How many of you are asking yourself, is affiliate marketing worth it? What I am going to do is share the pros and cons of this opportunity with you, this will help you decide if this is something that is right for you.

Prices are exactly the same for you if your purchase is through an affiliate link or a non-affiliate link. You will not pay more by clicking through the link.

What is Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when earning a commission by promoting a product or service made by another company using an affiliate link. You can do this simply by sharing your link or better yet on your own website.  Either way, it works the same, if anyone clicks on this special link and makes a purchase, you will receive a commission.

• Most legitimate affiliate programs are absolutely free, so there is no limit on how many of them you can join and earn from. I would never join one that charges you to be an affiliate, you will find most often these are online scams.

• Low to zero investment depending on how you decide to promote them, many people do this for free by tweeting on Twitter. Others do this by using a website, you can find free and paid website opportunities later in this guide.

• Blogging, Social Media, Podcasts, and Videos are the most common methods used by most affiliate marketers.

Affiliate Marketing Process

1. You show an ad or a link for a store or stores on your website, blog, or social network.
2. A customer clicks your unique affiliate link.
3. The customer makes a purchase.
4. The affiliate network records the transaction.
5. The purchase is confirmed.
6. You get paid a commission.

For anyone new to earning money online, this is your safest method to get started. Now that you understand what affiliate marketing actually consists of, we are going to move on to the next paragraph.

Forever 21 Affiliate Link

Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It

Let us get to the pros of being an affiliate maketer, since I have been doing this for over 20 years, I am going to provide you with the honest truth. No making it sound easy to get wealthy in a short time, and sharing the advantages and the disadvantges is what you will find in this paragraph.

Pros

• Free to join most affiliate programs

• Low-investment optional

• Beginner-friendly

• Easy to get started

• Simple process anyone can do

• Opportunity to earn extra money online

• Work from anywhere, anytime

• A wide variety of products available

• All you do is promote products with affiliate links and the merchants take care of the rest.

• Do it your way

• All your marketing banners and links are provided at no cost to you

• Potential earning 24 hours 7 days per week.

• You have the freedom to choose the exact products and services to promote that interest you the most.

• Own your own business

Freedom with zero to low cost to get started, you are able to test this out without investing any of your money right away. For beginners this is your safest method to get started earning online, now let me tell you about the cons of this type of online business.

Flowers n Houseplants Affilate Store

Cons

• Depend on merchants for products and services to promote

• Highly competitive

• Often one-time cutomers

• You can’t depend on any specific amount of income from month to month

• New marketers require pesistance and patience to build trust online

• Rarely will you experience substantial income for the average person within the first two years.

• This is not an overnight successful business opportunity, you must put in the work to get sales, and build trust by creating a honest business brand.

This is the perfect opportunity for anyone seeking to earn extra income, even though it is possible to earn a steady income, it will take you years before most of you will ever experience this type of success. Being honest this is an awesome income addition to your regular occupation, but it is not going to provide you enough to live on for the majority of people right away.

Online Blog Writing Jobs

 Website Builders

As I promised here are some website builders to get you on your way, many of them are beginner-friendly. Some are self-hosted, and some you do need to purchase a hosting plan.

• WordPress.org is recommended as one of the best, you will need to puchase a hosting plan.

• WordPress.com has a free plan as well as paid plans, the website you are on right now is a WordPress.com paid plan. You can pay for your plan through PayPal which I recommend, so if you like my website this gives you an idea what you are getting for your money.

• WordPress.com has a free plan that is beginner-friendly, I would suggest beginners just trying this out consider going with the free plan. Once you know for sure this is right for you, then you can upgrade to a paid plan like this website.

• Wix is extremely popular among beginners, you use this easy drag and drop builder that anyone can learn to use in a very short time. Again go with the free plan to get started, and only after you experience success upgrade to a paid plan is my recommendation.

• Go Daddy provides you with a free website builder, easy drag and drop design. With this you will need to purchase one of their hosting plans, so this will require an investment.

Even though you can find others, these are the ones that I would choose if I was starting my own business for the first time. Another option is Wealthy Affiliate, they provide you with training and everything you need as a paid member. You can test this out with their free trial membership, so this is something else that you might want to consider.

Website Hosting

Just in case you decide to go with WordPress.org, I am going to provide you with the better choices for website hosting. With this list below, you can narrow your choices and compare them to help you decide which one appeals the most to you.

• Blue Host is considered the best for WordPress.org, and my online stores are hosted with this company. I am very happy with my stores performance using this one, so this is my first recommendation since I am using this myself with awesome results.

• Host Gator is number two on the list, now I have never used this one but it is highly recommended.

• Dream Host is one I used in the past when I first started online, I would recommend this hosting also if it is within your budget.

• In Motion is brand new to me, if you trust PC Magazine, they recomend this one as being another good choice.

Now we have some website builders and hosting to compare, you should always do compare shopping to get the most for your money. We have even more to help you decide if affiliate marketing is something you wish to try.

Affiliate Marketing Business Guide

Free Business Tools

When starting an online business free tools are an awesome asset, so that is why I am including this in ” Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It “. Very few beginners really can afford to invest any more than they absolutely need to, now these will be very helpful at no cost to you.

• Google Analytics
• Hotjar
• Canva
• Jungle Scout
• Mail Chimp
• Buffer
• Skype
• PayPal
• Pixabay
• Sumo
• Grammarly
• Echo Sign

Grammarly and Canva are two of the tools on the list I use all the time, and for your convenience to check them out I provided links to take you directly to their websites. This will save you time to learn more about them if you desire, now let us move on to what I have next.

How to Choose Affiliate Programs

The best way to choose the programs to join might be helpful, many people go for the ones that pay the highest commissions. Actually, this often backfireds on them. For the most success you need to be promoting products or services that interest you, what you want to do is consider some of the things below.

• Commision is important but not to be your sole decision maker, if you go with programs that pay at the least 10% it will be worth promoting their products.

• What are you the most passionate about in life, as for me, helping you is my passion, so I choose programs that pay less but provide you with bargains and deals.

• Consider your hobbies is a very good way to get started on the right track, when you know something about what you are promoting you can be more helpful to people.

• Why do you want to get into affiliate marketing, if you are doing this to earn extra income lower priced products and services will accomplish your goal.

• Self-Help Guides was chosen for this website with you as my priority, this is not earning me much income at all. My online stores are my bread and butter, so it really is important to consider what is your reason for starting an online business.

The true key for success is choosing the right products or services that you are passionate about yourself, if you are using them or have an interest in them, you are going to stick to promoting them more effectively.

“The Average Affiliate Marketer Gives Up Within the First Two Years”

Affiliate Marketing Resources

Ths guide is packed with resources already is a fact, but I always include my last paragraph with even more of them. This really is important to me, and this has been a trademark of what this website stands for.

• Affiliate Marketing Deals
• Best Affiliate Programs
• Marketing Strategy Guide
• Marketing for Beginners

Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It, now you tell me what you think by leaving me a comment. I would love to know what you think, now did this guide help you decide if this is right for you.