Is Affiliate Marketing A Good Source For Retirement Income In 2023

Is affiliate marketing a good source for retirement income?

The answer for me is a resounding YES!

But, we’re all not created equal and different people like different things.

All I can do is tell you why it’s perfect for me and you can decide if it seems to be a good fit for you or not. I believe for the majority of you, it will be.

Just How Popular Is Affiliate Marketing With Retirees?

The affiliate marketing sector is expected to expand to more than $15.7 billion by 2024.

AARP statistics in 2019, showed that one in five retirees had a side hustle. Other stats show that more than 12% of affiliate marketers are older than 55.

That’s a good sign that it’s a feasible business for the older set of folks like me.

If you read “My Story” you see I started my affiliate marketing journey late in life at 60 years old and I’ll be 70 next month.

The main reasons it’s so popular with the senior sector and with me is a pretty long list.

To give you a better understanding, I’ll break them down for you in the next section.

11 Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing Fits The Senior Lifestyle

First, ask yourself, why did you retire and why are you looking for another income source?

My reason was I was tired of wearing my body out rehabbing houses and wanted to be able to have some good years while I was healthy to enjoy retirement.

However, I lost everything I had in my late 50s and really didn’t have the money to truly retire yet, so, I started looking at what my options were to rebuild my retirement but be easy on me physically.

In my search, the affiliate business is what clicked with me the most, and here are the reasons.

1. Not Physically Demanding

There’s nothing physically demanding about being an affiliate marketer. Lifting your laptop has been pretty much the extent of physical work for me.

Of course, sitting for long periods of time can be bad on your back, so I set a timer reminding me to get up and stretch a bit or walk around. I’ll sometimes get engrossed in what I’m doing and lose track of time, so this helps in that area.

But, other than that, pretty non-physical.

2. You Can Work On Your Own Schedule

Part of the reason for my retirement was to be able to do things on my terms.

Spend quality time with my wife, visit my children and grandchildren when I want, and play golf when I want.

Taking on a part-time job somewhere wouldn’t allow for any of this. I’d still be at the mercy of someone else scheduling my time, telling me when I had to be somewhere. Then, everything I would want to do would have to be scheduled around my set work hours.

As an affiliate marketer, I can do my work around my activities instead of vice versa. There are no set hours when to do affiliate marketing. Early morning, middle of the day, late evening, in the middle of the night, it doesn’t matter. I can work when I want and don’t have to when I don’t want.

3. You Can Work From Anywhere

My wife and I love to go places. A part-time job narrows down the opportunities to be able to travel for an extended amount of time. But, with affiliate marketing, I can work from anywhere. There’s no limit.

I can work from my home office, living room couch, or backyard, from a different city or different state, or even a different country.

As long as I have a cell phone and an internet signal, I can work my affiliate program. I always have my laptop with me, too.

We liked going to Destin, Florida every fall, so I simply took my laptop with me and actually worked, sitting under our umbrella on the beach. And up until that time, I always thought that was hogwash! (You DO need to be careful with the sand, though)

Now, (thanks in part to my affiliate marketing) we have a winter place in central Florida. I just work from there while we’re down there. (usually out by the pool or overlooking the lake our place is on)

In a nutshell, you don’t have to schedule your vacation time or travel plans around your work. As an affiliate marketer, you can schedule what you want to do first, then whatever work on the affiliate program you want to do, after.

4. Not A Lot Of Your Time Required

Once you get used to what you’re doing and know how you want to go about things, you can put in an hour or two a day and keep things running fine. I will say, in the beginning, you’ll probably put in more hours each day, but, again, it’s not necessary. I did because of the excitement of it for me and was eager to see results.

But, you can move at your own pace and work a lot or work a little.

Like all good things, a successful affiliate marketing business is a result of your efforts.

5. No Big Investment To Run The Business

As I said earlier, all the affiliate marketing business requires is a phone and an internet connection. You probably already have both and already paying for those, so, no extra cost there. I like working from a laptop when possible just because of the bigger screen and the typing capabilities. But again, not required.

Your affiliate marketing expenses are minimal. If you go the route in affiliate marketing I’m doing, then you’ll have the cost of your websites which run less than $100 a year.

That’s a YEAR. Try that in a brick-and-mortar business. lol

Honestly, your biggest cost, at least in the beginning, is going to be for your education. Your training is still an insanely low investment compared to the income possibilities. (unlike the thousands upon thousands you invest in college and may never get paid off)

Now, as I learned more, and got my income coming in, I started investing a little more into tools that would make things go faster for me and cut down even more of my time. But, none of that is necessary for the beginning unless you want.

