Affiliate Marketing: Starting and Growing in Vietnam

Affiliate Marketing: Starting and Growing in Vietnam

Beginnings in the World and Emergence in Vietnam

Affiliate marketing has been around the world since the 1990s, along with the development of the Internet and e-commerce. However, in Vietnam, the concept of Affiliate Marketing is only really known and exploded from 2015 onwards. Previously, most Vietnamese publishers who made money from affiliates were still mainly in foreign markets, with participation in programs such as Amazon's Amazon Associates or large affiliate networks such as ClickBank, CJ.

Although it appeared quite late, Affiliate Networks in Vietnam are growing stronger and more influential. Prominent names such as Accesstrade, Masoffer, Adflex have contributed to bringing Affiliates in Vietnam to a new level. As a result, the concept of "making money from affiliate marketing" has become popular and the income level from affiliates in Vietnam has gradually become balanced with foreign markets.

Difference Between Vietnamese and International Markets

A big difference between the Vietnamese and international affiliate markets is the types of campaigns. In overseas markets, there are many types of campaigns to participate in, from CPL, CPS, CPO, and especially CPA campaigns with multiple commission levels. However, in Vietnam, if you want to make a lot of money from affiliates, you only have four main choices:

1. E-commerce (E-commerce): Including Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo. Among these, Shopee is leading and far behind the rest of its competitors.
2. Finance: Mainly money lending campaigns.
3. Mobile App: Mainly campaigns to install banking applications and e-wallets.
4. Direct-to-Consumer (D2C): Mainly products with CPO form of payment, including physiological products, dietary supplements, cosmetics, and beauty. These are difficult items to sell.

Actually, there is a fifth option that is cryptocurrency campaigns. However, cryptocurrencies in Vietnam are still not recognized by law, so I will not mention them within the scope of this article.

The current situation of making money from affiliates in Vietnam

In the four fields mentioned above, there is a fact that not everyone knows: The number of people participating in Affiliate in Vietnam is very large, but the number of people who actually make money is very small. About 95% of a network's commission will go to the top 5% of publishers. This means that the remaining 5% of the commission will be split equally among the remaining 95% of publishers.

Why are the "winners" successful?

Personally, I used to be an "advertising" player and I am very fond of it, feeling that advertising can help make a lot of money in a short time. But not everything that is "delicious" will be delicious forever. When Facebook Ads and Tiktok Ads started to tighten advertising in Vietnam, I almost couldn't get a campaign. Ad accounts are locked every few days, and Via accounts purchased are constantly checkpointed.

I realized that in order to "eat" sustainably from Affiliates, I had to build my own Free Traffic pull system. This system does not need advertising to operate, or if it does, it is only a side part, not a decisive part. Winners make money from a system they've built a long time ago, such as an SEO website to the top, a YouTube channel with a lot of followers, or a high-engagement group with many members.

BUILDING A FREE TRAFFIC SYSTEM

If you want to make sustainable money from affiliates, build your own Free Traffic system. It doesn't have to be a website or a group. You can completely build a Tiktok or YouTube channel depending on your strengths. The more baskets you put your eggs in, the more backup channels you have, the higher your sustainability.

You can make money from methods like Reup, link trapping cookies, spamming, but obviously, you can't go long with it. A student may be temporarily satisfied with an income of 1-2 million/month from spamming, but you can't support your family by doing so. There must be a different direction – and building a system is the most logical and worthwhile way to do it. Building the system is difficult and time-consuming, but to make sustainable money, it is a challenge to overcome. There can't be money falling from the sky on your head all of a sudden.

While I could use a lot of illustrations of the billions in commissions from the networks I joined, in retrospect, it wasn't very necessary. The evidence from KTcity's Affiliate system is enough to illustrate the main idea of this article.

Affiliate Marketing in Vietnam, although it appeared late, is growing strongly. To succeed, it takes patience, experience and the ability to build a Free Traffic system. Don't just rely on ads, but look for ways to build a solid system to make sustainable money from affiliates. What do you think you lack to succeed in this field?