Tiếp thị liên kết là gì và làm thế nào để bắt đầu vào năm 2025?

Are you sure you know everything about what affiliate marketing is? Do you doubt whether it’s hard to get started or whether it’s really profitable? In this article, we will cover everything related to the question “What is affiliate marketing”: how to start, what to expect, and which tips and tricks work. After reading the article, you will be ready to embark on your journey to profitable campaigns and earn $100,000 in 2025.

What Is Affiliate Marketing: Definition

Affiliate marketing involves an affiliate promoting products on particular websites, apps, or platforms for a reward. The affiliate marketer is an outsourced specialist who knows how to attract new users, i.e., generate traffic, and, ideally, retain them.

Not all the users qualify, as product owners are usually against bots, incentivized, and mixed traffic. At the end of the day, product owners attract high-intent users, marketers make money, and users see relevant offers.

How Affiliate Marketing Works: The Common Examples

Affiliate marketing splits the responsibilities of online product marketing between different parties in order to make this process more effective and profitable. There are 3 main roles involved: Product owner, Affiliate marketer, Customer.

There are some intermediary actors, namely the website owner, the affiliate network, and the ad network. Long story short, they help to connect the three parties mentioned above:

Mạng lưới liên kết connect product owners and affiliate marketers. Webmasters connect affiliate marketers and customers. Mạng quảng cáo connect marketers and webmasters.

An affiliate marketer picks an offer, such as solar panels, either directly from the product owner or from the affiliate network. Then, the marketer goes to an ad network to acquire paid traffic (there are free channels, too). The specialist buys ad spots from webmasters via the mạng lưới quảng cáo.

Website visitors see the ads about solar panels and hopefully click. They are eventually redirected to the offer page to finish a target action, e.g., request a call. If the target action is complete, affiliates are paid; if not, the user bounces off.

Common Types of Affiliate Marketing

Whenever promoting a product, an affiliate might have various degrees of personal involvement: Unattached, Related, Involved.

These stages determine both the affiliate expertise in a niche and the approaches used. For example, an unattached affiliate, i.e., the one without in-depth knowledge about the product promoted, is more likely to opt for PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns.

A related affiliate might know a few things about the product because it is within their area of interest. This is where influence marketing, SEO, social marketing, and other channels start to gain traction, as the affiliate is able to share some expertise and capitalize on that.

An involved affiliate has used the product promoted at least once. They literally put their money where their mouth is, so such affiliates sound especially credible. Nonetheless, their reputation is at stake, so, let’s say, if a software doesn’t work as intended, affiliates might turn away a large portion of users.

The Best Affiliate Marketing Channels

Traffic channels can be paid or free. There are tons of them, so we’ll go through the main ones, most commonly seen in affiliate marketing.

Trả tiền cho mỗi lần nhấp chuột (PPC) is paid promotion, when advertisers pay for every click (or impression) made on their ads. Google, Facebook, and other platforms support paid ads and display them whenever relevant keywords are entered.

Tối ưu hóa công cụ tìm kiếm is all about following Google’s best practices to make sure your content is featured in search results. SEO takes time, but greatly improves one’s visibility in the long run.

Mạng quảng cáo connect advertisers and publishers to facilitate PPC deals. Their main advantage is established infrastructure, cutting-edge tools, and affordable traffic, compared to ad exchanges.

Phương tiện truyền thông xã hội is when the promotion is made via Google, Instagram, Reddit, or any other platform like that. Social media traffic can be paid or free, yet the main advantage is the ability to retain the users longer with relatively short but regular posts.

Websites offer a direct approach, involving placing ads on relevant websites to reach targeted audiences, often operating on a cost-per-click (CPC) payment model.​

Tiếp thị qua Email is about sending promotional emails to a list of subscribers. This is effective for affiliates with an existing, interested email list.

These are the main channels, but there are more. Besides, most of them can work with various ad formats, so the promotional possibilities are virtually endless, creating a sort of art.

Pros and Cons in Affiliate Marketing You Need to Know About

Affiliate marketing requires dedication, like any work does. As a vocation, it has its pros and cons. Let’s start with the positives.

Affiliate Marketing: Pros

It’s easy to start because minimal investment is required: pick a niche, find your traffic source, opt for an offer, make a few creatives, bid on ad spots, and get paid. Of course, things are a bit harder than that and some details require your attention, but the basics are like that.

Chi phí khởi nghiệp thấp help you to enter the industry even when your budget is tight. With a budget of $1,000, it’s possible to profit and do diligent preparation without cutting corners.

Unlimited source of income since earnings are commission-based. True, there are caps, limiting your maximum income per advertiser, but you are not limited to just one offer. Besides, there are different payout models; for example, Revenue Share (RevShare) grants a percentage of how much your users generated spend (a rough approximation).

Flexible working hours and location, unless you’re a part of a media buying team, which tends to have a common office and fixed working hours. Nonetheless, if you know the basics, you can be your own boss and earn from home without leaving your bed.

Passive income opportunity with RevShare. It does require some preparation, but once it’s done, you can enjoy recurring purchases (and commissions).

Affiliate marketing is relatively easy to scale up by opting for more offers and establishing your own media buying team. In fact, you can even switch to adjacent spheres like software development, copywriting, journalism, etc.

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Affiliate Marketing: Cons

However, affiliate marketing is not for free riders. This job is stressful and requires attention to detail. Now, let’s review the main negatives.

A lot of time and effort is required to achieve the level where minimal daily maintenance is needed. Affiliate marketing is a job, not a hobby, filled with chores like designing creatives, split-testing, analyzing campaigns, optimizing funnels, and aligning with Google’s best practices.

Inconsistent and barely predictable income is the norm. Depending on the vertical of your choice, you can enjoy a user spree one month and suffer from a lack of conversions the next. Sure, there are evergreen niches like iGaming, dating, or software, but they have their own complications.

Dependence on merchant policies can be a major drawback for “rebels without a cause.” Affiliates can’t change their offer page and are forced to meet the KPIs. Changes in commission rates, program terms, or the discontinuation of affiliate programs can impact earnings.​

Competition is stiff, at least in the main niches. Large media buying teams prevent newcomers from entering the most lucrative GEOs, so the beginners settle for less profitable zones and feeds.

Reputational risks are a consequence of being dependent on the merchant. If the product owner faces negative publicity or product recalls, the affiliate can suffer collateral damage, especially if they were personally involved in the promoted product.

As long as you treat affiliate marketing as a profession, you should be fine. There is no easy money, but with dedication, patience, and creativity, you should be able to enter the industry and eventually find your niche there.

Experts Speak

Affiliate marketing is one of the most rewarding yet challenging ways to build an online business and live a different life than many other self-employed people. The biggest merits are:

However, from my own personal experience, this isn’t just an easy ride where you can work 4 hours a week, and affiliate marketing comes with stress and challenges that make it “suboptimal” for many:

The biggest advantages of affiliate marketing are scalability, flexibility, and uncapped earnings. You’re not tied to a 9-to-5 schedule, and your income isn’t limited by hourly wages — you can run multiple campaigns and scale what works. There’s also no need for product creation; you can focus on driving traffic and conversions. And that’s more than enough.But it’s not all smooth sailing. The biggest challenges are income volatility, ad costs, and constant testing. What works today might not work tomorrow, so affiliates need to adapt fast. The stress comes from competition, traffic source fluctuations, and compliance risks (ad bans, account shutdowns, etc.). It’s rewarding, but only if you can handle uncertainty and problem-solving daily.

The main merits are wonderful and not typically found as a combination in many other industries.

After stabilizing your initial affiliate-related business, spin-offs will be a natural addition to your enterprise.

As for what is suboptimal, that’s quite a list also.

Blackhat marketing involves questionable and fraudulent practices, like mixed traffic, cloaking, keyword stuffing, and more. Blackhat affiliate is the opposite to the whitehat one, who follows the guidelines and promote products ethically and honestly.

Who Will Be Successful in Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is suitable for those who already have an audience (traffic) or are ready to develop one. Bloggers and content makers have the trust of subscribers, and they can naturally recommend goods. Influencers in social networks can also be efficient, as their recommendations impact the audience’s decisions. 

