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How Long Will Affiliate Marketing Last? (What You Need To Know)

There’s quite a lot of uncertainty around affiliate marketing, especially when it comes to how long it will potentially be around.

So allow me to give you my thoughts about the potential of affiliate marketing.

How Long Will Affiliate Marketing Last?

There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to this question overall. In fact, this question usually has two meanings:

1. How long will the affiliate marketing industry/strategies be around?
2. How long will the average person last as an affiliate marketer?

Continuing on answering the first question above, affiliate marketing has been around for a long time and I believe that the trend will continue.

After all, many online businesses and companies desperately need affiliates to help them make more sales. After all, there is almost no risk for the companies, given the fact that they pay the affiliates after the sale is made.

In my opinion, the uncertainty of affiliate marketing’s future comes from the ever-changing internet.

Just think about all the rules, regulations, and terms that have changed in the past few years when it comes to internet marketing overall.

Even with all of the changes and shakeups, affiliate marketing has always found a way to prevail (at least with many of the traffic sources that I am aware of).

So if you ever feel that there might be some huge shakeup in the affiliate marketing future, just know that will always be workarounds and ways to make things work.

On the other hand, I want to talk about how long the average person lasts with affiliate marketing.

The average person does not last very long when it comes to affiliate marketing.

This is for a wide variety of reasons which include:

• Mindset.
• Lacking confidence.
• Not having the right game plan.
• Not being able to pivot and make changes.
• Little or no action at all (overall poor work ethic).
• Not seeing results quick enough (having unrealistic expectations).

You can’t last very long as an affiliate if you don’t take any action, and heck, does it even count if you never get started?

This is also why I talk about the average income of affiliates being close to zero, for the fact that a lot of people don’t take enough (or any) action to see results.

There are plenty more reasons as to why people tend to only dabble with affiliate marketing, but those above are some of the biggest reasons why (that I’ve at least seen).

Related Reading: See why most affiliates fail here.

So if most people don’t make it too long as an affiliate, you also might be wondering if affiliate marketing still works. Allow me to address that next.

Does Affiliate Marketing Still Work?

Aside from the fact that I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for around a decade, it’s not too difficult to see that are plenty of other affiliates doing well (or at least seeing some type of results).

For further proof, simply browse a few hot spots for affiliate marketing information and you’ll be able to see what I mean:

• Affiliate marketing case studies on YouTube.
• Dedicated Facebook groups for promoting specific offers.
• Facebook groups in general when it comes to affiliate marketing.

Don’t forget about affiliate marketing articles on websites. I’ll leave a helpful article down below when it comes to my popular and quick launch jacking guide.

Affiliate Strategy: Visit this link to read more about it.

The fact of the matter is that this plenty of proof around you to further convince you that affiliate marketing is still working, at the time of reading this.

If affiliate marketing didn’t work, then so many companies, products, and offers wouldn’t need to have their affiliate program at the bottom of the page.

But what’s the future going to be like when it comes to affiliate marketing? I’ll give you my thoughts about this question as well.

Is There A Future In Affiliate Marketing?

I stated earlier that I’m very optimistic when it comes to affiliate marketing, and the same goes for the future of affiliate marketing.

Given enough time, there will certainly be roadblocks and setbacks for affiliate marketers like you and me. Examples of those might include:

• Increased advertising costs.
• Unforeseen and random challenges.
• The ineffectiveness of the affiliate cookie.
• As well as the possibility of increased competition or saturation.

Highly Related: My thoughts about affiliate marketing and saturation.

All of the things that I listed above are pretty much par for the course.

In other words, I expect them to happen, and I also expect that there will be plenty of solutions to those challenges.

Helpful Note: In fact, there are plenty of solutions for those challenges above as it is.

So you can expect a few forks in your affiliate marketing road, but why should that stop you from getting started?

I still consider affiliate marketing to be the best business model, even if a lot of people have negative things to say about it.

Usually, the people who have bad things to say about affiliate marketing, aren’t having any type of success with it.

Can You Make A Living From Affiliate Marketing?

I wanted to conclude by answering this question, given the fact that affiliate marketing comes with quite a lot of questions, to begin with.

There are two ways to make a living from affiliate marketing:

1. Get a job (working for a company) as an affiliate marketer.
2. Have affiliate marketing be your own online business, where you are the boss.

In the first scenario, you have a boss, and in the second scenario, you are the boss. Given the fact that I had plenty of problems with the hobs that I once had, I decided that role was just not for me.

Regardless, there is always a way to make affiliate marketing work. Even if you have a full-time job right now, then you can always do affiliate marketing as your side hustle.

Related: Talking about affiliate marketing and working full-time.

At the end of the day, it’s certainly possible to do (even if a lot of people don’t make it work). What you will need to make it work is (at least):

• Guts.
• Tenacity.
• A relentless work ethic.

And don’t forget about the right mindset, but I’ll save that talk for another article.

I hope that I properly answered your questions when it comes to the state and future of affiliate marketing. I still think that the future looks bright, but hey, that’s just my experience from ~10 years of doing it 🙂