Fact and Fiction in Affiliate Marketing

Separating Fact from Fiction
There’s a lot of hype right now about people making money online. You may have heard or read stories about Internet entrepreneurs making millions of dollars a year in their sleep, while their websites run on auto-pilot, only waking up to check their bank balances, and play golf. On the other hand, you may have heard that the market is too saturated, and that successes are few and far between. Don’t believe the hype! This section will identify some of the most common affiliate marketing myths, and help you separate fact from fiction.

Fiction: Running an affiliate business is easy.
Fact: Running an affiliate business is easy when compared to the challenges of starting up a traditional business. If you were to open up a brick and mortar business, you would have to buy or lease a location, hire employees, carry inventory, and deliver products or services to your customers. It is very expensive and time consuming to start a brick and mortar business, and if you fail you have a lot to lose. Running an affiliate business is also a lot easier than running your own E-Commerce website. With an affiliate website you simply refer visitors to merchants, and let the merchants handle the transaction. Your job as an affiliate is over when
the visitor lands on the merchant’s website. It’s the merchant’s responsibility to secure the transaction, handle customer service, and deliver the product to the customer. While it may be true that starting and managing an affiliate business is a lot easier than a brick and mortar business, or e-commerce website, it’s not entirely easy. Running a successful affiliate business does require you to attract new website visitors and to get those visitors to click through and do business with the merchants you’re promoting.

Fiction: Get rich quick!
Fact: Building a successful affiliate business is not something that happens overnight. It takes time to develop a good website with good content. It also takes time to build a constant flow of visitors to your website. While you can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, don’t expect to flip a switch and become a millionaire over night. Anyone promoting these “get rich quick” schemes are only making themselves rich, while their customers only hope to one day be rich.

Fiction:
The affiliate marketing space is too crowded.
Fact: The potential for affiliates to be successful has never been better. Consider these facts:

• The population of web users continues to grow month after month, with no end in sight!
• People are making more purchases online than ever before.
• More homes have broadband than ever before, making it easier to shop online.
• The web is the largest marketplace in the world. Reach hundreds of millions of users!
It’s never been easier to carve out a niche for yourself in affiliate marketing.