You probably already know that affiliate marketing can potentially make you good money online.
But is affiliate marketing safe?
Well, it really depends on how you define safe. But one thing is sure – you need to know what to expect if you want to make money with affiliate marketing.
I am making a full-time income with it myself, and in this short article, I am going to show you what you need to know to find out if it is a safe way for YOU to make money.
So let’s get to it!
What does safe mean?
Whenever I get the question of whether affiliate marketing is safe or not, the first thing I ask is what the person asking this question means.
Because there are different reasons why people ask.
In my experience there are mainly two reasons you might ask this question – either you want to know if it is legally safe or you want to know if it is a secure way to make money every month.
These are, therefore the two aspects I will be talking about in this article based on my experiences as a full-time affiliate marketer.
If you have other concerns, I would love to hear from you in a comment below this article and will be happy to try to reply to that as well.
For now, let’s go over the two aspects mentioned above.
Is affiliate marketing legally safe?
The concept of revenue sharing (affiliate marketing) has been around since 1994.
It is definitely a legit business model and way to make money. And, in my opinion, it is a win-win situation for all involved if it is done correctly.
The website owner gets a way to make profits on his/her site and get paid for all the work they put in, the merchants have a way to have their products/services presented to a bigger audience, and the consumers gets access to good information.
Because let’s be honest – if it was not possible to make money from producing a lot of content and valuable information, nobody would have the time to do this. And then we would not be able to find any good info online.
So the opportunity to make money on websites is very important to actually get access to good and diverse information online, in my opinion.
When that is said, there are, of course, some traps when it comes to affiliate marketing. The main trap is that not everybody does what I call honest affiliate marketing.
Some people are willing to say and promote whatever to earn a commission and do not care about the people following their advice.
This can, of course, be a problem, and there are, therefore, also some laws and regulations you have to live up to as an affiliate marketer.
The FTC has affiliate guidelines you have to live up to and so do other authorities in different countries as far as I am aware.
I am not a lawyer so I am not going into any legal advice here. But you just have to be aware that you can not just say whatever just to earn a commission. You have to make it clear if you get paid a commission to promote a product or service.
Personally, I think this is good as transparency is great and I also personally like supporting people by buying through their affiliate link if they have helped me with good information and helped me make the right decision.
The challenge is then that the dishonest people are usually not following the rules and laws anyway so just because there is no affiliate disclaimer on their site does not mean they are not getting paid.
Anyway, the point of this section is that affiliate marketing is definitely legal and safe in that sense. But you, of course, can not deceive people – just like you are not allowed to do that in any other type of business.
Recommended: See the Best Way to Learn Proper Affiliate Marketing
Is it safe consistent money?
The next important aspect people often wonder is if affiliate marketing is safe money in the sense that you can earn a consistent income from it.
This really depends on your approach and expectations. But overall it definitely is possible to make a good consistent income from affiliate marketing.
You just need to be aware that it does not happen overnight. Like any other kind of business, it takes time and work to build up.
So it is not safe money in the sense that you will start making money right away without any effort – that is one of the big myths of making money online.
There is no magical way to become rich overnight. It requires hard work and time.
But with work and time, it can give enormous freedom to have an affiliate income since you can work from where you want to, when you want to, and completely on your own terms.
The great thing is that once you learn the skills, you will keep seeing new opportunities and ways to expand and the sky truly is the limit.
So it definitely can be a very good way to make a consistent income online. And it is also possible to eventually make a lot of money. Many people end up making more than they would in a regular job.
But you have to do it with the right expectations. There are no guarantees it will happen and it will not just happen automatically. It all comes down to the effort and time you put in.
However, if you take consistent action and keep going, you are already doing more than the majority of people and you will be on your way to success.
In that sense affiliate marketing is the same as most other things in life – the more you put in, the more you get out.
Final thoughts
Affiliate marketing is safe in the sense that it is legal if you, of course, stay within the boundaries of the law and do not deceive people.
It can even be a way to make a living by actually helping people with valuable information about a topic you are passionate about yourself.
In my opinion, this is one of the great benefits of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing can also be a very consistent way to make good money online and can be a great way to build a sustainable income.
This all comes down to your effort. You need to be willing to put in the time to first learn the skills and then consistently work to move forward.
Even when you start earning, you need to keep learning and keep working.
It is true that you can earn passive money with affiliate marketing in the sense that even when you take a holiday or sleep the money will keep coming – but not if you keep doing this.
It requires continuous work. Even though I am making a full-time income with affiliate marketing myself, I keep learning and keep trying new things.
The online world keeps changing and you need to keep learning about the newest methods and the most effective ways to run your affiliate business.
The great thing is that it is actually something anyone can learn. You do not have to have any special technical skills or anything like that – as long as you are willing to work hard and put in the time, you can learn affiliate marketing.
So if you want to start making money online, affiliate marketing is, in my experience and opinion, definitely one of the best ways to do this.
If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
