Can I Really Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Imagine for a moment having more financial freedom to enjoy traveling or a more leisurely lifestyle close to home. If this sounds like a pipe dream, it doesn't have to be. You could land yourself in a spot just like this by earning affiliate income, even when you're not actively working.

What Does Affiliate Income Mean

So, what exactly is affiliate income? It's the money you earn through affiliate marketing.

In an affiliate marketing program, you earn income by promoting other people's products and services.

Common ways to promote affiliate income programs include display ads (such as banners), links and content.

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Affiliate Marketing Average Income

Wondering what a typical affiliate marketing monthly income is? The stats vary, though affiliate marketers can make thousands of dollars a month. Some of the most successful are even earning six figures from passive income affiliate programs.

Here are some stats on the average income of affiliate marketers. According to PayScale, average annual affiliate marketing passive income is $51,217. The bottom 10% of affiliate marketers earn $37,000, and the top 10% earn $71,000.

Glassdoor's affiliate marketing income statistics put potential earnings even higher. Average annual earnings for affiliate marketers are $65,800, with the range between $42,000 at the low end, and $83,000 at the top end.

ZipRecruiter has the highest forecast for affiliate marketing passive income, at $154,700 a year. ZipRecruiter forecasts average affiliate marketing monthly income at $12,892, and weekly average income at $2,975.

Whichever forecast you go with, it's clear that some affiliate marketers are doing very well indeed.

Affiliate Marketing Blog Income

An affiliate income blog is an important tool for any would-be affiliate marketer. Done well, blogs work well for generating affiliate income for the same reasons they work well for business:

You have regularly updated content for which you can build an audience
You have access to a large audience, whether through organic traffic, email marketing, or paid promotions
It's easy to include content relevant to affiliate promotions, whether that's content or promotional links
Over time, you can build authority by creating that relevant content

Many affiliate marketers make thousands of dollars monthly from their blogs alone. For example, in a single month:

Helen made more than $3,600
Ryan Robinson earned almost $44,000
Adam Enfroy earned more than $80,000

Others make even more, which shows that having an affiliate income blog is working well for them.

Affiliate Marketing Passive Income

When talking about using affiliate marketing to make passive income online, a lot of people wonder about the "passive" part. Unfortunately, it's not just a case of "share a link and people will click." Making money always takes work.

The truth is that you'll have to do some work to set up your blog, choose your affiliate income programs and create content to promote them. But if you get it right, you shouldn't have to do much after it's set up, especially if you have some evergreen content that's optimized.

Another thing that truly helps you earn passive affiliate income is choosing the right programs.

Top Residual Income Affiliate Programs

Many affiliate income programs pay a one-off commission when your web visitors click and buy. But if you really want to earn passive income, you'll need to look for the high ticket income affiliate programs. These allow you to earn automated affiliate income through recurring commissions. Sometimes, you earn commissions for a set period after a sale, like a year. But for other programs, you can earn a lifetime monthly commission.

The Best Recurring Affiliate Programs

Here are some of the best passive income affiliate programs top affiliates recommend.

1. SocialPilot

Social media automation tool Social Pilot has an affiliate income program that's free to join. You earn a 30% commission for every new referral, and earn it again for each renewal.

2. Leadpages

Leadpages has a generous automated affiliate income program for its lead generation tools. Affiliates earn 50% recurring commissions for as long as the people you refer remain Leadpages customers.

3. Weebly

Like other affiliate income programs, Weebly offers a recurring 30% commission on sales of its website builder tools.

4. Aweber

Email marketing service provider Aweber calls members of its affiliate program Aweber Advocates. You can sign up for free, and earn 30% commision monthly as long as your referrals remain customers.

5. ConvertKit

ConvertKit's affiliate income program is a must for anyone who gets email marketing. Sign up for free, and earn 30% recurring commission as long as your referrals remain ConvertKit customers.

5 Tips to Increase Your Affiliate Income

Want to really become a success with affiliate marketing? Here are some of our best tips to help you succeed in earning a passive monthly income.

1. Choose the Right Products

Avoid the temptation to be an affiliate for absolutely everything. Instead focus on promoting products that you know and love, and that are important to your audience. The more relevant your products are, the more likely it is that visitors to your site will click those links and earn you some passive income.

2. Provide Useful Information

The hard sell doesn't work any more. Most people want reliable information that helps them learn more about products and services so they can make their own minds up. Many of the most successful affiliates provide product reviews, guides and comparisons which help their audience and build trust.

3. Optimize Your Content

Once you've written content, make sure it's optimized so that people can find it in search engines. Searches for product reviews continue to increase. If your affiliate marketing shows up for those searches, it makes it more likely you'll earn a commission.

4. Use Video for Promotion

Online buyers are looking for authentic information; in fact, 55% of people even use video when purchasing in-store. A video showing you using or reviewing a product delivers. Consider using video as one of your affiliate marketing promotion methods.

5. Experiment to Boost Conversions

Getting traffic to your affiliate income blog is just the first hurdle. The next step is getting visitors to click. One way to improve your chances is to experiment with your headlines and calls to action. One way to do this is by using Taboola's Title Analyzer to check the likely CTR of your headline.

You can also look at trends for images and videos to see what's likely to appeal to your audience most. For example, if you're promoting tech in the United States, images without people have a 26% higher CTR than those with people.

You've seen how you can make a passive affiliate income to help create the lifestyle you want. For further reading on affiliate income, check out the following articles:

Affiliate Marketing Promotion Methods
The Best Dating Affiliate Programs
The Best Financial Services Affiliate Programs
The Best Real Estate Affiliate Programs

Click here to learn how affiliate marketers are already finding success with Taboola.