Given the current economic situation, many of the questions regarding affiliate marketing that we thought are long gone, are actually making a comeback. How to make money online? Is affiliate marketing a work-from-home kind of job? Does affiliate marketing still work in 2020? Is it even profitable? Has coronavirus killed affiliate marketing?

Don’t get us wrong, it’s not like the subject of starting in affiliate marketing has been fully exhausted and there’s nothing left to say. On the contrary, there’s plenty of educational content created on the subject on a regular basis. Only right now, the subject is more relevant than ever. 

But the most important question for those seeking new opportunities remains unanswered. What’s the biggest advantage of affiliate marketing over other businesses right now?

The answer to that question is quite simple, affiliate marketing adapts… fast. We’ve actually mentioned it already, explaining that this business is just as vulnerable to the global economy shifts as any other. But with RTB auctions, ad impressions or actual conversions taking literally a split of seconds to occur, things can be managed very quickly.

How about taking up a business that allows you to control your operations, budgets, and profits without even leaving the confines of your own house? Sounds like something lots of people could use right now… be smart, get a headstart. 

How to make money online while staying at home? 

Should the updated version of the question keep lingering at the back of your head, here’s the answer. Yes, affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online while staying home. It’s not some shady business big brands would rather stay away from but a fully developed industry that still keeps on growing, even during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Yes, that’s correct. Despite the current lockdown and the fact that many business ventures are currently put on hold, the affiliate marketing industry manages to grow and increase profits day by day. While basically sat in our pajamas.

Is affiliate marketing a work-from-home kind of job? 

Under normal circumstances, affiliate marketing doesn’t have to but definitely can be a work-from-home kind of job. The reason for that is the fact you only need your laptop, a good Internet connection, time to dedicate and at least a $200 budget to start with. Nothing too fancy as for a future self-made billionaire, huh? Well… cool your jets, we’re not quite there yet.

First of all, affiliate marketing requires a thorough understanding and business research. That’s why, if you’re stuck at home anyways, it’d be well worth investing your time into something new. Try to complete the below steps as a sort of #stayhome challenge and do the following:

1. Learn the business — there are plenty of helpful resources available online, for free, just a few clicks away. Online academies, blog articles, community forums, newsletters. Just do a little research and you’ll see.

Helpful Resources Examples

• An Ultimate Guide to Affiliate Marketing by Charles Ngo, the industry expert.
• Affiliate Marketing hub with useful resources by the super affiliate himself, iAmAttila.
• affLIFT forum by Luke Kling — one of the most active and resourceful community forums in the business. 
• STACKED MARKETER newsletter by Manu Cinca, bringing you daily news on digital marketing.

2. Do the math — check how much extra money you’ve got and how much you are able to spend at first. Yes, it’s inevitable and you’re bound to burn your budget while learning the business. But think of it as an initial investment. Also, the testing we’re talking about can actually cost you literally a few dollars per unit but the sooner you get the hang of it, the quicker you start making money.

Learn all about cost models for affiliate marketing.

3. Find your product — if you want to make money by promoting other people’s products, you need to contact them for those offers first. Luckily long gone are the days of door-to-door merchandise and all you need to do is go online and find whatever offer network you’d want to cooperate with. 

For more information on types of offers read here.

4. Get creative — then, think of relevant visuals, websites, landing pages, ad copy, a hook and bait for potential customers. But fear not, it’s not like you have to do all these alone. There are actually plenty of online website creators, or people willing to do the job for a certain fee. Also, there are various advertising guides with lots of useful tips and stock images that one can use freely.

Get the best tips on ad creatives and writing copy that converts.

5. Analyze for the best results — whatever campaign you’re launching, testing, targeting, and optimization are absolute must-do tasks. Traffic source platforms, ad trackers, or combinations of both are there to present you with full-mode analytics that allows you to track and improve the performance of your campaigns. Not sure if you know how to use it? There’s always an onboarding specialist or a whole support team meant to help you with that and teach you how to use the platform to the fullest for the best campaign results. 

Read about sources and targets optimization.
And then why you need a tracker for testing here.

Still not sure if it’s worth a shot? Well… it’s not like you’re going anywhere so make yourself a nice cup of tea, stretch a bit, and bear with me.

Is affiliate marketing worth it? Does it still work in 2020? 

No matter what 2020 affiliate marketing prognoses were made at the end of 2019… they’re wrong. But affiliate marketing most definitely works and will continue to do so throughout this year and beyond. Why?

Whenever there’s demand, affiliate marketing answers with supply.

Affiliate marketing in the age of coronavirus must be done the smart way, but it definitely works and Zeropark data prove it.

To give you some food for thought, think about how amid the global virus outbreak, there are actually some promising industry trends emerging every day. One of them could be a sudden spike and an increase in entertainment traffic. Such an outcome is primarily caused by a worldwide trend and billions of people being sent home. People are forced into self-isolation and social distancing.

Naturally, the online reality becomes a daily reality for many of us. But luckily for advertisers — where’s the demand, supply follows. The following verticals are all the rage at the moment and will certainly be so for a while.

Is affiliate marketing profitable in times of coronavirus?

Surprisingly or not, running affiliate ad campaigns in times of coronavirus may be profitable. This is because when some niches (like the travel vertical or sports betting) are practically dead, other categories are virtually thriving. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but luckily for affiliate marketers, there’s still plenty of opportunities to scale up on.

