High ticket affiliate marketing can be legit for those that build up a loyal audience base by publishing high-quality, authoritative content around a specific niche. Due to the expensive nature of high ticket affiliate offers, high ticket affiliate marketers need to establish a greater level of trust with their audience. This typically requires the ability to showcase niche expertise over an extended period.

However, there is scammy activity that takes place in the high ticket affiliate marketing industry. For example, Enagic promotes a high ticket affiliate marketing program for its Kangen Water product. Although the high ticket affiliate program can pay well, it requires that the affiliate first purchase the product, which has no scientifically proven health benefits like it promotes. This has caused many people to continue the cycle of promoting an illegitimate product in an effort to make their money back through earnings from the company’s high ticket affiliate marketing program. 

Those who don't want to spend years building up online authority or want to avoid potentially getting sucked into scammy high ticket affiliate programs can consider an alternative online business model called local lead generation. Local lead generation entails setting up websites that attract customers for local service businesses. Each of these websites can generate between $500 to $3,000/month by selling the leads to real local service business owners who want marketing support. 

In the following article, we discuss further whether high ticket affiliate marketing is legit by breaking down how the business model works and comparing it to standard affiliate marketing. 

What is high ticket affiliate marketing and how does it work?

High ticket affiliate marketing explained simply is promoting expensive products online to earn a commission. According to sales and marketing firm Yesware, “high ticket” generally refers to products worth at least $1,000 in value. High ticket affiliate marketing works by generating traffic for a high value niche and promoting a high ticket affiliate product to earn hundreds or thousands of dollars per sale. 

Does high ticket affiliate marketing work?

Yes, high ticket affiliate marketing works. According to ZipRecruiter, the average high ticket affiliate marketer earns around $76,000/year. You only need to make a few sales to make a four or five-figure monthly income. Therefore, you can better focus your content and promotional efforts on selling your high ticket product instead of trying to promote many products with unfocused marketing. Many people don’t believe high ticket affiliate marketing is real because it’s hard to believe you can make a living on the internet without actually selling anything yourself. However, it's definitely real and many people like Chad Bartlett do it!

Is high ticket affiliate marketing profitable?

High ticket affiliate marketing can be profitable for those who invest into building a loyal audience base around a high ticket niche and promote a relevant high ticket product. Although high ticket affiliate offers pay out $100 to $5,000+ per commission, building enough trust and credibility to convert a high ticket sale typically requires a more extensive sales cycle and resources. 

Although there are many examples of profitable high ticket affiliate marketers, high ticket affiliate marketing can also be unprofitable for those who try to take shortcuts. For example, trying to run paid ads like Facebook Ads or Google Ads to a sales funnel that isn’t optimized is a surefire way to lose money with high ticket affiliate marketing. 

High ticket affiliate marketing can also be unprofitable if you invest resources into promoting a company that doesn’t pay out your affiliate earnings. Companies have withheld commissions from affiliates for legitimate reasons, such as the affiliate using unapproved marketing channels to promote the brand, and illegitimate reasons, such as wanting to keep 100% of the profits for themselves and hoping the affiliate doesn’t notice or take action. As one affiliate marketer on Reddit puts it, that’s just the nature of the affiliate business. 

Is high ticket affiliate marketing more profitable than low ticket affiliate marketing?

High ticket affiliate marketing is often more profitable than low ticket affiliate marketing because sales commissions are substantially higher for the same amount of resources. For example, say you use a paid advertising channel like Google Ads to drive web traffic to an email marketing newsletter in the luxury travel niche where you promote your affiliate offer. The average cost per click (CPC) of a Google Display Ad is approximately $2.32, according to Business of Apps. Of course, not all clicks will convert into newsletter subscribers, but for simplicity, we can say that each new newsletter subscriber coming from your Google Display Ad paid advertising campaign costs at least $2.32. 

If you promote a low ticket affiliate offer, like something from either the Amazon Associate or CJ Affiliate programs, you can expect to earn something in the range of $1 to $25 on each sale. Therefore, your profit would be -$1.32 to $22.68 for each newsletter subscriber that uses your affiliate link and buys the product you're promoting. However, if you promote a high ticket offer that earns you a high commission of $1,000 on each sale, you would earn a substantially larger profit of $997.68 for every newsletter subscriber that converts into a sale.

What are the most profitable high ticket affiliate marketing niches?

Is there a major catch to high ticket affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing can be a great passive income idea for young adults. However, the major catch of high ticket affiliate marketing is that selling expensive products requires a more complex and prolonged sales funnel. High ticket affiliate marketing is all about attracting an audience and building enough trust with that audience over time so they feel comfortable spending their money on the expensive product you’re recommending to them.

Most people spend considerably more time researching large expenses like cars or household appliances than they do for routine purchase. Northwestern Mutual’s 2019 Planning & Progress Study found that the majority 68% of Americans are risk-averse. Spending large sums of money on a single product is a risk, which is why high-ticket affiliate marketing can be so tricky to get right. You need to get people to trust you as a source of reliable information and then say the right things over a long period of time in order to get sales. 

