Marketing strategies have evolved at an unprecedented pace, and two of the most popular ways to earn online are affiliate marketing and influencer marketing. While both offer significant earning potential, they differ in approach, audience engagement, and income structures.

By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly what makes these two models different, their pros and cons, and how to get started with Selar’s affiliate network—the best affiliate marketing platform in Nigeria.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where you earn a commission for driving sales or traffic to a business. You act as a bridge between potential customers and a brand, sharing your unique affiliate links. Every time someone clicks your link and makes a purchase, you earn a share of the revenue. It’s a straightforward, flexible way to make money online, and the best part? It’s incredibly rewarding, especially when you get the right systems in place.

Here’s how it works:

1. You sign up for an affiliate program, like Selar’s Affiliate Network.
2. You get a personalised affiliate link to share.
3. When someone clicks your link and completes a purchase, you earn a commission.

Affiliate marketing leverages your online presence—whether it’s through a blog post, YouTube channel, social media, or email list—to drive traffic to a product or service that aligns with your audience’s needs.

For example, as a beauty content creator, you could join an affiliate program for beauty products. By creating engaging content around makeup or skincare products and naturally including your affiliate links, you earn money whenever your readers make a purchase. It’s a win-win: your audience gets valuable recommendations, and you earn from helping them.

Why is affiliate marketing a great option for you?

Here are five strong benefits that make affiliate marketing ideal for Nigerian creators looking to earn online:

• Affiliate marketing has minimal startup costs

Affiliate marketing is accessible to anyone looking to earn online, thanks to its low start-up costs. There’s no need to purchase products, manage inventory, or build a complex website. For example, with Selar’s affiliate program, all you need is a ₦3,000 registration fee, which grants you access to high-quality products and competitive commission rates. This low barrier to entry makes it an ideal starting point for anyone looking to dip their toes into online entrepreneurship.

• Affiliate marketing has great passive income potential

The beauty of affiliate marketing lies in its ability to generate passive income. Once you’ve shared a product link, you can continue earning money every time someone makes a purchase through your link—whether you’re asleep, on vacation, or catching up on Netflix. This makes affiliate marketing an appealing option for those seeking to earn without constantly trading time for money.

• Affiliate marketing allows you to work from anywhere

One of the greatest perks of affiliate marketing is the flexibility it offers. As long as you have an internet connection, you can run your affiliate business from anywhere—whether it’s from your home in Lagos, a café in Abuja, or while traveling around Nigeria. It’s perfect for students, freelancers, and anyone looking for a side hustle that doesn’t tie them to a specific location.

• Affiliate marketing is great for beginners

Affiliate marketing doesn’t require prior experience, making it a great choice for beginners. Platforms like Selar provide tools, resources, and tutorials to help you hit the ground running. Whether you’re a total newbie or just starting out, you’ll find guidance that makes the learning curve easier to navigate. Look at Emmanuel, for instance—he started with no experience and now earns over $5,000 a month through affiliate marketing.

Read: How Emmanuel is making $5000 monthly with affiliate marketing

• Affiliate marketing gives you endless product choices

Affiliate marketing offers endless opportunities to earn money by promoting products you truly believe in. Whether it’s ebooks, online courses, or software, there’s something for everyone. Selar’s affiliate program features a wide range of products across different categories, giving you the flexibility to pick and promote what best suits your interests and the needs of your audience.

Real-life success stories

Take Millicent Bundi, for example. She uses Selar to teach Kenyan women how to earn money online through affiliate marketing. By recommending relevant products and services, she’s making an impact while earning a steady income. Read more about her inspiring journey here.

Or consider Emmanuel Adanu, who uses Selar’s affiliate marketing tools to earn over $5,000 monthly. His success shows the power of leveraging affiliate networks to build sustainable income. Check out his story here.

Read: How To Start Affiliate Marketing in Nigeria

With high commissions and tools designed for success, Selar’s affiliate network is a fantastic starting point for aspiring marketers. For just ₦3,000, you can turn your smartphone into a money-making tool. Why wait? Join now and start earning today.

Now, what is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a strategy where people with large online followings—often referred to as influencers—collaborate with brands to promote their products or services. Influencers create content around a brand, and in exchange, they’re compensated based on their reach and engagement with their audience. This model allows brands to tap into highly engaged, niche audiences, making influencer marketing a powerful tool in the digital age.

