Is It Too Late to Start Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. However, many people still ask themselves the question - is it too late to start affiliate marketing?

With the affiliate marketing industry becoming increasingly competitive, it's no wonder people think this way.

So is it too late to start affiliate marketing? The answer is a resounding no. It's never too late and in fact, you should get started - today.

But, you want proof right? 

In this article, I will list for you 10 reasons why it's not too late to start.

10 Reasons Why It's Not Too Late to Start Affiliate Marketing

1. The Benefits Outweigh the Cons

Affiliate marketing offers a lot of benefits for both merchants and affiliates. One of the key advantages of affiliate marketing for merchants is that it offers a cost-effective way for them to promote their products.

Instead of investing large sums of money in traditional advertising methods, merchants can seek out affiliates to promote their products and only pay out when a sale is made.

As an affiliate marketer, you benefit here because smart merchants know the power of having an affiliate program which results in a lot of variety of products to promote.

As an affiliate, you'll never have to create a product. You'll never have to store any products. You don't need a social media following either. You don't even have to be the face of the product, which means you can hide your identity too.

On top of that, affiliate marketing offers the potential for earning a passive income that grows over time.

Once an affiliate's content starts to rank on search engines and attract a steady stream of traffic, they can potentially enjoy a consistent flow of income without necessarily putting in a lot of effort.

To sum up, affiliate marketing benefits both the vendor (merchant) and the affiliate marketer. 

2. What About Competition?

Yes, affiliate marketing is competitive. But that should not prevent you from starting. What you should focus on is standing out from the crowd. Try to put a unique spin on what everyone else is doing.

Back in the day, you were told to just "do what others are doing" but in this day and age, and especially with Google, it's a hit-and-miss.

This is because Google has slapped many "cookie-cutter" sites that are just carbon copies of other sites. This is in plain language on their helpful content update. 

Beware of the lack of competition. If there are no competitors in your niche, it might be a sign that there's no demand or it's not a viable market. In this case, it's best to reevaluate and possibly find a new niche.

So don't let the competition discourage you from starting your affiliate marketing journey. The fact that there are already successful affiliate marketers in your niche is a good sign that the market is a good one to get into.

Instead, focus on creating valuable content and promoting quality products to stand out from the competition. Remember, there's always room for more successful affiliates in any niche. So you'll want to assess the competition, but don't let it stop you from pursuing your affiliate marketing goals.

3. You Can Still Make a Profit in the 2020s and Beyond

Yes, affiliate marketing is profitable now and will be well into the future. 

Affiliate marketing programs would not exist if it wasn't profitable. Vendors put in a considerable amount of effort (and money) to recruit affiliate marketers to promote their products.

This results in a win-win for both parties.

There are signs of it slowing down either. The affiliate marketing industry is expected to get to $36.9 billion by 2030.

Just check out these stats posted on travelpayouts.com:

• The affiliate marketing industry is expected to reach $36.9 billion by 2030.
• The affiliate marketing market is anticipated to register a compound annual growth rate of 7.7% during the forecast period 2023-2030.
• Affiliate marketing spending in 2023 is predicted to be around $13 billion.
• 16% of online orders in the United States are through an affiliate program.
• 80% of brands have affiliate programs.
• Bloggers and review sites are the leading channels for affiliate marketing.
• 94% of publications utilize more than one affiliate marketing program.
• The affiliate marketing sector’s overall revenue grows by 10% each year.
• Health, beauty, luxury, travel, pets, gaming, technology, sports, and personal finance are booming affiliate marketing niches in 2023.

 So there you have it. If you doubt it's profitable, then the above stats alone should be encouraging.

4. AI and the future

The potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the affiliate marketing industry is significant and also very new.

I have a subscription to many of the popular Ai writers like Jasper AI, KoalaWriter, and Frase.

AI tools like these have become a game changer. You can literally fire your high-paid writers and use AI tools instead. Or, if you write the content yourself, you can use AI to greatly speed up the process.

It's never been easier to get into affiliate marketing than it is now with the advent of AI. This is especially true if you're not great at creating content or have terrible writing skills like me. Actually, I am not that bad, but AI certainly has helped in creating outlines for my content that I write myself.

So yes, with AI, now is a great time to start affiliate marketing because it's one valuable writing tool.

5. Tools Have Made it Much Easier

As an affiliate marketer, you have a ton of tools at your disposal to help get your business where you want it to be. Some are free, while some are paid.

With the use of tools like Ahrefs, Keysearch, and Lowfruits, research has become more efficient, and it has helped level the playing field for affiliate marketers.

Assessing competitors is crucial in affiliate marketing. It will give you key information as to what is working in their business and how you can make it better. 

Tools like Ahrefs help you analyze your competitors' backlinks, traffic sources, and keyword rankings and to find valuable keywords. This will allow you to develop better SEO strategies and optimize your content. Keysearch is a very inexpensive alternative (much much cheaper than Ahrefs) and allows you to do similar research.

There are free tools as well as I mentioned, such as Answer The Public, Ubersuggest, and Keyword Planner.

Remember that your competitors will be using tools as well, so stay on top of the game by mastering them as well. You can do ok with the free tools, but at the very least I would suggest getting Keysearch. Use coupon code KSDISC to get 20% off.

