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Is Affiliate Marketing Legit? Is It Worth Getting Into?

You see so many people talking about affiliate marketing, but is it as legit as they make it out to be?

Let’s talk more about this topic, as I’ve got some great experience when it comes to this industry.

Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?

I want to start off by saying that I’ve been an affiliate marketer since 2012, and this question always comes off as odd.

To me, there’s never been a doubt in my mind about the legitimacy of affiliate marketing.

Heck, even when I wasn’t doing well in the beginning stages of the process I never had any doubts.

However, I’ve been seeing a ton of doubt when it comes to affiliate marketing and its legitimacy lately.

Lately, these types of doubts are heavily pushed on by people who are haters or will never see success with affiliate marketing (or just about anything else in life).

It’s annoying too. Not so much for me, but for other people who are looking to get started with affiliate marketing.

It’s much harder to get started when you have people constantly ‘whispering in your ear’ and saying things like:

• It’s a scam (yawn).
• No one ever makes money with this.
• It’s like every other gimmick out there.
• You’ll never be successful (someone straight up told me that once).

You can go on and on, but I’m sure you’re familiar with the types of individuals who do nothing but whine. Same sound, different voices.

So again, affiliate marketing is as legitimate as it gets. Heck, affiliate marketing has made many people rich.

If you are still having trouble grasping that concept, here are some recommendations for you:

• Don’t hang around losers (they love to complain).
• Do what you can do to associate yourself with winners.
• Simply look at some of the results that people are doing with affiliate marketing.

With social media being so relevant, people love showing off their big (or first) wins when it comes to affiliate marketing. Join any big affiliate marketing group and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.

On the other hand, there are some valid reasons as to why you might not be 100% trust in the process of affiliate marketing.

With that being said, let’s talk about both the good and the bad when it comes to affiliate marketing. This will help you get a good idea of what you can expect from the industry.

Can I Trust Affiliate Marketing?

So affiliate marketing is great, but from my experience, there are always going to be specific people that aren’t worthy of your trust.

This isn’t just with affiliate marketing, but internet marketing in general.

I’ll give you a few examples, but don’t want to go too deep down this dark rabbit hole:

• People who lie all the time.
• Paying for something and getting nothing.
• Not getting paid out (for no reason whatsoever).
• Winning affiliate contest prizes and then the owner disappears.

The horror stories go on and on, but the fact of the matter is that things like this don’t happen all too often. It’s not that the process of affiliate marketing can’t be trusted, it’s some of the shady people.

It comes with every type of business model, but you can’t let the shady few dictate your ability to get started with affiliate marketing and thrive moving forward.

As you get more experienced, you’ll have a better idea of who you want to do business with, and who you want to avoid like the plague.

That all goes hand in hand with your affiliate marketing instinct, which is your ability to quickly make correct decisions based upon the knowledge and experience that you’ve built up over the years.

So while it’s pretty front and center that you should avoid a lot of the shady people, you also have to keep in mind what else is bad about affiliate marketing.

Like I mentioned before, I want to make sure that you’re of what comes along with affiliate marketing. The good, the bad, and everything in between.

What Is Bad About Affiliate Marketing?

These challenges aren’t anything backbreaking, but it’s something that you’re going to have to know how to get over.

Here are a few challenges, and what people might consider bad when it comes to affiliate marketing:

• Saturation.
• Competition.
• Mastering a traffic source and profiting from it.
• Picking the proper niche and products to promote (there are a ton).
• Spending money with affiliate marketing in order to make some money.

As you can see from the list above, these are all valid complaints when it comes to affiliate marketing. However, fixing most of them is going to depend on your mindset and the angles that you carve out.

For example, you’re probably not going to want to start a website about fitness in hopes of ranking for keywords like fat loss, and anything related. Time and money most certainly won’t be on your side.

So how do you combat perhaps the competition and saturation of a niche like that? There are a few ways:

• Choose a different niche (duh).
• Choose a different traffic source.
• Go deeper into the niche (the more specific, the less competition).

These are just a few examples of how you can make the situation work best for you. And yes, sometimes you need to scrap the idea when it comes to making things work.

Some people also think affiliate marketing is bad because you have to spend money to make money. It’s not always the truth, as you can start for a very little amount of money.

However, as you start to make more money with affiliate marketing, I do recommend that you reinvest that money so that you can grow at a much quicker rate.

I discuss more of this in the article down below.

Related Reading: Does affiliate marketing cost any money?

Lastly, affiliate marketing can come with a lot of uncertainty.

While there are options of being an affiliate full-time as a job, for the most part, you are on your own when it comes to decisions.

It’s not like a job where you’re being told exactly what to do:

• You’re the boss.
• You’re making the decisions.
• And there is no one else to blame for what happens.

Not too many people are okay with the lack of a steady paycheck and the uncertainty that comes along with it, and that’s perfectly fine.

Just keep in mind that affiliate marketing isn’t something that you’re going to grasp overnight, so you’ll need to be patient with the process.

If I wasn’t as patient as I had been, I would have walked away probably a few weeks into things (or less). The fact of the matter is that I was so dedicated to making things work where that was my only option.

From my experience, I would highly recommend that you operate in a similar way. Keep pushing forward, even when it becomes hard to do so. Just make sure that you’re taking the right actions in order to see success.

Is Affiliate Marketing Worth Getting Into?

Then again, my opinion is about as biased as you can be.

I started off on unemployment and now make a full-time income with affiliate marketing.

Then again, would you rather take advice about this topic from someone who:

• Never made any money and spends their time complaining, or…
• Someone who has been doing this successfully for around a decade?

Nevertheless, I highly recommend affiliate marketing. The pros highly outweigh the cons, and it’s a great industry to be in once everything finally clicks for you.