Affiliate marketing is a billion-dollar industry that is growing rapidly with enormous opportunities. The question is, how would you use these opportunities? Even if you have no audience but are eager to start earning money by promoting goods, you should definitely give it a shot. Apart from the pros mentioned earlier, you may want to try this business due to these benefits:

• Starting up as an affiliate marketer doesn’t require you to leave your current job.

You can do it as a side project and see what you can squeeze out of it over the first few months.
• In the beginning, the operating expenses of the affiliate business were almost non-existent compared to other industries. You work online so that you can do it from your home well enough, therefore you only need to pay for electricity and internet. Optionally, if you decide to establish your marketing website, you may need to pay to set up a domain, design a page, etc.
• In general, this is a great source of passive income. After you launch a campaign, you can make a profit even without daily participation.
• It is all about convenience and flexibility. You can create multiple campaigns on different websites and landing pages to market your links so that you can abandon the poorly performing ones and optimize the successful ones. Also, you don’t need to stick to one affiliate marketing program. Select a few products from a chosen niche you prefer and promote them daily.

Experts Speak

People get into affiliate marketing for a variety of reasons, but from my experience, talking to thousands of affiliates over the years, some of the biggest motivators are:

People jump into affiliate marketing mainly for self-employment and higher income — the idea of being your own boss and not having a cap on earnings is too tempting to ignore. No office politics, no fixed salary, and definitely no awkward small talk at the coffee machine.

Moreover, all the perks stack up, so affiliates enjoy flexibility, the ability to work remotely, and freedom to experiment. Whether working from a beach at your leisure or grinding at 2 AM with three cups of coffee — you control your time. All the efforts put directly impact your earnings, and there’s no limit on how much you can scale.

Of course, it’s not a “set it and forget it” kind of deal, but for those willing to put in the work, the rewards can be life-changing.

1. While all of those are ever present, there is also a “predatory” element. Those who sell courses and training to newbies and promise them they can make a million with no investment spam it everywhere. Because of its sheer volume, people begin to believe the idea. This is a major motivation for many newbies, maybe most newbies. Then, they find that it can’t be done that way and move on to something else.
2. Motivations come and go along with some circumstances. For example, COVID-19 caused a sudden increase in interest in our industry. Most didn’t stick with it. A big one before that was the 2008 market crash, which led to a huge increase in interest. There is an abundance of false narratives out there, and they’ve been around and renewed since long before online affiliate marketing. They will continue to lay false claims, which results in interest that typically fades pretty quickly.
3. Then there are those with a “set of brains” about business, any business. They have some maturity and some business experience. These individuals capturing interest in this industry very often succeed because they take the time to research and then develop a plan with a budget. When an individual’s motivation results in deep-dive research and a thorough plan, they will tend to structure from the beginning. This typically results in success.

What You Get Paid For in Affiliate Marketing

Let’s imagine that you are promoting goods and services. Your audience is successfully buying them using your links. Traffic is flowing, and you expect a great profit. And now you may wonder: how does an affiliate get paid after linking the seller to the consumer?
The simple and boring answer is that it depends. A more detailed explanation can be tricky. The consumer doesn’t always need to buy the product for the affiliate to make a profit. Depending on the program, the affiliate’s contribution to the seller’s sales will be measured differently.

Truth About the Earnings in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has nothing to do with multi-level marketing (MLM). There might be some elements of, e.g., a referral program, but the main source of income should be actual sales (target actions) and your performance, not based on how many people you attract. 

In the beginning, you can make $100–500, which is a very good result. With enough experience, you’ll raise your income to $1,000 and, with enough dedication, even exceed it tenfold or more. This number remains true whether you’re an affiliate marketer or a website owner.

Here are our latest case studies about running ads for different niches:

Still in disbelief? — We’ve got a few individuals who have earned the name for themselves in the industry and are ready to share their wisdom with you.

Pat Flynn

Pat Flynn is the founder of Thu nhập thụ động thông minh, a blog that offers valuable resources for aspiring affiliate marketers. He achieved success and recognition after creating a niche affiliate site, Green Exam Academy, which provided resources for the LEED exam.

Through consistent content creation and by providing his very own income reports on his blog, Flynn has built a loyal audience that seeks his guidance on their own affiliate marketing journeys.

