At some point, every business faces this almost Shakespearean dilemma: whether to do affiliate marketing or not to do it. That is the question, indeed.
Jokes aside, every year, we hear about brands spending tons of money on marketing, but much of it doesn’t pay off. Yet, there seems to be one exception: affiliate marketing. We’ve all heard those incredible success stories, after all. Despite the many successful affiliate marketing programs, the big question remains: is affiliate marketing worth it for most of us?
We are not going to give you any spoiler alerts — there’s a lot to cover, and no sneak peek can fully capture all the nuances, benefits, and downsides. So, let’s answer this truly existential question for both businesses and affiliate marketers.
Affiliate Marketing: An Overview
Let’s start by figuring out exactly what affiliate marketing is. Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates (aka affiliate partners) for driving traffic or sales to their products and services. Basically, it’s all about companies joining forces and marketing efforts with affiliate marketers. Sounds simple, right?
The interesting thing about affiliate marketing is that it’s, in fact, quite simple in comparison to other marketing tactics. Take social media advertising, for example. While it can insanely increase your brand awareness, you don’t always see that reflected in your annual report.
On the other hand, promoting products through affiliate marketing gives you an opportunity to pay only for converted clients without spending more money in the vain efforts of engaging with the target audience.
Intriguing, isn’t it? Now, let’s break it down!
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work for Businesses?
To give you a better understanding, let’s take a look at the step-by-step process for both a business and a successful affiliate marketer who promotes a product. For this, let’s imagine a sports apparel company called ZenYoga launching an affiliate campaign.
First, we’ll see how affiliate marketing looks from a business perspective.
✍️ Set Up an Affiliate Program
ZenYoga, a company that sells yoga mats, clothes, and accessories, wants to boost its online sales. They create an affiliate program, offering a 15% commission on each sale made through an affiliate’s referral. So, they find the best affiliate management software, like Referral Factory, which is easy to use and allows tracking and optimizing affiliate campaigns easily. Then, they launch their campaign.
⭐ Recruit Affiliates
ZenYoga promotes their affiliate program on their website, through yoga-related blogs, and on social media. Since they did a good job highlighting the benefits of their program, they managed to attract many yogies: yoga instructors, fitness bloggers, and other social media influencers.
✅ Provide Marketing Materials
This company offers its affiliates unique affiliate links, high-quality images, banners, and even pre-written content about their products to help their affiliate partners in their promotional activities. Thanks to all this, internet users can now see ZenYoga’s promotional content not just on their official pages and through search engines, but on bloggers’ Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media. That’s what we call UGC in action!
🧮 Track Sales
When an affiliate, such as Mia, the yoga instructor, promotes ZenYoga’s products, she uses her unique affiliate link. ZenYoga uses Referral Factory tracking software to monitor clicks and sales generated through these links. Simple!
🏆 Pay Commissions
When a customer like Sarah clicks on Mia’s link and purchases a yoga mat, ZenYoga tracks the sale and attributes it to Mia. At the end of the month, ZenYoga calculates the total commissions earned by each affiliate and sends out payments. In fact, they don’t have to calculate commissions manually—it is all done automatically by Referral Factory.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work for Affiliates?
Now, let’s see how it works from the perspective of an affiliate partner, Mia, the yoga instructor:
🎯 Join an Affiliate Program
Mia discovers ZenYoga’s affiliate program. She signs up and gets approved. She receives unique affiliate links and marketing materials to use on her own website, social media, and other platforms.
🎉 Promote the Product/Service
Mia writes a blog post (with photos) about the benefits of using high-quality yoga mats and includes her affiliate link to ZenYoga’s products. She’s a savvy affiliate marketer, so she uses the best SEO techniques to reach more people, not only her engaged audience. She also shares her link in her yoga classes and on her social media platforms. This leads to an extensive reach.
🌐 Drive Traffic & Sales
Mia’s followers and students see her blog posts and social media updates. Sarah, one of Mia’s subscribers, clicks on the affiliate link and, after mulling it over, she buys a yoga mat from ZenYoga. At this point, affiliate links worked, and ZenYoga made a sale.
📠 Track Earning
ZenYoga tracks the sale and attributes it to Mia’s referral link. They provide Mia with a dashboard (since Referral Factory has one) with real-time reports showing her clicks, conversions, and commissions earned. It is very easy for her to see what worked, what didn’t, and how she can promote affiliate products better.
💵 Receive Payments
At the end of the month, ZenYoga calculates Mia’s total earnings based on her performance. They send her commission, in this case, 15% of the yoga mat sale, which amounts to $15 if the mat costs $100. If she manages to sell more, she will earn more at the end of the month. This is how affiliates can build a solid income stream.
