Are you sure you know everything about what affiliate marketing is? Do you doubt whether it’s hard to get started or whether it’s really profitable? In this article, we will cover everything related to the question “What is affiliate marketing”: how to start, what to expect, and which tips and tricks work. After reading the article, you will be ready to embark on your journey to profitable campaigns and earn $100,000 in 2025.
What Is Affiliate Marketing: Definition
Affiliate marketing involves an affiliate promoting products on particular websites, apps, or platforms for a reward. The affiliate marketer is an outsourced specialist who knows how to attract new users, i.e., generate traffic, and, ideally, retain them.
Not all the users qualify, as product owners are usually against bots, incentivized, and mixed traffic. At the end of the day, product owners attract high-intent users, marketers make money, and users see relevant offers.
How Affiliate Marketing Works: The Common Examples
Affiliate marketing splits the responsibilities of online product marketing between different parties in order to make this process more effective and profitable. There are 3 main roles involved: Product owner, Affiliate marketer, Customer.
There are some intermediary actors, namely the website owner, the affiliate network, and the ad network. Long story short, they help to connect the three parties mentioned above:
Réseaux d'affiliation connect product owners and affiliate marketers. Webmasters connect affiliate marketers and customers. Réseaux publicitaires connect marketers and webmasters.
An affiliate marketer picks an offer, such as iGaming, either directly from the product owner or from the affiliate network. Then, the marketer goes to an ad network to acquire paid traffic (there are free channels, too). The specialist buys ad spots from webmasters via the réseau publicitaire.
Website visitors see the ads about betting or gambling and hopefully click. They are eventually redirected to the offer page to finish a target action, e.g., registration. If the target action is complete, affiliates are paid; if not, the user bounces off.
HilltopAds is a leading traffic source for affiliate marketers from all over the world. Whether you work with iGaming, eCommerce, Sweepstakes offers, and others, our traffic will convert it. With our advanced optimization tools, real high-quality traffic, and personal support, you will get as many conversions as possible, and earn a lot of money.
Common Types of Affiliate Marketing
Whenever promoting a product, an affiliate might have various degrees of personal involvement: Unattached, Related, Involved.
These stages determine both the affiliate expertise in a niche and the approaches used. For example, an unattached affiliate, i.e., the one without in-depth knowledge about the product promoted, is more likely to opt for PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns.
A related affiliate might know a few things about the product because it is within their area of interest. This is where influence marketing, SEO, social marketing, and other channels start to gain traction, as the affiliate is able to share some expertise and capitalize on that.
An involved affiliate has used the product promoted at least once. They literally put their money where their mouth is, so such affiliates sound especially credible. Nonetheless, their reputation is at stake, so, let’s say, if a software doesn’t work as intended, affiliates might turn away a large portion of users.
The Best Affiliate Marketing Channels
Traffic channels can be paid or free. There are tons of them, so we’ll go through the main ones, most commonly seen in affiliate marketing.
Paiement au clic (PPC) is paid promotion, when advertisers pay for every click (or impression) made on their ads. Google, Facebook, and other platforms support paid ads and display them whenever relevant keywords are entered.
Optimisation des moteurs de recherche is all about following Google’s best practices to make sure your content is featured in search results. SEO takes time, but greatly improves one’s visibility in the long run.
Réseaux publicitaires connect advertisers and publishers to facilitate PPC deals. Their main advantage is established infrastructure, cutting-edge tools, and affordable traffic, compared to ad exchanges.
The best ad network for affiliate marketers
HilltopAds is your go-to ad network to run ads and earn as many as possible. We work with the most niches, have 37k+ premium direct traffic sources, advanced targeting options from GEOs to interests and keywords, personal support and other tools for your success.
Médias sociaux is when the promotion is made via Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, or any other platform like that. Social media traffic can be paid or free, yet the main advantage is the ability to retain the users longer with relatively short but regular posts.
Websites offer a direct approach, involving placing ads on relevant websites to reach targeted audiences, often operating on a cost-per-click (CPC) payment model.
Email Marketing is about sending promotional emails to a list of subscribers. This is effective for affiliates with an existing, interested email list.
These are the main channels, but there are more. Besides, most of them can work with various ad formats, so the promotional possibilities are virtually endless, creating a sort of art.
Pros and Cons in Affiliate Marketing You Need to Know About
Affiliate marketing requires dedication, like any work does. As a vocation, it has its pros and cons. Let’s start with the positives.
Affiliate Marketing: Pros
It’s easy to start because minimal investment is required: pick a niche, find your traffic source, opt for an offer, make a few creatives, bid on ad spots, and get paid. Of course, things are a bit harder than that and some details require your attention, but the basics are like that.
Low startup costs help you to enter the industry even when your budget is tight. With a budget of $100, it’s possible to profit and do diligent preparation without cutting corners.
Unlimited source of income since earnings are commission-based. True, there are caps, limiting your maximum income per advertiser, but you are not limited to just one offer. Besides, there are different payout models; for example, Revenue Share (RevShare) grants a percentage of how much your users generated spend (a rough approximation).