Zac Johnson

With over two decades in affiliate marketing, Zac Johnson started with Amazon Affiliates and expanded to platforms like WebSponsors and OnResponse. In 2007, he launched his own website, building a personal brand and earning over $100,000 annually without creating his own product.

Zac’s success comes from his willingness to experiment and adapt — from pay-per-click ads to niche websites and a 2-million-person mailing list. He emphasizes persistence, encouraging entrepreneurs to embrace failure and keep pushing forward. His journey shows that resilience, effort, and trying new strategies are key to long-term success in affiliate marketing.

Matt Giovanisci

Matt Giovanisci is a marketing jack-of-all-trades with extensive knowledge of many aspects of the industry. In 2016, Giovanisci founded Money Lab, a much-commended website on digital marketing. Money Lab focuses on upfront online marketing and live experiments. It provides informative and entertaining content for both newbie and professional marketers, such as creating a lean online business plan and a podcast marketing guide for 2022.

Experts Speak

The fact is that most people fail in affiliate marketing for a few common reasons:

Many affiliates fail to break even because they either expect quick money, lack the right tools, hoặc try to figure out everything alone. This isn’t a guessing game—it’s data-driven marketing. If you’re flying blind without ad intelligence tools, tracking software, and analytics, you’re already at a disadvantage.

How we fix this?

Success in affiliate marketing isn’t about luck. With the right tools and the right people around you, reaching breakeven becomes way easier.

This business does not require a college degree, and it does not require a high IQ, but it does require a steady hand with daily research, daily investment, daily action, and daily review. Of course, it is more expansive than that. Very often, the very people who could do well in this business never get started because they are trying to start from a position of desperation. They hit hard times and think this industry will provide a path to pull them out of their hard times. The answer is to get a job, save enough for a 6-month entry period into this business, and then you will have enough to make it long-term. One can do this with as little as a few thousand dollars and rolling the profits back into the business (no exceptions).

If you want to be in this business, you must have seed money, you must have a daily schedule of time dedicated to research and implementation, and you must acquire the tools of the trade. Think of it like this: my brother, the Dr., had to spend more than a half million dollars on school, had to work grueling hours for two years after, and all before getting a job in a real medical office. Sure, he now has his own practice and makes many hundreds of thousands a year, but he still hasn’t paid off his school loans 20 years later. I’ve been in this business since 1996 when it all started, and I was making mid six figures by my third year and all without loans and long tedious hours. In the end, a few thousand dollars (at minimum), dedicated time for research and implementation, and communication and collaboration with others in the industry will put you on a path of success in just a half year or less and with a new business that can easily grow and scale.

You hit the nail on the head with your question: “What prevents people from reaching the break-even point and starting to make money?”. You see, it intimates the very core that investment is necessary, and this is more times than not where it goes sideways for new affiliates. They want to earn without investment, and your question clearly states “break even,” which is a clear indication of a needed investment. The simple answer is six months or less depending on the individuals’ learning patterns, size of investment, and time invested. Anyone with reasonable intelligence can and will succeed within six months and with reasonable effort, time, and investment.

The Best Examples in Affiliate Marketing in 2025

In order for your ad campaign to skyrocket and be profitable, it is crucial to find and join a reliable affiliate program. When choosing a program, you should pay attention to:

• Commission – The fee or percentage affiliates earn for each successful referral.
• Payment method – How affiliate earnings are paid (direct deposit, PayPal, etc.).
• Thanh toán tối thiểu – The amount affiliates need to earn before they can withdraw earnings (usually $10 to $200).
• Thời gian lưu trữ cookie – How long a user’s browser will track affiliate referrals (ranges from one to 400 days).

We know that finding the right program can be tricky, so we’ve prepared a list of the most popular ones.

Shopify

Shopify allows you to launch online stores, set up sales through a website, offline outlets and social networks, combining all channels into a single ecosystem.

It grants access to exclusive materials, like content templates, lead magnets, thematic newsletters, and monthly digests. The platform provides tools to increase conversion and simplify working with the audience.

Program conditions:

• Commission: Up to $150 for each full-priced plan referral and every eligible Point of Sale Pro referral.
• Payment method: Direct deposit to your bank account or PayPal.
• Thanh toán tối thiểu: A minimum balance of $10 is required for withdrawals. Affiliates can choose bi-weekly payments or set a custom balance threshold. All payments are in USD, regardless of location.
• Thời gian lưu trữ cookie: 30 days.

