How Fast Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing [The TRUTH]

If you are looking to get started with Affiliate Marketing then you are probably wondering how long it takes to start earning. You may have heard you can make money fast with this online business model, or may be of the opinion this is a rather effortless way to earn.

As an affiliate marketer myself, I’m here to help answer the question: how fast can you make money with affiliate marketing?

This is a common question that I get asked and one that I personally had when I started all but a few years ago. You’ll typically find a variance in answers to this question, but I’d like to give you some constructive feedback following my own experience in Affiliate Marketing.

Here’s an important caveat: while I completely appreciate the question and why you would want to ask it, it is impossible to give a straight answer and definitive timeline. This article will therefore give you expected time-frames including my very own personal experiences.

If you are looking to make money fast with affiliate marketing, then it is unlikely to be entirely passive and you are likely going to have to invest money upfront.

Besides, I cannot think of any online business that can earn you money overnight without the need for some upfront investment.

Thankfully, with Affiliate Marketing you can keep your costs to a minimum and keep your costs lean (even as you scale). It will take longer the less you decide to invest. The truth is however, that the more you invest, the quicker that you will ultimately be able to earn.

Affiliate Marketing Earning Timeframes

The first thing to consider, is what do you actually mean by “fast”?

Are you looking to earn today, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year?

Depending on your experience, your expectations, your lifestyle, current knowledge and your understanding of the term ‘fast‘, you may or may not be able to achieve your initial goals.

However, if you know what you need to do, build your asset (website, YouTube Channel etc) optimize your SEO, implement the right marketing techniques and have an element of patience, you can expect to start earning a decent amount within 6 to 12 months of starting. It will require some work upfront (content creation) which you will not see overnight success from (unless of course you drive traffic with paid advertising).

I actually managed to earn $600 with a brand new Affiliate Marketing Site in just 30 days:

So it is definitely possible to earn quickly, but it will require knowledge/experience online or you will need to get on a comprehensive course that you can follow to learn exactly what you need to do (this is the course I personally followed for the above results and recommend).

Despite my early success, why does it typically take between 6-12 months to start earning with Affiliate Marketing? And if so, how did I personally manage to get there faster?

Here’s why it will take you up to a year before you start seeing some results. I’ll then provide you with a solution to get you there faster!

1. Time to Learn Affiliate Marketing and Strategies

If you an Affiliate Marketer with knowledge and experience building successful affiliate sites (your unlikely to be asking this question and on this article) but also, you’ll be able to start earning in the first couple of weeks of getting started.

But chances are, if you are here, you are a beginner to Affiliate Marketing or are yet to give it a try. Therefore there is going to be a learning curve, and you are going to require time to learn:

• How Affiliate Marketing Works
• How to create a Website/Blog/YouTube Channel,
• How to manage your website, overcome challenges and site issues,
• How to conduct thorough keyword research – find profitable and not overly competitive search terms.
• How to write/publish content that is Search Engine Optimized (SEO) meaning your content can be found,
• Effective Affiliate Marketing processes like Email Marketing
• And so on and so forth,

Unfortunately it takes time to learn and there’s a lot of different platforms, technologies, systems and processes to learn.

The best way to learn is by doing and taking action; you can watch, read and listen to all the best Affiliate Marketing content in the world but if you never actually start you’ll never be able to actually learn (and earn).

Unfortunately, even with the best Affiliate Marketing training course (which I will discuss in more detail below) you will still need to learn as you go (and as you apply). There’s a lot to learn which is why you cannot do it overnight, nor can you expect to just pick up and understand straight away.

Plus, if you decide to go out and try to obtain all that information on your own, its going to take a lot of time to find the best resources and mentors on the topics.

Unless you have a lot of spare time, if you have a job or are in full-time education already, you’ll probably struggle to collate and learn all this information on your own. Sure it is possible, but it takes longer.

The truth is, it is possible to earn fast with Affiliate Marketing with the right training, but you are looking at longer time-frames if you decide to go out and try to do it all on your own.

2. Time to Build Your Assets, Write Your Content

While WordPress (and other online blogging platforms) are relatively intuitive and easy to use, if you are a beginner then you will need time to build your website, optimize it and get it to look and perform just how you want it to.

Thankfully there are courses which provide you with step-by-step walkthroughs of how to do this quickly and most effectively (the course I discuss below has a great module on this).

Additionally, writing content also takes time, even shortcuts like outsourcing content takes time (to find good writers, wait for them to deliver, format the content provided etc).

With Affiliate Marketing, the more content you have the greater your chances of earning. So the quicker you can get content published to start acquiring traffic the quicker you will ultimately be able to earn.

This is something to definitely consider as it will of course dictate how fast it will take you to start earning with Affiliate Marketing.

3. SEO

Ask any online website owner, one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of acquiring traffic is Search Engine Optimization. There are hundreds of ranking factors which dictate how well your content will rank. This is not just exclusive to the Search Engines, but all online platforms (including YouTube). As a beginner, how do you even know what to do to rank?

