Mihaela Claudia P

If you are reading this article, you’ve probably heard of a passive money-making method called affiliate marketing. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t like the idea of making money ‘passively’? That is, making a little effort to set something up mainly online, then just waiting for the money to flow in while you sleep. There are tons of passive income ideas promoted by ‘money-making gurus’ out there, but the purpose of this article is to focus on the affiliate marketing technique, as I believe it is the most popular one.

Why is it popular? It could be because it’s easy to explain and put into practice. The Oxford Dictionary explains it like this: ‘a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.’ In other words, you place a link that leads to a product on your blog or YouTube channel, and if someone purchases the product via your link, you earn a commission. Easy, right? No wonder they are all promoting it.

Then why do I believe that it is not for everyone? That’s because, for this method to work, you need to have an audience or a community or both. A serious one, not just a few people. You need to have people who follow your work, like you, and trust you—in other words, you need to have social proof. So yes, the method does work, but only if you possess the above-mentioned ‘eligibility criteria’. You cannot have a handful of followers and expect to get rich; it doesn’t work like that, not with affiliate marketing.

I have been in the YouTube industry since 2019 and have two monetized channels, one with 69k subscribers and the second with almost 5k (this is a newer one), and I’ve done a lot of research regarding the YouTube world. Yet, I am still not using affiliate marketing. At my level, it could make me some money, but for now, I do not employ this method. Once I start using it, I will update you on my results.

Two important remarks I want to make:

1) If you want to make money via affiliate marketing, you will have to work really hard to build your ‘brand’ first. Create articles, videos, or whatever your talent is. This means that affiliate marketing isn’t really ‘passive income’. I don’t even believe in the idea of passive income, and I will explain why in a future article. Doing all that takes a lot of time and effort. It’s also true that in a few cases, people on YouTube, for example, have success almost overnight—not long after they start a YouTube channel—but even in those cases, they put a lot of work into their channel before ‘being hit by the algorithm’. YouTube is all about research, analysis, great ideas, luck mixed with hard work. It’s a crazy world, but either way, it’s not an easy journey. I will write an article about YouTube in the near future.

So is it worth it? Isn’t it easier to just get a job and have guaranteed money? It depends. If you intend to build a brand just so you can afterward take advantage of affiliate marketing, or even other ‘passive income’ ideas, then maybe not. I wouldn’t do it. If you see affiliate marketing as the cherry on the cake, meaning you wanted to start creating anyway because you are passionate about it, and think that maybe in time you will be successful enough to implement this technique to increase your income, then yes, go ahead, bearing in mind that it might take a while to start seeing minimal rewards.

2) Lots of ‘money gurus’ make this method seem so inviting because they earn money by promoting it. They then sell you whatever they can, taking advantage of your desperation to make quick money. Also, when they write about this topic or make a video about it, they know that they will potentially have more readers or viewers (we all want to know how to make more money, and if we can do it quickly, it’s even better), and consequently more money from ads. Videos about making money always bring in more money if an ad is placed on the video. It’s one of the highest-paying niches, if not the highest. They make it sound less difficult than it actually is and often leave out important details, which frustrates me when I see it. Hence, this article. I haven’t seen many genuine ‘money experts’ out there; most tend to have a hidden agenda. I am sorry if I offend anyone, but that’s just how I see it.

Do I hope that this article will bring me more readers because I wrote about money? Well, I hope it does. But one thing is certain: I genuinely wanted to express my opinion regarding this topic because people have the right to have a clearer picture. I did a master’s in Global Political Economy in London and worked for a famous UK bank for almost four years before becoming a counsellor, but I do not see myself as a money expert, and I will never focus on writing about money just to make more money. (I should mention that there are people who write about money because they genuinely love the topic, but you need to be able to identify who they are because it’s hard to understand who’s genuine and who’s not). If I have something to say once in a while regarding the money niche, I will say it, but I will stick with writing and making videos about what I really love. If I have the opportunity to implement some money-making techniques that are ethical and realistic, I will do it, but as I mentioned, that’s just the cherry on the cake, not the cake. Everything we do needs to start with the word ‘passion’. When there is genuine passion, strong willpower, consistency, and hard work, everything else will come.

Thank you for reaching the end of my sixth blog post.