Can You Really Make Money From Affiliate Marketing in the UK 2024
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular side hustles to start in 2024. This is partly due to the large number of success stories that can be found on social media and money-making blogs.
However, affiliate marketing also comes with a number of unsuccessful stories of people who have failed to make any money from the process. This has led many people to wonder whether or not affiliate marketing is worth starting.
As a team of side hustle pros, we have a lot of experience with affiliate marketing including our own successful and unsuccessful attempts. In this article, we will use our experience to answer the questions: Can you really make money from affiliate marketing?
We will also use the experiences of others as well as some statistics to uncover whether it is worth starting affiliate marketing in 2024,
A Realistic Look At Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is often praised online for being a lucrative side hustle that is free start and has the potential to generate passive income.
However, the truth about affiliate marketing as a side hustle is that it is only effective if you invest a lot of time, stay consistent, and follow a good strategy.
If you randomly started promoting products in Facebook groups today, you would probably struggle to see any results. Instead, affiliate marketing involves building up an audience that sees you as an authority within your niche over time. This can be achieved by posting regularly (typically every day), investing your time into creating high-quality content, and promoting products you genuinely love.
The most successful affiliate marketers spend hours perfecting their strategy, engaging with their audience and creating content that sells the products without seeming too pushy or obviously promotional.
The reality of this side hustle is that effort = success.
The average time that it takes to see results
To better understand the reality of affiliate marketing, it is helpful to take a look at how long it can take to see any sales.
From our own experience of Pinterest affiliate marketing, email marketing and Facebook affiliate marketing; we found that it takes an average of 8 weeks to make a sale. Pinterest affiliate marketing had the quickest results, taking us just 3 weeks to make our first sale and Facebook marketing had the slowest results, taking 3 months to make a sale.
We can across several resources online that discussed how long it can take to start making money as an affiliate. One article by Ahrefs revealed that it can take 6 to 12 months to start making money, and up to 2 years to earn a full-time salary.
The time it takes to make money is correlated to the amount of time and effort that you can invest during the initial stages of your affiliate side hustle. You can speed up the process by increasing the quality and quantity of content that you post.
When Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
Affiliate marketing is a legitimate side hustle to consider that can generate a good stream of passive income. However, affiliate marketing only works if the right conditions are met.
Here is a closer look at some factors that could determine whether or not affiliate marketing could work for you. You do not need to meet every single criterion to start. However, it may help to fit at least one requirement.
1. You have an existing audience
Affiliate marketers make money by promoting products to an engaged audience. Therefore, having an existing audience is a huge advantage.
This could include social media followers, an email list, website viewers, or online groups. Beginner affiliate marketers often spend a long time building up an audience before they can start seeing results. You can skip this part of the process by having an existing audience.
2. You already own the products you want to promote
Successful affiliate marketers promote products that they have hands-on experience with. Therefore, this side hustle works best if you already own or have used the products that you plan to promote.
As well as reducing start-up costs, having real experience with the products will help you to create more authentic and original content.
3. You plan to promote high-ticket items
Affiliate commissions vary depending on what program you choose to use however, some programs offer rates as low as 3%. In this case, you would only earn £3 for every £100 worth of products that you sell.
For this reason, affiliate marketing works best for high-ticket products. These are products with a value of £200+.
By promoting high-ticket products, you can increase the amount of money that you earn per sale. This means that you can start making significant profits sooner than if you were to promote low-ticket products.
4. Your niche has a high EPC
EPC stands for ‘earnings per click’ and refers to the amount of profit that you could earn each time someone clicks on your affiliate link.
Choosing a high EPC niche is a good way to increase your chances of making money from affiliate marketing. Most programs will disclose their EPC rating to affiliates before you sign up. It is a good idea to shop around for a program that offers a high rating. This is considered to be
When Is Affiliate Marketing Not Worth It?
Although affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative remote side hustle, there are situations when it may not be the most suitable option.
Making money from affiliate marketing requires a large online audience or traffic source, the ability to dedicate several hours each day to content creation, and patience. Therefore, it may not be the best option for people who want to make money quickly or do not have enough time to spend on driving traffic.
Here is a closer look at scenarios when affiliate marketing might not be worth it.
1. If You’re Looking To Make Money Overnight
First and foremost, it can take a long time to see any results from affiliate marketing. According to our research, the average marketer won’t see any profits for around 6 months.
Therefore, affiliate marketing may not be the best option for people who want to make money quickly. Instead, you could consider a side hustle such as data entry that allows you to make money on the same day that you start completing tasks.
