Hello! Welcome to my "Is Affiliate Marketing A Scam?" review!
With the rise of the internet, people have been discovering more usage of this technology to make their lives better.
Communication, entertainment, information, these are one of the many things that the internet can give us.
Another thing are ways to earn money online from home and affiliate marketing is one of them.
However, as legit online sources of income advance, scams do too.
I congratulate you for reading this article before jumping into affiliate marketing.
You need to get to know it in order for you to not waste your time and effort and avoid scams.
In this review, we will go through affiliate marketing and answer, "Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam?".
So let's get started!
What is Affiliate Marketing?
In order for businesses to gain more exposure and more customers, they do a type of advertisement called, "affiliate marketing".
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing that revolves around an arrangement between the merchant and an affiliate marketer.
The merchant pays the marketer for every referral's product purchases.
Also for every time traffic is brought to the merchants's website, the affiliate marketer receives a commission.
How does Affiliate Marketing work?
The picture above pretty much summarizes the process of affiliate marketing.
There are three "players" that make up affiliate marketing.
- Merchant website - This is the one that sells the products and offers affiliate programs to the affiliate marketers.
- Affiliate marketer - The one who promotes the products of the merchant an attract traffic to the merchant's website
- Customer - A person or web user who is the referral of the affiliate marketer who purchases the merchant's products.
These three work together for affiliate marketing to happen.
Basically, the merchant website provides the affiliate marketers the tools needed.
Affiliate marketers will be given text links, banners, ads and widgets that they can put on their own websites.
Whenever web users click on those links, the affiliate program tracks it.
Afterwards, each sale made will be recorded and once the program knows that the web user is a referral, the marketer will get paid.
Sounds easy, right?
Earn commissions with the best affiliate marketing training program!
Can you make money with this?
Affiliate marketing has been a long-running industry offering job opportunities for people around the world.
However, can you make money with this? Of course you can!
Affiliate marketing is a good source of income and is very profitable.
Based on my research...
- 39.2% of the affiliate marketers around the world earn from $0 - $5 annually.
- 5.9% earn around $50K - $100K annually
- 3.3% gain $500K and more annually
Honestly, just like all other business ventures, the amount of money you earn with affiliate marketing greatly depends on how well you work.
There are lots of affiliate marketing guides and training programs available online that can surely help you out!
Furthermore, commission rates differ with each company or business you apply for.
Most companies will offer you 18% - 50% commission rates on each product sale. However, big-time companies will offer smaller commission rates.
Why? Because of the items or products they are selling.
For example, which is better, phone that costs around $600 and gives a 30% commission, or health supplements priced at $20 and gives 80% commission?
Well, I will let you do the math yourself and see.
How can you earn money with this?
First things first, most of the affiliate programs require you to have your own website. In fact, when you sign up, you have to give them your website address.
Why?
Because this is where you will put the text links, banners, widgets and ads.
The next one, is of course, choosing a great company that sells excellent products and has a nice affiliate program for you to apply for.
However, make sure that the products fit the niche of your website.
Don't worry. Whatever niche you have, there will always be a lot of affiliate programs you can choose from.
When you have everything in place, your website, affiliate program and affiliate links, you can start promoting.
Place the ads, banners texts links in your website.
Quick tip: Never overuse ads because it can overwhelm your viewers and can annoy them.
Once you placed them, your viewers can click and will be redirected to the merchant's website.
They will be your referrals.
Whenever they purchase items, the affiliate program will be able to know and track the sale made.
Afterwards, you get paid!
Affiliate Scams You Need To Avoid
Is affiliate marketing a scam?
Although it is an industry that has been operating for a long time already, it is not immune to scams.
Most of the time, these scams give affiliate marketing a bad image and reputation, leading people to think that it is a scam.
In order for you to avoid scams, here are the things you need to take note of.
#1 Too good to be true marketing
Have you ever encountered ads on the internet that says something like,
"Get rich instantly!" or "Earn money every second even when you sleep!"
These kinds of lines are too good to be true. If they were really the truth, then I don't think that any single person now would be having trouble earning money.
Mostly, companies that offer training programs on affiliate marketing uses these lines.
Beware. They claim to give you all you need to get rich instantly. By the time you pay for their program, all you get are eBooks and even videos that you can just easily find online!
That is why most people end up not learning anything and just lose their money.
It is always important to research first before jumping into anything.
Like what you are doing now, you are researching about affiliate marketing before doing it! I congratulate you.
Save yourself from scams!
Take a good taste of affiliate marketing with
#2 Fake products and services
The thing with affiliate marketing, marketers earn money by promoting products and services.
They get paid whenever their referrals make purchases.
However, scammers always find a way to play around. Fake products and services are used.
Also, scammers will really work hard to create a good website and portfolio to make themselves look legit. They will even use famous logos of companies and businesses.
Furthermore, most of these scammers follow the "pyramid scheme".
They will try to gain your trust and tell you to pay for their products and services. In the end, you don't get what you pay for.
This is very difficult to detect. However, researching will help you avoid it.
#3 Get-rich-quick schemes
Nowadays, people try hard to find more ways to earn money; even though online. Scammers use this to their advantage.
Get-rich-schemes will always claim that they can make you rich instantly.
The only thing you will need to give them money and purchase their products and services (training programs).
