Yes — but the game has changed. The old "write keyword posts and wait for Google" approach is dying, while creators building real brands with diversified traffic are earning more than ever. Affiliate marketing rewards people who treat it like a real business: pick programs that pay fairly, build trust with a real audience, and show up consistently. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, and anyone selling it that way is the reason this industry has a bad reputation.

Less than almost any other business model. You can realistically start with a domain, hosting, and a training platform for under a couple hundred dollars a year. What you can't shortcut is time — expect months of consistent work before meaningful commissions. The low cost of entry is the blessing and the curse: it's affordable to start, which means most people quit the moment it requires actual effort.

Technically no — people earn through social media, YouTube, and email alone. But a website you own is the one asset no platform can take away from you. Social accounts get banned, algorithms change, platforms die. Your own site is home base, and every other channel becomes a road leading back to it. That's how I've built everything for over a decade.

Chasing programs instead of building trust. New affiliates obsess over commission percentages and jump between shiny offers, when the real earners focus on one audience, one niche, and genuinely helpful recommendations. Nobody buys from a stranger spamming links. People buy from someone they've come to trust — and trust is built with honest content over time, not overnight.