For me, affiliate marketing is the easiest way to start your online business. You do not need inventory or much money to get started. All you need is the willingness to learn and put in the work.
Since it is easy to get started, some people, willingly or not, have been spreading misinformation.
Gurus spread some of these myths to convince newbies to buy their products, and they are still taken as facts. In this article, the top 10 common affiliate marketing myths and debunked them.
Top 10 Common Affiliate Marketing Myths
For people new to affiliate marketing, earning money online by sharing links might seem unrealistic or dubious. Here are the top 10 common affiliate marketing myths.
It is too late to start affiliate marketing.
I have seen this many times, and some people believe it is too late to start affiliate marketing, some believe that in 2023, it is not worth it, and some go even further, saying that affiliate marketing is just for young people. I am telling you that neither of these two claims is true.
Why it is not too late to start affiliate marketing
According to the reports, affiliate marketing is a fast-growing industry that is not going anywhere.
Affiliate Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $14.3 Billion in 2023 globally and $15.7 Billion by 2024.
If you start your affiliate marketing today, you will still be a part of a select group of people who will enjoy part of the billions spent in affiliate marketing every year.
The age thing boils my blood. You can still make money as an affiliate marketer, regardless of age.
All you need to do is to be able to educate your prospects on a specific subject and then recommend to them products that will solve the issues they are facing.
I have seen 10-year-olds making a lot of commissions as affiliate marketers, and I have seen 75+ doing the same. There is no age limit to start or retire. You can do this as long as you wish.
If people can become presidents after 80, you can be an affiliate marketer at that age.
If you want to start affiliate marketing the right way, click here.
Affiliate marketing is saturated.
This is another myth I keep hearing that affiliate marketing is saturated. This is not true, and I am going to explain below.
Why affiliate marketing is not saturated
Affiliate marketing is not saturated. Every day, more new products are created, which means you can recommend those new products to the same audience.
The world is evolving, and the products do the same. Each day, new and better products are produced. Just keep finding them and recommend them to your audience.
Also, remember that each day, you can reach new people who have never seen your offer before.
This is because new people are joining the internet for the first time every day, and these people can become your prospects.
Many new affiliate marketers buy into this myth because the gurus ask them to promote the same products to the same people daily.
When no one buys the products, the new affiliate marketer believes this is because the affiliate marketing is saturated.
More Traffic = More Profit
Many people believe that getting more traffic ( people who can see their offer) is the solution to making more money. This also is not true, and here is why.
Why more traffic is more money
First of all, traffic is the lifeblood of any affiliate marketing business. Put it like this: if no one can see the product you are promoting, you will not make any money, but that does not translate to more traffic = more money.
The amount of money you make will depend on the quality of traffic, the conversion rate, and the commission rate.
Quality of traffic
Quality is always better than quantity. If you sell a blogging course, you will make more money if 100 people who want to learn about blogging see it than the amount you will make showing the course to 1,000,000 people who do not want to do anything with blogging.
Conversion rate
Going back to the same example, if you send offer A to quality prospects, the offer converts to 10%, and if you send offer B to the same number of prospects, It converts to 15%.
You will make more money with offer B even though you sent the same amount of traffic and the price is the same.
Commission rate
If the vendor offers you 75% per sale on the same product, you will make more money for the same amount of sales if you were getting 50% per sale.
As you can see in the examples above, traffic is not equal to more profit. You need to analyze many things before sending a lot of traffic to a particular offer, but if you optimize those three conditions, more traffic will lead to more money.
Affiliate Marketing Is Expensive to Start
I have seen people preaching that you need a lot of money to start. It would help if you had this tool, that tool, and a lot of courses. That is not true at all.
Affiliate marketing is not expensive to start.
While it is true that having some money can accelerate your affiliate marketing journey, you do not need a lot of money to start. You can even start for free.
To start affiliate marketing, you need 5things:
- A niche- you can select it for free.
- A product can be for free in thousands of affiliate networks.
- A landing page- You can get a premium landing page for free here.
- An Autoresponder- There are a ton of excellent options.
- Traffic- You can use social media, blogging, or YouTube for free to send people to your landing page.
You can get my free guide on how to start affiliate marketing for free here.
You Need Technical Skills
There is a notion that you need technical skills to start affiliate marketing. This also is not true.
