Share this
It has been proven that one of the most powerful and effective ways to earn money online today is through affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you don’t need to have a product or even a shipping facility. Instead, your job is to expose your readers to the product and in return, the merchant gives you a commission on the sale. Almost everyone can make money with affiliate marketing because the cost of admission is low, usually free.
Also, because there are so many affiliate marketplaces to join, and it is so easy to make a commission on a regular basis, many more people are getting into the business.
Like any business, however, there are certain pitfalls to affiliate marketing. These mistakes have cost many bloggers huge profits over the past several years. It is always better not to make mistakes from the beginning, so here are the most common ones to watch out for.
Not Choosing the Right Affiliate Marketplace
When most people start out in affiliate marketing, they are in a huge hurry to start earning as quickly as possible. Sometimes this will lead to their signing up for the product that is currently “hot” without considering whether or not it is appropriate for them. That is a mistake because you can’t promote a product well if you don’t believe in it.
Instead, try to pick a product that interests you and about which you can get excited. If you do, your passion for the product will shine through in all your promotions. As part of your product evaluation, you will also need to do initial research on the product to determine if it is in demand. After you have chosen your product, carefully plan your promotional strategy and then follow it.
Don’t Join Too Many Affiliate Programs
It is very easy to join affiliate programs, so you might think that the more you join, the more successful you will be and the more you will earn. This is just not true. It sounds like a great idea to set up multiple sources of income, but what actually happens is that it is impossible to promote all of them at the same time so eventually they all will fail.
It is better to start by joining just one affiliate program and promote its products enthusiastically. Choose a program that will give you a fair commission, if at all possible. Once you feel that promotion is well established, you can move on to choosing your next program.
This may sound too slow for you but the prize really does go to slow and steady. You will also be able to better serve your market by being able to better monitor the products and services they are most interested in. I have just a handful of products I promote as an affiliate that makes up the majority of my online income. I know these products in and out, and I have formed relationships with their creators because of my success promoting their programs. When a reader emails me needing a recommendation, I know where to send them whole-heartedly. When my affiliate products’ creators want to run a special sale or boost their sales, they come to me. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Not Using the Service or Buying the Product
Just think about it. If you haven’t used the product or service yourself, how can you recommend that someone else buy it? The whole idea behind affiliate marketing is that you will be able to convince your readers to buy this particular product or service. You will not know enough about the product including both its good and bad attributes. When you write your reviews they just won’t be convincing. There is also that hard to define feeling of desire for the product that you need to kindle in your customer.
So don’t even sign up as an affiliate until you have tried it personally to see if it delivers everything it promises. That way you will be giving your own testimonial and that is extremely powerful. Customers will be able to feel your honesty and sincerity and it will cause them to buy.
Take time to lay a solid foundation when you first get into affiliate marketing. Analyze your market, come up with a strategy and you will maximize your profits.
Corina Ramos says
Hi Angie,
You are right about these common affiliate marketing mistakes. I made these myself when I started out, especially joining too many affiliates but I did (and still do) make sure I’ve used the products I’m promoting.
Thanks for sharing. Have a great weekend!
Cori
Angie Nelson says
You too, Cori.
Brenda Smith says
Really a great post about affiliate marketing mistakes.
I am happy to see that you have explained almost all the big affiliate marketing mistakes which marketers are making nowadays.
Affiliate marketing is the most effective and profitable method of earning money online. With this method, We only need few but really buyers who can purchase something using our affiliate link.
It is the best method of earning than any other method. Google Adsense needs huge amount of traffic to earn some $$ but It only needs few visitors who can purchase something.
When marketers start promoting other companies product then they think that It is very much easy to promote any product and with this thought, they pick so many products to promote which make their work hard.
Picking lots of product to promote is the most common and greedy mistake which marketers make in order to earn more.
Instead of picking lots of product with having no any experience, they should promote a single product with which they have some experience and complete knowledge.
But mistakes also teaches us, So If anybody did these mistakes then they should learn from their mistakes rather than losing hope.
Thanks a lot for sharing such a wonderful post. 😀
Angie Nelson says
Thanks, Brenda.