Wanna join the affiliate marketing industry?
But you find yourself stocked in questions of how profitable it is? How much effort does it require? And is it worth it?
Well, a more specific question to this is how much do affiliate marketers make?
Generally, there are factors that contribute to how much an affiliate marketer can make. Hence, we can’t be really decisive and accurate on these amounts.
However, what can do now is to provide data drawn from previous research on the earnings of affiliate marketers.
Nonetheless, in this article, we’ve put together all this research and analysis to make up this masterpiece of an article.
But then, let’s take things from scratch…
Contents
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is currently the biggest thing on the internet for content creators.
Simply put, Affiliate marketing is a scenario whereby a company (merchants) meets an individual, most likely a content creator with a huge audience, for paid promotion.
However, in this case, the amount he makes depends basically on the number of that products he’s able to sell as well as the fixed amount (commission) settled between the affiliate marketer and the merchant.
The origin dates back to the days when brick and mortar were our ones and only form of retail store. However, it has evolved over time into a precious monetization world in the content creation industry.
Now, we’ve employed things like affiliate networks, which have been made to make life easier for us.
An affiliate network is a platform, standing as a marketplace between a merchant and an affiliate marketer, that connects affiliate marketers to a wide list of affiliate programs/products.
Classes of Affiliate Marketers by Earnings
Before we get to earning section of affiliate marketers, why not we divide them into classes.
Based on our hypothesis of the earnings of affiliate marketers, we can classify them into 4 categories;
- Beginners: these are affiliate marketers who just started the affiliate marketing race – that is, they’re yet to start making money. Most likely, they’re at a loss, at this stage. These losses might come from the cost of building a website, paid ads (if any), buying courses, etc.
- Low-level: After the beginner level of affiliate marketers, following, we have the low-level affiliate marketers: these are people who just started making money from their hustle. Their earnings are usually from $1 – $1,000 per month.
- Intermediate: these are affiliate marketers who make in between the midrange of $1000- $10,000.
- Advanced: Affiliate marketers who make money hand over fist are usually tagged as Advanced, Experienced, or Savvy affiliate marketers. They make $10,000 – $100,000 per month.
- Super Affiliate: Here are the “beyond the norm” affiliate marketers – the ones who make 6-figures and above. Well, super affiliate marketers make $100,000+
Understanding Revenue and Net Profit in Affiliate Marketing
This is something they don’t always seem to tell you.
Let’s put it this way…
Everyone can make $10,000 of revenue from affiliate marketing, easily.
But what if they had spent $9500 to get that amount? –They won’t tell you obviously.
Affiliate marketers that run paid ads + CPA offers are often faced with overhead expenses (money for ads) to cover up.
They pay this amount and then run their ads.
As in the earlier example, an affiliate marketer could run a paid campaign that cost $6,000.
At the end of it, he earns a commission of $10,000. Here, the 10,000 is his revenue, while his actual profit, $4,000 is his net profit.
So don’t get carried away by people with screenshots of their affiliates earning.
Because, as in most case, they’re after selling their course and don’t even practice affiliate marketing.
This happens a lot in Expertnaire affiliate marketing.
…and among people who practice arbitrage in blogging.
How much do affiliate marketers make?
Now, let’s get to business…how much do affiliate marketers make?
Wondering what the earning statistics of affiliate marketers look like?
Well, there is no certain figure or rule to know the exact amount affiliate marketers make. Because obviously, we can’t just go around asking affiliate marketers about their earnings.
Nonetheless, we’ve analyzed a handful of research from the internet and documentaries confronting the amount of money affiliate marketers make. Here’s what we found out;
The range of earnings of Affiliate Marketers is really high.
While a lot of them are moving the needless, others can’t seem to.
According to Influencermarketinghub, affiliate marketers can earn over $70,000 per annum.
On the other hand, low-tier affiliate marketers can earn an average amount of $35,000 yearly.
This is however a kind of prediction from previous data generated so far.
However, a 2016 study made by VigLink, shows that only 9% of affiliate marketers make up to $50,000 yearly.
The remaining 91% of affiliate marketers don’t reach this amount.
By doing simple calculations, we can see that these 9% of affiliate marketers make approximately $4160 monthly.
In other words, they fall under the category of intermediate affiliate marketers – affiliates who earn in the midrange of $1,000 – $10,000.
Hence, a generic definition of these statistics shows that only 9% of affiliate marketers fall under the category, greater than intermediate levels.
The remaining 91% of affiliate marketers fall under the category of intermediate and low-level affiliate marketers, making $0-10,000 per month.
Are there affiliate marketers that make more than $50,000? If yes, what percentage?
We just talked about a research that claims that 9% of affiliate marketers make more than $50,000.
So, yes, an affiliate marketer can make more than $50,000.
