7 Most Common Mistakes Made in Affiliate Marketing
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Everyone has got to start somewhere. And, for neophyte Internet marketers, the simplest place to start maybe with affiliate products. instead of going through the laborious and expensive process of creating your own product and then trying to market it to the masses, why not start by finding a product that's well put together and comes from someone who already has a high degree of credibility? You could save a lot of time, money, frustration, and can power; and you could make money in the process, too—in fact, really, specialized money. Many top Internet marketers today still sell affiliate products, although they make a killing off of their own. Why? Because it’s still fantastic money and tiny effort is required.
Now, thereupon said, it’s important to say that affiliate marketing is no walk in the park, either. It’s certainly easier than pulling off a Jeff Walker-style massive product launch, but, like anything, there are many pitfalls just waiting to consume you and your money. Do yourself a favor: heed what I say and avoid those pitfalls. during this section, I will be able to go over the top 7:
Not all products are created equal. In fact, that's probably the driving motivation behind your decision to sell affiliate products: for the most part, you've got accepted that there are plenty of high-quality products already on the market and, if you create your own, it'd not compare favorably. If you opt to pick your product off of a list on Clickbank, select it very carefully. instead of haphazardly selecting the product with the highest commission, search for the ones that have the highest popularity and gravity ratings. If plenty of people are buying them often, they need to be better than other products for sale within that niche.
In addition to picking good products within niches, you'll also want to look for good niches. Here’s a stupid tip that will illustrate my point nonetheless: don’t sell garden hoses in the winter. nobody will buy. specialize in products that a lot of people want; and if their popularity just surged, now's the best time to get in the market.
As an affiliate marketer, your goal is to take advantage of the hard work others have done; and the money they have spent on copywriters, product developers, and software. If you decide on a product that underutilizes these advantages, you're likely to benefit less.
Take, as an example, conversion rates. Not all product creators hire a top-notch copywriter. In fact, many of them just write their own copy. Many also don’t hire someone to try to do graphs for the sales page. Instead, they struggle to do their own. the top result? The page looks hideous, the copy contains major errors, and therefore the product converts poorly.
Before you begin promoting any particular product, read the sales page carefully and compare it with others. does one feel compelled to buy? Did the graphics throw you off? Did the copy fail to reel you in for the catch? These can all amount to fatal errors for both the seller and you. you can't help the seller at this point, but you'll avoid his product and find a better one.
This pitfall is particularly important to avoid if you have a list. All it takes is one erroneous product promotion and you'll end up with a mass exodus from your list. Again, don’t make this error.
Even though you may be tempted to promote the next “biggest launch,” ensure you don’t buy into just anything. Several marketers have lamented their choices to market Rich Jerk’s latest offering after list members complained that his sales page was loaded with profanity and sexist comments. Don’t be one among these guys. ensure you carefully inspect anything before you promote it to your list. Unless you happen to be the Rich Jerk, you almost certainly don’t want people to think you’re just that—a rich jerk.
Additionally, avoid jumping on the affiliate product bandwagon for major promotions. Instead, wait until the excitement dies down slightly; and then release a comprehensive review (something most affiliate marketers do not provide) of the product. This features a much better chance of getting sales for you, and it will also help you to maintain credibility.
Last, avoid promoting products that make outrageous and fallacious claims. As Carl Sagan once said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In most cases, these snake oil peddlers cannot provide you with any extraordinary evidence, but they are doing make the claims. Avoid promoting them and becoming related to them.
If you’re marketing to an inventory of people, who’re only visiting consider so many products offers in a given period, so select those you promote wisely. If you promote something that only generates a 25% commission, then you’re leaving plenty on time. actually, you'll probably find a similar product that offers a 50% or 75% commission. In terms of the particular dollar value of the commission – don’t sweat that as much. While many top-name Internet marketers now say that they consider promoting high-ticket items (since only a few sales will generate a lot of money), you'll still make a killing selling relatively cheap reports. The rising popularity of the $7 report is a testament to the present fact.
