Is affiliate marketing worth it? Reddit’s verdict

An essential question to ask when you are thinking about starting affiliate marketing – is affiliate marketing worth it? Whether you are a brand or an affiliate, this is a question that you need to answer before you get started. Here at Tapfiliate, we know it’s worth it, but what does Reddit have to say about it?

First, let’s talk about affiliate marketing.

What is affiliate marketing?

Have you ever told a friend about a product or service you loved? We have. Affiliate marketing is this, just on a much bigger scale. Brands pay affiliates commissions to promote their products and services to their audiences. There are several different brands that use affiliate marketing to drive revenue – some big brand names include Nike, 

For brands this can help you to drive sales, revenue and brand awareness at low cost, and high ROI because you only pay when an affiliate refers a successful sale. You get targeted traffic that is primed to buy.

Some of the challenges faced for brands who are managing affiliate programs is finding affiliates to promote your products, figuring out the best way to reward your affiliates, managing affiliates, and affiliate fraud. These challenges can all be overcome.

Reddit: Real-life experiences and opinions

Reddit can be a great resource to research different topics because there are a huge range of different communities with insights from people with different backgrounds, experience and knowledge. You can easily deep dive into niche topics and get personal stories and anecdotes.

However, it’s essential to note that Reddit can have posts that are biased and filled with misinformation, and the anonymity means that people can’t necessarily be verified as an expert. There’s a varied quality of discussion and content is dynamic and can always be deleted by the original poster.

The best way to assess Reddit posts are to observe before jumping in, cross-reference claims or information with other sources, and avoid taking everything at face value.

Is affiliate marketing worth it? Perspectives from Reddit

Now let’s take a look at what Reddit users have to say about affiliate marketing.

Brand perspective: 

Let’s take a look at posts from the brand perspective. Does affiliate marketing work for brands?

The post reads:

“Affiliate Marketing in 2023: Is it still a profitable marketing strategy?

Yes, affiliate marketing is still worth it in 2023, and it continues to be a popular and effective marketing strategy for businesses to promote their products or services.

Affiliate marketing allows businesses to partner with affiliates who promote their products or services and earn a commission for each sale or action made through their unique affiliate link.

This means that businesses only pay for the marketing efforts that lead to results, making it a cost-effective way to reach a broader audience.

In 2023, the affiliate marketing industry is expected to continue to grow, with more businesses turning to this strategy to reach their target audience.

Affiliate marketing provides many benefits, including increased brand awareness, access to a wider audience, and a boost in sales and revenue.

However, like any other marketing strategy, success in affiliate marketing requires effort, strategy, and continuous learning.

Business and affiliates need to focus on providing high quality content, building strong relationships with their audience, and staying up to date with the latest marketing trends and best prcatices.”

Key takeaways: 

• Affiliate marketing is effective strategy for companies who want to promote their products or services
• Businesses pay for results so it’s cost effective
• Affiliate marketing is only going to grow
• Effort, strategy and learning are essential to success

The post reads:

“Affiliate marketing is a relatively modern marketing practice that is growing exponentially in its popularity and scope. Its growing importance is based on the advantages it provides to both the company and the affiliate, as will be discussed further.

The advantages of affiliate marketing

Here are the reasons behind the current and expected popularity of affiliate marketing-

• Greater trustworthiness

The opinions of affiliate marketers are considered more trustworthy and authentic as compared to claims made by the company itself, as they may not show a clear affiliation. Affiliate marketers may also have their own followers who trust them and hence buy the products or services they endorse.

• Greater market reach and penetration

Affiliate marketers usually know the prospective customers in their region closely and have a local recognition and influence that a business often lacks. So, they can form a more streamlined marketing approach for the business that brings higher conversions as compared to a generalized campaign.

• Greater profitability and flexibility

The commission paid to high-performing affiliate marketers are easily overweighed by the sales and revenue they bring in for the business. Affiliate marketers can also work part-time and add to other earnings without putting in excessive time or effort.