Cộng sự của Amazon

Amazon is a global trading platform where the Cộng sự của Amazon partner program offers the opportunity to earn up to 20% commission for recommendations of millions of products. Participants receive real-time analytics through a personal dashboard, tracking conversions and revenue.

Partners — from bloggers to niche experts — integrate links to Amazon products into their content. For example, if you are a business owner and Amazon partner, you can use the program to promote products that complement your main offerings. This allows the audience to find related products, and you, as the partner, to increase revenue.

Program conditions:

• Commission: 1% to 20%, depending on product type.
• Payment method: Direct deposit or Amazon gift certificate (minimum $10 balance), or check (minimum $100 balance).
• Thanh toán tối thiểu: Monthly, with a 60-day delay. For instance, January commissions are paid at the end of March.
• Thời gian lưu trữ cookie: 24 hours for cart additions, then until cart expiry (approximately 90 days).

Rakuten

Rakuten is a multifunctional cashback and affiliate marketing platform that unites brands, webmasters, and buyers into a single ecosystem. The Rakuten affiliate network helps companies increase sales through affiliates, and users receive rewards for purchases.

Unique features of the program: flexible commission models, dynamic rates, coupon system, and multitouch attribution.

Program conditions:

• Commission rate: Varies based on individual advertiser rates.
• Payment method: Direct deposit, PayPal, or check.
• Thanh toán tối thiểu: Advertisers close invoices monthly; Rakuten receives payment in 30 days, and affiliates are paid the following week. A $50 minimum commission balance is required for payout.
• Thời gian lưu trữ cookie: Varies by advertiser.

Working in Affiliate Marketing: First Steps and Expert Tips

Experts Speak

If I had to break it down into a winning formula for new affiliates, I’d say:

To succeed in affiliate marketing, you need industry exposure and the right connections. Here’s the smart way to get started:

This is so subjective. There are no secrets. All the information necessary is readily available.

Over the years, I have typically told newbies to start with CPA with paid ads because it is simple and involves all the basics of most other forms of affiliate marketing. Affiliates must learn to be proficient with developing angles, hooks, and triggers. Learning to properly research and test, all the other traits and tools I mention herein.

Becoming a good and a great affiliate is a fun ride. Once any of us learn, truly learn the basics, then comes scaling, negotiating terms, hiring teams, and putting a portion of earnings back into the business to accomplish these things. Growth is a stepping stone many find to be an obstacle. Every time you hit a plateau as a businessperson, it is an indicator (especially in a business like ours) that additional skills, learning, and effort are required.

This stops many, as they often don’t understand how to get bigger. You’ve heard the expression “rinse and repeat,” I’m sure. Many say it about funnels that work, but it is also true with your business. When you are at a plateau, you repeat the same process as you employed to get to be a successful newbie. To move to the next level, you become more advanced in your business through research, study, increased budget, etc.

Repetition is a good thing. For hundreds of years, the Japanese business culture has embraced the Book of Five Rings as their businessman’s bible. At first, it isn’t an easy read, but you will come around to understanding it once you’ve been through it a few times. Sustained repetition is a key component in the philosophies.

Another philosophy employed by the main character, Myomato Musashi, is the philosophy of mastery: “Mastery is not about a specific number of duels or battles, but about understanding the principles of strategy.” This is where the affiliate goes for reference when they are ready to go to the next level. They daily prepare with a mantra of “Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”

How to Become Even More Successful in Affiliate Marketing

Constant development, rigorous discipline, and the ability to learn are at the foundation. All the tips below are based on these ideas.

Build Trust

Trust is probably one of the most important things to have when promoting goods and services. It is not only about whether users click your link; it is much more than that. When people trust you, they will follow you, support you in any way, and most likely help if needed. Any user would be glad to use affiliate links from a content creator who never lied to them and was always honest. Building trust is not an easy task, but it sure is rewarding.

Talk to Product Users and Experts

When reviewing items for promotion, you may not have the right knowledge about it. The time may be short, so you cannot fully experience the product. A great solution is to talk to product users and experts. This way you can gain enough expertise to promote it to your audience, and as you already know, when people see that you are confident in what you say, they believe you.

