I would say that you need to expect to spend roughly one year on a brand new website until it starts making some decent money.

This can of course take longer or shorter depending on your strategy, experience, skills, effort, and connections.

For instance, if you’ve got a lot of friends with established websites that can vouch for you by mentioning your website as a good one with links pointing to it it might rank quicker in Google than if you struggle to get people to link to your website.

Or if you put in a lot of effort to create a lot of content over a period you might shorten how long it takes until you start making money with affiliate marketing.

Or, the quickest way … if you have some money to invest. Purchasing an established affiliate website that is already making money every month. Then you’d be making money from day 1!

I answered this question assuming that you go the route with your own website as that is the route I’ve got experience with myself. It is probably also the most common route for affiliates to take.

Check out my beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing for some tips on how to get started!

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See all questions and answers in my affiliate marketing FAQ

This question was answered by Aleksander Blomquist. He started out with affiliate marketing back in 2008. As of 2020, he is a full-time affiliate marketing guy with two businesses focusing on creating websites from scratch and monetizing them with affiliate programs.