How to Respond to Harsh Questions About Your Affiliate Marketing Company

There are some questions that you need to be ready for if you are involved with an affiliate marketing company. Often, these same questions come up repeatedly from prospects, customers, and referral sources alike. So why not learn how to answer them in a way that everyone can understand? In this post, I shall be addressing how to respond to harsh questions about your affiliate marketing company.

Here are five common questions about affiliate marketing and how to answer them in a way that will make everyone happy.

1. Isn’t Affiliate Marketing a Ponzi Scheme?

Affiliate marketing is NOT a Ponzi scheme. On the contrary, affiliate marketing is exactly what it claims to be…marketing!

Affiliate marketing is simply marketing products on someone’s behalf and getting paid a commission when a sale is made. The only difference between affiliate marketing and “regular” marketing is that marketing agencies generally get paid a retainer on the front end without commission on the back end sale.

To answer the question fully, we need to define what a Ponzi scheme is. The short definition is that it’s when people are sold on an idea, and they make money based on recruiting other members into the company without selling anything of value. No products = no income for anybody except those at the top of the pyramid.

Affiliate marketing is nothing like a Ponzi scheme because affiliates are selling products or services for a company – they are not making money from recruiting other people into a program that is selling nothing of value.

2. Isn’t Affiliate Marketing Expensive to Get Started?

Again, the answer is NO. In most cases, there are no startup costs to join an affiliate marketing program. However, there are definitely expenses associated with affiliate marketing, depending on your approach to marketing your products or services.

For example, if you are marketing your products through paid ads, then, of course, there is the cost of those ads associated with that strategy. Also, if you are selling via a website, there is the cost of building that site and paying for hosting to keep it active.

However, it is entirely possible to get started in affiliate marketing totally for free. For example, you can share your affiliate links with people on free social networking sites, make YouTube videos explaining the benefits of the product or service, share those videos with the world, etc.

3. Affiliate Marketing Isn’t a Real Career, Is It?

Many people have the idea in their heads that affiliate marketing is some sort of get-rich-quick scheme or a side-hustle at best. However, affiliate marketing is a real career for many people.

Affiliate marketing is a direct sales opportunity that allows marketers to make money by selling products and services right from their own homes. It also provides a great deal of flexibility in establishing their work schedule. However, there is definitely work involved in affiliate marketing. Successful affiliate marketers put in the time and effort the same as any other career field.

4. Can You Really Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?

The answer is yes, as long as you are willing to work at it. However, success in affiliate marketing does not happen overnight.

Affiliate marketers can make a full-time income from their efforts put in an average of 40 hours per week. But, of course, there is even more time commitment required if you want to start making six-figure incomes like many top earners do.

There are no “get rich quick” schemes when it comes to affiliate marketing, just like there are no shortcuts in any other field of work. If you want something done right, you have to put in the time, get the education, and work hard to get the results you want.

5. Aren’t Affiliate Marketing Networks Just a Scam?

Affiliate marketing networks are neither a scam nor do they operate against the interest of their affiliates (people that market for them). On the contrary, affiliate advertising is an important source of traffic and sales for many companies, especially smaller companies that cannot afford to market independently.

Many people don’t realize that Amazon got their big boost when they started their Amazon Associates affiliate program, where they paid a commission of the sale to people who marketed Amazon’s catalog to people.

• Save

So I ask you…is Amazon a scam?

Of course not. They were simply smart enough to expand their business model by paying people to market their products and services.

6. Doesn’t It Take a Lot of Time to Do Affiliate Marketing?

In most cases, affiliate marketing does not take any more time than a “regular” job. But, like anything, there is a learning curve with getting started in a new field.

However, once you get past that learning curve and know what you are doing, it is easy to manage your time with affiliate marketing the same as any other field of work. In most cases, marketers utilizing paid ads only spend about 20 minutes per day managing their accounts and keeping them active.

However, if you have a different model, like making videos or building websites, it takes time to develop those resources and get them in front of people. But that is true of any type of job…if you want to be paid more and grow your business faster, you have put in the time to learn new things.

7. What If I Can’t Deal With Selling or Marketing Products?

You don’t have to deal with anything if you don’t want to! You can simply pick a company and sign up as an affiliate for them. Your only goal as an affiliate marketer is to get someone to the companies site through your affiliate link. All of the sales, shipping, customer service, etc., is done by the affiliated company.

Closing Thoughts on Handling Tough Questions About Your Affiliate Marketing Company

As you can see, affiliate marketing is a great way to earn an income online. You are in complete control of the services and products you market for, which allows you to be selective in what you promote. So if you have been looking for a way to turn your internet connection into a steady source of income, affiliate marketing might be the right choice for you.

If questions like the ones above come up from friends and family (and they will), remember what I talked about and help them understand what it is you do more clearly. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post.

Let me know your thoughts or suggestions in the comments below.

And if you liked it, Share it!