Affiliate Marketing Mistakes – Nine Mistakes to Avoid
Too many affiliate marketers are actually making HUGE affiliate marketing mistakes.
Fortunately, once you’ve identified these killer mistakes, it’s easy to correct them so you can stop making them in your own affiliate marketing campaigns.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #1
(SO IMPORTANT) Focusing On Selling
I understand that the main goal of affiliate marketing, at least for the marketers themselves, is to make sales. That much is obvious.
But you should never focus on “selling”.
Instead, your main focus should be on helping people.
No matter what your market, you should be focused on helping your market in some way. Because this is how you add value to your affiliate offer.
And how you get the audience in that market to trust you and want to buy from you.
It doesn’t matter what your market is, your main goal is helping people. Period.
Always focus on helping your target customers.
This will help you build a rapport with the people you’d like to sell to.
Making your job easier and giving you a reason to feel good about yourself at the same time!
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #2
Not Testing
Testing is one of those things that everyone seems to know they’re supposed to do, but almost no one actually does.
Why exactly is testing so important, anyway?
Well, let’s say you’re achieving a 2.5% conversion rate. Not too bad, you might think.
After all, you have considerable competition, and you aren’t really standing out well in your market.
But what if one simple tweak, something perhaps as simple as adding ONE WORD to your squeeze page.
Or changing ONE IMAGE on your blog’s main page could increase that to a 5% conversion?
2.5% higher doesn’t sound like all that much of a difference.
Until you realize that’s DOUBLE the conversion rate. DOUBLE the customers, and DOUBLE the income.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #3
Sticking With MMO Products
MMO, or Make Money Online, is one of the most financially lucrative markets there is.
But it’s a mistake to concentrate solely on that one market.
Did you know that even the biggest internet marketing (I.M.) gurus have diversified into other markets?
If you branch out into other markets, you’ll always have fresh products to promote. You’ll always have new value to add and you’ll always be able to make money.
Because you’re not pigeonholed into one specific market.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #4
Spreading Yourself Too Thin
The temptation is great, especially for new affiliate marketers. To spread themselves too thin by branching out into too many markets.
You should focus on one or two key niches at a time.
And diversify once you’ve made some real headway into those niches. Unless you can hire someone to manage multiple blogs, multiple products, multiple email lists, multiple social media pages and accounts.
Choose two or three markets initially. And only diversity further once you’ve really made some real headway into those first niches.
Once you have some decent traffic, a small mailing list that’s growing, some social media presence that’s making a difference.
Then you can think about trying out new niches.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #5
Joining Too Many Affiliate Programs
Another major temptation for affiliate marketers is to join too many affiliate programs.
Because they aren’t sure which one will be the most profitable for them. Well, let me let you in on a little secret.
They can ALL be profitable for you!
Trust me, as long as you’re sticking to the legitimate affiliate programs with well-known companies. You’re almost always going to see some nice results.
There’s a reason why their affiliate programs are so popular!
Choose your two or three starter niches. And then find 2-3 affiliate programs for each one.
Make sure you can find at least one really hot product at each affiliate program that looks like it will convert well in your niche.
Then stick to promoting that product for a while before you try something new.
Some of the best or most popular affiliate programs include:
Check these programs to see which ones have products that fit with your market, and then stick with those programs for a while.
You may find you never need to move past these few programs.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #6
Not Tracking Results
If you start seeing a good number of sales. You’ll soon start to wonder which of your marketing efforts is the most productive.
You’ll obviously want to concentrate more of your efforts on those methods that are making you the most money.
But what if you have no idea which areas to concentrate on. Because you don’t know which methods are working?
Enter TRACKING...
Tracking, quite simply, lets you know where your traffic is coming from and where it’s going.
Simple tracking is as simple as using a tracking code through your affiliate program.
For example, you can create a unique tracking ID for each website you own on the Amazon affiliate network. Or if you promote products through ClickBank, you can add a custom code word to your affiliate links.
To allow you to find out where every sale you refer came from.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #7
Giving Up Too Quickly
If I had a dollar for every person I’ve seen give up trying to make money
online. I’d be VERY wealthy right now.
The internet is littered with blogs that have only one or two posts, and affiliate accounts that never send the first referral.
What are some common reasons for giving up?
-Money not coming in too quickly
-Traffic not coming in fast enough
-Not getting accepted to many affiliate networks
-Feeling like it’s too much work
-Thinking affiliate marketing is a “scam”
The one thing most of these things have in common is expecting things to happen overnight.
If you give up too quickly, you’ll never know what could have been.
You never know, you could be the next internet millionaire, but you’ll never
know if you give up before it happens!
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #8
Competition Fear
You can compete in ANY niche!
If there’s not much competition, it’s because there’s not much money there.
Trust me, there ARE no “undiscovered” or “untapped” niches anymore.
There may have been a few years ago, but that ship has sailed.
If it’ll make money, it’s already making someone money. Probably a lot of people.
Don’t fear competition, just be wary of it. You WANT competition, trust me.
Too much competition is a difficult thing to overcome.
But choose niches that have a decent amount of competition, because that’s where the money is.
Affiliate Marketing
Mistake #9
Ignoring Competition
While it’s important not to fear competition, it’s also important to be sensible.
Expecting to make a fortune overnight in a super-competitive niche like weight loss is a sure recipe for disappointment.
What you need to do in the beginning is target niches that:
1.)Have a healthy amount of competition
2.)Don’t have so much competition that it’s difficult to get traffic
3.)You have some interest or knowledge in
Notice #3 especially.
If you have absolutely no interest or knowledge in a niche. It will be harder to create content, harder to identify with your target market, harder to sell products you know little to nothing about, and harder to get traffic.
So how do you choose your first few niches?
Make a list of some topics you have an interest in. I’d say 10-20 topics would be enough to get started.
Now check to make sure there are:
-Affiliate products to promote
-A decent amount of competition
-Resources available for you to learn from
-Traffic sources you can take advantage of
As far as competition, you want to look for niches that have at least 50,000 existing websites.
Even a few million isn’t a big deal. Fifty million might be pushing it unless you have money to pay for initial promotion.
Don’t fear competition, but be reasonable about it!
Conclusion
Always keep these potential mistakes in mind as you navigate your way through the precarious world of affiliate marketing.
Be sure you’re not making these mistakes, and don’t become lax once you start making money. No one is immune to these mistakes!
As long as you work hard, keep at it, and avoid these mistakes, you’re certain to start making money. But if you give up, I can guarantee you’ll fail!
To Your Success,
Joshua
Please keep in mind I may receive compensation when you click my links and make a purchase at no extra cost to you. However, the products I recommend are the ones I have either created myself, use everyday or I have tested and I stand behind them 100 percent!