Top 3 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
Affiliate marketing, in my opinion, is one of the most effective and opportunistic ways of earning extra money online. As a total novice, you can enter this profession with little or no experience. Most affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pay a commission on a regular basis.
However, like all opportunities and businesses, there is no shortage of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing game. Newbies and veterans alike leave way too much on the table and most of the time it is because of silly mistakes! This article highlights THREE common mistakes which kill new marketers chances of early profit and success… Learn to avoid the common mistakes and boost your chance of profits on your first campaign.
Mistake ONE: Choosing the wrong program.
Most new marketers want to earn affiliate commissions as fast as possible, from day dot. In their manic rush to join the club, they tend to choose a Bieber product. The kind of products that we think are “hot” and in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them or their desired client. Not a smart move unless you want to hate your job. After listening to Russel Brunsons pod-cast, he advises the first step is to work out your dream customer and then promote products that appeal to them.
Remember “These are the people you will be working with as clients.”
Instead of jumping on the hip-hop bandwagon, choose a product in which appeals to your desired client and that you would be passionate about marketing. For all campaigns to succeed, you must love it, take the time to plan and figure out your steps and then implement the plan through massive action.
Pick a product that appeals to you and your desired clients. Promoting a product you can passionately market will make your job so much more enjoyable and help you stick with it when times are tough, and commissions are slow. The product still needs to have high demand, value and appeal, however, make your job as fun as **** and the rewards will begin to pile up in more ways than one!
Picking products based on commission alone is a recipe for disaster and believe me I have had my share of disaster sandwiches.
Mistake TWO: Joining excessive affiliate opportunities.
Like a biggest looser temptation challenge, once you get your taste for affiliate marketing you will very easily be tempted to join every affiliate opportunity in an effort to maximise your potential profit. And since their soooo easy to join it’s more important than ever to keep your humble hat on. You can have too much of a good thing, ask the 350-pound man who now dreams about cheesecake.
Yes! Creating multiple streams of income is great. However, when you are starting out joining, excessive affiliate opportunities and promoting them all at the same time will have the exact opposite effect as you are left unfocused on the job at hand. The truth is it will take some time, effort and financial investment before any of your affiliate offers take off.
The maximum potential of the affiliate program is not reached in the first week. Remember, initially… Your results will probably be less than desirable, a kick in the guts… Though keep all your focus on the job at hand and the only way is up!… A handy tip is to start with something which pays at least a 40% commission. Promote enthusiastically. When the profit starts rolling in you now have permission to add another program to the business.
This is the proven technique! Start, focus, plan and implement. There will always be another opportunity, so don’t ever feel like you have missed out. We live in the information age, and the future looks bright for the affiliate marketing industry.
Mistake THREE: Not investing in the product or service.
Realistically how can you effectively and convincingly recommend a product or service to a potential client if you haven’t used it yourself?
This is a major mistake and is critical to your success. You will pay dearly being branded as a scammer or selling broken promises…
A handy Tip; Try the product or service personally first, after one week write down all the questions you had and develop quality answers for them as these will often be the questions potential clients will have as well. Write the advantages and disadvantages of the product and ask yourself… Can I honestly with true integrity, sincerity, and confidence promote this product or service? Would I sell it to my Grandma?
Consciously think about theses THREE mistakes while you are analyzing your new marketing strategy. Position yourself right from the start and you will be well on your way to maximising your affiliate marketing profits, Good luck…!
Clinton Bee
Recent Comments
5
Hi Clinton,
Although you are a newbie here, you do not appear to be new at Affiliate Marketing. And online marketing too.
The most important take away for me was to pick your ideal customer. Once you do that, everything else starts to fall inton place.
When I joined WA it was easy to select my niche. For 10 years I had experienced the benefits of unlimited legal advice and select services for a very small monthly fee. Much like WA for Affiliate Marketing training. Since they paid a nice commission for referrals, I decided to use the lessons here to create an online business for that niche.
Then Kyle invited me to join the Super Affiliate Challenge three months into being at WA. He is personally coaching us to learn how to promote WA. The commissions are about 50%. I jumped at the opportunity.
I have a dilemma. How to divide my time in both areas. That is a good problem to have. The timing is great really. As the lessons Kyle is teaching I can directly apply to my niche business.
Welcome aboard. I feel you are going to do very well here.
Cheers.
Edwin
Hi there Clinton Bee :)
Wow, you have wrote some great info here! Glad to have you as part of the team here at Wealthy Affiliate.
I am now following your journey here and look forward to more great posts from you in the future.
All the best
-Amelita
My Top Three Would Be:
Failure to put your beliefs above the opinions of others(people pleasing)
Lacking the correct knowledge to learn at an optimal level (thinking you are an expert when you are not)
Believing that money is evil or thinking that people who gain a lot of it are all greedy. (Money is the means of helping people)
You could go on and on about opinions for the rest of eternity but no matter how hard you want somebody to listen to you it has to be done with a smile!
A great post Clinton Bee and You are a wise young man with some really great info here in this post
Great for all of us to read so thank you
Vicki
Hi Clinton.
Great post.
I think the most important point is the third one. To me it is totally unethical to promote something you have never used or have no experience of.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts