Is online affiliate marketing a legitimate business?
If you are wondering whether online affiliate marketing is a scam or if it’s a legitimate business to start, let’s take a look. But you’ll soon discover that it’s legit, plus why this is one of the best times to start you own affiliate marketing business.
Is online affiliate marketing a scam or legit in 15 seconds…
No, online affiliate marketing is not a scam. Otherwise large online retail giants like Amazon and eBay would not have their own affiliate programs for affiliate marketers to promote. Nor would one of the largest hosting platforms like Bluehosts offer an affiliate program. It’s also worth understand how large online businesses like Booking.com and Uber.com employ a system that’s effectively a large affiliate program too. Affiliate marketing is a billion dollar industry with very large players involved, which is why it’s a legitimate online-business to start.
Is online affiliate marketing a scam?
The simple answer to the question about whether online affiliate marketing a scam or legit, is no it’s not a scam and yes it’s totally legit! However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t scammers in the business. But that’s true of most businesses. Which means that so long as you avoid the scam artists, you’ll be just fine!
If you decide to start your own affiliate marketing business, stick to known and trusted affiliate programs and you’ll make a good living.
But let me give you a few examples of why it is a legitimate business, as follows:
- The Amazon Affiliate Program: There is no way that a legitimate business like Amazon would offer an affiliate program if it were a scam. Amazon offer affiliate commissions of up to 12% if you refer customers who buy products on their website.
- Bluehost Affiliate Program: Bluehost are one of the largest hosting companies in the world. In no way would such a large online company risk offering an affiliate program if it were a scam.
- eBay Partner Network: You may not have realised until now, but eBay are in the affiliate marketing industry too. eBay offers affiliate marketers the chance to earn money in the form of affiliate commissions from their Partner Network. eBay is another huge business and would not be a part of a scam. Plus it’s a well-known legitimate business.
- ClickBank: Clickbank are one of the leading global retailers and an affiliate marketplace. ClickBank is where businesses can offer their products and services and engage with affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketers help promote their affiliate programs and drive traffic to the affiliate’s websites. ClickBank’s clients have earned around $3.5 billion! Had this been a scam, I think they’d have been closed down by now.
The above online businesses are only a small sample of businesses that are in the the affiliate marketing space online. But what about two of the largest affiliate programs in the world?
Two of the largest affiliate programs on the planet!
The two companies I am referring to in this case are Booking.com and Uber.com, possibly not what you’d expect. You probably weren’t really aware of how these businesses worked before now. But let me explain how it works using Booking.com as the example. Affiliate marketing is very similar to the process or system that both companies like Booking.com and Uber.com employ to great effect.
Booking.com own no hotels, but they are probably the biggest hotel company in the world. They make their money as the ‘middle-man‘.
Booking.com (or the affiliate marketer) sits between the hotel owner (in this case the affiliate product or service) and the person (or customer who buys the product or service). The beauty about this system from a customer’s perspective is they pay no more nor no less for the hotel than they would otherwise. Which is the same with affiliate marketing, which I assume is the business you’re looking to get yourself into.
Let’s say the hotel room is $100 for the night. The customer pays Booking.com $100 for their night’s stay. This $100 is then split; $15 to Booking.com and $85 to the hotel owner (or some similar split depending on the hotel’s deal with Booking.com). The $15 in this case represents the affiliate commission.
The best time to begin your online affiliate marketing business is in 2020
I hope your fear that online affiliate marketing is a scam has been allayed. With that the case, you might like to understand that there’s never been a better time to get started with affiliate marketing. One of the best ways to start an online affiliate marketing business is by using content marketing as your strategy.
The other online business which is an ever growing industry is the eCommerce online business. But in particular using software like Shopify to sell other peoples’ products using drop-shipping.
More and more people are moving to online retail. Which has increased due to the current pandemic of Coronavirus or COVID-19. In fact there’s never been a better time than now to capitalise on this growing billion dollar industry. Get yourself on a training course to learn how to start your very own affiliate marketing business.
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