Over the years, one of the questions I’ve been asked by hundreds of people newly introduced to affiliate marketing is…
“Can You Really Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?”
Yes, making money with affiliate marketing is absolutely possible. Truth is that millions of people, including me, earn affiliate commissions by promoting already existing products as we speak. Based on research, the worth of the affiliate marketing industry is expected to surpass $30 billion by 2025.
Right below, you can take a look at a screenshot of my PayPal account displaying some of the affiliate commissions I got paid back in July.
Furthermore, here’s a screenshot of a pretty sweet $930 commission I earned via promoting a high-ticket product in just one day!
While achieving such results overnight is practically impossible, with hard work, dedication, grit, and patience, you could eventually be earning equally high daily commissions yourself!
If you’re in need of more proof that making money with affiliate marketing is really possible, keep on reading…
1.6% of Amazon's Annual Revenue Is Paid to Affiliates
According to statistics, affiliate marketing is responsible for about 40% of Amazon’s annual revenue.
With a 4% average affiliate commission rate, 1.6% of Amazon’s total revenue lands into the pockets of its affiliates.
Amazon’s annual revenue for 2020 was $386.1 billion.
As such, over the course of 2020, Amazon paid ($386.1 billion * 1.6%) = $6.1 billion worth of commissions to its affiliate marketers.
Amazon’s affiliate program is just one among thousands that exist out there…
As a matter of fact, with affiliate marketing being utilized by over 81% of all US-based advertisers, there are over 11,000 affiliate programs in the US alone.
Some of the most notable companies that run highly profitable affiliate programs are:
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Nike
- Addidas
- Walmart
- Samsung
- eBay
- Etsy
- & more
Furthermore, affiliate marketing is being leveraged by more than 84% of all US-based publishers (bloggers, YouTubers, influencers, etc) towards monetizing their content.
Having said all that, if there was no money to be made in affiliate marketing, no company, advertiser, or publisher would ever invest their precious time, energy, and money in utilizing the model.
Best Affiliate Marketing Courses
Best Affiliate Courses
13% of Affiliates Make Over $75K per Year
According to an affiliate marketing benchmark report that was published by AffStat in 2016, 13% of all affiliate marketers make over $75,000 per year.
To be more specific:
- 48.36% made less than $20K per year
- 11.1% made $20K – $30K per year
- 5.88% made $30K – $40K per year
- 2.16% made $40K – $50K per year
- 2.64% made $50K – $75K per year
- 3.19% made $75K – $100K per year
- 6.39% made $100K – $150K per year
- and 3.16% made over $150K per year
Those statistics place affiliate marketing among the most profitable online monetization models that currently exist.
To give you a frame of reference, according to some Multi-Level Marketing Statistics I put together a while ago, less than 3% of MLM reps make more than $25,000 per year while the percentage of affiliate marketers who make as much is about 25%.
This basically means that affiliate marketers are 8+ times more likely to make over $25,000 per year than MLM reps.
Furthermore, while 9.55% of affiliate marketers earn over $100K per year, only 0.05% of MLM reps manage to earn as much.
Subsequently, affiliate marketers are 191 times more likely to earn over $100K per year than MLM reps.
Lastly, a poll of 117 affiliate marketers that was held on the STM Forum revealed that:
- 18.80% made less than $20K per year
- 10.26% made $21K – $40K per year
- 10.26% made $41K – $80K per year
- 13.68% made $81K – $120K per year
- 12.82% made $121K – $200K per year
- 6.84% made $201K – $400K per year
- 7.69% made $401K – $800K per year
- 2.56% made $801K – $1 million per year
- 11.11% made $1.01 million – $2 million per year
- and 5.98 made over &2 million per year
Affiliate Marketing Infographic
If you’d like to embed this infographic on your website, just copy and paste the code right below to your HTML editor:
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://dearboss-iquit.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Affiliate-Marketing-Statistics-Infographic.png" alt="Affiliate" width="600" />
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Created by <a href="https://dearboss-iquit.com">Dear Boss I Quit</a></strong></p>
Affiliate marketing FAQs
Affiliate marketing is an online business model that involves promoting products or services created and distributed by third-party online merchants in exchange for getting paid a commission for each sale you refer.
