What a question. In a word – maybe.
As with any side work that one can do, what one gets out of it is entirely dependent on what one puts into it.
Is This a Good Passive Income Stream?
Setting up
Yes, starting out is a bit of work – or at least it can be if you want to be truly successful. Doing research, testing products, and establishing your online presence are certainly important early steps if you’re going to be an affiliate or promoter.
After you’ve created your ‘space’ on the internet, next is to fill it with useful content. Again – research plays a key part, and with it you can create engaging articles and stories, reviews and comparisons or whatever types of content you envision for your promotional efforts.
Fine tuning
After you’ve got a website and some content, is it time to relax?
Probably not!
You see, there’s still the issue of getting seen! So, SEO can help a lot. If you’re using WordPress, your articles and posts will have keyword entries you can set up so that Google searches can pick up on your new pages and links. Additionally, posting to socials can help create awareness for YOUR brand(you want people visiting your site so they click your links, after all).
Beyond SEO and Socials is also paid advertising – if you’re interested in that you can buy keyword results from Google or other engines so that you rank higher for certain words or phrases. This is a more advanced tactic, and I recommend you do your research before heading down that path – but – it is effective.
And there’s more you can do to fine tune your site, and get noticed.
Continued effort
Having initial articles and links is great, as is the promotion of your brand. Moving forward, now that you’ve laid the foundation – you can relax a little bit as compared to when you started. However, that doesn’t mean it’s hands-off, either.
Regular posts on your website help to keep the Google algorithm crawling your site. Regular socials and other advertising lend authority to your brand, and keep it in front of a larger audience. Continued research helps you identify trends or gaps in your market, that you should plan for and work toward. Doing so will help you to succeed in your promoting and affiliate efforts.
Conclusion
In the end, I would argue that being an affiliate is NOT a passive income stream. However, it is a SUPER effective one if you’re willing to put in the effort.
As an old saying goes – “The best things in life aren’t free”. And that’s true of being an affiliate, too. It’ll cost you some effort and a bit of time, however as our top affiliates prove every month – there’s certainly plenty of income to be had!
Thanks for reading!