• Greater motivation and lower risk

Affiliates are often paid based on the sales they generate and not as per the hours worked or fixed pay structure. This greatly reduces the risks of large failed investments for the businesses and hence, they feel confident while investing money into such marketing. This also motivates affiliates to develop efficient strategies and work harder.

How to make the most out of it?

So, it is apparent that affiliate marketing is a great opportunity that deserves your time and effort. But it is also important to maintain higher cost and time efficiency so you have a larger profit margin and get more work. This where using marketing automation and optimization tools will give you the edge you need!”

Key takeaways

• Affiliate marketing provides businesses with several advantages including more trust, market penetration, profitability, low risk
• Affiliate marketing deserves time and effort
• Automation and optimization tools are key

The text reads:

“Affiliate marketing plays a crucial role in digital marketing and has become an integral part of many businesses’ marketing strategies. It is a performance-based marketing model where businesses reward affiliates (publishers or marketers) for driving traffic or sales to their website through the affiliate’s marketing efforts. Here’s why affiliate marketing is important:

1. Cost-Effective: Affiliate marketing is cost-effective for businesses as they pay commissions only when the desired actions (clicks, leads, sales) occur, ensuring a positive return on investment.
   
2. Expanded Reach: By partnering with affiliates, businesses can reach a broader audience and tap into new markets that they might not have access to otherwise.
   
3. Increased Brand Exposure: Affiliates promote the brand on various platforms, increasing its visibility and creating more touchpoints with potential customers.
   
4. Credibility and Trust: Affiliate marketers often have a dedicated following, and their endorsement can enhance the brand’s credibility and build trust among consumers.
   
5. Performance-Driven Results: Since affiliates are motivated by commissions, they work hard to drive results, leading to better performance for the brand.
   
6. Data-Driven Insights: Affiliate marketing provides valuable data on consumer behavior, allowing businesses to optimize their strategies and target the right audience effectively.
   
7. Diverse Marketing Channels: Affiliates use various marketing channels such as blogs, social media, email, and websites, allowing brands to benefit from a diverse promotional approach.
   
8. Global Reach: Affiliate marketing enables businesses to expand internationally through partnerships with affiliates in different regions.
   
9. Flexibility and Control: Businesses can choose their affiliate partners, set commission rates, and have control over the program’s structure.
   
10. Pay-for-Performance Model: Unlike traditional advertising, businesses pay only for actual results, making it a low-risk marketing option.

In summary, affiliate marketing is a powerful tool that enhances a brand’s reach, credibility, and overall marketing efforts. By leveraging the strengths of affiliate partnerships, businesses can achieve growth and success in the digital marketing landscape.”

Key takeaways

• Affiliate marketing works for a brand’s reach, credibility and marketing
• Businesses can grow and become successful with affiliate marketing

Tapfiliate offers a free 14-day trial so you can see if we are a good fit for your business: 👉 Get started now!

Affiliate perspective

Here are some posts from the affiliate perspective of affiliate marketing:

The post reads:

“Is Affiliate Marketing a legit way to make decent money in 2023?

Affiliate marketing has become a popular way for individuals to make money online, but is it a legitimate way to earn a decent income? The short answer is yes, affiliate marketing can be a legitimate way to make decent money. However, it’s important to note that success in affiliate marketing requires a lot of hard work and dedication.

There are many misconceptions about affiliate marketing, with some people believing that it’s a get-rich-quick scheme. While it’s true that affiliates can earn a commission for promoting products or services, it’s not as simple as just posting a link and sitting back to collect the profits.

Affiliate marketing requires a deep understanding of the products or services being promoted, as well as the target audience. Successful affiliates spend a significant amount of time researching and analyzing the products and their audience, in order to effectively promote them. They also need to have a strong online presence, including a website or blog, social media accounts, and email list, in order to reach their audience and promote their products.

