Meaning that if you’ve found yourself at a crossroads wondering whether you should choose affiliate marketing or freelancing, you’ve landed in exactly the right place to find out the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we’ll begin by ensuring you have an absolutely crystal clear understanding of how each one works.<\/p>\n\n\n
Free Training<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Become a Super Affiliate Marketer \ud83d\ude80<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n![\"Affiliate](\"https:\/\/commission.academy\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/training-lesson.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nSign up for our free affiliate marketing training<\/a> & learn how you can become a super affiliate in any niche. Discover powerful traffic generation methods & little-known tactics to generate the most revenue for every single click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nJoin Commission Academy Now<\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\nWhat Is Affiliate Marketing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services online in return for commissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, as an affiliate, you would first join a company’s affiliate program (which is free to do<\/a>) & then you would be provided with a special link to their website known as an affiliate link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis link would be unique to you, meaning that if somebody clicked it & made a purchase on the website, the company would know it was you that sent them there & they’d reward you with a commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like to refer to it as “freelance advertising”. You’re advertising products or services on behalf of companies & you’re getting paid based on the performance of your efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that’s obviously great, providing that your ads perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if you don’t know how to promote your affiliate links online effectively (& don’t have access to a great affiliate marketing course<\/a> like ours), you could find yourself doing a lot of work for little reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn the other hand, if you do learn how to promote your links effectively, affiliate marketing has the potential to make you a millionaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat Is Freelancing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Freelancing involves selling a skill to a client in return for a fixed payment. This could be writing articles<\/a>, doing graphic design, building websites or transcribing videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd, as you can imagine, the more advanced the skills you have (and the better you are at them), the more money you can typically earn as a freelancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, whilst you can still earn a decent amount of money by writing articles<\/a>, you’re likely going to earn a lot more as a full-stack web developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut that’s not necessarily always the case because freelancing does also require you to be good at marketing your services as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So you may have desirable skills, but you also need to know how to get clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Personal Experience With Freelancing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When I first began my affiliate marketing journey, I also tried my hand at freelancing for a good couple of years to make sure my income was “solidified”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, I was unsure how stable (or unstable) income generated from affiliate marketing could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, because I’d learned how to build websites, I decided to offer this service to others as a freelancer through the website Freelancer.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd was I successful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, yes, in short, I did pretty well with freelancing & earned a relatively handsome amount of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was by no means anything life-changing, but it was enough to cover me in the instance anything went wrong with my affiliate marketing income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, to earn this “nothing special” level of income as a freelancer, I had to work around the clock on many different projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the reason for that was that the industry was so competitive, which meant I had to carry out jobs for really low prices to stand out from the crowd & get chosen by the project creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was tiring, not very rewarding, & I eventually found myself suffering from burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Especially because clients would try & squeeze every last bit of work out of you for the money, meaning they would request change after change & you would be forced to do it through fear of getting a negative review which could ruin your chance of getting future freelancing jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the real “throw in the towel” moment came when I got scammed by an employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent weeks working on their project, only for them to later run a chargeback on the payment they sent me, which meant that the money got clawed back from my account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can imagine, I was furious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But thankfully, by this point, I’d gained a bit more faith in my affiliate marketing income & I became brave enough to start focusing solely on that instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, I needed a break… And I’d seen so many affiliate marketing gurus boasting about the potential for passive income generation<\/a> that it can provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNow, over 10 years on, I can safely say I have never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freelancing has a place & it helped me out for a little while, but there’s absolutely no doubt about it in my mind, affiliate marketing<\/a> is the better option long-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy I Believe Affiliate Marketing Is Better<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One of the primary reasons I believe affiliate marketing is better is the fact that it truly does enable you to generate passive income<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou see, freelancing is stressful. But it’s made worse by the fact that you feel you can never catch a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because you’re working for such little amounts of money, you’re essentially forced into working every hour that you can to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you stop working, the money stops coming in & worse, clients start complaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whereas with affiliate marketing, it’s completely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mean, sure, affiliate marketing can still be stressful from time to time… But if you stop working, the money can still keep coming in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, due to a bit of content creator burnout<\/a>, I actually took a break for FOUR years.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI mean, saying that now still sounds kind of crazy. What other industry could you be in that enables you to get paid for four years without working?