How Failing Early On Will Help You Make a Kickass Affiliate Marketing Site

I’ll admit it, guys — I put the cart before the horse. To say I’ve been humbled is putting it mildly.

I get excited when it comes to online marketing; particularly affiliate marketing. This is new territory for me and I’m so excited to just dive in and make my site a thriving success! I’ve set my bars high and I’m ready to make serious moves. Wealthy Affiliate is preparing me for something great. The training here is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

But, I definitely let my ego get the best of me recently.

The Wealthy Affiliate trainings are unmatched.

I’m someone who wants to do it all (it has gotten me into trouble a few times.) I have a hard time organizing my day and completing tasks, because I’m so busy having my hands in all of the projects.

I’m someone who needs a clear path laid out in front of me, step by step, of tasks I need to complete. Otherwise, I’m trying to do everything at once.

Wealthy Affiliate does a great job in the Entrepreneur Certification and Affiliate Bootcamp trainings of giving you actionable steps to complete your site, content, keyword lists, social pages, and affiliate programs in bite size bits.

I started flying through the trainings because they are so easy to follow. Creating my site, creating my content have been so fun for me. The vision I’ve had in my head for so long of having my own successful affiliate site started to form in front of my eyes!

My site is only 2 months old, but it has turned into my baby. Something I constantly want to nourish and love on and worry about when I’m trying to sleep.

Then, old habits started to kick in.

Have I skipped a few blog posts here and there? Sure.

Have I focused more on creating lead magnets, social posts, and pretty pins? You bet.

Everything I’ve created so far has been out of love. So, I figured I’d put my site to the test and give it an audience.

3-2-1, LAUNCH!

I wanted to do a PPC campaign to grab the attention of my ideal audience. I figured I would start small, in an area I know likes the topic I write about and the products I’m promoting.

I gave myself $100 to do a PPC campaign. I have some affiliate programs that I thought, “well! If I just sell X number of X items, I’ll make my money back tenfold!”

I went all in.

I worked scrupulously on an email nurture sequence, bridge page, and ad copy. I set up my campaign, set my targeting, set my budget, and hit “Publish.”

I was almost feverish with excitement. I felt so much pride for running my first ad campaign for myself!

I promised myself I wouldn’t look at any results (no traffic data, no adspend data, no subscribers data) until the end of the PPC campaign.

I came. I saw. I crashed. I burned.

It only took 4 days to go through my adspend budget, but I was initially happy with the traffic I received.

I had over 100 new people looking at my website!

I went to my email automation and…3 subscribers.

Okay. This is fine. The sequence lasts for 7 days. I’ll let this play out.

While I waited for those subscribers to decide they like me and my page and my products enough to make a purchase, I reviewed my Google Analytics.

Guys, this was the gut punch right here. The KO:

My bounce rate was GARBAGE!

You remember that time when you were in a science fair and you worked rreeaaalllly hard to make that volcano replica, only for the massive lava explosion you intended for to sputter out a dying noise and no molten river of fire?

…precisely that feeling, plus $100 less in your bank account.

I knew when I saw those numbers that the subscribers I had were not going to buy anything.

My first PPC campaign was a bust.

Going Back to Basics with Wealthy Affiliate

After reviewing the data from all of my analytics and reflecting on the campaign, I had 4 key realizations:

1. 1. The audience I targeted REALLY didn’t like my content. I know my targeting was on point, so this tells me that I need to do something different with the content I write. After all, good content means more trust with your readers, and with Google.
2. 2. My site layout was hard to navigate. I had too much text on my homepage, and it was boring to stay on. I needed to change the customer experience on my pages so they would want to stick around.
3. 3. I created a PPC campaign out of a selfish place. I didn’t think of the audience. I didn’t bring them value. I presented them with a sales page. I would bounce from that page, too.
4. 4. I needed to follow the Wealthy Affiliate trainings EXACTLY. Guys, this community is a WEALTH of knowledge! The trainings are easy to follow, they’re fun to interact with, and there are people in this community who are more than happy to review your content and pages for FREE! (Hence, I could have saved $100 if I had come to my WA family first.)

Do I regret running a PPC Campaign so early?

Honestly, I would do it again. Although I’m out $100, it’s just $100. It’ll come back to me one day.

I’m glad that I had hard data to see how audiences respond to my site, and learn what kind of messages truly resonate with them.

Since my failed campaign, I’ve made some MAJOR modifications:

• I write less about myself and include more educational pieces.
• I have more images on my site.
• I engage with my social page followers less, but they understand I’m trying to make this experience better for them.
• I am up to 18 subscribers, and haven’t pushed products on them yet so I can continue to nurture this relationship.
• I am going back to basics, and reviewing my Wealthy Affiliate training videos. After all, there are over 50 of them if you go premium. Each one is a gem.

I will run a campaign again one day, but not until I make my site more about the content rather than the sale.

Thanks for reading.