Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam? That's what one of my forum members has decided after spending an entire year trying to earn a living as an Affiliate Marketer:
I'm beginning to think affiliate marketing is just a big scam. Been working on things for about 1 year and have only made about $350 dollars from adsense. Well, I did make like 2 affiliate sales. The markets are completely flooded. Theres not 1 topic you can make a website about where your not gonna be in heavy competition. Well, maybe "barbecue steak grill in ohio" might get some visitors 😆
You can view his thread and the entire discussion here: 1 Year, Made about $350. I dont think that I earned even that much during my first year promoting affiliate programs. But then... I didnt launch 55 websites in the first year either. I started small and worked my way up.
Did you earn less than or more than $350 during your first year promoting affiliate programs? I'd love to hear from more people on this topic!
Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate marketer, affiliate programs, scams, making money online
About Lynn Terry
Wow! $350 in the first year and this person thinks its a scam?
What I wouldn't have done for that much when I first started!
Clearly it works, or this person wouldn't have made any money but more than that it seems that they quit right before they should have. Making a couple of sales and some serious money in AdSense is not an easy thing and if they would just press on I'm sure they would find even more success.
While they are clearly doing something right, they are also doing something wrong....competition is a good thing. Without competition that would tell me that a market is useless to promote to because no one cares about it. Markets with good competition are exactly what you want to look for.
Jen
I agree, Jen. Part of my response included:
Setting up 55 websites in one year and getting 'tons of links', managing an Adwords campaign, writing articles and press releases - and even spamming, eek! lol - is A LOT of work to just throw out the window.
I completely understand your feelings at the moment, but having been in this for years now I can assure you there is plenty of money to be made for anyone that puts in the time. It may take a good year for any new domain to get 'established' in the major search engines - and it may take even longer to get your online business running smoothly enough to generate a profit.
My suggestion would be to write out a task list for each of your websites - working on only one or two at a time. 55 is entirely too many to try to work on at once, alone, in your first year online. Just being realistic. Take one and get it where it needs to be, then move on to the next one - making note of any ongoing maintenance for the first one at the same time.
Keep doing this until you have 5 or 10 websites turning a decent profit (or in a position to) and by the time you get entirely too much on your daily task list (with maintenance and promotion), you should be in a position to hire or contract some help.
And...
It doesnt matter how many 'vacation sites' (or sites in any other niche) that there are. The only ones that (really) matter are those that rank in the top 10 for related keyword phrases. So you are only ever competing with 9 other web pages for search engine rankings.
Affiliate marketing is got to be the easiest way to make some
quick loot. I've pocketed an easy $5000 to $7000 from promoting
affiliate products, and I do that part time.
If you can write a compelling letter, you can sell affiliate products.
Can't write a letter?
Just make a quick video of the affiliate product. That works like
a charm.
Affiliate marketing is definitely no scam. I'd like to see somebody
tell that to Ewen Chia.
I think part of his problem is that he's "betting the farm" on fast AdSense revenue and THAT ain't gonna happen quickly unless one has a good source of constant traffic.
AND his expectations of almost instant gratification in affiliate marketing is not helping his cause. He's NOT alone in this thinking either. MOST successful online marketers weren't successful immediately when they started, I'm sure.
Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing or whatever online marketing is a "simple" process BUT ... it's NOT necessarily an "easy" process. AND it's not for everyone as many so-called "gurus" would have one believe. But the successful ones are the one's that don't give up too early and understand that they need to spend an adequate amount of both time and some money over time to achieve good results.
A never ending process but well worth it in the end. IMO
My 3 centz anyway ...
Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel 😉
"Affiliate marketing is definitely no scam. I’d like to see somebody tell that to Ewen Chia."
Jason,
LOLOL ... I'd like to see somebody tell that to Ewen also! Would be a "Kodak Moment"!
Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel
Oops, forgot to mention, those affilate commisions were in
my first year.
Keep in mind folks that I primarily sell my own products so
you can see that possibilities that are achievable if you just
put your mind to it.
Good luck everybody.
And don't let anyone tell you this stuff can't be done, cuz it's
not even close to the truth.