Create a Product Tutorial

You can promote products in different ways. If you struggle with the idea, you can just make a tutorial for the thing you promote. By doing this, you both tell your audience about it, you also show how it works. Let’s say you are promoting a camera. If you just say that you like it, state all the pros, and recommend buying it, it would be a generic ad. Instead, try explaining how to shoot with it, what settings it has, and what a user should address while using it. After that, show what pictures you got and then recommend buying it via your link. Such a presentation will ensure your viewers/readers that you know the topic, you actually use the camera, and now they even know how to use it. If you can’t do this, attract an influencer who will get the job done.

Build an Email List

You can collect a huge amount of emails by saving them from every other campaign (as it is often necessary for a user to enter their email to buy a promoted product). And after you have built an email list, you can use it to send newsletters with hyperlinks to the landing pages with promotions.

Find Relevant Keywords

Keywords are the requests made by users. You need to know the most searched ones either to bid on them or to include in your copies. Whatever the case, keywords benefit both PPC and SEO marketing. By incorporating relevant keywords in the text, descriptions, and titles, you ensure that your content will be seen by anyone who searches this topic.

Use the Product

If possible, try to use anything you promote. Not only will users trust you, but brands will know that you respect their production and try your best to do your job. Moreover, you get to use something for free (sometimes they may even let you keep it).

Lead with a Discount Code or Bonus Offer

Everyone loves presents and special offers. Try to grab the interest of the audience by announcing that they will get some bonus for using your offer. 

Keep Things Legal

This point speaks for itself. Never do anything sketchy, as it may and will harm you, your audience and forever stain your credibility. Sure, some “black” offers can sound like a great deal — easy money, fast. The dark side of this is constant bans or even legal problems. Google gets smarter and detects fraud and manipulations, so it’s just easier to play fair.

Experts Speak

If you want to be a successful affiliate, you probably need to have a few key traits:

…and like I’ve mentioned before, they never give up; if they fall, they stand up, take the dust off, and keep on going.

While ‘bad’ affiliates, on the other hand, often:

• Expect instant profits with no effort.
• Jump from one shiny object to another instead of mastering one strategy.
• Blame everyone else instead of improving their own skills.

The ideal affiliate refuses to be stuck in a 9-to-5 routine for years and prefers the freedom to build something on their own terms. They are constant learners with an analytical mindset, always testing, tweaking, and adapting to industry changes. Most importantly, they’re not afraid to ask questions — whether in forums, communities, or from experienced marketers.

On the flip side, those who are lazy or passive may struggle to keep up. The affiliate space moves fast — traffic sources change, ad policies shift, and new strategies emerge. Staying adaptable and continuously learning is key to staying competitive.

Being sociable isn’t a must, but having the drive to seek knowledge and take action is what separates winning affiliates from those who struggle.

I like the way you asked this. You want a profile of an “ideal” affiliate. The types of traits you mention are not a set of discernible traits that make an affiliate (IMO). The successful affiliate traits are formalities required to succeed. This industry calls to the individual who knows that success is always the result of effort, time, investment, collaboration, etc.

Think of the old adage about some people: “Everything they touch turns to gold”. These people always approach everything as a serious endeavor that results in success. They typically engage the very same techniques, strategies, and efforts that got them previous successes. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.

Then there is: “They couldn’t find success if it hit them in the face”. There are many more like this. These are those who think they can just stick their toes in the water a little and then expect great things to happen. These are people who wish for success instead of working for it. They simply iterate the difference between those that do and those that do not.

Like Yoda said: “Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.” True businesspeople test; they do not try. The ideal affiliate will come from every varied background on the planet. What unites them, what lays their path for inevitable success, is the set of requirements that I include to some degree in every answer for you.

The ideal affiliate will typically know most answers before they ask a question; they are simply looking for more ways to get it done. They take a poll among those already in the industry, skim the best responses, the cream of the crop, and then implement them.

Many unsuccessful affiliates say they have hard times. But the truth is that they decide to re-invent everything, deny that they must do what they are told, and then declare the entire industry and profession impossibly difficult. They make excuses to avoid admitting they didn’t follow the requirements.