So, is affiliate marketing worth it? In this case, you see how both parties get a win-win scenario. But let’s take a look at more straightforward benefits for both parties and consider the bigger picture here.
Affiliate Marketing Benefits for Businesses
So, we’ve seen how it works for both businesses and affiliate marketers. Now, let’s answer the most burning question: is it REALLY worth it for both businesses and affiliates? Here are the main benefits businesses get:
💸 One of the Best Cost-Effective Strategies
For many businesses, marketing is like going hunting – you never know if it will pay off! Affiliate marketing is not like that, because you always pay for the actual results, like conversions or traffic, meaning you get more bang for your buck compared to traditional advertising.
🌞 Targeted Marketing
You can choose affiliates who perfectly match your ideal customer. This means you’re getting your product or service in front of people who are most likely to buy it. If you have a budget but don’t have enough time to recruit these affiliates, you can always search for a famous affiliate network to find a perfect match for your brand.
🌍 Broader Reach
Who doesn’t want to expand their audience? But here is a thing – you can’t simply tag along to other audiences without an introduction; it is simply awkward. But affiliates can help you here. They often have their own established audiences, which will allow your brand to reach new potential customers that you might not have tapped into otherwise.
⚡ Increased Sales
With affiliates promoting your products or services, you can see a noticeable increase in sales. Affiliates use their expertise to create compelling content and strategies that drive conversions, ultimately leading to more revenue for you.
🔥 Access to Diverse Marketing Channels
Affiliates use various channels to promote products, such as blogs, social media, email marketing, and more. This diversity allows you to tap into multiple communication channels without managing them yourself.
💫 Easily Scalable
You can scale your affiliate program by adding more affiliates without a proportional increase in costs because, again, you only pay for conversions. This scalability is perfect for businesses looking to grow their reach without overspending.
⌨️ Easy to Track
With affiliate software, you can see exactly how many sales each affiliate brings in. This helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not.
Now, let’s not sugarcoat it. Running a successful affiliate program requires effort. You need to invest time in creating a campaign with attractive commissions, providing clear marketing materials, and nurturing relationships with your affiliates. But the potential rewards far outweigh the initial investment.
Affiliate Marketing Benefits for Affiliate Marketers
Now, it’s clear what immediate benefits businesses get. Basically, companies can build another solid revenue stream. But what are the advantages most affiliates can expect?
💡 You’re Your Own Boss
You choose what products or services you promote and how you do it. Work from anywhere, set your own hours, and be your own marketing whiz. Successful affiliate marketers work by their own rules, and their income is often complemented by the brands’ additional bonuses as a recognition of their success.
💶 Earn Money Doing What You Love
Do you love sports? Promote athletic brands! Foodie at heart? Recommend tasty treats! There are affiliate programs for almost any interest. Once you’re in the affiliate business, you can find anything that fits you – we live in the golden age of brands, after all.
💸 Flexible Income
The more sales you generate, the more you earn. It’s a chance to turn your passions into passive income or a full-time job, whatever works for you. Besides, you can always change to a related affiliate niche if you’re tired of a current one.
💳 Low Cost for Beginners
Starting as an affiliate marketer doesn’t require any investment from your side – you can leverage affiliate marketing without spending a dime. Why? Because you don’t need to worry about product creation, inventory, or customer service. Your main focus is promotion.
🌍 Access to Global Market
The internet knows no boundaries. You can reach a global audience and promote products or services to people around the globe, expanding your earning potential even further. Your affiliate sales can also diversify your following as more people from all over the world subscribe to your platforms.
🤝 Networking Opportunities
Affiliate marketing can connect you with other marketers, product creators, and industry leaders. Building these relationships can open up new opportunities and collaborations. Plus, you get an immense experience that could help you in the future. If you create content that attracts attention and generates more sales for your affiliate products, you become a more successful affiliate marketer. Who knows? Maybe it will create new career opportunities for you.
💪 Learn New Skills
Affiliate marketing teaches you a lot about marketing, communications, PR, and sales. It can help you build an online presence and improve your content creation skills. All these can be extremely valuable for any future endeavors.
The possibilities are endless. You can start an affiliate marketing career very easily — most brands have a low entry point. However, success requires dedication and continuous learning. There’s a lot of competition out there, so you need to create high-quality content, build trust with your audience, and stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends.
What Do They Say on Reddit About Affiliate Marketing?
“Is affiliate marketing worth it?” is not only the title of this article but a lively discussion that goes on in the different corners of the web. Many affiliate marketers earn good money in this industry, but for those outside of it, there is still the question of whether affiliate marketing actually works.
