Is affiliate marketing a pyramid scheme?


More and more people are looking for ways to make money online in 2023. Affiliate marketing is a great way to start building a passive income online. But you may have doubts and wonder is Affiliate marketing a pyramid scheme? The answer is no Affiliate marketing is not a pyramid scheme. We will go over and compare the two and break each one down so that you can have a better understanding of affiliate marketing and a pyramid scheme. 

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is when you sign up new members to invest money and time to be promised a high return from your investment and efforts of signing up more individuals for this scheme. In most countries, this is illegal. 

Image a pyramid and at the top is where the scheme leders are. every one bellow them will have to pay a fee to the guys at the top of the pyramid. This goes for every new member who signed up below them this keeps going on and going. The point where every thing turns bad into worst is when new members stop joining and don’t have enough members to stay ahead with income. The collapse will only benefit the top people of the pyramid scheme. Everyone at the bottom will lose their investment fee and any etrxa money that you have been promised from them. 

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when you have influence in your niche and have a platform with a large following. Affiliate marketing is a business model that allows you to monetize your following and earn commissions. This is a great way to make passive income from your favorite brands and services you use. Most major brands in all categories have affiliate programs you can sign up for like Amazon, health, software companies , and travel just to scratch the surface. 

What is affiliate marketing?

In 2023 affiliate marketing is growing in trend, with more and more influencers and brand owners using affiliate marketing as another great source of income. The benefits of affiliate marketing are even better 

  • You don’t need a website 
  • You don’t have to be bothered with customer service or returns 
  • You are the middleman for your favorite brands and services 
  • Commissions can be on a recurring bases 
  • Endless amount of passive income. 
  • Endless ways to promote 
  • Commission rates are typically good 

Affiliate marketing can make you lots of money depending on your affiliate offers and the audience you decide to market to. You can make affiliate marketing a good side hustle or turn it into a business in 2023. About 80% of digital marketers use affiliate marketing in their campaigns. Affiliate marketing is a massive industry worth around $20 Billion. 

The difference between pyramid schemes and affiliate marketing 

Pyramid schemes are illegal under state and federal law in the United States. However, affiliate marketing is a legal business model for companies to utilize affiliate programs to help expand their reach on the Internet.  

The pyramid scheme’s primary goal is to recruit new members to the platform to make a profit From all who sign up and who every those members sign up as well. While affiliate marketing is embedded in large well, know companies that laser focus on one of three things Email sign-ups and sell of product services. After your conversion you will be compacted with a commission for your efforts. 

How to start affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is easy to learn with endless ways to promote and earn commissions online. The best way to start a long affiliate marketing career is by starting a blog. Do you need a blog to start affiliate marketing? No, but blogging is the best way to monetize and create a business/ brand with.

Affiliate marketing using a platform like a blog gives you many great benefits that other platforms don’t. You have the ability’s to gain free traffic through SEO. You will have display ads on your blog and can earn a passive income with that. Your articles will have affiliate offers. You can collect emails on your blog and will be able to email market your affiliate offers to your leads for an extended period of time. This is a sound ecosystem for affiliate marketing and when you start to scale. 

Step One: Choose a niche or topic you are into and can talk about for a long time. 

Step Three: Research affiliate programs, their products and services, and their terms of service. 

Step Two:

  • Sign up for your affiliate networks/Programs .
  • Affiliate networks like Max bounty, Click Bank, amazon these affiliates are a great starting point in any niche.

Step Three: Create your game plan for promoting your new affiliate offers. What platforms will you Decide to use? Blogging, Word of mouth, Host Events, Social media marketing, Email marketing and Youtube just to name a few. 

Step Four: Drive traffic to your links. Choose your marketing strategy and get high-quality, High valued content for your leads. 

Step Five: Collect data and scale your affiliate business. 

You can start affiliate marketing with any platform of your choosing. It may differ from how others start with other platforms you choose not to use when starting. Be creative and experiment with platforms you know your leads and dream customers hang out at. 

Here are some great marketing strategies for affiliate marketing offers

  • Blogging 
  • Paid ads
  • Word of Mouth 
  • Email marketing 
  • Host events
  • PPC
  • Social Media Marketing

My final thoughts on is affiliate marketing a pyramid scheme.

Affiliate marketing is no pyramid scheme. Once you have conducted the proper research on if affiliate marketing will be a good fit for you, your brand and the platform. Then you will have half the work done. But the main work has yet to be done. And that’s getting high-quality traffic to those affiliate links and making high-quality content to attract customers and leads. 

A pyramid scheme is illegal and you should not participate in these scams if you encounter one. A pyramid scheme can also be associated with crypto and other investment with the promise of your investment shooting to the moon. Look out for these schemes! You can avoid these by searching well-known affiliate programs in your niche. Big brands won’t push pyramid schemes on you. Know the differences between affiliate marketing and a pyramid schemes and start making a passive income today with affiliate marketing.

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AUTHOR

Hey there, I'm Tahj, the digital marketing specialist with a passion for taking brands to the next level. My goal is to unleash my creativity and imagination to find unique ways to market your business. I built this website to share my expertise and to empower you to achieve financial freedom and success that lasts a lifetime.

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