So, is affiliate marketing a legit way to make decent money? The answer is yes, but it’s not a passive income stream. It requires a lot of effort and dedication to succeed. If you’re willing to put in the work and are dedicated to building a successful affiliate marketing business, then it can be a lucrative way to earn a decent income.”

Key takeaways

• Affiliate marketing can be a good way to make money
• It does require hard work and dedication
• It is not a get rich quick scheme
• You need to research and spend time analyzing the products to promote them effectively
• You need an audience and a strong online presence

The post reads: 

“How much you can make as an affiliate marketer depends on things like your niche, how many people you’re reaching, how much they’re engaging with you, and which affiliate programs you’re promoting.

The key is to attract and convert an audience with awesome content, a die-hard fanbase, and products that actually make sense. Bottom line: have realistic expectations and be in it for the long haul.”

Key takeaways

• You need an audience
• You need to select your affiliate programs carefully
• You need great content and fans who engage with you
• Be in it for the long run

Success stories from Reddit: When affiliate marketing is worth it

We took a little trawl through Reddit to find success stories. We found loads for affiliates as most of the stuff on the internet is aimed at affiliates and not brands. However, we do know that you can find plenty of big and small-name brands using affiliate marketing to drive sales.

Let’s get stuck in:

The text reads: 

“I sold my blog Investor Junkie in 2018 for $6 million. I started in 2009. It took about 2 years before it made serious income. It was a full-time business and had 2 full-time employees.”

The text reads:

“I’m on pace for about $12k this month in affiliate revenue and am 7.5 months in. It’s all about scaling your processes. You need to be an SEO expert first, but also treat it like a business, not just as a writer. Outsource certain components effectively, scale out high quality relationships/backlinks acquisition, etc.”

The text reads:

“I started blogging as a hobby first, with no intention of making money. After 3 years of that, I started a site to make money. I made zero dollars until 18 month in, and that quickly grew into a full time income after about 2 years. I went in expecting that money site to take 5 years before I could quit my full time job.

Of almost all the long-term successful affiliate marketers I’ve actually met in person, they have similar stories. I only know a couple people who hit the big bucks within their first year.

Patience is the biggest barrier to entry with affiliate marketing. Turns out most people aren’t willing to work for free for 1 to 3 years before they maybe possibly have a chance of making money. I really can’t blame those who don’t have the patience for this business.”

The text reads:

“Close friend of mine lost his job in the spring of 2022, spent 5 months working 12-16 hrs a day by himself promoting a high ticket affiliate offer. Mainly got traffic through tiktok and IG. Used Facebook to follow-up and nurture those contacts.

Didn’t make a dime for those first 5 months but after 6 he started seeing results. Bought a Porsche 3 months ago and he’s moving to Vancouver and getting married soon.

He has 3 or 4 people working for him now, helping edit his videos and do follow-ups etc and is averaging between 20 – 50k a month now. I’m not sure the exact breakdown of his expenses but I’ve been sitting with him having a beer when he got notifications of 10,000 dollar payments on a Sunday afternoon.

He worked his ******* ass off to get there. No reward for almost half a year before he saw any results. Posting videos every single day.”

Reddit discussions on the challenges of affiliate marketing

What are the challenges of affiliate marketing according to Reddit? We found that there were several but the biggest challenges for brands were finding the right software. For affiliates it was getting started and making affiliate marketing work.

1. Finding the right affiliate tracking platform

Finding the right affiliate tracking software can be a challenge. Reddit user notpitching elaborates:

The text reads:

“Additionally. What are the platforms? I am setting up with goaffpro, but there are so many I don’t know which gives the best bang for your buck.

I would also like a platform to engage with current and future affiliates and goaffpro doesn’t do that. (I know I can email people, but I want more of a two way)”

P.S Tapfiliate is a great alternative to GoAffPro. 

Tapfiliate offers a free 14-day trial so you can see if we are a good fit for your business. 👉 Get started now!