So, let’s take a look at some of the thoughts people share online. Sometimes, hearing real voices can be very reassuring and even inspiring!
So, here’s what one of the users says in the discussion called “Is affiliate marketing legit”:
These are some legit points. If you’re starting from scratch, you don’t necessarily have to go into the affiliate marketing industry right away. That goes for both brands and affiliate marketers. The competition is high, and without any audience at all it will be pretty hard to get great results.
Now, you might have another question: when are businesses and potential affiliates ready for the affiliate marketing program?
Here’s a quick checklist:
| Category | Business | Affiliate Marketer |
|---|---|---|
| Product/Service | ✅ Clear value proposition and target audience | ✅ Genuine interest in the product/service category |
| Marketing Strategy | ✅ Established brand identity and online presence | ✅ Content creation strategy aligned with product promotion |
| Resources | ✅ Dedicated budget or resources for affiliate program management | ✅ Website or SM platform with an established audience |
| Goals | ✅ Defined goals for the program (e.g., brand awareness, increased sales) | ✅ Realistic expectations for earning potential |
| Knowledge | ✅ Understanding of the affiliate marketing best practices and how affiliate marketing works (i.e., tracking, commission structure) | ✅ Basic knowledge of digital marketing and promotion strategies |
The bottom line: If you don’t have a stable, interested audience, it might be a good idea to wait a bit. Don’t rush into the affiliate marketing business, and don’t check affiliate platforms just yet. The best solution is to have a look around, grow your online presence, and build a loyal community. All these will hugely contribute to creating a new affiliate revenue stream for you in the future.
But let’s get back to the Reddit discussion. So, to demystify some views, it’s important to note that it is not a “get-rich-quick scheme,” and you shouldn’t be expecting overnight success:
We have also looked at the older discussion, and some posts are very interesting, considering that affiliate marketing is working very well in 2024. But it has been effective for a while now!
Overall, many people find affiliate marketing totally legit, and many love this great digital marketing tactic. Many successful affiliates have managed to build passive income in their chosen niche. As for business, many get incredible boosts in sales, whether they are working with affiliate networks or recruiting affiliates by themselves. Basically, affiliate marketing pros outweigh the cons.
Verdict? Yes, many people still look at another successful affiliate marketing business and try to find a trick there. At the same time, we see that affiliate marketing success is more and more common. In fact, the affiliate revenue increases every year.
The Importance of Software for Affiliate Marketing
When it comes to the core question of this article, there is one thing that can make affiliate marketers and businesses give you a negative answer – bad software. The truth is the effectiveness of affiliate campaigns depends gravely on the affiliate marketing tools you are using.
Imagine running a marathon with untied shoelaces. That’s what using inadequate affiliate software feels like. It slows you down, trips you up, and ultimately keeps you from reaching your goals. Here’s how bad software can sabotage your affiliate program:
- Tracking issues can make a mess out of your collaboration with your own affiliate network. If you start affiliate marketing with an improper software choice, it may ruin even a well-developed program;
- Poor integration capabilities can create a fragmented experience. Good affiliate software should integrate seamlessly with other tools like CRM systems, email marketing platforms, and payment gateways;
- Incomplete or delayed reports and no proper analytics will simply make you and your affiliates wonder what happened. Truly, the worst marketing strategy is not knowing what worked and what didn’t.
Making money for affiliates is also harder. A good tool offers an easy-to-use dashboard where both business representatives and affiliates can see every single detail of the campaign.
So, before you say, “No, affiliate marketing is not worth it,” just make sure you have used proper software because your answer could be very different!
When is Affiliate Marketing Not YET Worth it
It is no longer a question: if you are an affiliate marketer, you know that the affiliate marketing industry is worth being a part of. The same goes for businesses. But… is it always worth it? Of course not.
It is important to recognize when you are not ready to embrace all the possibilities, and you should prepare better before your affiliate marketing spend makes sense.
Here are some indicators that your business is not really in the “affiliate marketing place” yet:
❌ When Your Business Model Isn’t Established
Affiliate marketing thrives on a solid foundation. If your business model isn’t well-established, jumping into affiliate marketing can be premature. Ensure you have a clear understanding of your products, target audience, and sales process before involving affiliates.
After that, running an affiliate marketing business is quite easy — especially if you have great software. An unstable business model can lead to confusion and inefficiencies. Moreover, it will be hard for affiliates to promote your offerings effectively.
❌ When Your Product Isn’t Ready
Promoting a product that isn’t ready for the market is one of the best ways to fail. Affiliates rely on the quality and appeal of your product to drive sales. If your product is still in the development stage or hasn’t been tested thoroughly, wait until it’s polished and ready.
A subpar product can damage both your brand and the trust of your affiliates. Instead of focusing on affiliate sales, work on polishing your product. If you make something incredible out of it, the affiliate income won’t make you wait for it later on!
❌ When You Haven’t Set Clear Goals
Seems easy, right? The best affiliate marketing program has clear objectives. Here’s the truth: affiliate marketing should always align with your business goals.
If you haven’t defined what you want to achieve with your affiliate program – whether it’s increased sales, brand awareness, or customer acquisition – take a step back, set clear and measurable goals, and only then start your campaign.
❌ When You Can’t Offer Competitive Commissions
Affiliates are motivated by commissions – there is no need to hide it. If your business can’t offer competitive rewards, it might be a struggle to attract and retain top affiliates, therefore, your affiliate revenue won’t be very good.
Analyze your industry standards and ensure you can provide attractive compensation to your affiliates. But if you can’t for now – it is okay, just postpone building affiliate relationships.
But what about affiliate marketers? When should they not join affiliate programs or affiliate networks? Here you go:
❌ When Your Audience Is Too Small
Starting without at least some audience will just make everything harder for you. If you look at other affiliates, you’ll see that most of them had at least some followers at the beginning. Take your time to research and understand who you’re trying to reach, what their needs are, and how the product you’re promoting (or want to promote) can solve their problems.
Let’s admit it: if you want to promote an affiliate product in the software niche, there’s almost no chance you can use a garden niche blog to attract the right people, even if you create extremely high-quality content.
❌ When You Can’t Commit the Time
Affiliate marketing requires a significant time commitment. You could also see that from the Reddit discussions we referred to above. It is true – from creating content to engaging with your audience and analyzing your performance, it’s a continuous and time-consuming process.
If you can’t dedicate enough time to these tasks, it’s better to wait until you can. Half-hearted efforts will not yield the best results.
❌ When You’re Chasing Quick Money
Surprisingly, despite the fact that affiliate marketers make significant passive income, this might be the worst reason to start doing affiliate marketing in the first place. If you’re in it solely for quick profits, you might be disappointed.
Affiliate partners are not there just for affiliate revenue – they create content that boosts engagement and conversions, which is not an easy task. Look at the most successful affiliate marketer in any niche, and you’ll see tons of patience, consistency, and long-term commitment. So, be prepared to invest time and effort before seeing significant returns.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing is most definitely worth it. You don’t have to look at the income reports to know it is true. Whether you have an online store or a service business, you can find affiliate marketers to boost your brand’s income stream.
Affiliate income, on the other hand, can reach thousands of dollars quite promptly. You only need dedication, consistency, and an internet connection, of course.
Don’t forget to use affiliate marketing software to simplify the process and make your efforts more effective. Referral Factory can be your secure choice, and a platform that offers incredible benefits for everyone involved.
FAQs at a Glance
Can I Really Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
Absolutely! Many affiliate marketers make a substantial income through affiliate marketing. The key is to choose the right products or services to promote, have a good strategy, and consistently put in the effort.
On average, the affiliate marketer earns $8,038 per month. Surely, there are affiliates who make a few hundred dollars a month, but it all depends on your approach and dedication, as well as the choice of affiliate program you join.
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It for Beginners?
Yes, it is. Affiliate marketing is a great way for beginners to start earning money online. The reason is plain and simple – you don’t need pretty much any upfront investment, and you can learn as you go.
Many affiliate programs offer resources and support to help you succeed. However, it is advisable to start when you already have an active audience and established marketing channels.
Is It Hard to Do Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing isn’t necessarily hard, but it does require effort and consistency. If you have a business, you need to create a good structure, offer appealing rewards, and promote it well enough.
If you are a blogger, you’ll need to create quality content, build an audience, and promote products effectively.
Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?
Yes, affiliate marketing is a legitimate and widely accepted business model. It’s used by major companies like Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and millions of others.
As long as you follow ethical practices and comply with relevant regulations, affiliate marketing is a legitimate marketing tactic for businesses, and a way to earn money for affiliate marketers.
Do Affiliate Programs Really Work?
Yes, they do. Affiliate programs are a proven method for businesses to reach new customers and for affiliates to earn commissions. Bloggers can bring more audience for an affiliate product than paid ads, and most affiliate programs are effective in terms of making money.
Many successful online entrepreneurs and influencers use affiliate marketing as a major income source. There are numerous success stories, and the model itself is sustainable and effective when done right.