Why you do not need technical skills to start affiliate marketing
The main reason why you do not require technical skills to start affiliate marketing is that all the tools you need to start affiliate marketing ( landing page builders and autoresponders) come with pre-made templates that you need to click a button and edit to say what you want to say, and you are ready to go.
All hosting has one-click WordPress installations; nothing technical or coding is required.
Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve when you get started, but there are a lot of tutorials on how to do things.
If you are stuck, you can contact me on Twitter, and I will help you free of charge.
Affiliate Marketing Is Not a Serious Business Strategy
Some people do not consider affiliate marketing a serious career path, which is fine, but I can tell you this: if you put in the effort to learn and apply what you know, this can be an excellent career.
Affiliate marketing gained a bad reputation from shade marketers who only care about making a dollar. They use some black hat technics to make a quick buck.
Educating your prospects and only recommending quality products that you think will help them can be a great business strategy.
Imagine you know a lot about computers, and one of your family members wants to buy a laptop.
You will unquestionably recommend the best laptop model available depending on their need and budget if you ask them to buy through your affiliate link.
Most of them will do it, which does not increase the cost, and you will make a small percentage of the money they spend on the laptop.
This is a win-win situation. Your family member gets the computer they want, the vendor gets to sell a laptop, and you get compensated for your knowledge. This is a great business model.
The Higher the Commission Rate, the More You Will Earn
Some people believe selecting products with a higher commission rate is the only way to make more income. While this might be true in some situations, it does not always work like this.
You might be tempted to select advertisers with the highest commission rates when looking through offers. However, this doesn’t always equate to higher profits.
Pay close attention to other factors, such as conversion rates, earnings per click, advertiser reputation, support, available promotional tools, and more.
Affiliate Marketing Is a Source of Passive Income
I have seen a lot of people promoting that affiliate marketing is 100% passive income. This is not true. For me, it is a semi-passive income.
Yes, after the initial work, making money from affiliate marketing can be easy, and it seems to be a passive income, but that is not true.
For me, a passive income is an income you do not have to do anything after you set it up, and the money can keep coming in, which is not the case with affiliate marketing.
To succeed in affiliate marketing, you must constantly drive traffic, improve SEO, deliver content, communicate with your audience, and more.
You can outsource some of these functions but must monitor all activities and respond promptly. It is almost impossible to convert affiliate marketing to a 100% passive income source.
Even if you are promoting recurring income products, it will reach a point where the person you referred to that product will cancel because they found a better product and went out of the business, or the product itself is no longer available. It is never 100% passive income.
You Can Earn Fast
One of the most common affiliate marketing myths is that you can earn money fast. This is what causes a lot of people to give up.
When they get started, someone sold them a dream that they will be able to make a lot of money by just clicking a few buttons, and when nothing happens, they call everything a scam and quit.
While you can make your first $1000 on the first day, this is an exception rather than a rule.
One day, I wanted to promote a weight loss product on Twitter. I created a page in less than 10 minutes, put my affiliate link in the description, and followed about 20 people. Thirty minutes later, I had a sale.
Just one person followed me back; she was a lady, clicked the link, and bought the products, and voila, I had $40.1 in less than 30 minutes. It was just lucky. I can not do it again. The fact is it never happened again.
Fun fact: the account was banned the same day. It is the funniest moment in my affiliate marketing career.
Some affiliates make $100 in their first month, while others start earning only after a few months of work.
This can be one of the biggest obstacles for newbies, as many quit affiliate marketing if they don’t see fast results.
You Need a Blog to Get Started
I will be honest with this one. I always recommend affiliate marketers to have a blog. You are reading this in one, but having a blog to make money as an affiliate marketer is unnecessary.
The easiest way might be to use your social media profile, which already has some traffic and readers.
Focus on bringing value to your community and post affiliate links where appropriate.
The key to success is building trust with your community. People might need to visit your page several times before making a purchase.
It doesn’t matter what kind of web page you have. Focus on your audience and bring them value.
Final words
Those are the top 10 common affiliate marketing myths. We debunked all of them, and starting affiliate marketing should not be expensive or complicated.
If you want my help, please download my affiliate marketing startup guide here, and in case you get stuck, don’t hesitate to contact me by sending me an email ( you will get my email address after you download the guide).