For instance, if you’re an Instagram content creator with thousands of followers, brands may pay you to create sponsored posts or videos, giving you both exposure and income.

How influencers get paid

Influencers typically earn through one or more of the following methods:

1. Flat rates: A fixed amount for creating content like posts, videos, or stories.
2. Performance-based: Compensation based on the number of clicks, views, or sales generated by the content.
3. Product swaps: Instead of money, some brands offer free products, which influencers review and showcase.

The beauty of dropshipping lies in its simplicity and low upfront cost. You don’t need a warehouse, and you avoid the risks of overstocking or being stuck with unsold inventory. Your primary responsibility is marketing the products and driving sales.

A real-life example

Phidelia, known as awo.ara online, is a Nigerian digital creator who shares her journey of slow living, self-care, travel, and food. As a communications strategist, she uses her creative skills in writing, photography, and videography to craft authentic content that resonates with her audience. Over the past year, her follower count has grown from 1,000 to over 25,000, thanks to her commitment to staying true to herself and sharing content that aligns with her interests. Phidelia selectively collaborates with brands that align with her values and content style, maintaining her authenticity while engaging with her growing community.

Why is influencer marketing a great option for you?

Here are five solid benefits of starting an influencer marketing:

• Influencer marketing drives brand awareness

Partnering with influencers helps you tap into their established communities, boosting your brand’s visibility and credibility. By leveraging their trust and influence, your brand can reach a wider audience without having to build it from scratch.

• Influencer marketing offers authentic content

Consumers today are looking for authentic, relatable content, and influencers are the perfect source. When influencers promote your products in a natural, personal way, it resonates more with their audience than traditional advertising, leading to higher engagement and trust.

• Influencer marketing provides targeted reach

Influencers often have highly engaged, niche audiences, making it easier for you to target specific demographics that match your brand’s ideal customer. This ensures that your marketing efforts are more efficient and effective, with less wasted reach.

• Influencer marketing is cost-effective

Compared to traditional advertising channels like TV or print, influencer marketing offers a more budget-friendly alternative. Many influencers offer flexible pricing based on the size of their audience, meaning you can find a partnership that suits your budget while still reaching a relevant audience.

• Influencer marketing has measurable results

With tools to track engagement, sales, and website traffic, influencer marketing allows you to monitor the success of your campaigns in real-time. This helps you understand which influencers are delivering the best return on investment (ROI) and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Now you understand what affiliate marketing and influencer marketing are about, we can talk about the differences between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing. 

Affiliate marketing vs influencer marketing

Although affiliate and influencer marketing offer opportunities to earn online, they differ in their approach and execution. Here’s how:

• Income model

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where you earn a commission for every sale made through your referral link. This means that your income is directly tied to your ability to drive sales, but the best part is that the more successful you are at promoting, the more you can earn. The setup process often involves creating content and embedding your affiliate links, and from there, you can start earning passive income as people continue to make purchases through your link.

In contrast, influencer marketing typically involves receiving a set payment from brands upfront to create promotional content. You’re compensated for your work in producing content, regardless of how many sales are generated from that piece of content. Influencers may also negotiate bonuses based on performance, but the structure is more focused on content creation and less on sales conversion. This model provides more immediate, guaranteed income compared to affiliate marketing, but it’s not as directly tied to performance.

• Audience size

With affiliate marketing, your income isn’t necessarily dependent on a massive audience size. It’s more about targeting the right audience and driving relevant traffic. You could have a small but highly engaged following, and if they trust your recommendations, you can still generate significant sales and commissions. This makes affiliate marketing a great option for those starting out, who may not have a large following but are skilled at attracting the right people.

Influencer marketing, on the other hand, requires a larger and more engaged audience. The bigger your audience, the more brands are likely to pay for collaborations. Your earning potential in influencer marketing is closely tied to the size and engagement of your followers. The larger and more active your audience, the more brands you can attract, which increases your chances of securing higher-paying campaigns.

• Maintenance

Affiliate marketing is a great option if you want to build an income stream with minimal ongoing effort. Once your affiliate links and content are set up, you can continue to earn without much active maintenance. You can focus on creating evergreen content that continues to generate sales long after it’s published, which is ideal for those looking for a more hands-off approach to earning money.