6. No Limit On Your Income

This is the reason I really like it. Affiliate marketing income.

Unlike a part-time job where you clock in and out, there is no limit to your income.

I’ve made $7 in one day and I’ve made $2,500 in one day.

It’s all related to the work you put in, the affiliate program plan you’re promoting, etc.

I have colleagues making $30,000-$60,000 a month with affiliate marketing and I have folks I’ve worked with that are happy to have an extra $500-$1,000 a month coming in.

The main thing is, you can scale up if you want or you don’t have to.

Again, you have control, not someone else.

7. You Can Build A Passive Income

The term “passive income” gets thrown around a lot and truly passive income is income coming in without you doing anything.

Well, upfront you need to put some time and effort into it to build it to where it can become passive income. You just need to lay out a good affiliate marketing plan and/or affiliate marketing strategy.

And the way this will happen is as your own affiliate website traffic grows, you get more and more clicks on your affiliate links which increases your sales. You have written the article initially, but, besides the occasional tweaks and updates, it just sits there getting traffic without any more major effort from you. And that’s just one article.

Once you get 50 articles on your website and traffic coming to all of those, (which is all organic from search engines that are free), your income can build to be very substantial.

All from the initial work of writing the article. Throw in search engine optimization and it grows even more.

Another way of building passive income is through recurring commissions.

Lots of software products are subscribed to, which means the folks subscribing pay a monthly fee. As long as they pay that monthly fee, you get a commission each month they pay.

You only sold it to them once, but you get commissions monthly. Now, multiply that by ten, fifty, or a hundred.

See what I mean?

8. No Marketing Skills Are Required

Folks tell me this all the time.

“Grant, I don’t have any experience in marketing whatsoever.”

I didn’t either. And you don’t have to. Affiliate marketers pick up marketing skills along the way. I know I did. Then I started trying to learn more of those skills. But, none are required at all to start your affiliate marketing business.

Just incorporate what you know and learn more as you go.

9. No Inventory Stock Or Shipping

Whatever company product you’re promoting, is stocked and handled by the company. Nowhere in the affiliate marketing’s sales process do you have to put your hands on the product.

You choose the product you want to promote, they supply you with an affiliate link, (this is how they track to make sure you get credit for the sale). You post that link in your content whether it be in your website articles, email marketing, social media, Youtube, or wherever, and if someone clicks on that link and buys, you get a commission.

The company handles shipping it to the customer or making sure they get the download information if it’s software.

10. No Customer Service Worries

Since you’re not stocking and shipping anything, and don’t even talk to a customer, (unless you choose to) you have no customer service to worry about.

Any complaints about the product go to the company they bought from. All customer service representatives are supplied by the company and you’re not one of them.

As an affiliate marketer, you’re free of that hassle.

11. It’s Free To Join An Affiliate Program

There are over 11,400 affiliate programs in the United States, not even looking at the rest of the world.

Most of these you can join for free, and immediately start promoting, especially in the affiliate networks.

There are no startup fees or entry fees, except for very few exceptions.

Most high-ticket training courses or mentorship programs require you to purchase their course before you can be an affiliate marketer for them. This is because if you’re promoting a product where your commission is going to be $2,000 to $5,000, they want to know that you know the product inside and out.

Of course, this will also help you make more sales because you’ll know what you’re talking about.

And this is mostly for more advanced affiliate marketing where you will have to talk to folks because people usually won’t put out that kind of money just by clicking on a link.

So, the programs you’ll be wanting to join in the beginning will be free, especially through an affiliate network, such as Clickbank, ShareASale, or C.J. Affiliate. You’ll find some of the best affiliate programs on these platforms. It’s also free to join Amazon’s affiliate network which is one of the largest around.

For more about affiliate marketing;

In Conclusion

So, as you can tell, affiliate marketing can be a great way to supplement your retirement and even match or surpass your current retirement income stream.

With today’s internet, anyone can pursue affiliate marketing and earn commissions by promoting products they believe in.

By being able to work from anywhere in the world and having the potential for passive income, affiliate marketing offers retirees an opportunity to build an extra income stream that can support them for years to come.

While it may take some time and effort to get started, if you’re willing to put in the work, you can be successful at affiliate marketing and enjoy a comfortable retirement.