Again, the same course mentioned above (has an entire SEO optimization module which will teach you the ins and outs step by step). This will ensure you rank and will ensure you can profit as soon as possible.

Here’s why you need the best training:

Without excellent SEO strategies and processes in place; your content will never be seen and you’ll struggle to ever make any money.

Did you know that 75% of traffic goes to the first 5 search engine positions? (source). That’s huge – basically, you need to be at the top of the search engines to acquire any decent level of traffic. Remember, not everyone who lands on your site will convert. Sure, you may get the odd visit here and there if your article ranks lower than this but the odds of you getting any conversions are slim at best. This sounds tough right, so is it even worth it?

Remember, acquiring traffic through SEO is organic and free, meaning there are no costs involved in acquiring traffic this way and anything you earn is pure profit!

This is is why you should focus on it and make it an essential component of your strategy. And as people head straight to the search engines to look for products, answer their questions and finds solutions to their problems, its where all the money is.

And here’s another thing. Unfortunately you cannot just post content and expect it to rank straight way. It takes time for the content to rank (even if the content is SEO optimized!) . If its not SEO optimized then even after time you’ll find your content is not ranking!

Considering the above factors, its easy to see why SEO agencies exist! It also shows just how important it is and how important you get it right.

4. Acquiring Traffic

As alluded to above, the essential component to making money fast with affiliate marketing is acquiring traffic and an audience to sell products to.

Growing your audience, building trust, and getting new visitors does take some time in the beginning.

Thankfully, it is possible to do this in as little as 30 days but it may take up to a year. Its going to depend on a few factors but there are strategies you can utilize to fasten the process.

For example, there are certain niches, products and methods that you can leverage to make more money, and faster. You want to find those affiliate programs and products that offer 50%+ commission.

The key is to understanding how to effectively research programs, find high-paying products and how to discover low competition keywords. From there its just about sending traffic through your affiliate links.

How ‘Fast’ Can You Start Making Money With Affiliate Marketing?

I’ve tried to be open, honest and transparent in this article about the timelines involved. You may see the difficulties of Affiliate Marketing here and this may prevent you starting.

But here’s the good news.

You can start Affiliate Marketing right now and straight away.

The quicker you get started with Affiliate Marketing the quicker you will ultimately earn.

If you want to go ahead and do take on Affiliate Marketing all on your own, you will need to accept that you are unlikely to make money fast – you’ll need to go through the learning curve as discussed above and it will take months if not years to start to see some consistent earnings. You’ve got a lot to learn and you’ll unlikely get it all right the very first time.

Alternatively, there is a better and faster way to get set up and running with Affiliate Marketing.

Now, just like any online business there are absolutely no promises or guarantees you’ll earn a full time income with Affiliate Marketing on your very first project. You should always be skeptical if you hear otherwise.

Affiliate Marketing does require a work on your part and you do need to ensure you select the right niche, products and keywords. However, if you read the final part of this article, you can get access to everything you will ever need to make some great money with affiliate marketing in the next few months (as long as you actually commit and apply it!).

Best Thing You Can Do

The best thing you can do right now, if you are serious about building a long term profitable business with Affiliate Marketing, is to sign up to a comprehensive training course. One that gives you step-by-step instructions of how to build and optimize your website, conduct thorough niche, product and keyword research, learn SEO, learn Email Marketing techniques, Sales Funnels and a tonne more.

The best one I know and that has drastically lowered my learning curve and built my affiliate business is Savage Affiliates.

It is a detailed plan, blueprint and step by step guide that you can learn from and follow along in real-time (even if you are a complete beginner). It’s why I recommend it so highly.

As you can see from the screenshot of my earnings above, its enabled me to earn $600 in just 30 days. The Course Creator (Franklin Hatchett) has a wealth of experience as an Affiliate Marketer himself and has even won Affiliate Marketing awards with platforms like ClickFunnels (2 comma club):

Thankfully, the course is a respectable one-time price of $197 so it isn’t going to break the bank either.

It would be unfortunate if you have read this far and decide to try and do this yourself. Trust me I’ve been there and this will be one of the best $197 you will ever spend.

Click here to learn more about Savage Affiliates

How Long To Start Making Money With Affiliate Marketing?

If you decide to sign up to Savage Affiliates, then you will accelerate the process and can expect to start earning from as little as 1 to 3 months. A full-time online income is likely from months 8 onwards.

You may think this sounds like a long time, but compare this to a full-time job and career.

Consider the pros of Affiliate Marketing:

• Work when, where and how you want,
• Be your own boss
• Make money passively (and not during just working hours)
• Expand your earning potential
• etc.

Or alternatively, you can spend your next year not truly getting started but instead researching and finding information, and never really implementing what you learn. So I suggest you start now – there is no time like the present.

Final Words

Hopefully I’ve been able to give you some realistic timelines around how fast can you make money with affiliate marketing.

In summary, how fast you learn it is ultimately up to you, but it would be far easier accessing all the information in one place like with Savage Affiliates.