People decide to #stayhome so naturally, their online behavior is affected by the sudden turn. The entertainment traffic, as we can call it, is booming right now making many of the affiliate marketing niches well worth investing. Don’t let this great business opportunity go by and miss out on all due profit.

Also, people staying home means they turn to desktop devices more than usual, which explains the overall spike in desktop traffic! Again, this may be seen as yet another trend that’s going to stay on top of the market for the next couple of months to come. 

Is affiliate marketing dead? Has coronavirus killed it?

Definitely not — affiliate marketing may have gone through some ups and downs as every business out there, but it definitely hasn’t been killed by the coronavirus outbreak.

On the contrary, though still volatile at times, it has quickly adapted to the newly established situation. That is why affiliate advertisers are now able to focus their attention and budgets on what is safe and profitable to run, unlike many other entrepreneurs whose businesses are on hold… at best. 

Given the ongoing situation, affiliate marketing has emerged as an attractive work-from-home kind of job. Naturally, there are some doubts and concerns regarding the sustainability of the business. That’s why we’ve asked top industry experts to have a say on the subject and address the issue. Here are their insights!

 iAmAttila, super affiliate & founder of iAmAffiliate hub.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best industries to be in…

“Affiliate marketing is one of the best industries to be in. Why? Because we can change on a dime what we promote!

If one day you are selling funny cat t-shirts, and something unexpected comes like COVID-19 pandemic. You can take a day or two break from your job, assess the situation by talking to people, and checking trends on places like Google to see what type of things people are searching for.

Then you can jump on a site like Offervault, find CPA offers that satisfy these things and start testing; finding winners and scaling.

The COVID-19 outbreak is not people turning into zombies, and no one using the computers or needing things.

Simply put, the things they need/want now are different than in normal times; as affiliate marketers we’re the luckiest ones as we can quickly adapt to change and continue on making a living working from our computers from our basement. (Ok, just kidding, I work from a nice home-office with beautiful scenic panoramic views of the mountains and landscape!)”

Some great reads brought to you by Attila O’dree:

• COVID-19 / Coronavirus – What To Promote, What To Sell, Over 27 Ideas For Affiliate Marketers To Make Money During These Trying Times
• How To Find Winning Campaigns That Are Making Money Now – Step By Step Competitive Spying Tutorial

Luke Kling, industry expert & founder of affLIFT forum.

Affiliate marketing is dead… 

“Affiliate marketing is dead! That is what people have said for the past 10 years. But, they have been wrong every single time, and they are wrong now, if that’s what they think is going to happen because of coronavirus.

The coronavirus is creating new opportunities for newbies. As people bail on their affiliate marketing campaigns, that traffic is now available at discount for the next person.

You are stuck at home.
You need to try to supplement your income.
There is really no better way that I know of to do that with the huge upside that affiliate marketing can offer.

The affiliate marketing industry isn’t going to die. It’s going to continue to evolve just like it has every time it has “died” over the past 10 years.

Hopefully, a few years from now, you aren’t wishing you had taken advantage of the opportunities that popped up in the industry you thought was dead.”

Colin Dijs, super affiliate & founder of Dijs University

Affiliate marketing is such a widespread business model…

“Affiliate marketing is such a widespread business model, you basically have access to almost all types of online categories.

Yes, some verticals might suffer during this pandemic but others are rising rapidly. For instance, the adult vertical sales are increasing every single day. Whereas for example the sweepstake vertical might suffer due to the fact call centers are closed and the advertisers can’t sell the leads.

Start, maturity and decline. Those are the three development periods you need to look out for as in each of these periods the market behaviour patterns will change and new opportunities will come to light.

Right now we are moving from start into maturity so there’s sooo many opportunities coming up for you to benefit from!”

Ian Fernando, super affiliate & founder of ADvengers hub.

Affiliate marketing is a vast ocean…

“I would say not to think so minimal. Affiliate marketing is a vast ocean. If one industry is affected, you can easily shift to another vertical that may or is doing well. 

That is what is amazing about affiliate marketing, the freedom to shift. COVID-19 is just an opportunity to be taken advantage of because people are in a state of action to get essentials and to forward their life through insurances or education. Every website you know that has a product will probably have an affiliate system on it. There is no scarcity of offers to promote. 

Yes, some industries are affected for sure, but others that were tough, are now booming. The death of affiliate marketing isn’t happening because of the freedom of shifting niches.”

Mateusz Drela, Managing Director of Zeropark.

Crisis always breeds opportunity…

“Online affiliate marketing survived the burst of the Dot-Com bubble of the early 2000’s, the mortgage crisis of 2008, and it will certainly survive the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Affiliate marketing is in its essence a pay-for-performance type scheme, where it is the affiliate, and not the merchants or offer owner, that takes on the bulk of the risk from the marketing activity. The offer owner gets concrete results: sales, sign-ups, installs, etc. The affiliate gets a commission or part of the money that was already generated for the offer owners. 

In times of crisis, such schemes become ever more attractive, as companies look to offload risks, but continue to drive sales. 

So what we’re already seeing is companies scaling down traditional marketing budgets, and diverting a higher share to affiliate programs. 

If anything, now is a good time to get in. Crisis always breeds opportunity.”

Work-From-Home & Start In Affiliate Marketing!

#StaySafeWithZeropark

Kinga Gawron