Flexible working hours and location, unless you’re a part of a media buying team, which tends to have a common office and fixed working hours. Nonetheless, if you know the basics, you can be your own boss and earn from home without leaving your bed.
Passive income opportunity avec RevShare. It does require some preparation, but once it’s done, you can enjoy recurring purchases (and commissions).
Affiliate marketing is relatively easy to scale up by opting for more offers and establishing your own media buying team. In fact, you can even switch to adjacent spheres like software development, copywriting, journalism, etc.
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Affiliate Marketing: Cons
However, affiliate marketing is not for free riders. This job is stressful and requires attention to detail. Now, let’s review the main negatives.
A lot of time and effort is required to achieve the level where minimal daily maintenance is needed. Affiliate marketing is a job, not a hobby, filled with chores like designing creatives, split-testing, analyzing campaigns, optimizing funnels, and aligning with Google’s best practices.
Inconsistent and barely predictable income is the norm. Depending on the vertical of your choice, you can enjoy a user spree one month and suffer from a lack of conversions the next. Sure, there are evergreen niches like iGaming, dating, or software, but they have their own complications.
Dependence on merchant policies can be a major drawback for “rebels without a cause.” Affiliates can’t change their offer page and are forced to meet the KPIs. Changes in commission rates, program terms, or the discontinuation of affiliate programs can impact earnings.
Competition is stiff, at least in the main niches. Large media buying teams prevent newcomers from entering the most lucrative GEOs, so the beginners settle for less profitable zones and feeds.
Reputational risks are a consequence of being dependent on the merchant. If the product owner faces negative publicity or product recalls, the affiliate can suffer collateral damage, especially if they were personally involved in the promoted product.
As long as you treat affiliate marketing as a profession, you should be fine. There is no easy money, but with dedication, patience, and creativity, you should be able to enter the industry and eventually find your niche there.
Experts Speak
Itay Paz
A seasoned SEO, affiliate marketing, & digital marketing expert with over 30 years of experience in SEO, link-building, AI search optimization, and online growth strategies. As the Founder & CEO of Revenue Fire, he leads an agency specializing in high-authority backlinks, technical SEO, content-driven rankings, and AI-powered digital strategies.
Website: revenuefire.com
Affiliate marketing is one of the most rewarding yet challenging ways to build an online business and live a different life than many other self-employed people. The biggest merits are:
Unlimited Income Potential
You’re not capped by an hourly wage or a salary, and you can leverage your time. If you crack the right combination of traffic, offer, and audience, your earnings can scale exponentially.
Work From Anywhere
You can run your affiliate business from home, a beach, or a coffee shop. There’s freedom in choosing where and when to work.
Flexibility & Independence
You do not have a boss, no employees (unless you decide to scale up fast), and no need to deal with customers. You control your own destiny.
Multiple Revenue Streams
You can promote different verticals and niches, work with multiple networks, and diversify income sources to minimize risk over time.
However, from my own personal experience, this isn’t just an easy ride where you can work 4 hours a week, and affiliate marketing comes with stress and challenges that make it “suboptimal” for many:
Uncertainty & No Guaranteed Income
Unlike most 9-to-5 jobs, there’s no paycheck at the end of the month unless you send traffic and generate revenue.
Constant Learning & Adaptation
The internet is evolving fast (especially these days with AI), and with that, traffic sources, algorithms, and affiliate offers constantly change. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow, requiring you to be on top of things all the time.
Cash Flow Challenges
Many new affiliates burn through their budgets quickly before they reach profitability because they underestimate testing costs, and then they quit.
Mental Pressure
The unpredictability of income, dealing with potential bans from ad networks or search engines, and campaign fluctuations can cause serious stress, along with the lack of guaranteed income.
Vashishtha Kapoor
A seasoned affiliate marketer and digital entrepreneur with over 9 years of experience in media buying, SEO, and content marketing. He shares industry insights through his YouTube channel, blogs, and major affiliate conferences.
Website: afftank.com
Affiliate marketing is a billion-dollar industry that is growing rapidly with enormous opportunities. The question is, how would you use these opportunities? Even if you have no audience but are eager to start earning money by promoting goods, you should definitely give it a shot. Apart from the pros mentioned earlier, you may want to try this business due to these benefits:
- Starting up as an affiliate marketer doesn’t require you to leave your current job. You can do it as a side project and see what you can squeeze out of it over the first few months.
- In the beginning, the operating expenses of the affiliate business are almost non-existent compared to other industries. You work online so that you can do it from your home well enough, therefore you only need to pay for electricity and internet. Optionally, if you decide to establish your marketing website, you may need to pay to set up a domain, design a page, etc.
- In general, this is a great source of passive income. After you launch a campaign, you can make a profit even without daily participation.
- It is all about convenience and flexibility. You can create multiple campaigns on different websites and landing pages to market your links so that you can abandon the poorly performing ones and optimize the successful ones. Also, you don’t need to stick to one affiliate marketing program. Select a few products from a chosen niche you prefer and promote them daily.
Experts Speak
Itay Paz
SEO, affiliate marketing, & digital marketing expert.
