Yesterday, one of my readers sent me an email asking whether affiliate marketing is way too saturated and competitive to be leveraged towards building an income online…
Since many aspiring affiliate marketers might be wondering the same thing, I decided to put together an article that would provide an in-depth answer to that question.
Let’s dive right in!
Is Affiliate Marketing Oversaturated?
No, affiliate marketing isn’t saturated by itself but it can be perceived as such depending on the niche you’re trying to monetize… For example, it’s only natural that the higher the profit potential of a niche, the more aspiring affiliate marketers will be attempting to break into it, thus increasing its saturation.
Some of the most saturated affiliate niches are:
- Health, Fitness, & Weight Loss
- Personal Finance & Making Money
- Dating & Relationships
- Beauty & Fashion
- Technology & Gadgets
While building a sizeable income within a saturated niche is totally possible, launching an affiliate business that revolves around a less saturated niche will probably require the investment of much less time, effort, and money.
Nonetheless, please don’t expect that pursuing a less crowded niche is the answer to instant and effortless riches…
Affiliate marketing is an online business model… And just like with any other type of business, becoming a successful affiliate marketer involves a steep learning curve, tons of trial and error, consistent work, and massive patience.
The ultimate truth is that if you treat your affiliate endeavors half-heartedly, chances are that you’ll end up failing, no matter how unsaturated the niche you decide to go after might be.
Nevertheless, if you’re a newbie to affiliate marketing, I’d suggest that you spend some time refining the niche you’re going to be involved in…
Ultimately, you should pick a niche that:
- Has a solid profit potential
- Doesn’t have stifling competition
- Is relatively evergreen
- You’re interested in
Once you’ve gotten the hang of the whole process, the odds of successfully monetizing more profitable niches without getting trampled by their fierce competition are definitely going to be in your favor!
Best Affiliate Marketing Courses
Best Affiliate Courses
Market Saturation Is 100% Normal
No business model isn’t saturated at least to some degree, whether this is affiliate marketing, dropshipping, print on demand, lead generation, YouTubing, Kindle publishing, or whatever.
As such, if you were to count out any business opportunity that might be a little saturated because you’re not determined enough to go up against your competition, then you should probably avoid going into business altogether.
Competition is part of any business endeavor and essential towards boosting a market’s economy, generating new employment opportunities, motivating businesses to keep improving the quality of their products and customer support, and maintaining prices at a decent level.
In short, competition is paramount to ensuring that markets remain stable and healthy.
There's Always an Audience to Monetize
Every business is geared towards a distinct audience that usually varies from the audience targeted by competing businesses that operate in the same market.
Let’s consider the restaurant business…
Even though there might be literally thousands of restaurants in a city, hundreds of new ones get launched every single year. As a matter of fact, according to Statista, more than 13,000 new restaurants opened in the US over the course of 2018 alone.
However, each one of those restaurants is after serving a very specific audience that’s probably completely different from the audience served by its competitors.
To give you an example, KFC targets chicken lovers, Pizza Hut targets pizza lovers, and Burger King targets burger lovers.
Ultimately, the same principle applies to affiliate marketing…
While there might be thousands of affiliate businesses out there, yours is going to be revolving around a select, unique audience that’ll be interested not only in the products you promote but also in how your character, style, and experiences are manifested through the info you share with them.
On top of that, with 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, the chances of your audience overlapping with your competitors’ are minimal. And even if it does, that’s still perfectly fine.
Just like one may eat both at KFC and Pizza Hut depending on what kind of food they’re in the mood for, your audience could end up purchasing affiliate offers promoted both by you as well as your competitors depending on the type of problem they’re after solving.
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
Rumors that affiliate marketing is oversaturated are circulating all around the web…
However, for the most part, such rumors originate from people’s innate need to justify either past failures to successfully utilize affiliate marketing or their unwillingness to give it a shot in the first place.
In reality, affiliate marketing isn’t saturated per se…
Yes, some of its most profitable niches might be but if you invest some time and effort in conducting proper research, you’ll undeniably be able to locate dozens of untapped ones.
Nevertheless, affiliate success is 100% possible even in saturated niches.
Over the years, I’ve personally seen affiliate businesses in uncrowded niches failing big while at the same time others were flourishing right in the middle of some of the most saturated ones.
The ultimate truth here is that some aspiring affiliate marketers are destined to fail regardless of which niche they go after.
Failure is obviously always a possibility while in the pursuit of a worthwhile achievement. That’s just how the world works…
However, if you don’t want the odds of reaching success stacked against you, it’s highly suggested to utilize a dedicated, structured affiliate marketing course.
that being said, here’s a roundup of The Best Affiliate Marketing Courses that have actually helped thousands of people to successfully leverage affiliate marketing towards building a sizeable income online.
Have any 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