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that’s not the only benefit. There are many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- You don’t have to talk to anybody (or show your face<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You don’t have to deal with clients complaining<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You decide how much you want to earn, not the employer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Your income can be scaled as high as you want<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You can earn from things you actually enjoy<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- And you don’t have to trade your time for money<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Can You Make a Living From Affiliate Marketing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Yes, absolutely. In fact, you could make a very good living from affiliate marketing<\/a> & with the correct methods, you could even find yourself becoming a millionaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOf course, it will not happen overnight, but with hard work & persistence, you could certainly make a living from affiliate marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the best part is that you don’t need any prior skills or experience. Anybody can do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, I have met successful affiliate marketers (and even super affiliates<\/a>) who were firemen, electricians, and some who were still in college<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo the potential to earn a living from affiliate marketing is definitely there & I can be a testament to that as I’ve been doing affiliate marketing full-time for over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, if you’d like, you can even see what a day in the life of an affiliate marketer looks like right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAffiliate Marketing vs Freelancing: Pros & Cons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Whilst I personally believe affiliate marketing to be 100x better than freelancing in the long-run, it is not without flaws & freelancing does still have some pros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So let’s take a look at the pros & cons of each below to give you an easy to view side by side comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pros of Affiliate Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- Potential for your income to become passive<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You can earn as much as you like<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You can work on your own terms<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You can make a living from things you’re passionate about<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You can remain anonymous<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There are no skills required to get started<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Affiliate Marketing Downsides<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- It can take a little while to earn your first commissions<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There’s no guarantee of revenue<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Pros of Freelancing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- You can get paid quickly if you manage to get work<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You could potentially find long-term work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Freelancing Downsides<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- Finding work will be difficult without highly-desired skills<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You’ll typically be paid low amounts for your work<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You will have to communicate with employers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You will have to work to deadlines<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There is no opportunity for the income to become passive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Is Affiliate Marketing Beginner Friendly?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One of the biggest reasons people seem put off affiliate marketing & lean more towards freelancing is because they think affiliate marketing isn’t friendly for beginners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in actual fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Affiliate marketing is hands-down one of the best business models for beginners, especially when you have access to step-by-step training<\/a> like you do here at Commission Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo don’t be put off affiliate marketing simply because you think it will be challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can tell you, from experience, that freelancing is more challenging overall. More importantly, it is more stressful & less rewarding in the long-run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So whilst freelancing may seem like a tempting opportunity because you can earn money relatively quickly (if you manage to get work), affiliate marketing will work out better if you stick with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, just as I did, there’s nothing stopping you from doing both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could get become an affiliate marketer<\/a> & at the same time, take on some freelancing jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat way, you could grow your affiliate marketing business in the background & use the freelancing work to provide a bit of stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, as your affiliate business grows, you could gradually wind down your freelancing efforts & begin reaping the passive income as an affiliate<\/a>. \ud83e\udd11<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Bottom Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In my opinion, affiliate marketing beats freelancing hands-down. It’s less stressful, more flexible & gives you the opportunity to earn as much as you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freelancing, on the other hand, can enable you to earn some money relatively quickly but will likely see you suffering from burnout in the long run & getting massively underpaid for your efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if you’d like to start affiliate marketing, be sure to check out our free affiliate marketing course<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn it, we walk you through the process of getting set up step-by-step, right from the very beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But overall, whatever you decide to do, I hope that you found this post helpful & if you have any further questions or comments, feel free to leave them below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nSign up for our free affiliate marketing training<\/a> & learn how you can become a super affiliate in any niche. Discover powerful traffic generation methods & little-known tactics to generate the most revenue for every single click.<\/p>\n\n\n Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services online in return for commissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, as an affiliate, you would first join a company’s affiliate program (which is free to do<\/a>) & then you would be provided with a special link to their website known as an affiliate link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This link would be unique to you, meaning that if somebody clicked it & made a purchase on the website, the company would know it was you that sent them there & they’d reward you with a commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like to refer to it as “freelance advertising”. You’re advertising products or services on behalf of companies & you’re getting paid based on the performance of your efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that’s obviously great, providing that your ads perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you don’t know how to promote your affiliate links online effectively (& don’t have access to a great affiliate marketing course<\/a> like ours), you could find yourself doing a lot of work for little reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if you do learn how to promote your links effectively, affiliate marketing has the potential to make you a millionaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freelancing involves selling a skill to a client in return for a fixed payment. This could be writing articles<\/a>, doing graphic design, building websites or transcribing videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, as you can imagine, the more advanced the skills you have (and the better you are at them), the more money you can typically earn as a freelancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, whilst you can still earn a decent amount of money by writing articles<\/a>, you’re likely going to earn a lot more as a full-stack web developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that’s not necessarily always the case because freelancing does also require you to be good at marketing your services as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you may have desirable skills, but you also need to know how to get clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I first began my affiliate marketing journey, I also tried my hand at freelancing for a good couple of years to make sure my income was “solidified”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, I was unsure how stable (or unstable) income generated from affiliate marketing could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, because I’d learned how to build websites, I decided to offer this service to others as a freelancer through the website Freelancer.