Affiliate marketing can become a great source of income. After you are finished with the initial phase of setting the website and finding a product or service for advertisement, turning the site into a passive source of income requires a few hours every week.
Of course, you will need to do quite a bit of work initially. And if you have not had a lot of experience with affiliate marketing or digital marketing in general, it might be worth broadening your horizons with SWOT analysis.
The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And even if it seems like a dry piece of information, keep in mind that more knowledge is always a good thing, especially when talking about methods to make money.
This article will tell how your business may gain advantage through SWOT Analysis as well as paint you a bigger picture of what you can expect in the affiliate marketing journey. So without further ado, let us take a look at each of the four aspects of the SWOT analysis and how they relate to affiliate marketing.
Strengths
Despite what you may hear, there are still plenty of entrepreneurs who make money through affiliate marketing. Ecommerce industry as a whole continues to grow rapidly, and some may think that dropshipping and regular online stores are the best when it comes to popularity and profits.
But the strengths of affiliate marketing lie in its simplicity. Similar to dropshipping, you do not need to worry about stuff like inventory management, warehouse fees, or paying employees to run the whole operation. Sure, there are times when you can hire some help, but that is not necessary in general.
Initial costs are also minimal. Some marketers make do without even developing a website. A social media channel for affiliate links does the work just as fine, and in some instances, it may be even better than a complete site.
Another advantage is the plethora of products and services that you can advertise. Sure, most beginners start with Amazon or ClickBank because it is easy to find a suitable product on these two websites. But if you are looking for something very specific, or a program that offers excellent commission rates, finding one should also be a possibility.
Finally, working with affiliate marketing will provide you with valuable experience in case you decide to take on other digital marketing ventures.
Weaknesses
As one would expect, it is not all perfect in the world of affiliate marketing. There are some weaknesses, or, in other words, disadvantages, as well.
The most notable weakness is how the person promoting the product or service is not directly responsible for its development of quality. Even if you write detailed articles reviewing products and focusing on their strong side, do not forget to mention some downsides as well. Otherwise, you stand to lose trust between yourself and your website visitors.
One other weakness is how much traffic is necessary to make a decent amount of money. Things start relatively slow in most cases, and not everyone has the patience to wait until they are happy with the results. Not to mention that finding the right audience can be a tough challenge while promoting specific services or products.
Opportunities
There are more than enough opportunities for those who are willing to give affiliate marketing a try and work hard at it.
The fact that you have so many different products to choose can be a negative thing for some, but in general, when one idea does not work out, you can always move on to the next one and repeat until you find a product that is selling well. And do not think of these failures as something to dissuade you but rather as something that provides you with valuable experience in understanding how the idea of affiliate marketing works in practice.
Threats
Threats can be found in affiliate marketing as well. One thing that stands out a lot is the competition. When you are starting, it seems like there are already more than enough websites that are promoting the exact product you want.
It is true that certain markets are oversaturated or are in danger of attracting too many marketers due to a sudden increase in product demand. A simple trend can change anything in a day, and predicting upcoming trends is rather tricky.
Given the amount of available information online, almost everyone can start a website and promote affiliate products. Competition is healthy, but having to deal with too much is a big problem.
An average person on the internet is also becoming smarter, and methods that have worked in the past may longer be as efficient. Marketers that fail to adapt or come up with new ideas stand to lose their source of income.
