Sustainable Mindset of Making Money from Affiliates in the Vietnamese Market

Sustainable Mindset of Making Money from Affiliates in the Vietnamese Market

Affiliate Marketing has been around since the 1990s, along with the development of the Internet and e-commerce (e-commerce). However, in Vietnam, this concept only really exploded from 2015 onwards. Previously, many Vietnamese publishers mainly participated in foreign affiliate programs such as Amazon Associates, ClickBank, CJ, and other large affiliate networks.

In Vietnam, although Affiliate Marketing appeared later, affiliate networks in the country are growing stronger. Networks such as Accesstrade, Masoffer, and Adflex have been instrumental in developing and popularizing the concept of "affiliate marketing monetization." Thanks to this development, the quantification of income from affiliates in Vietnam and internationally has become more and more balanced.

However, the affiliate market in Vietnam is markedly different from that of the rest of the world. While there are many forms of campaigns to participate in abroad such as CPL, CPS, CPO, and many levels of commission payment in CPA campaigns, in Vietnam, you mainly have 4 main choices to make money from affiliates:

1. E-commerce campaigns: Including major platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and Sendo. Among these, Shopee is currently leading and far behind the rest of its competitors (Tiktok Shop will be mentioned in another article).

2. Financial Campaigns: Mainly money lending programs.

3. Mobile App Campaign: Focus on installing banking applications and e-wallets.

4. D2C campaigns: Mainly products with CPO payment, including physiological products, dietary supplements, cosmetics, beauty, and other hard-to-sell items.

Although there is still a fifth option is cryptocurrency campaigns, because cryptocurrencies are not recognized by Vietnamese law, we will not mention them in this article.

Among the 4 fields mentioned above, the reality shows that 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 usually goes to the top 5% of publishers. This means that the rest of the commission will be split among the remaining 95% of the publisher.

The question is: How did the "Winners" succeed?

Personal experience shows that, in order to make sustainable money from affiliates, you need to build your own Free Traffic pull system. This system not only relies on advertising, but must also be able to operate independently, or if there are ads, only play a secondary role. Successful publishers often have built their systems a long time ago, rather than relying solely on ads like I used to.

For example, an SEO website to the top, a YouTube channel with a lot of followers, or a group with high engagement can help you make money even if your ads aren't effective. Contrary to what I used to think of Top Pubs in finance or apps, many of them not only run Ads but also focus on SEO and creating content on YouTube.

If you want to make sustainable money from affiliates, build your own Free Traffic system. This doesn't have to be a website or a group. You can completely grow a TikTok or YouTube channel depending on your strengths. The diversification of channels will enhance the sustainability of income.

While you can temporarily monetize methods such as Reup, Link Traps, Cookies, or Spam, these methods cannot provide a sustainable source of income. In order to have a stable income, you need to have a long-term direction, and building a system is the most reasonable way to do it. Although building the system is difficult and time-consuming, it is a challenge that needs to be overcome. Money won't suddenly fall into your head – if it does, it will fall into someone else's head.

Here are some illustrations from KTcity's Affiliate system. Although not large, it is enough to prove the main point of this article.

We wish you success in your journey to earn money from Affiliate!