How do you succeed in high ticket affiliate marketing?

• Choose a suitable niche - If you want to make high ticket sales, you need to choose a high ticket niche, like personal finance.
• Find the right products to promote - High ticket means expensive products that can earn you thousands of dollars in commissions. Therefore, you can’t promote products from the Amazon Associate program because none of those products are high ticket.
• Avoid limiting beliefs and doubts - Affiliate marketing is a great business model for those with the belief that they can succeed. If you don’t give your full effort and truly believe you can make money online by promoting products, you probably won’t make it.
• Develop an affiliate ecosystem - For those looking for long-term success in high ticket affiliate marketing, creating an ecosystem of multiple customer touch points is a must. You should use various methods to reach your audience, like organic SEO blogs posts, paid advertising, email marketing, and social media.
• Leverage tools to boost performance - Marketing tools are essential to compete in the modern digital landscape and they let you accomplish much more in less time. For example, you can use an email service like ActiveCampaign to automate email campaigns and sell your affiliate offer 24/7.
• Learn digital marketing skills - Affiliate marketing is part of the digital marketing realm, which is why all successful affiliates are also capable digital marketers. Learning essential digital marketing skills like SEO and copywriting can enhance your potential dramatically. Taking an online course on high ticket sales (like Expand Your Horizons Academy) may help.

How to get started with high ticket affiliate marketing

You can get started with high ticket affiliate marketing by choosing a niche to focus on, creating a content strategy to attract and build an audience, and finding a high ticket affiliate offer to promote to your niche. 

1. Choose a niche

Choosing your niche is an essential step for successful high ticket affiliate marketing. By focusing on a single niche, you can more easily determine your target audience and create content that resonates with them. The best niches for high ticket affiliate marketing are:

The most important aspect of high ticket affiliate marketing is building credibility and trust within your chosen niche. According to the co-founder of MassMailer, Siva Devaki, “Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.”

2. Create a content strategy and stick to it to build an audience

In order to build an audience for high ticket affiliate marketing, you need to produce consistent content. The content is not only for people to enjoy, it’s also essential for search engine algorithms like Google’s PageRank to show your content to more people. You do not need a website to start affiliate marketing as there are multiple alternative traffic sources like YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook Groups to promote through. A content strategy for high ticket affiliate marketing can include:

For example, what if you choose to build an audience by creating content on YouTube? Social Video Plaza outlines that you should publish at least one video per week on the platform. The more often you can post high quality content that people enjoy, the more YouTube’s algorithm will reward you by helping people to find your channel easier. 

3. Find a high ticket affiliate offer in your niche to promote

Once you start seeing your audience grow, it’s time to find a high ticket affiliate offer within your niche to promote. Some examples of high ticket affiliate marketing programs are:

• Authority Hacker - This educational website teaches people how to build highly profitable websites based on establishing authority in a niche. This is a great option for affiliates in the how to make money online niche. The potential commission payout is $1,979.
• Goldco - As an alternative investment company, Goldco helps people prepare for retirement by investing in gold and silver. Their affiliate program can be extremely lucrative for people in the personal finance niche, with an average high ticket commission of around $3,000 per sale. 
• Villiers Jet Charter - Travel bloggers and business affiliates can earn uncapped 30% commissions on flights booked through this charter network of private aircrafts.
• Bob's Watches - For watch connoisseurs, an affiliate partnership with this company earns you 5% commissions on pre-owned Rolex sales.
• Liquid Web - With this fully managed cloud and web hosting service, you can earn up to $7,000 affiliate commission from a single sale! This offer fits great in any blogger affiliate product stack. 

Many high earning affiliates like John Crestani and Robby Blanchard feel Clickbank is the site that has the most legit high ticket affiliate marketing program. Unlike the above examples, which are high ticket affiliate programs accessed directly through the businesses themselves, Clickbank is an affiliate network that hosts thousands of affiliate products. With a single Clickbank account, you can generate a unique affiliate link and promote up to 500 different high ticket items. Clickbank high ticket products can be very lucrative. For example, the social media ambassador training, AMBSDR, has an average conversion of $718.97!

Why find your high ticket affiliate offer after attracting an audience?

It’s better to find your offer once you already have an audience to promote to. Depending on how much content you produce, it can take a few years before you draw a consistent audience. The high ticket affiliate program you thought you were going to promote may no longer be available. Furthermore, you don’t want to appear too salesy in the beginning. It’s better to build authority in your niche so people trust you first. Then, you can start pitching them on why they should spend a large sum on your affiliate product. 

Bonus: Promote a few related low ticket affiliate offers

High ticket affiliate marketing is all about high ticket affiliate products, but that doesn’t mean you can't diversity your income streams. In fact, adding a few low ticket affiliate products that compliment your high ticket offer is the best way to go to increase your affiliate revenue. You may only get a few high ticket affiliate sales per month. Therefore, you can improve your chances of making money every day by throwing some cheaper offers into your monetization strategy. Many cheaper affiliate products even come with recurring commission, which can really add up over time!

What are the benefits of high ticket affiliate marketing vs low ticket?