2. Finding affiliates to promote your brand

One of the biggest struggles for brands is finding affiliates to promote you to their audience. Especially if you are new on the scene.

The post reads:

“How to find affiliate marketers & microinfluencers as a brand?

I own a sustainable home décor business that I’m looking to work on growing, and am interested in forming partnerships in the décor space.

I’ve been curating a list of business emails and URLs for content creators on YouTube and Instagram, and need to download TikTok to get onto those creators too. I’m planning on starting emailing in the near future but am wondering if there’s any affordable softwares that curate creators by niche?

I don’t have Shopify to use Shopify Collabs and use Webflow for my store, but if there’s a similar software that people recommend I’m all for it. How do I find people?

Any direction and knowledge is appreciated, thanks y’all.”

Finding affiliates is essential for success, and there are a number of ways you can find great affiliates to promote you. Many brands advertise their affiliate programs on Reddit in posts or paid ads.

3. Not knowing what to pay in commissions

Finding out the best commission rates can be difficult. It’s a fine balance between ensuring it’s an attractive offer for affiliates, having some additional wriggle room to incentivize extra promotion, and that you are making profit as a business.

The text reads:

“How much in commission should I pay for an affiliate?

Hi. I have a business who’s product has generated about 800,000 in revenue since our launch in 2020. I feel that the product converts well and that my biggest challenge is getting in front of the right people. I have good margins on the product, so I feel like I can afford to try an affiliate program. I am going with goaffpro because it integrates nicely with Wix and has great free features.

My decision is:

1. How much to pay for an affiliate commission
2. How much of a coupon to give the affiliate

Here are some factors in my decision:

1. The product has tested at 69, 79, and 89 dollars – and yet it still sells, leading me to believe the product is less about “price” and more about “people who need it will buy it”. This makes me think the coupon is less important. However, I think it’s hard to motivate anyone with less than 10% coupon.
2. The commission has to be enough to motivate an affiliate, but I don’t know what this amount is.

One other option i’m considering:

1. Make a new website, identical to my current website, except raise the prices by 50%. Use only this website for affiliate referral. Give a 50% affiliate coupon. This way, the coupon looks attractive, and the affiliate still makes the same money.

Hoping to gather some guidance from others who have made this decision, and also looking for opinions on how much you would expect in commission from the sale of an item.”

Learn more about choosing commission rates. If you are a SaaS brand, choosing commission rates is different. 
Check out the alternatives to GoAffPro.

4. Not knowing where to start with affiliate marketing

Whether you are a brand or affiliate, when you first start with affiliate marketing it can be completely overwhelming. There are plenty of people out there who are looking for help, but don’t know how to start. 

Affiliate marketing can be a learning curve, whether you are a brand or an affiliate. We recommend following different affiliate blogs to keep up to date and learn more about it.

5. Making affiliate marketing work when you don’t have a huge following as an affiliate

When you don’t have a huge audience to promote products and services to, can you still make affiliate marketing work?

The text reads:

“I see so many videos of people trying to teach others how to do affiliate marketing but the only people actively doing it are influencers, YouTubers, people with huge followings. So is it a misconception that people without a big following can do this too?”

Another person replied to this:

The text reads:

“While having a large following can be helpful for affiliate marketing, it’s not necessarily a requirement for success. There are many ways to promote affiliate products without a large following, such as by creating high-quality content that provides value to your target audience, building relationships with your audience through social media or email marketing, or by targeting specific niches that are underserved in the market.

The key to success in affiliate marketing is to build trust with your audience, regardless of how large or small that audience is. By creating content that is informative, engaging, and relevant to your audience’s interests and needs, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority in your niche. From there, you can promote relevant affiliate products and services that you believe will provide value to your audience.”

So you can make money with a small audience, it depends on your niche and how good your content is. Building trust is essential. Many of Tapfiliate’s brands word with micro influencers and niche bloggers.