A few of them like some popular affiliate marketers in the likes of Patt Flynn, John Chow, and Rae Hoffman all earn hugely from affiliate marketing.
In this regard, we’re talking about 6 figures monthly!
According to BloggingX, 3.2% of affiliate marketers earn an annual income above $150,000.
Now we know affiliate marketers earn this big.
But what about a clearer look into the percentages for smaller amounts?
Here’s one:
How many percentage of Affiliate Marketers Make up to $20,000?
This is wild…because many pieces of research have shown a significant number of affiliate marketers earning above $20,000.
To validate the earnings statistics of affiliate marketers, the STM forum decided to run a survey fees years ago.
The goal was to ask a list of its members how much they earned per year from Affiliate Marketing.
Here’s what they found out:
In detail, this research showed that less than 20% of affiliate marketers earn $20,000 or less yearly.
Additionally, 5% of affiliate marketers earn over $2,000,000 per annum.
Fun Facts
In 2018, Awin, a leading affiliate network recorded that a league of 1000 affiliate marketers in it’s network made a staggering $700 million.
Take Away:
Generally, affiliate marketing is a never-ending battle; you can choose to be at the forefront or at the edge.
In essence, the sky is really the limit in affiliate marketing.
While there are a lot of people who make 6 figures monthly from affiliate marketing, there are still others who are still struggling and possibly, losing resources.
It’s all about the strategies, effort, and products you employ in your campaign!
What is the Average Salary of Affiliate Marketers?
Sure, Affiliate Marketers earn huge. But is there any research-based proof of the average salary of an affiliate marketer?
Well, yes…
However, these stats vary. And this is actually due to the environment of where and how the research was taken.
According to Paystack, the average salary of an affiliate marketer is $52,750.
Paystack’s study still goes further to tell us that 10% of affiliate marketers have annual earnings estimated at around $32750.
On the other hand, Glassdoor’s study on the annual earnings of affiliate marketers puts in some potential. In the data pulled, Affiliate marketers have average annual earnings of $60,753.
Still, on the research of the salary of affiliate marketers, ZipRecruiter had to step into the case. What they found out was way higher than that of the two aforementioned pieces of research. Their research revealed that the average salary of affiliate marketers in the United States is $154,700.
Quite enormous, right? That’s to the extent people are making it from affiliate marketing.
How to Make Money From Affiliate Marketing?
We’ve talked a lot about how much affiliates make and how they make good money, even up to millions per annum.
How about we talk about how feasible the market is and how you can actually make money from it.
In a recent article confronting the topic of “how worth it, is affiliate marketing?” we talked about some of these strategies.
1. Know Your Audience – Know how to get them
As a beginner searching for articles on how to make money with affiliate marketing, you’d most likely see people tell you to find a good product to promote.
Well, that’s not actually what you need to be doing at this stage.
Let’s put it like this…
It’s not actually bad to start with the product in mind – it’s a thing of choice and tactics. But except you’re ready to pay a fortune for paid ads to get your chosen product to an audience, finding and building an audience is the best approach for a beginner affiliate marketer.
The way to earn success in affiliate marketing is to get a sizeable audience that is interested in what you do.
Then, at this point, you can find profitable products you’d love to work with.
2. Launch an Affiliate Niche Website
Want to make good money from affiliate marketing? You sure need a blog.
According to a recent affiliate marketing study, it was found that over 65% of affiliate marketers rely on their affiliate blog for traffic. This is huge as it accounts for roughly 2/3 of affiliate marketers.
The idea of launching an affiliate niche website is to create a scenario where you, leveraging SEO, can offer valuable content to prospects. And by this, you gain their trust.
As a result, you can refer your affiliate products, either through banners, or contextually (recommended).
Final Thought
The affiliate industry is very lucrative, both to publishers, as well as merchants.
How much affiliate marketers earn can go from tens of dollars to millions of dollars per month. It all depends on the type of affiliate, their marketing approach, and the products they promote.
FAQ
Can you make good money with affiliate marketing?
This depends on the context of the question. If you’re referring to the legality of affiliate marketing – yes, you can make a good amount of money from affiliate marketing, even as a beginner. However, you should be ready to put in the work required.
How much do affiliate marketers make a month?
Affiliate Marketers make a widely varied amount of money monthly, which all depends on the affiliate’s audience, products, and promotion approach. Statistically, Affiliate marketers make an average income of $12’891, monthly.
How much can you make a day with affiliate marketing?
Ziprecruiter reported that affiliate marketers earn an average income of $74 every hour. Hence, by doing simple calculations, we’ll find out that affiliate marketers earn an average income of $1776 each day.
It’s worth mentioning that this statistic is based on the average income of an affiliate marketer – a typical affiliate marketer won’t earn this much.
