Hi guys!
The question of how much money is needed to start in affiliate marketing is among the most often asked in the community.
We decided to review what are the costs of affiliate marketing and how much money do you really need to invest to become successful.
☞ What are the costs of affiliate marketing?
To start in affiliate marketing, you need to know what to do and how much it actually costs.
First, you need to sign up to an affiliate network and choose an offer. That part is free, but requires research and preparation. The next step is signing up to a traffic source and making your first deposit. The sum of the deposit and the budget for traffic depends entirely on you and what kind of offer you chose.
Usually, the optimal daily budget for testing amounts to $100, with recommended testing period length being 3-5 days. That sort of budget should work for most low payout offers.
☞ Should you spend money on affiliate marketing courses?
Affiliate marketing influencers and social media gurus offer plenty of paid courses for beginners. Some of them offer personal help, Skype masterminds or additional guides and industry content as well. The courses vary in length and revolve around different verticals, traffic sources, affiliate networks and trackers. They can be a great way to start your affiliate marketing journey, offering exact step-by-step instructions that leave no room for unnecessary beginner mistakes.
But the truth is... one day you will have to take the reins and manage affiliate campaigns on your own. You can learn a lot using freely available resources such as affiliate marketing-related blogs and websites as well as various forums. It’s bound to take you longer and you will encounter plenty of different strategies and opinions but learning affiliate marketing on your own is definitely possible!
☞ How expensive are the additional affiliate marketing tools?
An affiliate network and a traffic source are essential to start in affiliate marketing. But there are additional tools that can come in handy sooner or later. Tracking software is the most important out of the additional tools. It’s so important that we can even say it’s essential!
Affiliate Ad Trackers offer the widest range of plans. There are free plans available and they are definitely sufficient for beginner affiliates. However, the free plans tend to have limitations which become too restrictive once the affiliate starts scaling or expanding. The more advanced the tracking plan, the more expensive it becomes. The monthly prices start at $0 and can go up to $799.
Spy tools allow you to take a look at how your competition runs their ads. By using tools such as Anstrex or Adplexity, you gain access to millions of ads and landing pages used by other affiliates.
Spy tools also offer different options for various ad formats, verticals and devices. You can buy a solo plan for one ad format, or a bundle plan for more. There are a few free options with limited databases, but the most prominent spy tools on the market are in the monthly price range of $49 to $249.
There are many lander building websites and tools. Their features range from very basic to highly advanced. There are various plans on the market and their prices range from up to $25 per 6 months for the most basic plans to $637 for the most advanced plans.
Translation services usually charge below 10 cents per word for a quick and short translation, and unless you need a whole advertorial translated, it really shouldn't be that expensive. Translation via Google Translate might work for shorter texts but using a professional service will raise the credibility of your ads.
Other costs might include things like landing pages server costs, advanced optimization tools, VPNs, bot-detecting tools, and various small payment fees. All these costs depend on your level of experience and the strategy of your affiliate campaigns. We won’t focus on them too much, though. They are minimal and not significant in comparison to traffic and tool costs.
☞ Revenue vs. profit
Realistically, in order to make a lot of money in affiliate marketing, you need to invest… a lot. The higher the revenue (which equals spend plus profits), the more potential for earnings. Also, affiliate networks often appreciate advertisers who can show a high and consistent revenue by giving them payout bumps or contacting them first to run a promising new offer.
If you spend $100 every day with an average ROI of 20%, your daily profit will equal $20. If your daily spend reaches $1000 and your ROI stays the same, your daily profit will equal $200.
In short, focus on your revenue rather than profits! It might not be something you want to hear as a beginner but the bigger your budget is the higher your chances of becoming successful.
☞ Cash Flow
When you are running an offer on a traffic source, the money goes into traffic and whatever you earn flows into a different account — the affiliate network. The network then holds onto your money while doing quality checks. After that process is done, your earnings can be paid out.
The money you earn during a pay period is released to you sooner or later depending on your deal with the affiliate network. If you prove your quality and reliability it’s possible to reach a point at which you get paid daily. Depending on how long you’ve worked with the network and how many valuable conversions you bring on a daily basis you will receive a shorter or longer pay frequency.
☞ Managing expectations as a beginner in affiliate marketing
It’s best not to start affiliate marketing hoping to make quick and easy profits. It’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s an actual job requiring skills and effort. In a survey conducted
in one of the community forums, affiliates shared how much money they had to spend before becoming profitable.
$0-500 USD had the biggest number of votes but overall the majority (63.7%) of respondents had over $500 spent before seeing their first green numbers.
Magda
The question of how much money is needed to start in affiliate marketing is among the most often asked in the community.