Affiliate Marketing Myths in 2025

We have briefly covered one myth earlier: affiliate marketing is multi-level marketing (MLM). This is far from the truth because the main source of income is based on product sales, not acquiring new people. But that’s not the only myth out there; let’s bust some more.

Affiliate Marketing Is Illegal

Some believe affiliate marketing is illegal, but that’s not true. It is a legitimate business model used worldwide. However, different countries have legal requirements that businesses must follow. The US, for example, requires affiliates to disclose when they earn commissions from links. Of course, there might be questionable products, but you are always free to find other goods and services to promote.

Affiliate Marketing Is Passive Income

“No, it’s not. The only way it becomes passive is if you constantly put the time and effort, build the online business, outsource, or create an automated system.”

Another prevailing myth is that affiliate marketing is a hands-off business model, where you can sit back and watch the money roll in. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. As an affiliate marketer, you need to be actively informed about industry trends, research new products and services, and adapt your marketing strategies accordingly.

While RevShare or referral programs offer some possibility for passive income, they still require a bit of work. RevShare won’t work forever and still requires eventual updates in strategy and approaches. A referral program, on the other hand, does work passively but yields a very humble income, insufficient to cover a good life.

You Need a Huge Budget to Start

“Not true. Some people start with organic SEO, free social traffic, or $500 in paid ads and scale from there. When I began, all I needed was hosting and domain to kick up the first site and generate the initial revenues.”

While you need a budget as an affiliate to test a few creatives, optimize the funnel, and do the preparations before scaling up, $1,000 will suffice. Of course, we can’t guarantee that you will end up in the black at the end of the day, but with $1,000, it is possible to reach net positive and reinvest, spurring the loop.

“While having funds helps, many affiliates begin with free traffic methods like SEO, social media, or organic content. It’s more about smart execution than just throwing money at ads.“

The More Offers You Promote, The More Money You Make

“Wrong. Spreading yourself thin may kill your focus. It’s better to master one offer and traffic source before expanding.”

If you want to become a successful marketer, you need to focus. Pick a niche, like iGaming, Nutra, or Sweepstakes, and chase it till the end. Don’t jump from one niche to another simply because you read a case study with 6-digit results.

Even within a niche, it might be wiser to focus on just one offer to learn the ropes. Over time, you’ll learn how things work and get to know cutting-edge automation tools, helping to adjust bids without manual intervention. Until then, treat the losses as investments in your success.

You Cannot Make Big Profits with Affiliate Marketing

Big profits don’t come overnight, but it’s possible to buy a new Lamborghini in a few years, all while maintaining your quality of life. Affiliate marketing is an art, and great artists can afford many things.

However, they are hard-working individuals who adapt, persist, and get scores. Affiliate marketing is not for lazy bones or couch potatoes because campaigns can get rejected, creatives might go obsolete, and industrial espionage affects media buying teams too. Yet, the sphere is filled with events, adventures, interesting people, and well-deserved profits. It just takes time to get there.

Affiliate Marketing Is Fast and Easy

“Absolutely false. This is a business—it requires strategy, testing, patience, and most importantly, persistence!”

Affiliate marketing is often portrayed with success stories and thousands of bucks in passive income monthly, but the truth is more complex. Case studies in large media are from established affiliates and media buying teams, who work in tandem with their account managers and who have suffered defeat earlier. It’s just people rarely write about flops, preferring to highlight the successes.

If you are in for just money — then the field is not for you. You need to grind and enjoy the learning processes, you need to enjoy tweaking things a bit for major results, and you need to be a marketer. 

“Many beginners think they’ll set up a campaign, sit back, and watch the profits roll in. Reality check: It takes testing, failures, and constant learning to get it right.“

Competition Kills Profitability

“In reality, competition means a niche is making money — it’s a sign to refine your strategy, not avoid it.”

Competition makes the lives of newcomers harder — true. However, it encourages creativity and alternative solutions. You might search for a less competitive niche: instead of becoming another iGamign affiliate, you can try your skill in Nutra or eCommerce.

Besides, iGaming is not limited to casinos, as there are sports betting and lotteries. Remember the success of crash games, e.g., Aviator? Well… such innovations pop up eventually, especially at the intersection of niches.

