Is Affiliate Marketing Hard? Read This First!

One of the most common questions that newbies constantly ask in the affiliate marketing industry is – is affiliate marketing hard?

This industry seems extremely easy when you think about the idea of promoting other people’s products and generating commissions but the more you get to learn about it, the harder it gets for a lot of people.

So, what’s the real deal? Is affiliate marketing actually very difficult? Is it easy? If yes and no, why exactly?

If you keep reading the post, I’m sure you’ll get answers to all the mentioned and non-mentioned questions you’ve got stuck in your mind.

You are going to discover how affiliate marketing really looks from the inside and more importantly, you will learn how to get started the right way as a beginner.

Is Affiliate Marketing Hard?

The answer to this question is quite complicated but I never discourage my readers by simply saying ‘it depends.’ Here’s a straightforward answer for you:

Affiliate marketing is precisely a very competitive industry and it can be quite hard for people who are new in the businesses. However, the difficulty in the process can be decreased if an individual doesn’t overcomplicate things and stays consistent.

There are a lot of affiliate marketers who are generating a ton of sales and commissions and there are a lot of them who aren’t making a single penny.

If I tell you the numbers, 48.35% of the affiliates are making $20,000 per year and 3% of the affiliates are making $150,000 per year.

This shows us that there are both winners and losers in the industry. And it’s a story with every single business out there, regardless of it being an internet marketing business or a brick and mortar store.

The only difference between people who consider affiliate marketing hard and the ones who consider it easy is – understanding of the concept.

Now, I won’t leave you wondering by saying just that, we’ll talk about it in detail but before that, let’s answer one more question here:

Is Affiliate Marketing Hard To Learn?

Once again, it is a question that can be answered in two words but here you go:

Affiliate marketing is not hard to learn as it is based on a simple concept of promoting other people’s products and generating revenue but learning the various strategies of promoting the links via marketing channels can be difficult to learn.

Yes, that’s a hundred percent correct! The concept of this business model isn’t rocket science but there are a lot of other things involved in the process that can be really confusing, such as:

• Running Facebook advertisements to promote products
• Targeting low competiton keywords on search engines to drive clicks
• Doing conversion rate optimization for generating sales/leads
• Tracking affiliate links with special codes
• Optimizing ad campaigns for making them profitable
• etc.

And yes, all of the things that are mentioned here (and the ones that are not as well) fall under the process of learning affiliate marketing. So, in a way, affiliate marketing is a bit hard to learn.

Why Do People Make Affiliate Marketing So Hard?

Although I have written a full in-depth post on the topic – why affiliate marketing is so hard, I will still list and explain some of the common reasons why this is the case…

Here are some of the main reasons:

• Learning from multiple experts
• Not putting in consistent effort
• Making the same mistakes over and over again
• Not using the necesssary tools

1. Learning From Multiple Experts

It’s always good to learn from multiple sources and personalities but what generally happens with beginners is that they open platforms like YouTube, watch hundreds of videos, learn ‘new’ strategies, and have no idea what needs to be done next.

This is one of the worst approaches a person could ever follow to learn something and practice it. The more variant content you are going to watch, the more puzzled you are going to get.

Oftentimes, it happens too that people learn ten different strategies, try each one of them out in a short period of time, don’t get any results, and then start complaining that affiliate marketing is very hard.

2. Not Putting In Consistent Effort

Yes, this industry is very lucrative and there are a lot of affiliates who are making thousands of dollars every single day and you can too!

But guess what – it’s not going to happen overnight! If you invest a little bit of time learning how those people reached the heights, you will find that there’s a lot of consistent effort that was put consistently for years before they started getting the results.

A lot of times, people get their feet wet, start working, continue the hustle for a week or two, and when they don’t see any results, they get demotivated. This is another reason why people make everything seem so difficult.

3. Repetitive Mistakes

The third reason is making the same mistakes over and over again. Let me ask you a question; would you keep driving traffic from Instagram if you have tested a lot of times and found out the Instagram traffic doesn’t convert for your offer?

Definitely, you wouldn’t, right? But still, there are a lot of beginners who are spamming affiliate links on every platform they possibly can and hoping to generate revenue. This is making them feel bad about the industry.

4. No Usage Of The Necessary Tools

Sure, you can make a quick buck here and there by spamming forums and social media channels but at the end of the day, you are going to want to invest in a tool to be able to build an easy-going and sustainable affiliate marketing business.

Just like you can’t walk without your legs, you can’t do affiliate marketing without the necessary tools. By tools, I mean things like:

• A CDN and a host to run a website
• A landing page builder
• A link tracker
• A keyword research tool for generating traffic/visitors/views
• etc.

It gets extremely hard if a person doesn’t use the necessary tools that are required for growth.

How Can You Make Affiliate Marketing Easy?

Well, we’ve talked about whether or not affiliate marketing is easy, what are the things that are resisting people from making money, and other important stuff/stats.

Now, it’s time to figure out what are the things that can be done to make the business model way easier for beginners. So, the things are as follows:

• Building a consistent traffic source
• Finding out one strategy and then diving deep
• Using the required tools
• Setting small daily or weekly targets

1. Building A Consistent Traffic Source

Driving traffic is the hardest part of affiliate marketing. What beginners generally do is get excited, build beautiful landing pages, prepare the best lead magnet, and set everything perfectly but no one comes to see all of that!

Or even if someone does come to see that, it’s like once in a blue moon. To make the process easier, building a consistent traffic source is the very first and the most basic thing you would want to do.

The traffic source can be anything! For example, it can be a blog, a YouTube channel, a big Instagram page, or a huge email list.

Do you wonder why these super affiliates are generating loads of sales every day? The answer is consistent traffic! Look at their following on social media and search engines. That’s where they get their traffic from!

2. Doubling Down On One Strategy

There are a million different strategies for promoting affiliate products like Facebook ads, Twitter ads, Google SEO, Microsoft SEM ads, Solo ads, social media market, etc.

You won’t have to run like an idiot behind all of them at once. Pick what suits you, start working on the same, become an expert, and then the paychecks will automatically follow along without you even realizing about them.

3. Using The Required Tools

Don’t ever neglect a hundred-dollar investment for a thousand-dollar return! Before you will start seeing results, you will have to invest in the necessary tools to avoid workload.

Always remember, the most valuable asset you have got is time. You have got to learn to manage it properly.

4. Small Daily Or Weekly Targets

And, last but not least – instead of setting big monthly targets, set small daily targets and accomplish them.

If you have decided that you will publish 30 products reviews in the upcoming month, you will have to create daily targets to make that possible.

Things won’t happen in the air. It will happen that you will make two videos in one day and then do nothing for the next seven days. Not only this will hurt the growth rate but it will also bring you under a lot of stress (and the stress will make things even harder).

To avoid that, you will have to set a small daily target, finish it, and things will start to fall in the lane by themselves.

My Views On Affiliate Marketing Being Hard Or Easy

I am an affiliate marketer myself and when I got started with the industry, I made things hard and complicated as well!

Everyone makes mistakes and it’s totally fine. No one is born an expert. Affiliate marketing can seem extremely hard when you just get started but later, you will realize that it’s damn easy and a lot of fun!

Make sure you don’t get distracted with the ‘new trendy strategy to drive traffic and generate sales’ and you will just fine in this marketing world!

In Conclusion

As you have learned by now, affiliate marketing is both easy as well as hard. It depends on the individual who is practicing it.

If you don’t complicate things, keep cranking out value, and use the right resources, it’s going to be a lot easier process.

Well, that’s all I have got for you this time. I hope you found this post informational. If you did, make sure you share it on your social channels and comment what your thoughts are.

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