Affiliate Mistakes to Avoid
Because an affiliate marketing business is easy to start and many people are attracted to it's earning potential, they make lots of mistakes. I know, I've made a few of them myself.
Here are mistakes I've made plus several other mistake that I see affiliate marketers make all the time.
Having No
Plan
Yes, planning
takes time and I know everyone's in a hurry but
not having a plan is the surest way to
failure.
Find out what you need to get started. Understand what investments you need to make. Then set a yearly goal and the outline the tasks you need to perform to meet those goals. Six figures is not impossible with affiliate marketing, just ask Rosalind Gardner, but goals come a lot faster if you have a plan and stick to it.
Not researching your
niche
Find out what
people in your chosen niche really want to
know. It's not always what you think. For
example, when I created my c-section site I
just naturally assumed that women wanted to
know about the actual c-section surgery but it
took me about 6 months to realize that what
they really wanted to know was how to recovery
quickly. I would have known that in the
beginning if I'd taken the time to do my
research.
Get on forums, run surveys, ask questions and find out what people in your niche really want to know, it will make a huge difference in the people you attract and in the product sales you make.
Not building your opt-in
email list
Start from the
very beginning building an email list.
This means capturing the email addresses of
your visitors. Once your visitors leave
your site they are virtually gone for good
unless you can find a way to keep in contact
with them. Once they are on your email list you
can continue to provide them with information,
product specials, helpful tips, etc. It's
also a way to foster trust and
friendship. A viewer that trusts you is a
viewer that is more likely to buy from
you.
Not reading the affiliate
agreement
Not all affiliate
programs are the same. There are devious
affiliate managers that would love for you to
promote them and not have to pay you. One
little violation of the agreement may mean you
won't get paid.
Be sure your site qualifies
for the program, make sure you understand how
and when you will get paid. Some programs
offer exclusivity which means if you offer one
merchant's program you may not offer merchants
selling similar products.
Read all the fine
print and understand what you are agreeing
to.
Not keeping in close touch
with your affiliate
manager
I try to get to know and keep
close contact with as many affiliate managers
as I can, particularly the ones that I earn the
most with. Use them to ask your questions
and get advice. They can provide you with
some very good tidbits of information that you
may not otherwise get.
Too many affiliate links with
no personal
endorsements
Don't send your visitors directly to the
merchant site. Instead create
personal endorsement and review pages for your
products. The search engines will prefer
this and so will your viewers.
Going only for the affiliate
programs that pay the most
money
We all want to make the most
money but just because an affiliate program
pays 60% doesn't mean it has the best
product. You won't be raking in the cash
if the products get returned. Be sure the
products you promote sell well and are noted
for good customer service.
Broken or expired
links
Always check your links, make
sure they go to the pages you think they are
going to. If a publisher expires make
sure you adjust your links on your site.
Too many broken or expired links will make your
site look bad, not only to your visitors but to
the search engines as well.
Using pay per click ads
without knowing what you are
doing
Pay per click ads like the
ones used with Google Adsense are a great way
to get traffic and sales flowing quickly but it
can be dangerous to use this type of
advertising without getting some knowledge
under your belt first. If you are
thinking of using Google Adwords I highly
recommend "The Ultimate Guide to Google
Adwords" by Perry Marshall. I bought the
guide last year and it's helped me perfect my
Google Adwords campaigns and increase my sales
over 30% for some products.
Not being focused and doing
too many things
When I began my
online business I got involved in so many
online business ventures that I completely lost
focus. I did a little wholesale
dropshipping, some affiliate marketing, sold
things on ebay, developed information
products and lots of other things. I
had no focus. I had so many things to do
each day that I couldn't possibly be
productive.
Focus on one thing and absorb yourself in it completely before concentrating on anything else. Diverting your attention across too many things diminishes your level of success substantially.
Likewise, do what you do best and outsource the rest. Being an online business owner can mean wearing a lot of hats and it's impossible to do it all yourself. Instead, get other people to do the tedious work for you. If you simply don't know what can be outsourced or where to find quality outsourcing help check into Outsource Weekly, it will change the way you do business.
Don't
Spam
Spam
is unsolicited email and we all get
it. Don't be tempted to buy email
lists and blast your links to them,
that's spam and it can hurt your
business. People who get spam from
you can contact your ISP or contact the
merchant for the product you are
promoting and you can be banned from the
affiliate program or worse yet your
ISP.
Develop your own email opt-in list by practicing permission based email marketing. You'll have more targeted, happy visitors and those are the ones that are most ready with wallet in hand.
Your Partner in Success,
Elizabeth
