Is Affiliate Marketing Saturated In 2024? [Beat The Competition]

Is Affiliate Marketing Saturated? – The Biggest Mistake New Affiliate Marketers Make

Since creating my blog and sharing my journey of building an online business, I’ve discovered and learned some interesting things along the way.

One of the biggest eye-opening things after writing over 100 blog posts myself to master SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was that chasing after the obvious money posts delays success.

I’ve seen time and time again new affiliate marketers make this mistake: They write review posts and best “A” for “B” type of posts since they know they can get affiliate commissions once they rank at the top of Google.  This is especially true when you consider the fact that 10% of affiliates for an affiliate program drive 90% of the traffic and conversions!

However, the huge issue with this is that you’re going up against the stiffest competition in your niche and a new blog simply does not have enough authority to stand a chance at ranking even on the first page.  Plus, review posts are essentially saturated keywords because you’re getting an extremely small amount of traffic for the level of competition.

If you can shift your focus away from pure affiliate posts meant to get commissions directly and start creating informational posts, then you’ll start to see higher rankings on the first page of Google with less competition and WAY more traffic.

Over time, your blog will start to gain authority and trust with Google, since your posts ranking at the top will naturally start to get backlinks if they’re well written.

The other really nice thing about this is that informational posts don’t have to be updated as often as review posts since there’s inevitably less competition for them.  The same is true for long-tail search phrases.

So, start with the going after creating the content with less competition surrounding it, recommend an affiliate product at a different angle, and then you can still make some affiliate sales with the increased traffic that you otherwise wouldn’t have with review posts on a new site.

How To Succeed In A Saturated Niche With Affiliate Marketing

If you have specific experience in a niche that’s saturated such as fitness or medical-related, then you may still want to go after it for your first try.  You can definitely still be successful but it will take longer to break into the niche and see results.

The good news once you finally break into a saturated niche is that you can easily monetize your traffic and potentially make more money than you would have otherwise.  The challenging part is getting through the first couple of years when you’re seeing hardly any results or income from your efforts.

With this being said, here are some of the ways that are working exceptionally well right now to drive traffic for saturated affiliate marketing niches:

• Facebook Groups – If you ask me, Facebook groups are one of the best ways to warm up an audience and build trust.  You can build an intimate tribe of people around your brand.  Pretty soon they’ll be asking you for your affiliate links and wanting to know which products you recommend.  Creating a Facebook group is one of the fastest ways to start making a massive amount of affiliate sales.
• Blogging With E.A.T. & Epic Content – Blogging has been around nearly since the dawn of the internet.  However, in order to succeed with blogging and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you need to focus on building a brand with expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E.A.T.).  You also need to create the best content for the main search query that you’re targeting to be able to deserve a chance at ranking number one.
• YouTube Organic – Building a YouTube channel and growing an audience on the platform is currently one of the best opportunities to take advantage of right now in digital marketing.  More and more people are turning to YouTube and videos to consume content.  By creating a YouTube channel, you can start to build trust with your audience that simply can’t be replicated on just about any other platform online.  The cool part is that there’s way less competition than in the Google search results if you’re willing to face your fears and get on camera.
• YouTube Paid Ads – Running paid ads is something that I normally recommend against if you’re just starting out.  However, if you’ve got a YouTube channel then this could be an incredible opportunity to see a high conversion rate with Youtube ads.

Affiliate Marketing In Non-Saturated Niches: Grow Faster In A Blue Ocean

A nice clear blue ocean is honestly where you want to be if you’re just starting out.  You can inevitably get more traffic with the same amount of work when starting out.

Blue oceans are niches that typically aren’t as easily monetizable but if you think outside the box then you can monetize just about anything if you’ve got the traffic.

Here are some monetization strategies to consider:

• Advertisements – If you’re creating a blog or YouTube Channel, this one can be huge.  Your earnings will vary depending upon the niche you choose but you can monetize any traffic with ads.  The cool part about it too is that ads are super simple to set up and for many affiliate marketers they actually bring in a majority of the income for their online business.
• Email Marketing – Email is a super powerful way to connect with your audience and follow-up.  However, you need to take the time to write out a sequence of emails first that can sell for you on autopilot.
• Info Products – If you’ve got a YouTube channel, then info products can literally 10X your business overnight.  Your audience will get to know you over time and all you need to do is create a product that they’ll love and do an awesome product launch.

Final Thoughts: Is Affiliate Marketing Saturated?

Affiliate marketing is saturated in certain niches and not saturated in other niches with less competition that are blue oceans.  It’s best to start out in a blue ocean to grow your first online business faster but you can be successful in a more competitive niche as well.

The ultimate key to succeeding with your affiliate marketing online business is that you adapt to changes online as new platforms are introduced, user behavior changes and trends shift in the marketplace.

I recommend getting started with affiliate marketing by either building a Facebook group, a blog, or a YouTube channel.  

The course I recommend everyone take to fast-track their way to success with affiliate marketing is Project 24.  It’s an incredible course that walks you through step-by-step how to build an affiliate marketing business online utilizing the power of blogging and YouTube (highly recommend it). 

If you want more posts on affiliate marketing, then you can keep reading by checking out some of the suggested posts below.