Is affiliate marketing passive income or active work?

Affiliate marketing is active at first and becomes passive later. You need to create content, build SEO, and promote links actively. Once the content ranks, sales can come passively even while you sleep.

I don’t believe affiliate marketing is fully passive. Even after setting up content, you need to update posts, reply to comments, and track changes. It’s semi-passive at best. But it’s still better than a 9–5 job.