On the flip side, influencer marketing demands continuous effort. You need to consistently create new content, engage with your audience, and maintain a presence on social media. Influencers must stay active, responding to audience feedback, trends, and brand campaigns to remain relevant and appealing to brands. This requires a more significant time investment, but it can also lead to a more active relationship with your followers.

• Flexibility

Affiliate marketing offers considerable flexibility in terms of work schedule and effort. You can work on your own terms, setting your hours and deciding when and how much content you produce. You also have complete control over the products you choose to promote, allowing you to align your efforts with your interests or niche. This autonomy is a key appeal for those looking to work on their own terms and avoid the pressure of deadlines.

Influencer marketing, however, is often more rigid in terms of deadlines and brand expectations. Once you agree to a partnership, you’ll need to adhere to the brand’s timeline and content requirements, which may limit your flexibility. However, the trade-off is that influencers often get paid for their time and effort up front, and the collaborations can sometimes lead to long-term partnerships.

• Earning potential

Affiliate marketing offers an uncapped earning potential. There’s no limit to how much you can make as long as you keep driving sales. As you scale your affiliate marketing efforts, whether by promoting more products or reaching a broader audience, your earning potential increases. The key is persistence and consistency in your marketing efforts, as the more you promote, the more you can earn.

With influencer marketing, your earnings are typically determined by your audience size and engagement rates. While the potential to earn is significant, especially for top influencers, your income will usually be capped by what brands are willing to pay for your content. As your audience grows, however, so do the chances of negotiating higher-paying campaigns, but generally, your earnings are determined by your influence rather than sales performance.

• Brand relations

Affiliate marketing is relatively independent when it comes to brand relations. The focus is mostly on driving sales rather than building long-term collaborations with brands. You won’t need to spend much time negotiating or coordinating with companies, making it a more straightforward way of earning money online. Affiliate marketers usually have minimal interaction with brands beyond the initial affiliate setup, and they’re free to promote multiple products from various companies at once.

In influencer marketing, you have more direct and ongoing relationships with brands. You collaborate with companies to create tailored content that aligns with their marketing campaigns. These relationships often require more time and effort to maintain, as brands may expect regular updates and adjustments to campaigns based on performance. While these collaborations can be lucrative, they also involve more back-and-forth and creativity to ensure brand goals are met.

•  Entry barrier

The entry barrier to affiliate marketing is relatively low. Anyone can start affiliate marketing with minimal resources, and it’s one of the easiest ways to break into online earning. All you need is a platform to share your links—whether a blog, YouTube channel, or social media—and access to affiliate programs. This makes affiliate marketing a great option for beginners looking to explore online income opportunities without significant upfront costs.

Influencer marketing, however, has a higher entry barrier. To attract brands, you need to have an established online presence, a sizable following, and an engaged audience. Building this level of influence requires time, effort, and consistency in content creation. It often involves investing in high-quality equipment, editing tools, and strategies to grow your audience. While the rewards can be substantial, the initial effort to get started is more demanding compared to affiliate marketing.

Which one is right for you?

Ultimately, your choice between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing will depend on your strengths, resources, and long-term goals. Both offer unique opportunities, but they require different levels of commitment, skills, and strategies to succeed.

Choose affiliate marketing if:

• You want a low-cost, low-risk way to start earning online. With minimal investment and no need for a large audience, it’s ideal for beginners.
• Passive income suits your lifestyle. Once you’ve set up your content and links, you can continue earning with little ongoing effort.
• You prefer working behind the scenes without needing to constantly interact with followers or create new content regularly.

Choose influencer marketing if:

• You enjoy creating visually appealing and engaging content while building strong connections with your audience.
• You have a sizable and active social media following that brands can leverage for campaigns. The more engaged your followers, the higher your earning potential.
• You’re comfortable collaborating with brands, meeting deadlines, and tailoring your content to align with specific campaign goals.

If you’re still not sure where to begin, affiliate marketing is a great starting point. It’s beginner-friendly, requires minimal resources, and helps you learn the ropes of online earning before taking on more demanding strategies like influencer marketing.

Selar’s affiliate network is an excellent starting point if you want to dip your toes into online earning. It’s simple, affordable, and offers a wide range of high-commission products to promote.