6. Market saturation for affiliates

More and more brands are jumping onto affiliate marketing to drive revenue for brands. Because of that, there are plenty of affiliates, and people who want to get started with promoting products.

Learning from Reddit: Effective strategies for profitable affiliate marketing

So, what can we learn about strategies for affiliate marketing from Reddit? Well, even though a lot of the Reddit posts come from the affiliate perspective, there is some useful feedback in amongst it.

1. Communicate with your affiliates

As an affiliate, there’s nothing worse than a brand who fails to communicate. This Reddotor complains that brands are not keeping them up to date with deals, coupon codes, or changes to product lines.

It’s essential from the get-go to have a communication strategy with your affiliates so that they can promote you effectively from the get-go. Think about including information on bestsellers, promotions and new products.

2. Use your social media followers to find potential affiliates

One Redditor says that brands use their follower lists to find affiliates:

The post reads: 

“A lot of brands use Instagram to build a community of followers. These brands can then use their follower lists to sell products. There are many products that are already suited to Instagram, such as fitness and fashion related. There are others that work best on Instagram because the images stand out clearly and have added dimension, like sunglasses and handbags. Some products just don’t look right on Instagram, so these brands need to search for different ways to build relations with their followers.”

Utilizing people who are already following your brand means that they already have brand affinity, which is great. They are already familiar with your brand and your products or services. Learn more about how to find influencers to promote your brand.

3. Use your signup form to grab more information about your affiliates

When you get an affiliate sign up to your affiliate program it can be exciting. But if you don’t know much about them, it could cause problems later. That’s why it’s essential to create a signup form that asks more questions so you can fully vet your affiliates.

The text reads:

“Hi

Some tips

1. Ask for more information on your signup form. In goaffpro, see Look & Feel -> Signup page tab -> Customize option to customize the signup page and ask for at least 2 social handles
2. Get someone on Fiverr to research and provide list of affiliates with emails and socials in your niche. Generally you can get around 50-100 profiles for around 10 bucks. Search for “find influencers” on Fiverr
3. Of this list, outreach directly (works best) or invite via goaffpro

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have at least 30-40 good affiliates

In the initial days you will have to handhold your affiliates in getting them to work. Once they get the hang of things, you will have a decent long term affiliate program”

They also say that fiverr can be a great place to hire someone to find influencers to fit your niche.

Looking for an alternative to GoAffPro?

Tapfiliate offers a free 14-day trial so you can see if we are a good fit for your business. 👉 Get started now!

4. Check out your competition

Finding out what your competitors are doing is essential to attract affiliates to your program. You can find out commission rates, email strategies and more by signing up as an affiliate.

The post reads:

“Why not just try to sign up as an affiliate for a few products in your niche, and see what your competition is doing?

Then simple improve on theirs and you should be good :-)”

You can do this by signing up as an affiliate to their program, and then improve on their strategies to attract affiliates and drive sales.

5. Hire an affiliate program manager

When you first start an affiliate program it can be difficult to figure out what to do. An affiliate program manager has experience in growing affiliate programs and can help you to drive revenue.

The post reads:

“Create the affiliate program and have yourself or a hired affiliate manager do outreach to sites that could be your target market.”

There are several benefits to having an affiliate program manager, but affiliate recruitment is one of the biggest advantages.

Use Reddit insights for your affiliate marketing journey and get started now

So, is affiliate marketing worth it? According to Reddit (and to us) it’s a yes. It’s a great way for brands to drive traffic, brand awareness, and revenue. There are several successful affiliates out there, and there are also several people who are just starting their affiliate journey who want to learn. 

Of course, there are always challenges with managing an affiliate program, but these can be overcome either by learning more about affiliate marketing, or by hiring an affiliate program manager. There are several things you can do to ensure the success of your affiliate program – ensuring that you communicate effectively, find affiliates, get to know them well, checking out your competition and potentially hiring an affiliate program manager are all ways you can get ahead. If you are looking for affiliate tracking software, Tapfiiate offers a free 14-day trial.