at all.

Many people think and expect money to be thrown into their lap straight away yet aren’t prepared to make an effort to do the work.

You may have heard of many scams or seen some YouTube videos out there showing you quick ways to make instant cash.

There is some push button method where you do 3 clinks, sit back and watch the money rolling in these are known as done-for-you systems.

Most will offer cheap entry even as little as $7 then once you’re in, more is spent with added upsells then more upsell plus you would need at least $1,000 per month min in advertising costs with no guarantee of sales.

Another common method they tend to do is tell you to buy an email list which they give you no choice to choose from outside of what they give you. These are more added costs to you.

What they won’t tell you is that the majority of such email lists you buy belong to someone else who rents out chosen names from their list.

Most if not all are really bots and not real emails but you won’t know that and they won’t tell you either.

Sure you can do well with email marketing but not their way and you can even start for free with many email marketing programs and get real people on your own email list.

These quick ways of making money fast as known as the shiny object syndrome and many fall for this as they play on your emotion and know your need or want money quickly.

The problem is many people fall for these tricks, quit then start looking for the next shiny object and start all over again.

This is not the best way to start and quite frankly far too expensive s a beginner.

When they face these issues many start to think Affiliate marketing is a total scam and feel this is too hard to do.

Your website is a business.

Your website is your business and you need to treat it as a business, not a hobby.

This is where many people fail to understand what is involved.

Sure you can blog about your passion or interests for the fun of it but that is not affiliate marketing that is just being a blogger for the fun of it and there is nothing wrong with that.

Many people love to share their passions, interest, or hobbies online just for fun and to connect with others with the same interests.

Now as the internet has greatly improved these days more are finding that rather than just sharing their passions or interests for the fun of it they can blog and make money in the process.

These days you can even see many mummy bloggers making a fantastic income working from home and blogging about their daily activities with their kids while helping others. 

You need to treat your website as a business and with that, you need to put in the work and effort and have the commitment to make it work.

You can check out the training platform I owe all my success to.

There are no shortcuts to success. 

This may sound like a cliché but the facts are true.

Think of yourself as a baby growing up.

Did you take a shortcut and learned how to run before you could crawl? Let alone walk and keep your balance.

You need to learn a certain way of doing things before you can achieve the ability to run.

Does a high jumper win a Gold medal at the Olympics just by entering the competition?

No there is a long process to get to that stage at the highest level. 

Not to mention you will face some stiff competition along the way.

You will need to learn many aspects of how you can position yourself as a high jumper along with training and more training to get you just to the stage of being able to compete.

The Olympics are at a higher level and you again need to learn some advanced techniques to get you there.

That is not much different from having a website.

Building a website is always a constant work in progress and a never-ending learning curve. 

The training keeps you updated just like a high jumper gets updated on how their competitors are doing and you learn how to adjust and go better than ever before.

You keep learning and you continue to move forward.

Often I have seen some newbies on a training platform I am part of start asking “what is the quickest way to make money online”.

They have become so used to falling for that shiny object and think here within the training platform they will learn new tricks to make money faster. Not so.

The best and truest answer that I give is to apply what training you have before you, apply what is taught, and take each step one at a time.

As I stated early some people are not prepared to work and make the effort.

You need to learn how the process works, ask questions where you need, and complete the tasks given to you.

Then when you understand what is involved, move on to the next lesson. 

There is an order that is given in the training and a reason why it is so.

With the right training, you will learn how to build an online business with a system designed to help you succeed.

However, no amount of training you get will amount to anything if you don’t apply what is taught and take personal action to make it happen.

Your success is dependent on your drive to succeed and how serious you want to be.

Think once more about the athlete your desire to achieve is determined by your drive to succeed and what action you take to achieve it.

The training platform I am talking about is Wealthy Affiliate I have been there for just over 9 years and will remain there for many more years.

You can start with a free test trial at no cost to you.

This gives you an idea of what is involved in getting started and if it is not for you fine, at least you will learn something new and you haven’t paid a cent.

If you are serious about creating and building your own business online this is a great option to test out.

Yes, there are two paid membership options you can take later if you wish which is your choice but only if you are serious.

You can read more on what is involved with that here with Premium or Premium plus membership.

However, I suggest you start with the free test trial first no use spending your money if this is not for you.

There is a method of learning the right way with affiliate marketing compared to taking that shortcut to failure.

Building a solid foundation for your website takes time

You have already read there are no shortcuts and that learning to build your website does take time.

How much time you may ask? 

Well the truth is your website will always be a work in progress plus that is also dependent on you with what action you are taking to make it happen.

So in reality there is no time limit unless you quit.

Remember you are building a serious online business that is yours and your success depends on you and how you go about it along with your positive attitude.

That is why learning the right way will help you take that step further in achieving your goals and aims in life.

