In this video, Matt breaks down the claims made about affiliate marketing as the “highest paying remote job.” While it’s true that affiliate marketing can be a great business model, the reality is far more complex than the “easy money” message being sold.
Yes, you can recommend products and earn commissions—but without an audience to market to, the chances of success are slim. There are millions of people trying to do the same thing, and without followers who trust you and are interested in your recommendations, it’s nearly impossible to make any sales.
Affiliate marketing may sound like a dream job, but it’s a simple, yet challenging business model. It requires a lot of effort, especially in building a following, and the chances of success are much lower than you might think. Let’s take a look at the full picture before jumping in.
There are tons of people out on social media giving business advice. Some of it is good advice, but most of it isn’t good. In this series watch CapForge’s owner react to different advice videos. He’s an expert in all things business and has 20+ years of experience under his belt. Some of the things he reacts to might even surprise you!
Video Transcript:
Business Advice Video:
Here’s the highest paying remote job you can do from anywhere. No degree, no experience, and no social media following required. And you can do it in 1-3 hours a day. Just in case you don’t believe me, Forbes has just announced this is the highest paying job for the third year in a row. What I’m referring to is called digital marketing, AKA affiliate marketing. This has allowed me to quit picking up overtime shifts in the busy, overcrowded emergency department where I’ve worked for the past 15 years. It’s allowed me to clear all my debts and travel with my family whenever I feel like it, all in one year’s time. There’s no team building, no shipping, no creating your own product, and there’s definitely no bugging family and friends. Simply recommending products and services that you find value in and that you love and use yourself.
Matt’s Review:
Okay, so sort of like the video I looked at earlier today with the print-on-demand side hustle, it’s so easy, anyone can do it, there’s no trick to it, no cost to doing it. Affiliate marketing is a similar thing, right? You can find a product that has an affiliate program, like virtually anything you can get on Amazon or all kinds of other affiliate programs, and then you create some content where you talk about that product, recommend it to people. If they buy it via your link, you get paid something. The problem is there are millions of people doing this and there’s only so much attention and interested audience to go around, right? So if you said you don’t have to build a social media following, but really without a following, who are you suggesting these products to, right? Just throwing them on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. If you have no audience, no followers, and they’re not interested in the product you’re recommending, what benefit is there, right? You’re not making any sales. So this is the kind of business you could spend 10, 20, 50, 100 hours creating content with virtually nothing to show for it if you don’t have an audience of people who are consuming your content, interested in the kinds of products that you’re recommending, and following through and purchasing. So it’s an easy business if you have a big audience of followers, it’s a nearly impossible business if you don’t have an audience. Therefore, first step is to have a big audience of followers. If that’s not something you want do or can do or will do, then this business is pretty much worthless to you. That’s how it works. And it’s simple, but it’s not easy. This is definitely a business that falls into that simple but not easy category. It’s a ton of work. and it’s a very small percent of people at the top of the audience food chain that can make this work and make five or six figures, even $10,000 for a year’s worth of effort would be pretty impressive. It would put you in the top 5%, I would guess, of affiliate marketers, which means that 19 out of 20 people who try this are gonna be less than that. Most of them are gonna be zero. I’m not trying to discourage you from doing the business, but I want you to understand what you’re committing to and what’s gonna make this work so that you’re not disappointed or not imagining that it’s something that it’s not. Because these guys that are selling courses and trying to get you to commit and pay for their instruction and everything else, they’re not giving you the full story of what it actually takes to be successful with this. They’re giving you the easy part, but they’re not talking about how much work actually is required to be successful and what the odds of success are.