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Can You Still Make Money With Affiliate Marketing in 2020? 

 February 28, 2020

By  Jim Daniels

Is it still possible to make money with affiliate marketing in 2020?

I’m sure you’ve heard of affiliate marketing. You basically recommend products and services online and earn a commission from each sale that is made through your affiliate link.

Affiliate marketing is popular online because has many advantages over many other online business models. The three main advantages are…

* You don’t have to create products or buy inventory.
* Once you make a sale you’re done — the vendor supports the customer.
* You can offer a wide product choice in your niche by offering products from many different merchants.

And frankly, those three reason are precisely why affiliate marketing still works and is a viable business to get into, whether you are a newbie or an oldbee.

In fact, it’s perfect for stay at home moms and dads and even grandparents. As a stay at home dad myself I average well over a thousand bucks a month as an affiliate, and it’s really not my main focus.

Here are some screenshots that show you a few of my daily commissions at JVzoo. Granted, these are some of my better days, but this will give you an idea of what’s possible with affiliate marketing online…

So how much money can you make with affiliate marketing?

Well, that all depends on you.

There are literally thousands of small merchants paying out thousands of dollars a month to affiliates via WarriorPlus, Clickbank, JVZoo, in-house affiliate programs and other affiliate networks.

There are countless affiliate marketers and bloggers earning a full time income from home, and there’s plenty of room for more.

In my humble opinion, affiliate marketing as a business strategy is still viable and will be for many years to come.

So how does one get into affiliate marketing?

The first step is planning your affiliate business, and that involves choosing a market to work in.

This is absolutely the most crucial step. Do it right, and the sky’s the limit. Fail here and you’ll waste countless hours with no payoff.

For starters, you need to know focus on ONE niche and ONLY one niche.

It takes work putting a new site or blog, adding content and generating traffic, so working on just one topic is the best strategy, at least until you have the project earning money. Then you can consider expanding it or entering another niche altogether.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

You’ll need a topic, a constant stream of helpful content, a site or blog, and a list building strategy. Let’s talk about each one of these steps.

Super Affiliate Network

Choose Your Affiliate Niche Topic:

Start by choosing a niche topic that fits one of these two criteria…

1. Markets with a lot of products/services that people will be buying virtually forever. These are called “evergreen” markets and they ensure long term viability of your affiliate business. Some example include hobbies and past-times such as sports, gardening, lifestyle, how-to’s, etc.

2. Markets with lots of desperate and/or impulsive buyers. These are your more personal products that help with things such as ailments, appearance, relationships, etc. (Not my cup of tea but many affiliate do well in this “need immediate help” space.)

It is also helpful if you enter a niche that either you know something about or you are at least interested in. For example, if you do not enjoy cooking out, I would not recommend starting a BBQ blog. You won’t really enjoy yourself and it will show in your content.

You also want to make sure there are good products in the niche you choose — either info products on the topic and/or products at Amazon.

If you need ideas for a good affiliate niche, you’ll find 50 top affiliate niches listed at my Done-For-You Blog Building Service page.

Write (Or Buy) Your Niche Content:

Once you have selected a niche to work in, you simply set your focus on helping people in that niche. That’s right, helping people, not selling things, should be your main focus. Especially early on.

As you help more and more people you will grow a following. More and more people will come to trust your advice. Then when you DO recommend a product or service, you’ll get lots of commissions!

So how do you help people?

With relevant, useful, insightful content. You know, articles, tips, videos, etc.

If you find writing a chore, you can simply hire out your writing to professional writers. I’ve entered niches that I was interested in but knew little about. I simply searched the web to find out what advice people want, then hired writers at textbroker.com or fiverr.com to research and write original articles for me. The articles cost me about $10 each which it is well worth it considering I save about two hours every time!

You can even find PLR article packs for practically any niche. Just search google for your niche + PLR articles.

Build Your Blog or Website:

This is easier than ever nowadays thanks to WordPress. Putting up a site with the self-hosted version of WordPress can be done in a day or two if you’re handy with the computer.

And there are lots of themes available for affiliate marketers nowadays. You can use the theme that comes with WordPress or buy a premium theme if you want to save time and maximize revenue.

Once you have the theme installed at your WordPress site, get started filling your site with useful content that your niche audience is looking for. Remember to focus on helping people!

If you don’t feel you’re up to the task of building a blog yourself, click the banner below and get details on my newest blog building service…

Build An Email Opt-in List:

Once you have a blog up and running, you should focus your efforts on growing an email list of prospects.

Yes, even with affiliate marketing, you need to grow an in-house email list. That’s how I managed to get those nice commissions shown at the top of this post. But emailing my opt-in subscribers.

You see, when people come to your site or blog, they may not buy the first time there. But if you manage to get them onto your list, they can see your future advice and recommendations!

For this you’ll need a tool called an autoresponder. That handles the signups for you as well as your follow-up emails and broadcast emails. I use an autoresponder service called Aweber. They are a leading service provider with a great reputation. Another good autoresponder option is called Getresponse.

Once you have an autoresponder you can easily add opt-in forms at your site or blog. There are many ways to do this from premium options such as the premium tool called EZPops to free plugins such as this Opt-In Forms plugin.

It is also helpful to give something of value away — a training course, or a package of downloadable goodies your site visitors can’t resist. If you have no time to create something like that, then buy it!

There are tons of products in every niche imaginable that you can buy with Master Rights. That means you can brand them as your own and give them away. Just search the web for “your niche + plr” or “your niche + master rights”.

In closing, affiliate marketing is here to stay….

Affiliate marketing is simply too lucrative for merchants to ever give up on it. And that means there will be affiliates earning money virtually forever. Why not be one of them!

Once you master this four step plan above, you can put it into action over and over in multiple niches if you want. You’ll start growing lasting affiliate income streams for years to come.

If you need help getting started with affiliate marketing, finding a niche, finding something to give away or setting up a list growing plan, grab the training package here. It will help you profit from affiliate marketing right away, and in the long-term as well.

And if you prefer to have someone else do all the affiliate business setup work for you, check out my new 100% Done for You Blog building service. You get a complete affiliate niche blog set up for you including hosting, content, affiliate program selection and links, maintenance, updates and even traffic. You can get the details on that here.

No matter how you decide to do it, affiliate marketing can be fun and rewarding. And it’s perfect for newbies as well as oldbees! So what are you waiting for, jump it!

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About Jim


I gave up a life of jobs in 1996. Since then I've been earning a living online.

I write books, create software, license info-products, affiliate marketing, build membership sites, design websites and more.

I prefer this over my old lifestyle of getting up early, commuting to work, coming home to have a few hours for my family and living for the weekends. Now every day is a weekend. I work when I want and answer to no boss.

  • I can be tough to make money as an affiliate, but the business is still there for sure. I have been keeping an eye on the market for years and there are always chances to make money.

  • Affiliate marketing has changed a lot in the last 10 years, but it has not gone away completely. You provide good tips here!

  • You’re inspiring – I’ve followed you for a long while and you’re always consistent, always honest, and always steady that affiliate marketing is very viable. Many thanks.

  • Their affiliate partners make money, too. They give commissions for any sale that stemmed on their affiliate partner’s website. Once they have safely provided the item, they impart a percentage of its sale to affiliate partners. The commissions they use to affiliate partners differ from 2 to 75, depending upon the affiliate-marketing program they have registered with.

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