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And was I successful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, yes, in short, I did pretty well with freelancing & earned a relatively handsome amount of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was by no means anything life-changing, but it was enough to cover me in the instance anything went wrong with my affiliate marketing income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, to earn this “nothing special” level of income as a freelancer, I had to work around the clock on many different projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the reason for that was that the industry was so competitive, which meant I had to carry out jobs for really low prices to stand out from the crowd & get chosen by the project creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was tiring, not very rewarding, & I eventually found myself suffering from burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially because clients would try & squeeze every last bit of work out of you for the money, meaning they would request change after change & you would be forced to do it through fear of getting a negative review which could ruin your chance of getting future freelancing jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the real “throw in the towel” moment came when I got scammed by an employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spent weeks working on their project, only for them to later run a chargeback on the payment they sent me, which meant that the money got clawed back from my account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can imagine, I was furious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But thankfully, by this point, I’d gained a bit more faith in my affiliate marketing income & I became brave enough to start focusing solely on that instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, I needed a break… And I’d seen so many affiliate marketing gurus boasting about the potential for passive income generation<\/a> that it can provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, over 10 years on, I can safely say I have never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freelancing has a place & it helped me out for a little while, but there’s absolutely no doubt about it in my mind, affiliate marketing<\/a> is the better option long-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the primary reasons I believe affiliate marketing is better is the fact that it truly does enable you to generate passive income<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You see, freelancing is stressful. But it’s made worse by the fact that you feel you can never catch a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because you’re working for such little amounts of money, you’re essentially forced into working every hour that you can to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you stop working, the money stops coming in & worse, clients start complaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whereas with affiliate marketing, it’s completely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, sure, affiliate marketing can still be stressful from time to time… But if you stop working, the money can still keep coming in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, due to a bit of content creator burnout<\/a>, I actually took a break for FOUR years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, saying that now still sounds kind of crazy. What other industry could you be in that enables you to get paid for four years without working?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that’s not the only benefit. There are many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, absolutely. In fact, you could make a very good living from affiliate marketing<\/a> & with the correct methods, you could even find yourself becoming a millionaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, it will not happen overnight, but with hard work & persistence, you could certainly make a living from affiliate marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the best part is that you don’t need any prior skills or experience. Anybody can do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the years, I have met successful affiliate marketers (and even super affiliates<\/a>) who were firemen, electricians, and some who were still in college<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the potential to earn a living from affiliate marketing is definitely there & I can be a testament to that as I’ve been doing affiliate marketing full-time for over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, if you’d like, you can even see what a day in the life of an affiliate marketer looks like right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst I personally believe affiliate marketing to be 100x better than freelancing in the long-run, it is not without flaws & freelancing does still have some pros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let’s take a look at the pros & cons of each below to give you an easy to view side by side comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest reasons people seem put off affiliate marketing & lean more towards freelancing is because they think affiliate marketing isn’t friendly for beginners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in actual fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Affiliate marketing is hands-down one of the best business models for beginners, especially when you have access to step-by-step training<\/a> like you do here at Commission Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So don’t be put off affiliate marketing simply because you think it will be challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can tell you, from experience, that freelancing is more challenging overall. More importantly, it is more stressful & less rewarding in the long-run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So whilst freelancing may seem like a tempting opportunity because you can earn money relatively quickly (if you manage to get work), affiliate marketing will work out better if you stick with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, just as I did, there’s nothing stopping you from doing both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could get become an affiliate marketer<\/a> & at the same time, take on some freelancing jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That way, you could grow your affiliate marketing business in the background & use the freelancing work to provide a bit of stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, as your affiliate business grows, you could gradually wind down your freelancing efforts & begin reaping the passive income as an affiliate<\/a>. \ud83e\udd11<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my opinion, affiliate marketing beats freelancing hands-down. It’s less stressful, more flexible & gives you the opportunity to earn as much as you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freelancing, on the other hand, can enable you to earn some money relatively quickly but will likely see you suffering from burnout in the long run & getting massively underpaid for your efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if you’d like to start affiliate marketing, be sure to check out our free affiliate marketing course<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In it, we walk you through the process of getting set up step-by-step, right from the very beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But overall, whatever you decide to do, I hope that you found this post helpful & if you have any further questions or comments, feel free to leave them below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What Is Affiliate Marketing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Is Freelancing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My Personal Experience With Freelancing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why I Believe Affiliate Marketing Is Better<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Can You Make a Living From Affiliate Marketing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Affiliate Marketing vs Freelancing: Pros & Cons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Pros of Affiliate Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Affiliate Marketing Downsides<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Pros of Freelancing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Freelancing Downsides<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Is Affiliate Marketing Beginner Friendly?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n