Is high ticket affiliate marketing hard?

High ticket affiliate marketing is hard because it takes time to build an audience and people spend extra time evaluating expensive purchases. Whereas you can get someone to buy an inexpensive item without much thought, it can take weeks or months to convert a high ticket sale. Therefore, you need a more comprehensive strategy for leading your audience to the point of purchase.

What is the hardest part of affiliate marketing?

The hardest part of affiliate marketing is generating traffic for your affiliate products. This is especially true if you're trying to get organic traffic through SEO. Besides an excellent content strategy to demand the right audience, you need to have patience and the ability to delay gratification for all your efforts. You can spend months or even years publishing content before you finally see your traffic increase. Many people can’t handle this. The biggest affiliate marketing scam is probably those courses that promise you can get rich quick with this business model, which leads many to give up too soon. 

Can you fail in affiliate marketing?

You can fail in affiliate marketing by making some of the classic beginner mistakes, including by not:

Affiliate marketing is like any other business. If you don’t work hard to learn the business model and consistently improve, you’re going to fail.

What is the failure rate of affiliate marketing?

The failure rate of affiliate marketing is a staggering 95% in the first year, according to Entrepreneurs Unstuck. Most people just don’t understand that it takes time to achieve success in affiliate marketing. They throw in the towel too early.

What should you avoid in affiliate marketing?

How long does it take to make money with affiliate marketing?

It takes around a year to make money with affiliate marketing on average. Of course, you could make a few one-off sales when you first start affiliate marketing. However, for a liveable, stable income, expect a year at least because it takes time for search engines to rank your affiliate content. For example, it’s common consensus that you should have at least 30 blog articles for Google to even notice your site. If you can publish at least one post per week for a year, you’ll likely have enough content for Google to start ranking some of your articles well enough so that your site traffic increases and you make sales.

How much can you realistically make from affiliate marketing?

You can realistically make $5,000 to $10,000/month with affiliate marketing, according to data from Glassdoor. Although there are some super affiliates that make hundreds of thousands of dollars, most people make between $11,000 and $120,000/year.

Is affiliate marketing profitable for beginners?

Affiliate marketing is profitable for beginners who get started creating content on free traffic sources like social media or YouTube. For these affiliates, all it takes is a few sales in the beginning to be considered profitable because there are no costs to start. Some beginner affiliates are even profitable starting with a website because you can buy web hosting with a free 1-year domain for as little as $2.95/month with Bluehost. Where beginners really struggle to be profitable is when they try using paid ads on Facebook or Google. New affiliates can lose thousands of dollars trying to run paid ads.

How much do beginner affiliate marketers make a month?

Beginner affiliate marketers make $0 to 1,000/month, according to Niall Roche of Authority Hacker. There’s no guarantee of income with affiliate marketing and many affiliates make next to nothing in the beginning. Over time, though, affiliate marketing efforts compound and you can earn a higher return on your efforts.

Can a normal person do affiliate marketing?

Any normal person can do affiliate marketing and be successful. Although the business model does take some persistence and understanding of marketing, it does not require a college degree or any advanced technical skills. However, most beginners might ask, “Is affiliate marketing scam or legit?” Affiliate marketing is a legitimate business model. Any normal person can turn this misconception around by succeeding in this industry.

Is affiliate marketing easy for beginners?

Affiliate marketing is easy for beginners to get into because it’s a low-risk business model anyone can get started with and there is tons of information online to guide you. However, these low barriers to entry are also a drawback because it means the market is highly saturated. Affiliate marketing may be easy for beginners to get started in, but the majority of beginners don’t last long-term.

Is it too late to start affiliate marketing?

According to Zippia, 81% of brands around the globe have affiliate marketing programs. It’s not too late to start affiliate marketing in 2024 because affiliate marketing is a growing industry that more and more brands are leaning on. It’s the most efficient form of marketing because you only get paid when you actually generate results. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone so it’s an industry that is here for the long-term.

What are the best high ticket affiliate marketing courses?

High ticket affiliate marketing for beginners can be much easier by learning from a high value affiliate marketing course. Although courses often aren't cheap, they are an investment into your future and help you remain disciplined in achieving your goals. If you're looking for some free online business insights and motivation, you can check out the Elevated Entrepreneurs podcast. 

Should you do high ticket affiliate marketing?

You should do high ticket affiliate marketing if you want to make a living online and can wait a few years to start making a good income. However, if you need to start making money fast to pay bills or you just want passive income faster, local lead generation may be a better option. As opposed to generating thousands of dollars a month after a few years, you can start earning that in a matter of months with local lead generation. 

Furthermore, it’s much easier to carve out a share of the market with local lead generation. Whereas affiliate marketing has been around for years, local lead generation is an online business model that is just starting to get popular. However, the opportunity won’t last forever. Now is the perfect time to establish some local lead generation sites for long term passive income. In a few years, the business model will probably be crowded like affiliate marketing is now. There are many great online business models you can make money with in 2024. If you want to grow your own successful online business, set a goal and be consistent in your efforts towards achieving it.