They will claim that they will give you secrets to earn hundreds and thousands of dollars in just a short period of time.
PLEASE!
DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THESE SCHEMES!
Whenever you pay them, you will immediately regret it by the time you realize that they are not legit.
Beware. A lot of get-rich-schemes exist on the internet nowadays.
#4 Pay-to-join programs
One thing you should know about affiliate programs is that all of them, if not, most of them are free.
You won't have to pay for any fees. Nothing.
So if ever you come across an affiliate program that tells you to pay for something, you better back out.
That is already a red flag!
Is Affiliate Marketing A Scam?
To be honest, affiliate marketing is NOT A SCAM.
It is a legit opportunity to earn extra cash and can even become a good source of income!
The only thing that gives it a bad reputation and often seen as a scam are the actual scams that involve affiliate marketing!
The only way for you to avoid this is to always be wary.
Research first before joining and signing up for anything.
Another thing, in order for you to be successful, you need to really work hard. I will tell you already that affiliate marketing is not an easy job.
In fact, I do affiliate marketing and I have been doing it for years already. I can say that it is legit and really good.
Here is the best free-to-join affiliate marketing training course! Check it out!
This is How I Make Money from Home!
Affiliate marketing is a good source of income.
You can work anywhere and anytime. You are also free to do what you want. And the best part is that you can earn a passive income!
However, just like what I said, there will still be scams. And most of them time, they are training courses.
Be wary, especially if you are starting out.
For me, I totally recommended the best affiliate marketing training program, Wealthy Affiliates.
Why?
- It has a 24/7 support
- Professional affiliate marketers can help you through their live chat
- You will be given all the tools and training you need
- 2 free websites will be provided to you
I have been using it for a long time already.
Because of Wealthy Affiliates, I earn affiliate commissions on a daily basis.
Just take a look at my proof.
My November affiliate commissions thanks to Wealthy Affiliate!
These are great tips and I’m totally convinced that affiliate marketing is the right thing to finally do after struggling with a lot of methods which couldn’t deliver any results. However, one thing I want to be sure is whether it’s as easy as some so-called gurus of affiliate marketers I’ve watched on youtube make it look? From your experience can you share some realities on the ground before diving in? I would like to know especially the time it takes for one to see success. Thanks for these tips. At least from what I could read online affiliate marketing is not a scam so I better get the ball rolling.
Hello! Thank you so much for reading my review! To be honest, affiliate marketing takes time and effort. Those are the main things that are present if ever you want to be successful. The things that those gurus say? Do not be fooled. If you want to be successful with it, I suggest that you take a legit affiliate marketing training program.
Try out my recommendation, Wealthy Affiliates.
Affiliate marketing business is indeed the most lucrative business online I’m shocked at your earnings on wealthy affiliate though it shows your recommendation is really going to pay alot of us willing to go into affiliate marketing although I know it’s not really a get rich quick scheme but I’m sure with the right training it’s going to pay off. I’m opened to suggestions from you on building my affiliate business.
Hello! When you have already invested effort on affiliate marketing, you will just be making money just like I do! Furthermore, with the right training, you will do better. Try out my recommendation, Wealthy Affiliates and see you for yourself.
Great explanation of affiliate marketing here. It’s always good to have some background information before starting especially with affiliate marketing. There can be lot’s of things to consider, so a post such as this is really helpful. I agree that the #1 thing to look out for are too-good-to be true products. If it sounds too good to be true it likely is. With pay to join I am always on the lookout for up sells as these are common too. Great post, well done!
Hello! Thank you so much!
Thank you for answering my question, “Is affiliate marketing a scam?” This article contained a lot of helpful information. I especially appreciate the tip to avoid the pay to join affiliate marketing programs. I did not realize that most affiliate programs do not make you pay. I found your research about how much affiliate marketers earn very helpful. I know I would like to be in the top tiers. Can you provide a reference to where your data came from? My partner would like to see that I have verified the numbers that I am using in my business plan. Thank you in advance.
Hello Sondra! I really appreciate you reading my review. All of my data came from my experience and also from other affiliate marketers, like Anis. You can find a lot of them on the internet.
This is a good review of Affiliate Marketing! It is not a scam at all I can tell you that. Affiliate Marketing is what gives people actual jobs online without having to do any physical work, but to only work from the comfort of your own home. Sites such as amazon need Affiliate Marketers to sell their products, but Affiliates also need amazon to earn a commission for every purchase they make. It is a money-making business when you are an affiliate marketer, but you also help the people that do purchases and as a result, you earn a commission from these purchases.Affiliate marketing is amazing, so thank you for covering this review.All the best.
Hello Aabidah! Thank you so much for reading my review. I am so glad that you liked it.
I do not think that affiliate marketing is a scam. However, I see why most people think so, it takes time to be successful in affiliate marketing. The more time and frequency you invest on your post and keywords the more money you will make with your affiliate marketing commission. I think we all need some training to excel in affiliate marketing as well. You cannot go swimming without knowing how to swim right? Get the right training and invest your time in it will help you be more successful with affiliate marketing.
Hello Nuttanee! Exactly! Affiliate marketing takes time. That is one thing most people do not know. That is why training must be achieved. And I really recommend Wealthy Affiliates. Thank you so much for your comment.