Myths abound when it comes to affiliate marketing. Let’s go over some of these myths now and see what the reality is.

It’s better to create your own products instead of marketing others’ products.
While it’s always a good idea to have some products yourself, it’s not the only way to make good money. You can do both! In fact, one can complement the other.

For example, if you’re promoting an ebook about A and B but people want to know about C too, whip up an ebook or video series about C to sell to these customers. Or set up a paid membership where you can group coach them through further aspects of ABC.

If you’re selling your own ebook about how to do something, you can promote someone else’s tool within your ebook or on the backend that helps automate that something. Or maybe after customers learn about it from you and they decide they want a done-for-you option, you can promote, as an affiliate, a company that will give them that.

You can make more money when you have your own products.
Yes, it’s true IF you have a good-sized list of ready buyers. But… think of the time it takes to make something yourself – you have to make all the components, get a sales page written, set up all the pages, have something to offer people as a lead magnet, get the marketing parts set up and in place, and so on. It’s pretty time-consuming and exhausting. You really don’t have to recreate the wheel. If another marketer just introduced her own huge whiz-bang creation, then promote it. You could make just as much money introducing three or four affiliate products to your list in the time it would take to make your own.

As an affiliate marketer, you never have to handle customer service.
Technically, your name is not on that product. But realistically, you’re endorsing it and when customers don’t get their downloads or their bonuses, many will come to you about the problem. Your reputation is on the line and sometimes you have to step in and represent the customers who bought through you.

You should only promote profitable niches.
If you’re new to affiliate marketing, it’s better not to jump on the bandwagon of the newest and biggest product launch. There’s quite a bit of competition from seasoned players. Instead, start with a niche and products that appeal to you. It’s a real yawner to try and sell stuff you have absolutely no interest in. Your efforts will come across as flat, if you can force yourself to even keep promoting. If it’s something that excites you, it’s a lot easier to excite others.

Affiliate marketing doesn’t take much work.
While it’s true you don’t have to do the initial work of putting a product together, your work comes on the other end, the marketing end. It won’t sell itself just because you put a small ad on your website, you have to promote it in a myriad of ways.

That could mean a video where you walk through the product, a podcast interview with the owner, a webinar answering questions, a blog post showing your results from using it, PPC ads, emails to your list and lots and lots of social media posts, tweets and pins. Where do your potential customers hang out? Those are the places you want to be.

Hopefully this has busted a few myths for you and given you some further insights into affiliate marketing. It’s not a Sunday stroll in the park but with some strategic work, you should find this particular income stream quite rewarding.