7 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes That Could Prevent You From Ever Achieving the Success You Deserve

Even if you’re new to affiliate marketing, you’ve probably heard that lots of people are making a job-replacing income from home, simply by promoting other peoples’ products on the internet.

You’ve probably also come across various ‘gurus’ who tell you how easy it is to create a life-changing online income as an affiliate if you just buy their ‘secret’ blueprint or their latest ‘push-button’ software.

If you have bought a few ‘make money online’ type products you will be aware that they seldom live up to the hype.

What most people don’t tell you is that actually making more money than you spend on an online business is something most people find extremely difficult.

That’s why less than 5% of affiliates actually make a profit.

Only a small fraction of that 5% are actually earning the large incomes that the gurus try to sell you every time they launch a half-baked e-book, software, ‘loophole’ or video training course.

You might be wondering what it takes to reach a stage where you’re making more than you spend so that you can start to scale-up your income and achieve your financial goals..

Here are 7 things you should definitely AVOID if you don’t want to fail completely as an affiliate:

Not having your OWN website:
Using your own website on your own domain name shows people that you are a serious entrepreneur. It gives you more credibility in your niche and provides you with a platform on which you can build an asset with real value. Also, people who visit your website might remember it or bookmark it so that they can visit it again (and possibly buy from you in the future).

Not building a list:
People usually don’t buy a product on their first exposure to it. That’s why not collecting leads on the front end of your affiliate campaigns is always going to mean less profit. In fact, simply sending traffic to an affiliate link nearly always means making less than you spend on advertising with today’s paid traffic costs.

If you’re using free traffic methods like SEO and social media posting, collecting leads will almost always lead to more sales in the long run and a list you can use to make money on demand, which is especially important if your SEO strategy stops working due to arbitrary changes made to search engine algorithms.

Promoting low-quality products to your list:
Your leads are real people and they deserve to be treated with respect. A lot of digital products, even ones that do really well on big affiliate networks, are of very low quality. Having said that, they often convert a lot of sales and have very high EPCs (expected earnings per click) as most of the work put into them is just on the sales pitch. Some marketers jump at the chance of promoting them for easy commissions.

Whilst earning a few easy bucks from someone’s smooth sales patter is an attractive prospect, ultimately it will cost you money in refunds and unsubscribes from your customer base. It’s always best to promote honest products that deliver on their claims because that way your customer base will remain intact. Always research your products and their vendors before you promote them.

Not using affiliate funnels:
A lot of people think that affiliates who collect leads with email marketing need to email their leads with a bunch of ‘value-adding’ emails with niche-related tips and products before actually trying to sell anything to them. This is not the case. The most effective method is to show your leads your affiliate offer immediately after they subscribe AND later on during your follow-up sequence.

You should also add value with good content but not promoting the affiliate offer to new leads will reduce your profits heavily (if not entirely). The commissions you generate while you grow your list can be used to further fuel the growth of your list (and income).

Not tracking CONVERSIONS as well as clicks:
One of the most important skills you need to develop as an affiliate is the ability to measure conversions (lead magnet sign-ups and sales), as well as clicks.

Some traffic sources will send you hundreds or even thousands of clicks but no leads or sales. Being able to identify the traffic sources which turn a profit is vital to your success.

Not using bonuses to Incentivize people to buy from you:
With thousands of affiliates promoting the same products, you need to give your customers, many of whom will already be on the mailing lists of several different affiliates, a reason to buy from YOU instead of your competitors. That’s why including valuable bonuses which are relevant to the products you’re promoting is such an effective way to boost your conversions when promoting a product to your email list.

The most effective strategy is to promote your own bonus pages on your own website, which include the product you are promoting, along with the bonuses you are offering to buyers of the main product. If you don’t have any giveaway products, using private label rights products is an easy and effective shortcut.

Not having at least 1 product of your own:
The most successful affiliates almost always have at least one digital product of their own, whether it’s their own video training series or just a really unique, high-quality report.

The point is that it has to be a product that genuinely helps people to solve a problem, thereby positioning you as an authority in your chosen niche in the eyes of your customers. This means your customers are much more likely to trust you and many times more likely to buy products you recommend to them.

Want to create a digital product and set up a profitable info-marketing business?

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This is a guest post from Peter Turner, if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.