We decided to review what are the costs of affiliate marketing and how much money do you really need to invest to become successful.
☞ What are the costs of affiliate marketing?
To start in affiliate marketing, you need to know what to do and how much it actually costs.
First, you need to sign up to an affiliate network and choose an offer. That part is free, but requires research and preparation. The next step is signing up to a traffic source and making your first deposit. The sum of the deposit and the budget for traffic depends entirely on you and what kind of offer you chose.
Usually, the optimal daily budget for testing amounts to $100, with recommended testing period length being 3-5 days. That sort of budget should work for most low payout offers.
☞ Should you spend money on affiliate marketing courses?
Affiliate marketing influencers and social media gurus offer plenty of paid courses for beginners. Some of them offer personal help, Skype masterminds or additional guides and industry content as well. The courses vary in length and revolve around different verticals, traffic sources, affiliate networks and trackers. They can be a great way to start your affiliate marketing journey, offering exact step-by-step instructions that leave no room for unnecessary beginner mistakes.
But the truth is... one day you will have to take the reins and manage affiliate campaigns on your own. You can learn a lot using freely available resources such as affiliate marketing-related blogs and websites as well as various forums. It’s bound to take you longer and you will encounter plenty of different strategies and opinions but learning affiliate marketing on your own is definitely possible!
☞ How expensive are the additional affiliate marketing tools?
An affiliate network and a traffic source are essential to start in affiliate marketing. But there are additional tools that can come in handy sooner or later. Tracking software is the most important out of the additional tools. It’s so important that we can even say it’s essential!
Affiliate Ad Trackers offer the widest range of plans. There are free plans available and they are definitely sufficient for beginner affiliates. However, the free plans tend to have limitations which become too restrictive once the affiliate starts scaling or expanding. The more advanced the tracking plan, the more expensive it becomes. The monthly prices start at $0 and can go up to $799.
Spy tools allow you to take a look at how your competition runs their ads. By using tools such as Anstrex or Adplexity, you gain access to millions of ads and landing pages used by other affiliates.
Spy tools also offer different options for various ad formats, verticals and devices. You can buy a solo plan for one ad format, or a bundle plan for more. There are a few free options with limited databases, but the most prominent spy tools on the market are in the monthly price range of $49 to $249.
There are many lander building websites and tools. Their features range from very basic to highly advanced. There are various plans on the market and their prices range from up to $25 per 6 months for the most basic plans to $637 for the most advanced plans.
Translation services usually charge below 10 cents per word for a quick and short translation, and unless you need a whole advertorial translated, it really shouldn't be that expensive. Translation via Google Translate might work for shorter texts but using a professional service will raise the credibility of your ads.
Other costs might include things like landing pages server costs, advanced optimization tools, VPNs, bot-detecting tools, and various small payment fees. All these costs depend on your level of experience and the strategy of your affiliate campaigns. We won’t focus on them too much, though. They are minimal and not significant in comparison to traffic and tool costs.
☞ Revenue vs. profit
Realistically, in order to make a lot of money in affiliate marketing, you need to invest… a lot. The higher the revenue (which equals spend plus profits), the more potential for earnings. Also, affiliate networks often appreciate advertisers who can show a high and consistent revenue by giving them payout bumps or contacting them first to run a promising new offer.
If you spend $100 every day with an average ROI of 20%, your daily profit will equal $20. If your daily spend reaches $1000 and your ROI stays the same, your daily profit will equal $200.
In short, focus on your revenue rather than profits! It might not be something you want to hear as a beginner but the bigger your budget is the higher your chances of becoming successful.
☞ Cash Flow
When you are running an offer on a traffic source, the money goes into traffic and whatever you earn flows into a different account — the affiliate network. The network then holds onto your money while doing quality checks. After that process is done, your earnings can be paid out.
The money you earn during a pay period is released to you sooner or later depending on your deal with the affiliate network. If you prove your quality and reliability it’s possible to reach a point at which you get paid daily. Depending on how long you’ve worked with the network and how many valuable conversions you bring on a daily basis you will receive a shorter or longer pay frequency.
☞ Managing expectations as a beginner in affiliate marketing
It’s best not to start affiliate marketing hoping to make quick and easy profits. It’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s an actual job requiring skills and effort. In a survey conducted
in one of the community forums, affiliates shared how much money they had to spend before becoming profitable.
$0-500 USD had the biggest number of votes but overall the majority (63.7%) of respondents had over $500 spent before seeing their first green numbers.
- Want to know what is the estimated optimal monthly budget for affiliate marketing?
- Are you wondering what are the cheapest and the most expensive verticals?
- And where to learn affiliate marketing for free?
Magda
