If you’ve been researching new ways to make money on the side, I’m sure you’ve heard of affiliate marketing.
But is affiliate marketing a good side hustle (for beginners)?
Yes, affiliate marketing is a great side hustle anyone can start from home, with very little money needed.
In this article, I will give you 8 reasons why I believe that is true (i.e 8 benefits of affiliate marketing) coming from my 10 years of experience in the industry.
Let’s get started…
What Is A Side Hustle?
A side-hustle is an “entrepreneurial venture” you do outside of your normal day job.
People have been warming up to the idea of working on something that they enjoy to make a bit of extra money.
Of course, the internet (both from an educational and also motivational point of view) provided anyone anywhere with the ability to learn and enjoy creating and running a side-hustle.
I salute anyone who takes on the initiative to start up a “side hustle’ with the hopes of improving him or herself and taking the chance to do and be something great.
There are countless side hustle success stories out there so rest assured that if you want a side hustle and you’re willing to work for it, then it won’t be too long till your side-hustle becomes your main business and your main income.
Now that would be ideal, won’t it?
I know because I quit my job back in January of 2018 and here I am today, still “my own boss” and still making money.
The way I did it was through affiliate marketing, and before I tell you all about the benefits that make affiliate marketing a great side-hustle, let me take a step back and first explain;
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is an online business model that you can associate with ‘selling for a commission”.
To make money as an affiliate marketer, you need to send people to companies’ websites through the use of an affiliate link and if the person buys something, you get paid a commission.
Sounds complicated?
Trust me; it’s not.
It only sounds complicated because I’ve given you the most basic introduction to affiliate marketing and how it works.
If you like the sound of it, you can learn more about affiliate marketing here but down below I also have a free training course for you that will show you in a step-by-step video lesson how to make serious side-hustle moolah with affiliate marketing.
Before we get to that, let’s get back to the main point of this article. Here are…..
8 Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing Is A GREAT Side-Hustle
#1: You Can Get Started For Free Cheap
One big benefit of affiliate marketing is that it’s very cheap to start.
I would say you can get started for free (which would be true) but all you need is about $100 a year to maintain an affiliate marketing business (and as you will see below, there’s plenty of money to be made with affiliate marketing).
The $100 goes for a basic domain + web hosting, in other words, those $100 are to keep a website running, which is how you will be making money.
Again, I recommend you check out my “get started with affiliate marketing” page for more in-depth information.
#2: You Can Get Started Today
Since it’s so quick and simple to get started, you can literally get started with affiliate marketing right now, today.
All you need is a website, and you’re off to the races.
That does not mean you will start making money today, but you will be setting the foundation to have a real cash-producing side-hustle in just a few short months.
#3: You Get To Work On Things You Enjoy
Since there’s so many people online and so many people shipping online, you can start an affiliate marketing business in any topic that you like. For example:
- Do you like keeping fit? Start a fitness blog and make money selling fitness equipment.
- Do you like fishing? Start a fishing blog and review fishing rods.
- Do you like makeup? Start a makeup blog and make money reviewing makeup brands.
Whatever it is you like doing/talking about, someone in the world wants to hear what you have to say about it.
This gives you the never-before-seen opportunity of being able to make money doing work you enjoy. How crazy is that?
#4: You Can Make Money While Not Working
Speaking of making money…
An affiliate marketing business is “open for business” 24/7/365.
You don’t even have to be working to make money.
Nowadays I have a portfolio of websites all making me money semi-passively and they produce an income from me whether I “show up to work” or not.
I’m sure you’re starting to see my reasoning as to why I think affiliate marketing would make for a great side-hustle, but wait… there’s more.
#5: You Can Run It From Anywhere In The World
Since everything is online, I can go anywhere I want, stay for as long as I want and I can run my side-hustle (business) from anywhere in the world.
It does not make a difference where I am, my websites keep producing an income from me.
#6: You Will Learn – A Lot
If you’re looking for a side-hustle that will challenge you, then again – affiliate marketing has my vote.
Not only do you have to learn affiliate marketing but to be able to do it successfully at a high level, you need to know more than just “affiliate marketing”. You need to know:
- How to build a website
- How to rank in Google
- How to create content
- How to sell with words (with copywriting)
- How to network with other marketers & bloggers
- and so much more…
Again, if you’re finding this a bit too much, don’t worry – there’s a free video course waiting for you down below.
#7: You Can Earn As Much Money As You Want
Now, this may not be entirely true, but in principle, it is.
With affiliate marketing, you can make as much money as you want.
Since your affiliate marketing website is running without you, you are not trading your time for money.
This means that your business can run without you and how much you earn depends not on how many hours you spend working a day, but by how much traffic you have, how much sales you make and how much you get paid for every product you sell.
When you start thinking about affiliate marketing this way, it’s pretty clear that there really is no limit as to how much you can earn.
#8: You Can Do It Easily (Sort Of)
Is affiliate marketing easy? Yes.
Is affiliate marketing hard? Yes.
Great – which one is it?
Well, it’s both.
Affiliate marketing can be very easy if you know what you are doing and you do it right.
It can also be incredibly frustrating, slow, and hard if you are just wasting your time spinning around in circles.
It’s only as easy/hard as you make it.
There are some “hard days” in business, but they’re not “back-breaking-hard” either.
What would make it easier for you is to know what you are doing, which is why it’s now time for me to reveal something I know will save you a lot of time.
How To Learn Affiliate Marketing (In The Quickest & Easiest Way)
If you’re looking for a new side-hustle to give you a bit of purpose in life (plus a bit of extra money) and you’ve read this far;
I’m going to assume you are serious about starting your side-hustle with affiliate marketing.
If I’m right, then listen up as I have a free training course which you can join right now and it’s the same training course I’ve used to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing.
The course is Wealthy Affiliate, but it’s more of an online university than a course. It will show you:
- How to get started online
- How you will be making money as an affiliate
- How to find products to promote
- How to set up a website
- How to bring traffic to your website
- How to rank in Google and so much more.
You get all the above on a free starter membership, but once you complete that, you also have the option to upgrade to a premium membership which will unload even more training, including 6 more levels of training (with 10 lessons each) and also a weekly live webinar on a Friday.
