Affiliate marketing is without a doubt a popular way to make money online.
But is affiliate marketing saturated so it does not make sense to start if you are not already successful?
The short answer is NO, it is not oversaturated, but there a certain things you need to consider to become successful.
There definitely is a lot of competition, but there is also room for a lot more people (including you) if you do it with the right approach.
This short article will go over these factors so you can avoid the traps and get the best chances of succeeding.
What is oversaturation?
Let’s just start by quickly looking at what oversaturation actually means.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the following example of what it is:
Description of what oversaturation is according to Merriam Webster.
As you can see, it is when a market has so many players that there are not enough customers for everyone.
It is a normal fear to think this about affiliate marketing as there are a lot of people that work with affiliate marketing.
But this alone is not enough to conclude that it is saturated. There are more things that need to be taken into consideration to get the full picture.
The potential of affiliate marketing
I think one of the reasons many people think affiliate marketing might be saturated is because there are so many people that start with it but fail.
There are different statistics about this but I have heard numbers saying that more than 90% never manage to make any real money. This can sound scary at first, but there are many reasons people might fail with affiliate marketing.
And in my opinion, it has nothing to do with it being a saturated way of making money online.
When you look at the potential and the stats, it shows that the amount companies spend on affiliate marketing has increased dramatically over the last 10 years and it is projected to keep increasing.
I have written more about this in my article about how much you can make on affiliate marketing, so I am not going into all the details here.
But in short, it is projected to increase to 8.2 billion US dollars in 2022 in the US alone.
And more and more people get access to the internet so the potential market will also keep increasing.
When you think about it like this, you actually only need a very small part of a certain market to make a really good living.
However, as mentioned most people that try to make money with affiliate marketing fail. But there are some important factors you need to consider to make sure you are not one of them.
3 most important factors to succeed
So let me just make it clear that the potential of affiliate marketing is huge. And no matter if you have no previous experience, there is room for you as an affiliate marketer.
However, in my experience as a full-time affiliate marketer, there are some important things you need to consider to see if it really is for you – if not, you might quickly give up and blame it on oversaturation.
So let’s go over these factors below.
#1 – Niche selection
When it comes to affiliate marketing, you need to choose a niche/topic.
This is already where many people think it is oversaturated and give up. But that is because they only think about the big topics.
Yes, there are certain topics that are saturated. I would personally not advise you to start a general beauty blog or go into the Make Money Online niche if you are just starting out.
These are very popular topics and, of course, you can make a lot of money in them.
But the competition is hard and the work and skills it takes to succeed there can make most people give up when they first start as they think it is just simply too competitive to do affiliate marketing.
There are, however, thousands of smaller niches that can make you a full-time income. And new niches and topics come up everyday.
You might be interested in a very narrow topic and think it does not have enough potential. But sometimes narrow niches are the best – especially if it is something you are knowledgeable and passionate about.
And again, you do not really need a big market to make good money as an affiliate marketer.
So when you first start make sure to do proper research and think creatively to find a narrow topic to start with. And if you need it, then ask niche experts for help before starting.
#2 – Be willing to help
Creating a successful affiliate income means to create a sustainable income you can rely on long-term and something you can feel good about doing.
Often when people start, they are so focused on making money that they forget the people they earn commissions from.
That is NOT an approach I recommend. We, of course, all want to make money with our business. But you need to be willing to help people with valuable content and not just focus on selling.
If you provide value, you will build trust and long-term relationships/followers and thereby a long-term income.
And focus on honest affiliate marketing, which means that you do not lie to people just to make a commission. I know some people make good money like that, but please do not do that.
There are enough people like that and in my opinion, the market is definitely saturated with BS marketers:-)
But if you focus on helping people, you will build a long-term business you can feel good about as well.
Recommended: Read About the #1 Platform to Learn Proper Affiliate Marketing
#3 – Consistent effort
One of the biggest traps when it comes to affiliate marketing and making money online is to think it will happen very quickly.
When people do not see a full-time income in a couple of months, they give up and think affiliate marketing is either not working or just saturated.
But it is important to understand that affiliate marketing is NOT a get-rich-quick thing.
Yes, it is possible to make really good money with it, but no successful affiliate marketer has achieved it from scratch with just a few months of sporadic work.
It takes consistent effort. And if you a brand new, it also takes time to first learn the skills.
It definitely is possible but it will not happen overnight.
In that way affiliate marketing is no different from any other business – it takes time and effort to build, but the effort can really pay off and give you a lot of freedom in the long run.
By just taking consistent effort and being patient, you will be ahead of most other affiliate marketers and be on your way to success.
Final thoughts
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money online and, in my opinion, it should definitely be one of the ways you monetize your website or blog.
The great thing is that it is even something you can learn as a complete beginner if you have enough passion to do the work it takes.
Most people do not, and that is why so many people give up and say affiliate marketing is too competitive and saturated. But it is NOT.
There will keep being new niches and there are thousands of small unexplored niches that can make you good money. So, in my opinion, affiliate marketing is here to stay and that is also what the statistics say.
So do not let the fear of failing stop you from doing affiliate marketing.
If you want support to keep you on the right track, you can read more about my top recommended affiliate platform, and see how you can get the tools and help you need.
But no matter what, the most important thing is to be willing to make an effort and not approach it as a get-rich-quick thing because that is not what affiliate marketing is.
It is a real business with huge potential but you need to work to make it happen.
If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