People switch to online shopping — it’s convenient. That’s why sellers are desperate to get noticed, and you can help them out with that. Competition might be bad in short-terms, but in the long run it’s for your own good.

Website Is a Must for Affiliate Marketing

Affiliates don’t need a website at all, a webpage at best. However, they can work without it — all that’s required is the offer page from the product owner to drive in the users. If affiliates use pre-landers, then a webpage is important. This can be turned into a full-scale website, but… is it really worth it?

As for publishers, yes, they do need a website to get monetized. On the other hand, that’s the hardest part for them because they get paid for giving access to their audience.

Also, we’d like to note that there are influencers, who don’t own a website but still make money. A social media profile is a good alternative to get noticed by affiliates and charge for ad integrations.

Experts Speak

I never held to myths. I am an older guy. Furthermore, I’ve been managing and owning businesses in several industries since I was sixteen years old. I was raised in a hardworking, highly social, highly demanding environment. Work ethics and career paths were drilled into myself and my siblings on a daily basis. From my earliest memories, I was instilled with the mindset that there is “no free lunch” in this world. If you want it, then go work for it. I was always reminded and trained to know and understand that I cannot rely on anyone to accomplish

my personal goals, that was up to me. However, at the same time, one

must build reliable and trusting relationships to build a business.

First, a newbie must accept the fact they are beginning from “0”. This is a huge acknowledgement they MUST know and understand. They must separate everything in their lives from this endeavor. It’s called being departmentalized. Businesspeople do this all the time. When a successful businessperson begins a foray into a new field of business, the first thing they do is make certain it is departmentalized. They do this, we do this, because it forces focus. You cannot get this done if you are distracted.

Where should beginners look for real information?

For beginners, credible information comes from affiliate forums, industry events, and trusted YouTubers who share real case studies. Avoid get-rich-quick courses and gurus promising instant success—it’s usually just hype.

Beginners should look for credible examples and credible sources of information is from their research. It is the number one attribute for all of us. Just look at how fast things change in this industry. You must be on top of it from the beginning. This is not a “set and forget it” business. Evergreen was a phase in the early days and doesn’t hold anymore in this industry.

Researching funnels using a good intelligence platform like AdPlexity, Adstrex, Social AdScout, etc., etc. These tools give you what works and what doesn’t. A new affiliate can study ad placements, offers and offer types, funnel aspects, angles, hooks, triggers, the colloquial differences based on geos for the same offer(s), budgets, etc.

Final Thoughts About Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves affiliates, who look for the offers and promote them on popular platforms. It’s all about balancing out payouts from product owners and costs of bidding on ad spots.

Besides affiliates, there are webmasters, who own a website and its respective ad spots. Both can earn money, but they have different preferences and goals. Nonetheless, not only marketers profit in this line of work.

Affiliate marketing is a full-scale job, requiring time, effort, investment, and more. People don’t get rich here overnight. There are many niches to specialize, many approaches and marketing channels to try out, and many roles too. It’s an ideal choice for those, who want to be their own boss and work from any place in the world.

Experts Speak

Affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone. It requires grit, patience, persistence, and continuous learning. But for those willing to put in the work, the rewards can be life-changing. If you’re serious about making it in this business, commit to the process, surround yourself with the right people, and never stop learning — because in affiliate marketing, success is earned, not given

Every business requires:

• A plan. You can’t build a birdhouse without one, don’t think you can build a business without one.
• A schedule for research, learning, and execution. Even burger flippers go through training. Don’t, for even a second, think you don’t have anything to learn, or that you don’t require daily research and learning. Every businessperson in the world does this daily.
• A budget (and investment). Well, enough said, you can’t get groceries or pay your bills without a budget, make certain you keep an updated and reasonable budget sustained.
• Dedication (never quit because things get difficult, or strenuous, etc.) Every winner out there gets up when they are knocked down, and then they get back in the game. No exceptions, ever!

GO OUT AND GET IN THE GAME! WE WILL ALL LEND A HAND TO ANYONE MAKING A SERIOUS EFFORT. THERE IS ROOM FOR ALL OF US!

FAQs About Affiliate Marketing