Also, check out our guide on how to make money in one hour if you’re looking for a short-term solution.
2. You do not have any experience with the products that you plan to promote
In the world of affiliate marketing, experience holds tremendous value when it comes to promoting products effectively. Without a solid foundation of knowledge and personal experience with the products you promote, the chances of achieving success in this field become significantly diminished.
Affiliate marketing thrives on building trust and credibility with your audience. When you lack firsthand experience with the products, you won't be able to provide authentic and honest reviews. This can lead to a lack of authenticity in your promotions, undermining the trust of your audience and hindering your ability to convert leads.
Moreover, without understanding the intricacies of the products, it will be challenging to address potential customer concerns and provide helpful recommendations. Ultimately, experience with the products you're promoting is essential to establish yourself as a knowledgeable authority, enhance trust, and maximize your potential as an affiliate marketer.
3. You do not want to spend time building an audience
Affiliate marketing requires a significant investment of time and effort to build a loyal and engaged audience. For those unable to dedicate time to this crucial task, affiliate marketing may not yield the desired results.
Building an audience involves consistently creating valuable content, engaging with followers, and fostering relationships. Without the necessary time commitment, individuals may struggle to attract and maintain an audience, diminishing the potential for success in the affiliate marketing world.
Affiliate Marketing Success Stories
One of the best ways to determine whether a side hustle is worth starting in 2024 is to look at success stories. Luckily, it is very easy to find affiliate marketing income reports online.
Lifestyle With Leah
Lifestyle With Leah is a lifestyle blog that earns revenue through affiliate links. In June 2023, the blog reported earnings of $5965. This report came just under 4 years after the blog was started (in 2019).
According to a survey by Authority Hacker, affiliates who have over 3+ years of experience earn roughly 9x more than beginners. This shows that affiliate marketing can take time but is certainly worth it in the long run.
Search Logistics
Search Logistics published a rundown of their affiliate income from 2012 to 2017. Over the five year period, they were able to go from earning $694 per month to $28,429 per month. Again, this shows that success happens over time.
How Much Can You Realistically Make From Affiliate Marketing?
There are a lot of online gurus who claim that it is possible to make multiple 7 figures per year from affiliate marketing. Although this isn’t completely false, earning this kind of income requires a lot of time and effort and isn’t feasible for beginners.
After looking through several income reports, we found that most affiliate marketers report earnings of around £500 in their first few profitable months and this increases to around £2500 after about one year.
A survey by Authority Hacker shows that the average income of an affiliate marketer in 2023 was $8038 per month. However, this survey includes affiliates with more than 10 years of experience so may not accurately represent beginner experiences.
The amount of money that you can realistically make from affiliate marketing correlates directly with time and effort. The more that you promote your links, the higher your chances of making money will be.
Conclusion
It is possible to make money from affiliate marketing in 2024. However, the amount of money that you earn will depend on the amount of time and effort that you can invest into your side hustle.
Affiliate marketing is most suitable for people who already have a traffic source and plan to promote high-ticket products that they have first-hand experience with. Successful affiliates post every day and focus on building trust with their audience.
According to our own experience and our research, it can take up to 12 months to start making any money from affiliate marketing. Therefore, this side hustle is most suitable for people who want to invest in generating money long-term rather than making money quickly.
The money that you make from affiliate marketing will grow over time so patience is key. Once you do start making money, it is realistic to expect earnings of around £3000 after 1 year.
FAQs
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Yes it is possible to make $100 per day from affiliate marketing. To do this, you would need to find a high-ticket item with a good commission rate and make several sales. For example, you could sell a $1000 laptop with a commission rate of 5% just 20 times to make $100.
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Affiliate marketing is a good side hustle for beginners because it is free to start and requires just a couple of hours each day. However, this side hustle takes time to grow and will not return any profits quickly.
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Beginner affiliates usually earn less than £1000 during their first 3 months. However, this can pick up fairly quickly. We found reports of some affiliates making up to £6000 within their first year.
All of our articles are written to help our readers to learn about different side hustles, how they work and how to start earning money from them. Although we mention potential earnings, it is important to understand that there is no guarantee that you will make money from any of the side hustles that are mentioned on our site. Making money from a side hustle requires consistency and significant effort. While we aim to provide useful insight into each side hustle opportunity, it is down to you to follow the right steps towards making any profits.
About The Author
Ruby is the founder of The Rich Girl Guide and has been writing content around personal finance, side hustles and wellbeing for over 3 years. You can find some of Ruby’s published articles on The Motley Fool UK, Tradingplatforms.com and Buyshares.co.uk.