Is Amazon Affiliate A Scam? Or Legit Platform?

The Amazon affiliate program, is one of the most well-known and established in the world today.

Although, it is far from the only one.

There are thousands upon thousands of affiliate programs out there and they will continue to grow.

What about Amazon…. Is Amazon affiliate a scam, or is this a legit way to make money online?

The Amazon affiliate program thankfully legitimate, I made my very first sales online with Amazon

– so, I know first hand that you can make money with the program.

BUT…  Being on the internet, online scams are inevitable.

There are good affiliate programs – and bad affiliate programs.

There are high-paying and low-paying.  Trustworthy and untrustworthy.

Wherever there are REAL opportunities to make money, you will also find scam lurking too.

Consequently, it’s no wonder many people wonder are cautious about scams online.

For example, you will get many get-rich schemes schemes online, luring you in with the promise that you can make money quickly.

Whether it be by…

• Affiliate marketing,
• Drop Shipping,
• Crypto currency related,
• Binary Options,
• Writing Online,
• Gaming Online,
• Doing Online Surveys,
• Work From Home Opportunities,
• Blogging,
• Buying and selling….  and much more.

The ways above provide some potentially legitimate ways that you can make money online.

From small-time opportunities, (online surveys) to potentially larger, full-time opportunities, (most other options).

What scams do is use some legitimate ideas and package them in a way that generally promises to make you a large amount of money, with minimum effort and time invested.

via GIPHY

So, they may promise that you’ll make hundreds or thousands of dollars in the first 30 days, for example.

They may even offer you money if you don’t make a certain amount in the first month.

Affiliate marketing scams often come in “done for you,” packages.

You buy something like a pre-made website, which is full of duplicate content, (that many other people also have and won’t rank in Google) and then you need to drive traffic, (visitors) to an offer.

Getting traffic is the hard part and people will then end up spending a lot of money trying to buy traffic, or may be advised to spam their affiliate links on blogs or websites.

The offer is usually to get people signed up to the exact same system that you just joined.  Getting these pre-made websites or landing pages and then driving traffic to them.

But by joining these programs, all you’re doing is making the creators of these programs richer and not actually learning any skills that can help you become an independent affiliate marketer.

You’re not told how to build your own website, or write your own marketing emails, or learn SEO so that you can rank your own content.

You’re not even shown how to create your own content – so, it’s all about buying into a system rather than learning anything.

This is often really attractive to newbies online, because they’re concerned that learning the skills required to make money from affiliate marketing will be too hard, (the scammers also capitalise on this fear to sell their product).

Looking to learn?  This site led to my first $1000+ affiliate marketing!!!

So, What Is Affiliate Marketing?

I should actually clear up what affiliate marketing is, before I go on any further!

I will use Amazon as an example to explain it.

Say you are online and you’re looking to buy a tent and other accessories.

You type in, “best 4-person family tent,” into the search engine and a bunch of sites come up.

Some appear to be review sites, one is even a newspaper site, that has a review feature article.

Whatever type of site they are, you will generally arrive to a product review of sorts.

In this case, the review will be looking at various tents and linking out to their recommendations.

These links will be personal affiliate links, that track visitors from your website to others.

When someone makes a purchase after going through a personal affiliate link, the affiliate will make a commission.

All sorts of websites are creating an additional income stream through affiliate marketing.  Whether they be small personal blogs, to huge big business websites.

See some of the results below.

The second result down, closely resembled the keyword I first typed in, so it would be something I’d be looking for if I had typed in a genuine query.

When I click on it, it takes me to a review post.

I’m in the UK, so the currency is in pounds here.  But, as you can see, the writer links to Amazon in their review post.

They are an Amazon affiliate. 

If anyone was to click through this link and purchase anything, the website owner would make a commission.

According to an online traffic calculator, the website only generates around 300 views per day.  So, I can’t say how well this particular website is doing.

But, in my experience, product based sites like this do well.  They’re already targeting people looking to buy.

One of my first websites was Amazon affiliate based and started making some sales on only 20 visitors a day, because every post was product based and attracted people who were already looking to buy something.

So, an affiliate is a middleman and will recommend products and services, in return for a commission.

Is Affiliate Marketing A Real Business Opportunity?

According to whoishostingthis, the top 3.3% of affiliate marketers earn over $500,000 per year.

Some other stats shared included that: 39.2% make 0-5k per year and 5.9% make between 50-100k a year.

So, there is really a broad spectrum of income going on, from zero to six figure incomes.

Amazon is actually one of the longest standing affiliate programs, launching way back in 1996!

1996…. This was around the time I actually had the internet at home for the first time!!!

Affiliate marketing is not hard to learn and it’s not expensive to get started.

In many ways, it’s a great business model for people to try who have a small budget.

This is exactly why it appealed to me.

For example; in my first year I spent about four hundred dollars and this included training, hosting my websites and purchasing several domain names.

But I made my investment several times over during my first year…  Which means, I was in profit.

You shouldn’t look at it like a “Job…”  No one is employing you and you will not be paid right away.

You are building a business here and if you work hard, you can make it a profitable business with minimal investment.

It’s worth mentioning that I was pretty slow in generating an income in comparison to some people.

I’ve seen some people go from zero to a 4 figure income a month income in around a year and some reaching 5 figures a month in under 3 years.  So, it’s certainly possible.

The great thing is, you can keep growing.

But you do need to keep in mind that you could go for many months earning absolutely NOTHING!  Being able to stay consistent and motivated is absolutely essential.

So, yes, affiliate marketing is a real business opportunity and a real opportunity to make money….  But it’s not going to fall in your lap!

Remember…. Most People Will Give Up!

One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is just how many people give up.  Often before they’ve made any money.

They can start off full of energy and enthusiasm.

They think they’re going to make 10,000 a month in the next few months… you try and give them realistic expectations, but they’re not listening.

Then, within the space of a month or two, they will already have quit.

They will have had the same opportunity as anyone else.  The same possibility of making money from home and to have location independence and be their own boss.

But, they just couldn’t motivate themselves to carry on in the long-term.

It’s this scenario that is FAR FAR FAR more common than the alternative.

I’d say that determination and motivation are two of the biggest indicators of success eventually.

In addition though, taking consistent action is also vital.

It’s no good just talking about it, learning about it, or thinking about it.

You actually have to act on that and act on building your business.

People are distracted, doubtful, impatient and if you stick with your affiliate marketing efforts for even 6 months, you will be way ahead than practically anyone that starts.

If people really knew the rate at which people gave up, I think more would be determined to stick with it and actually succeed.

You will come across things that you know, that you don’t know, things that are out of your comfort zone and various forks in the road that will challenge you.  This is all part of growing your own business.

If having an online business is definitely what you want, you have to expect some of this stuff walking into it.

Don’t Expect Too Much Too Soon!

I remember going into this that I thought I’d have a full time income within six months – despite what I was told!  I thought that somehow, I would be different.

I remember feeling deeply depressed at times that I wasn’t seeing the results that I wanted.

Eventually though, I did start making sales.  My mindset started to shift and I realised finally that I was in this for the long-haul.

I stopped thinking about “sales,” and started working on growing my business and boosting my content and my traffic.

Is Amazon Affiliate A Scam!?

No.  Affiliate marketing is a potentially lucrative business to get into and has minimum start-up costs.

The Amazon affiliate program in particular, is a great programs to help newbies get started and make their first sales.