Affiliate Marketing Average Income: How Much Can You Make?
It’s always a good idea to see what the possibilities are when it comes to a specific business model, especially affiliate marketing.
However, the average affiliate marketing average income isn’t as straightforward as you might think.
With over 10 years of experience, allow me to shine some light on many of the possibilities when it comes to affiliate marketing.
First things first.
What Is The Affiliate Marketing Average Income?
If you’re not looking at any type of salaries when it comes to affiliate marketing, I would have to say that the average income of affiliate marketing is close to $0.
This is the unfortunate reality when it comes to affiliate marketing, and just about any other type of business model. In my experience, I would sum affiliate marketing up like this:
- 60% of affiliates will make anywhere from 0 to a couple of commissions.
- 30% of affiliates will make a few commissions but nothing over the long term.
- 10% of affiliates will have long-term growth and solid affiliate marketing success.
The 10% is the group that does affiliate marketing full-time and makes a significant income from it. Whatever that income level is will depend on what you need to live, as well as build and grow your online business.
The reason why I also say the average is $0 is for the fact that most people just don’t do anything when it comes to taking action.
Or if action is taken, the person will quickly give up after a small speed bump in the road.
Heck, there’s more to it than just taking action giving the fact that most things don’t exactly click into place on the first try:
- You also need to recognize why things aren’t working.
- You also need to make appropriate changes for better results.
- Don’t forget about adapting or pivoting bases upon data that you have.
Next time you come across a sales letter for an affiliate marketing offer take a look at any type of earnings disclaimer that they usually have somewhere on the page. Here is an example from Legendary Marketer (which I happen to like their stuff):
The average person who buys any “how-to” information gets little to no results.
I remember when I first started affiliate marketing, I saw those types of statements as a wake-up call. To me, it meant two things, and I want to share my thoughts with you since I think that it will help you out:
- Most people aren’t successful.
- The reason for it is that they just aren’t putting in the work.
That helped me realize that if I just put in enough of the right work over a long period of time, I’d most likely be in a good spot. Despite many of the ups and downs that I’ve had, I was correct.
Work ethic is imperative when it comes to seeing success with affiliate marketing.
Lastly, I do want to mention that we are looking at the average here.
- Average doesn’t cut it.
- Average might as well be failing.
- There is nothing good about average, ever.
If you don’t want to be an affiliate marketer, focus on the affiliates who are winning, as opposed to those who just dip their feet in the pool and refuse to dive right in.
How Much Can You Make A Month With Affiliate Marketing?
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that the sky is the limit when it comes to how much you can earn per month.
Keep in mind that every monthly income is going to come with plenty of challenges that you are going to need to figure out in order to keep growing.
I forgot who coined the term, but I remember this also being referred to as next-level devils.
It reminds of Super Mario World, but instead of playing a video game, you’re doing affiliate marketing and looking to beat the next boss in order to level up your income.
But what are some examples of monthly income that you can make as an affiliate? Here you are:
- $100 per month.
- $1,000 per month.
- $10,000 per month.
- $100,000 per month.
- Yup, even $1,000,000 per month.
Please note that the last two examples above are examples of elite affiliate marketers, or more so, the 0.001% of affiliates.
There’s always a bottom when it comes to affiliate earnings, and there’s always a top as well.
The fact of the matter is that you usually don’t start off just making a ton of money right off the bat. It can happen sometimes, but it’s more of a rare occurrence.
As you get more experience and put in more work, your affiliate marketing income can grow over time if you’re taking the right steps.
So most affiliate marketers aren’t going to hit the $1,000,000 per month mark, but is it possible to become a millionaire from affiliate marketing all by itself?
Allow me to answer that now.
Can You Become A Millionaire From Affiliate Marketing?
Yes, it is possible to become a millionaire from affiliate marketing. At the same time, that is certainly not any type of average or typical result.
When you think about it, there are a lot of business models that can allow you to become a millionaire. In my opinion, aside from making the money, there are two important things that a lot of people get wrong:
- Spending the money.
- Not investing the money back in their business.
I’ve heard so many horror stories of online marketers (affiliates included) who will run a big affiliate campaign, or maybe do a huge product launch, only to make a ton of money and immediately spend it.
I’m not going to get too much into the financial details and why that’s such a horrible idea, but it happens all of the time. Making money is one thing, but not spending it foolishly is a completely different story.
Becoming a millionaire from affiliate marketing is going to take some discipline. I would know, as I’ve been doing this for around a decade and am still working my way to that millionaire status (regardless of how long it takes).
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
Ah yes, the million-dollar question. Do you see what I did there?
There are a TON of ways that you can make money from affiliate marketing. In my opinion, you’ll want to stick with methods that you like or have more knowledge about.
Here are a few popular examples of how you can make commissions from affiliate marketing:
- Websites/blogging.
- Facebook using your personal profile or groups.
- Email marketing (you will need to generate leads first).
- Creating TikTok videos (you can build a list using your profile).
- Creating YouTube videos (you can link to affiliate products in the description).
Those are just a few options when it comes to using no-cost and low-cost methods. Don’t forget about all of the paid traffic methods from platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, and so on and so forth.
So these are examples of platforms that you can use for affiliate marketing but allow me to talk a little bit more about a specific method that you can use. I did a complete article about it if you’d like even more information, but it is called launch jacking.
Here are the simple steps outlined:
- Find an offer to promote.
- Create your affiliate review video.
- Upload and optimize your YouTube video.
The devil is definitely in the details, so be sure to check out the link that I added above if you’d like to see the process broken down a whole lot more.
Average Income Of Affiliate Marketers: Final Words
The average income of affiliate marketers is going to be close to $0, given the fact that most people don’t take enough action (or any action at all to see results).
This certainly hasn’t been one of the most positive articles that I’ve written on my blog, but sometimes you just need to hear what you just need to hear (so to speak).
Affiliate marketing, like most other business models, will come with its ups and downs. Aside from taking action, it’s very important that you preserver and keep pushing on, even if the answer isn’t so obvious at the time.
That’s the good thing about the internet though, as there are tons of people, coaches, mentors, products, and communities that can help you out when you’re faced with an unstoppable roadblock.
Either way, happy affiliate marketing, and thanks again for stopping by to read this article.
About the Author James Canzanella
A former personal trainer who went from unemployment to online business success. He's been marketing since 2012 and (still) enjoys lifting weights, listening to rock music, and relentlessly quoting movie lines.
