Would you wish that someone told you what to avoid in affiliate marketing just as you were starting out in the business? And, not a few months down the road?
There are several “costly” mistakes that you should learn about early to save yourself costs and losses of your personal time invested, website traffic, opportunities / clicks, or income.
This article discusses some of these costly mistakes many new and “not so new” affiliate associates make. This is true of both young and senior associates. and recommends how to avoid them.
A World of Opportunities
Affiliate marketing is popular because it does not require much investment. It provides you with the opportunity to make money online once your website has been properly set up.
Like so many others, you believe that affiliate marketing is a simple and easy way to earn a good income.
As the affiliate marketer, you promote the products and services of Merchants and receive commissions from the Merchant when any of their products are sold. Simple?
Technically that is correct, but only if you set yourself up for success! The key is to learn what not to do in affiliate marketing.
These costly mistakes fall under 5 major categories –
- Understanding the Concept of Affiliate Marketing,
- Quality Website Content,
- Quality Products and Services,
- Affiliate Linking to Products, and
- Email Lists.
There are others, of course, but most of them will fall under one of these umbrellas. Making sure you avoid these mistakes will increase your success in your online affiliate marketing business.
Understanding the Concept of Affiliate Marketing
This seems like a no brainer you think, or why on earth would you be here dabbling into affiliate marketing? Of course, you believe that you understand the concept of affiliate marketing! Really?
The truth is that many people come to affiliate marketing with the mentality that it is a get-rich-quick scheme. It is NOT. Neither is it an MLM or a Pyramid scheme.
It requires commitment, discipline and several skills discussed in a previous article – Affiliate Marketing. Must Have Qualities.
Unless you have this mindset and are willing to build your website slowly and methodically with value adding content, you will be disappointed.
Affiliate marketing will continue to generate residual income for you year-over-year if you build on a solid foundation.
Failure to fully embrace this concept from the very beginning can result in frustration and potentially abandoning the prospect. The cost here is the lost time you have already invested in setting up your affiliate marketing business.
How to Improve Affiliate Marketing – Avoid Poor Quality Website Content
This begins with creating a simple website to promote quality content. There are several options for this but a great one to quickly get started where you can get lots of practice is affiliate marketing.
Of course, a good affiliate marketing program providing step-by-step guidance on how to go about this is a great complement. These are both tools used by Metamorphosis Hub. Find out more details by clicking the links below:
Creating poor quality-content for your audience will not attract traffic to your website. And traffic is what brings sales.
Content writing and publishing should not solely be a numbers game for the Google algorithm.
You should not be writing for the search engine but for real people – who you claim to be providing a “service” through your site. This is how to improve affiliate marketing efforts.
These real people are looking for a solution to a need or a problem, and they want clear explanations, benefits, and tips.
So, you need to build a connection with them first before you guide them to a sale.
If you provide poor content, then you might see the trickle of visitors to your site dry up as they leave and never return. You can be sure that they will be looking for their solutions on other sites. Always put your best effort into the content you provide.
Quality will always beat Quantity hands down any day!
What is the cost of poor quality? It is the time you have invested in creating content for which there is no sustained traffic.
What to Avoid in Affiliate Marketing – Poor Quality Products and Services
There is no point promoting poor quality or non-reputable products and services on your website. Always research and carefully select products to promote.
If the product or service of a Merchant is not of a quality that you would personally buy them, they probably should not be promoted on your website.
As a rule, only promote products you would tell people about if you were not an affiliate marketer.
Finding quality products requires research into different affiliate programs. Refer to a previous article – How to Choose a Good Affiliate Program for tips.
The Cost? Poor quality or non-reputable products and services result in returns to the Merchants. This results in a claw back on your commission. In addition, disgruntled visitors to the site will likely never return.
What You Should Avoid in Affiliate Marketing – Stuffing Website With Affiliate Links to Products and Services
Do not create a website stuffed with affiliate links, flashy banners, and numerous advertisements. This may overwhelm your visitors and cause them to leave your website.
Remember that your visitor is looking for a solution to a need or problem, so they will not want to invest their search time wading through ads to get to your content!
You should not simply insert affiliate links to products arbitrarily without first selling the need for the product to your audience. How do you do this?
Through your content. They must see how the product or service could address their need or solve their problem.
Your goal should be to place affiliate links in strategic locations within your content to guide your visitor towards buying a product or service.
How to Improve Affiliate Marketing – Share Your Links
Furthermore, a good recipe is to not only promote affiliate links on your website but to share those links across multiple social platforms.
This will ensure a much wider reach because each social platform reaches different segments of the population. In addition, some people respond better to more visual than written content which increase the probability of conversions.
What is the cost of not doing this? Reduced traffic and fewer conversions mean a lower income.
Email List
Not actively building an email list is a costly mistake. This is the best way to develop a strong relationship with your visitors and build trust and an asset at the same time.
Do not send your visitor directly to an affiliate website without ensuring they see a free offer on your website which will benefit them.
Why? Because there is a possibility that the visitor may not like the product you have recommended and close the website without making a purchase. This means that you may have lost this prospect forever.
If you want your visitors to frequently visit your website, make a habit of promoting some of your own free offers – gifts, discounts, training, software, or e-books.
Once they subscribe to your website, you can begin to build trust by regularly sending them your free newsletter, notification of new blogs or offers at their email address.
The costly mistake of not building an email list is letting uncountable number of prospects slip through your fingers. This translates into a potential loss of income.
Conclusion – What to Avoid in Affiliate Marketing
As an affiliate marketer, now you know what to avoid in affiliate marketing that are costly mistakes that will affect your success. A good converting website is one that has quality content, reputable products, strategic affiliate links and an email funnel.
Your goal should be to genuinely care about your visitors and build relationships with them – that is how to improve affiliate marketing. People tend to buy products from people they trust. Conversions will follow.
Are there any other costly mistakes you know of which are not listed here? Join the conversation by leaving a comment in the Comment box below.
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Hi Ceci,
This is real fact how people are doing mistake in affiliate marketing . On your article you given a proper 5 reason how mistake coming from and how we can avoid the mistakes.
Certainly for the affiliate marketing needs quality Website Content, quality Products and Services, Affiliate Linking to Products, and
Email Lists. When people can trust your website then people will jump to buy your product .
Email listing building such a great powerful method and as you mention in this article .
Very positive information to me. keep it up good work.
Regards,
Goutam
Thanks for visiting the site Goutam. Glad that you found the information useful!
Ceci
Ceci, thank you for a great article. It is so true that sometimes we just throw affiliate links all over just trying to make a buck and not paying attention to see that this is a turn-off. I appreciate your reminding us that this will hurt us in the long run.
It makes little sense to have a website that has features chasing away the readers. Let’s face it, we are here to share information and by and large help people to solve their problems. The income is the bonus. This thinking takes a mindset that will take a while to develop because the truth is told, money is the driving force for many. Herein lies the reason for failure online.
Continued success.
Thanks for visiting our website. You are correct in your last two sentences – too many people still view affiliate marketing as a “get rich quick” scheme which it is not. Why not take the time to build and build properly? Some mistakes are inevitable, but it is possible to avoid costly ones!
Ceci