You will be writing content based on your chosen niche that will help your readers find a solution to what they are seeking.

You can read more in-depth on The Niche definition here.

Learning, in the beginning, can be hard

Anything new to you will be a learning experience and if you have never done this before it can seem hard to some.

Life is always a learning curve and building your own business online is no different.

There will be ups and downs and some feel this is hard to do but focus, commitment, patience, perseverance, and the right mindset will help you take that further step forward.

There is work involved in building a business online just like there is work involved with a brick-and-mortar business.

Fortunately working online from home comes with many benefits like no staff to pay, no inventory to keep, no dealing with customers who may buy from your affiliate links as that is the role of the merchants you are an affiliate for.

Your main role is to create content on your website based on your selected niche and help sort out what your readers are looking again refer to the section of the niche definition for further in-depth reading.

There are many aspects to your learning and the more you learn and apply the better and quicker you will have a chance to earn some money but don’t expect this to happen overnight.

Fortunately, with the training platform I have mentioned you also have not only a worldwide community of like-minded people who are only too willing to help and support you along with way.

There is that Pay It Forward attitude taken.

Enjoy what you do

This is one aspect that is really needed as an affiliate marketer is to enjoy what you do.

That is why when first selecting your niche for your website it is best to do what you know best.

Do you have a passion or an interest that you can write about?

You will be writing constantly along your journey.

The more you enjoy what you do and write about the easier it will be.

Should you start with a topic you have no clue about there is an even steeper learning curve and for many, they will stop because it becomes too much to do, and become frustrated.

This is another reason why some feel affiliate marketing is hard to do because they are not enjoying what they do.

Sure you can do affiliate marketing on something you never did before, however, this requires more work and effort along with a steeper learning curve compared to something you already have knowledge or experience in.

This can mean the difference between it being easy or hard and one of the reasons many find that affiliate marketing is hard is simply because they don’t enjoy what they do.

That is why when you first choose your niche find something that you enjoy writing about and this

One final point to note.

You are helping not selling.

This is vital to your success online and also why many find it hard to do when they are not taught properly.

When you start doing affiliate marketing one of the main aspects you will need to learn is that as an affiliate you are writing content based on your niche to help your readers and not just sell to their faces.

People don’t like to be sold to.

Think of that car salesperson or that particular staff member in a store who always hanging near you constantly asking can I help in order to make that sale?

You are not the salesperson, the merchant who has the product or service does the selling along with handling the payments, any refunds, and any other correspondence with the purchaser.

Your only role is to help your readers find an answer to what they are seeking.

For example, say you are doing a product review on Juices.

Not just any juices but one that is more specific to your particular audience.

Remember the word niche for a specific group of people looking for something.

Here you could do a review on the top 5 Juices for a Keto Diet.

This is more specific for that group of people rather than just the best 5 juices.

You would explain why these particular juices are good for those wanting to go on a Keto diet and how these top 5 juices can help them.

You would give your personal views on each one and help they decide on the best possible solution for them to select and one that will benefit them.

Here you would provide the pros and cons on each and at the end of your content stated based on what I have found I believe this one may be the best and say why.

But this is where it can get tricky where you need to be alert and where many fail to do.

Never write just the same features that are already on the merchant’s site for that product.

Always give your unique perspective on what each has to offer.

Give proper reasons why you feel this product may be better or maybe as a better option to the others and give your readers value to what you state and why by helping and not selling.

You don’t know which product they want to buy, but you can be sure if they saw your website, then one of those products they were thinking of is there.

Don’t rubbish the products either instead, give your experience should you already own one even better, but be neutral and fair.

Never become one-sided people will see through you.

If you are giving the hard sell, they will leave your site quickly. 

So helping and not selling is a major key to success online and one that will make affiliate marketing much easy down the track.

This will make a huge difference when you build your own business online.

Is Affiliate Marketing Easy or Hard Final Thoughts

Anyone can do affiliate marketing and is easy to start but as you can see work needs to be done if you plan on being serious about building your own online business.

It can be challenging especially at the start but also exciting and if you learn properly can become very lucrative for you down the track.

Always enjoy what you do as you will find the learning curve becomes easier if you know what you are doing and learn the right way.

It is not a roll in the park it can be challenging many times but so is life in general.

The main thing is to enjoy what you do and do what you love.

In conclusion

Hopefully, you have enjoyed what was covered here, as there is so much more to learn should you take my offer.

Your success depends on you and the attitude you have along with the action you take if you want to be successful online.

Don’t chase shiny objects but try the true and tested method in affiliate marketing.

If you wish to take me up on the free test trial offer or go premium.

I will be the first on the other side to welcome you and help you along your new journey online.

If you wish to add a comment below go for it love to hear any thoughts and views you may have even any added questions you would like to ask

Looking forward to hearing from you on the other side of success, or you can comment below if you have further questions.