Is Affiliate Marketing Easy?

© 2004, John Calder
http://www.TheEzine.net

Recently there were several posts on an Internet marketing forum discussing whether affiliate marketing was easy. Specifically, the original poster was angry because he said it seemed every marketing product promised "easy affiliate riches", but that he wasn't finding it that easy, and wasn't having much success so far. It's certainly true that some sales letters over-hype, both inside and outside the Internet marketing field. But what about it? Is affiliate marketing "easy" or not?

Well, that has to first be answered comparatively. When put next to digging a ditch, tarring a roof, laying down asphalt, or driving a bus or semi, affiliate marketing doesn't seem difficult at all. When compared to winning the lottery or being born with a huge trust fund, then yes, it's really hard, as would every other occupation!

It seems that most of the time when people ask that question, what they're really asking is "Can I make a lot of money
in affiliate marketing with only a little work?". And the answer to that is nearly always "absolutely not". Sure, a very few people happen to hit on some luck and make a lot of money easily and quickly. But don't count on that, as it doesn't happen very often.

What a potential affiliate marketer should count on is work, and lots of it. If you plan to hold down a full time job while you build your online business, be prepared to give up some evenings and a lot of TV if you want to make real progress. It takes time to identify a market, learn to build a web site, find affiliate products, do keyword research, promote your site, and all the other tasks you will need to do.

Don't be fooled. Affiliate marketing takes hard work and sacrifice, on your part and most often on the part of your loved ones as well.