People get into affiliate marketing for a variety of reasons, but from my experience, talking to thousands of affiliates over the years, some of the biggest motivators are:
Higher Income Potential
Many dream of making more money than their current job allows. Some reach life-changing earnings, while others struggle to break even.
Location Independence
The idea of being able to work from anywhere in the world is a huge draw.
Being Your Own Boss
Some people hate the idea of reporting to someone else and want to build their own business, and if I can be blunt, some even call it “firing your boss!”.
However, not everyone who enters the industry succeeds, because motivation alone isn’t enough. You need to commit to put in hard work and long hours of learning, testing, and adapting constantly.
Vashishtha Kapoor
Affiliate marketer and digital entrepreneur.
People jump into affiliate marketing mainly for self-employment and higher income — the idea of being your own boss and not having a cap on earnings is too tempting to ignore. No office politics, no fixed salary, and definitely no awkward small talk at the coffee machine.
Moreover, all the perks stack up, so affiliates enjoy flexibility, the ability to work remotely, and freedom to experiment. Whether working from a beach at your leisure or grinding at 2 AM with three cups of coffee — you control your time. All the efforts put directly impact your earnings, and there’s no limit on how much you can scale.
Of course, it’s not a “set it and forget it” kind of deal, but for those willing to put in the work, the rewards can be life-changing.
T J Tutor
Business guru, content marketer, and mentor.
While all of those are ever present, there is also a “predatory” element. Those who sell courses and training to newbies and promise them they can make a million with no investment spam it everywhere. Because of its sheer volume, people begin to believe the idea. This is a major motivation for many newbies, maybe most newbies. Then, they find that it can’t be done that way and move on to something else.
Motivations come and go along with some circumstances. For example, COVID-19 caused a sudden increase in interest in our industry. Most didn’t stick with it. A big one before that was the 2008 market crash, which led to a huge increase in interest. There is an abundance of false narratives out there, and they’ve been around and renewed since long before online affiliate marketing. They will continue to lay false claims, which results in interest that typically fades pretty quickly.
Then there are those with a “set of brains” about business, any business. They have some maturity and some business experience. These individuals capturing interest in this industry very often succeed because they take the time to research and then develop a plan with a budget. When an individual’s motivation results in deep-dive research and a thorough plan, they will tend to structure from the beginning. This typically results in success.
What You Get Paid For in Affiliate Marketing
Let’s imagine that you are promoting goods and services. Your audience is successfully buying them using your links. Traffic is flowing, and you expect a great profit. And now you may wonder: how does an affiliate get paid after linking the seller to the consumer?
The simple and boring answer is that it depends. A more detailed explanation can be tricky. The consumer doesn’t always need to buy the product for the affiliate to make a profit. Depending on the program, the affiliate’s contribution to the seller’s sales will be measured differently.
Pay per Sale
PPS has a sale as its target action. Once it is completed, the media buyer gets paid. However, scoring a sale is harder than registering a user. Thus, many users bounce off, and merchants account for that with higher commissions. As a rule of thumb, the higher commission means a lower conversion rate and vice versa.
Pay per Lead
PPL is a simpler model compared to PPS because users don’t have to spend money. However, they ought to leave their personal data, like filling out the contact form, registering for the trial version, subscribing to an email newsletter, or loading a file.
A generated lead can be called back or contacted in any other way to strike a deal. Fortunately, it’s the job of a call center, not the affiliate’s.
Pay per Install
A relatively straightforward model, installations are usually related to some games, software, or apps. Do not expect huge payouts here, but at the same time, they are bound to be higher than for SOI or DOI.
Single and Double Opt-In
SOI is a one-step registration requiring no confirmation email. It’s probably the easiest model out there, yet it is also a magnet for trash traffic.
DOI is a two-step registration, where the user is to confirm their subscription. This is a more solid defense against bots and fraudulent traffic. At the same time, the model remains relatively simple, compared to CC or PIN Submit, requiring little commitment from a user.
Part des recettes
RevShare is a unique model, where the commission is dynamic. All the models above involve fixed payouts, e.g., $50. RevShare is more performance-driven, paying out on a percentage basis, e.g., 45%. This model is great if you can generate traffic of quality, marked by recurring murchases.
However, this model also requires complex funnels. For newcomers this might not be the best pick, but for professionals, this is the right way to maximize income.
Other Types of Payment
There are many payout models. Sometimes, merchants and affiliate networks mix them up, creating hybrid models, such as $20 + 30%. Hybrid models are great for transitioning when you are not ready to move to pure RevShare.
Also, don’t forget about the referral programs — they can serve as an alternative and passive source of income.
Truth About the Earnings in Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has nothing to do with multi-level marketing (MLM). There might be some elements of, e.g., a referral program, but the main source of income should be actual sales (target actions) and your performance, not based on how many people you attract.
Your top source of high income
Team up with a reputable ad network like HilltopAds to minimize losses and maximize earnings. Our managers will help you pick the right sources of traffic for your offer and assist you in seeing your campaigns come to fruition.
In the beginning, you can make $100–500, which is a very good r