In layman’s terms, affiliate marketing is the process of being compensated for helping businesses sell to more customers.
Here’s a bird’s eye view of how affiliate marketing works.
- You join a merchant’s affiliate program
- The merchant gives you a unique affiliate link that points to their e-shop
- You promote your unique affiliate link online (blog, forums, social media, paid ads, etc.)
- Every time someone clicks on your unique affiliate link and makes a purchase on the merchant’s e-shop, the merchant pays you a commission
There are thousands of successful affiliate marketers all around the world. Some of the most well-known ones are:
- Pat Flynn
- Matt Diggity
- Matthew Woodward
- Doug Cunnington
- & more
You can check out a roundup of my 17 favorite examples of affiliate success and their backstories right here.
- Billion-dollar industry
- Very low startup & operational expenses
- Huge income potential
- Flexible & versatile
- Passive income
- Simple to implement
- No technical background
- No customer support
- No physical setup
Affiliate marketers can be divided into five main income groups:
- Total beginners: $0 – $20,000 per year
- Low-level affiliates: $20,000 – $50,000 per year
- Intermediate affiliates: $50,000 – $100,000 per year
- High-level affiliates: $100,000 – $500,000 per year
- Super affiliates: $500,000+ per year
According to PayScale, the average annual income for affiliate marketers in the US is over $54,000 per year. Statistics reveal that 13% of affiliates earn more than $75,000 per year.
Some of the factors that influence how much you earn as an affiliate marketer include:
- seniority
- target niche
- available resources
- previous experience
- marketing efforts
- & overall mindset
Here’s a rough income growth timeline of a typical affiliate marketing business:
- months (0-3): no earnings
- months (3-6): first affiliate sale
- months (6-12): $100-$500 monthly
- months (12-18): $1000 monthly
- months (18-24): $3000+ monthly
This timeline isn’t a guarantee of future performance but rather a mere approximation of the income growth of an average affiliate business. Your own timeline could be shorter or longer than projected.
Over the years, I’ve seen aspiring affiliates striking a gold vein just a few months into the industry. On the other hand, I personally know people who’ve been struggling to grow their affiliate revenue to $1000 per month for several years.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most affordable money-making models out there.
Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to get started as an affiliate marketer along with their associated costs:
- web hosting & domain name: $2.95/month (Bluehost)
- keyword research tool: $49/month (Jaaxy)
- expert guidance: $49/month (Wealthy Affiliate)
- email autoresponder: Free for up to 1000 subs (MailerLite)
Please note that on top of expert guidance, Wealthy Affiliate also provides free access to hosting and a keyword research tool so you don’t have to purchase them separately.
Yes, you can do affiliate marketing without a website by promoting your affiliate links on other marketing channels, such as:
- Social Media
- Paid Ads
- YouTube
- Podcast
- etc.
The process of getting started with affiliate marketing can be broken down into the following four simple steps:
- Pick a niche
- Launch a blog
- Build an audience
- Promote affiliate products
No, you don’t.
Affiliate marketing is very simple to get started with by virtually anyone regardless of age, education, background, available capital, tech-savviness, professional network, etc.
In fact, most 6-figure affiliate marketers were no more experienced than you currently are when they first ventured into the affiliate marketing industry.
Nonetheless, being knowledgeable in fields like marketing, sales, content production, business management, etc., could help you reach your financial goals somewhat faster.
Conclusion
Making money with affiliate marketing is undeniably possible…
However, the process of building an affiliate business that brings in a sizeable income online is no walk in the park but rather involves a steep learning curve, a lot of trial and error, consistent work, and massive patience.
Nonetheless, you could short-circuit and streamline your journey to affiliate success, by signing up for a dedicated high-quality affiliate marketing course.
Do you have any additional questions?
Leave a comment right below or contact me right here.
I’ll be more than happy to help you out!
All the best,
Harry, Founder & Editor at dearboss-iquit.com