6. Smart Marketers Overcome Challenges by Doing This...

Starting in affiliate marketing can be challenging. One of the biggest challenges faced is stiffer competition. It can be difficult to stand out in a popular niche with everyone else clamoring to promote the same product.

However, it is possible to overcome this challenge by choosing a less competitive niche or sub-niche of that niche. By doing thorough research and analyzing the competition, one can discover opportunities in a market where demand is high, but competition is low.

To give you an example, let's pick the massive niche of fitness.

You definitely don't want to start a general site on this topic. You'll never be able to rank as it's one of the biggest niches out there.

However, let's niche this down. 

Within fitness, there is the "home fitness niche" which you could target. However, you could further niche this down to a sub-niche of "home fitness equipment for smaller apartments."

You could dedicate an entire website to this and do quite well. Remember, this is just an example, so don't start building a site like this without doing your research as I am just picking this out of thin air to give you an example. 

7. More People Come Online Every Day

The internet continues to expand, with more and more people coming online with credit cards in hand ready to make a purchase. This has greatly impacted the affiliate marketing industry in a positive way.

One of the major advantages of the Internet is its convenience. Online shopping allows customers to order products and services from the comfort of their homes.

I am sure you do as well. Heck, I practically order from Amazon almost every day. Yay for Amazon Prime's free delivery! You know you could be an Amazon Affiliate right? 

The great number of options is another factor that has made online shopping more attractive to buyers. With so many products available and most of them having affiliate programs, customers can easily compare prices and make informed buying decisions.

This has made affiliate marketing even more relevant, as I am sure you have seen many "review" sites pinning products up against each other such as mine right here 🙂

Social media platforms have also played a big role in making affiliates a lot of money. Though you don't necessarily need a social media following to make money with affiliate marketing, those with large followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter do very well.

Some affiliate marketers make videos on TikTok or YouTube and reach a broad audience raking in some pretty fat affiliate paychecks through their affiliate links.

As the online presence continues to grow, so does the potential for success in the affiliate marketing industry. The secret is to create good content that helps people solve a particular problem.

That's what I would focus on.

8. Plenty of Opportunity

Affiliate marketing offers diverse opportunities for everyone. I challenge you to pick a random niche and try NOT to find a product to sell to that niche that doesn't have affiliate products. Even if it isn't closely related, you could find supporting products within that niche that are closely related.

There are affiliate networks that cater to certain niches too. For example, Clickbank focuses on digital products while MarketHealth focuses on health and beauty products.

Then there's the topic of earning potential. Do you go for cheap products or high-ticket affiliate programs? You could do well with both, just remember that it is easier to sell 20 low-priced products than it is to sell one high-priced one.

However, if you find the right audience, selling high-ticket items could be easy, provided you rank well and the competition isn't too fierce. This of course comes back to what I was talking about when it comes to tools. You need to do your research before starting your affiliate marketing journey. If you don't you could be wasting a lot of time and money.

With advancements in technology, new opportunities in affiliate marketing have opened up. Mobile shopping has made it easier for customers to purchase items anytime, anywhere, which is smart affiliates ensure that their content is mobile-friendly.

As you can see, the diverse opportunities available in affiliate marketing make it an excellent way to generate a stream of income. You can choose from popular and niche products or low or high-ticket items.

You can choose between physical products or downloadable digital products. 

You're guaranteed to find an affiliate program for just about everything these days.

9. An Evolving Industry

The affiliate marketing industry is ever-evolving, with new opportunities popping up almost every day. With advancements in technology, the industry has become more focused on personalization.

Brands and affiliates are working together to create more personalized experiences for customers in a target audience which helps to increase overall conversion rates.

Many SaaS companies are hard at work to create tools new tools for affiliates as well. It just doesn't seem to stop. The only downside is that things are progressing so much in the affiliate world it can be hard to keep up with all the new tools and opportunities available.

However, affiliates who stay up-to-date with these technologies and industry trends will likely do very well.

10. Work From Anywhere

This is my favorite one that I have left for last. 

Affiliate marketing provides the flexibility to work from any location at any time, giving you the freedom that you are likely craving. This ability to work from anywhere is perhaps one of the most significant benefits of affiliate marketing and is what drives me.

As a low-cost online business, affiliate marketing can help people create a sustainable income stream whether they are traveling or living in a remote area. All you really need is an internet connection and a laptop.

You can target customers from any country regardless of where you are in the world. So if you choose to live in a remote village in Thailand (I've done that) or the foo foo glamour of Las Vegas, it won't matter. Affiliate marketing is truly global!

Conclusion

So as you can see, I've given you ten reasons why it's not too late to start an affiliate marketing business. Affiliate marketing is booming and shows no signs of slowing down.

As more people come online each day, the opportunities grow. Technology that supports affiliate marketers is abundant and continues to be developed. 

With plenty of opportunity available to everyone, young or old, regardless if English is your first language or not (use AI!) you can do this!

If you start a blog, get those blog posts written. If you want to start a YouTube Channel, start filming. Just start something that you feel matches your personality.

So what's next?

Here are some resources you need to check out

• The Best Affiliate Marketing Courses
• How to Start a Blog
• Best YouTube Courses 

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