Always, capture leads. instead of generating traffic through pay-per-click, program optimization, and other methods than sending that traffic to your affiliate link, you ought to make an effort to convert them into list members first. Why? Two reasons: simple mathematical reasoning and therefore the collective experience of many marketers.
The simple mathematical reasoning goes something like this: virtually everyone who would have purchased the product will opt into your mailing list. and lots of those who definitely would not have purchased the product will opt into your mailing list. rather than converting at a rate of around 1-3% (in affiliate sales), you'll convert between 15 and 40% of visitors (to your mailing list). From there, you'll get the chance to contact the willing buyers and the more reluctant ones. Additionally, once they’re on an inventory, this is often no longer a one-off effort. You get the prospect to market to them again and again for months or even years.
As a marketer, one of the best tools you have available in your list. Always, use your list over the one-off sale.
In business generally, the fast often out-compete those endowed with greater resources. Today, Google is no longer a small company with meager revenues, but in the past, it emerged out of thin air to out-compete massively well-endowed rivals; and it did so with cunning.
How does this apply to you? Successful affiliate product promotion requires you to try to do more than simply slap an affiliate link in an email and send it out to a couple thousand people. If you expect them to truly buy, your email should be newsworthy – not promotional.
If you'll genuinely write your email as if it were a news announcement, you're far more likely to draw interest than if you send a link to an Internet marketing ebook that was written in 1998 and wasn’t particularly popular then.
You need to find product launches that qualify as an “event.” Find something so big that folks follow the event and comment on it. If you'll find such a product (say, the iPhone or Internet marketing products), you must engineer your own build-up and release, centered on the build-up and release of the merchandise. you'll want to make sure that your list members purchase from you, instead of from another list owner.
To make it short and sweet: pay attention to the clock and the calendar. If there’s an enormous launch coming up, you would like to capitalize on it quickly. There might not be a second window for opportunity. So take it once you have it.
Many affiliate marketers fail to form many of the small—yet important—calculations needed to run a business and ensure you are in profit. as an example, many affiliate marketers will completely ignore the portion Clickbank extracts from each sale. Instead, they’ll simply examine the price and the commission.
Additionally, many will ignore conversion rates, pay-per-click bids, and therefore the amount of time they put into projects. They’ll also fail to form realistic estimates of how much promotional efforts will cost; and how much of a risk they’ll be. They’ll glaze over all of those minor details and devote the majority of their time to daydreaming about the riches they will rake in.
Unfortunately, affiliate marketing doesn’t work like that. If you’re paying an excessive amount for traffic; if your conversion rates are too low; if you put too much time into projects that don’t have high yields – the outcome is bad. Your numbers won’t add up. At the top of the day, month, or year, you'll end up in debt, instead of profit. And since you’re a sole proprietor, not a CEO of an organization, meaning you don’t get paid at all. Even worse, you would possibly lose some of your own money that you worked hard to get.
So how does all of this come together? As you read, there are seven common pitfalls in affiliate marketing. If you fall under them, your affiliate marketing will put you in debt, instead of making you wealthy.
So how are you able to avoid these traps, make better decisions, and ultimately become wealthy via affiliate marketing? First, start by selecting literally good products. As I discussed previously, a coffee-demand product will make few sales, regardless of how hard you try to promote it. If the demand isn’t there, you can’t create it. Don’t try.
Next, within the niches that are in high demand, search for a product that is actually a winner. Find something that converts alright. you'll do this by looking for high-popularity, high-gravity products on Clickbank. you'll also do this by scanning sales pages to find ones with extraordinarily compelling copy, good bonuses, and reasonable prices.
In addition to choosing a product that is likely to convert well, you'll also want to make sure that the claims are reasonable and that the seller is credible. One bad product could seriously knock you down some pegs with your list of members. Making one sale and losing an otherwise repeat buyer is rarely worth it.
Once you begin generating traffic for your affiliate marketing campaigns, remember to drive it to an opt-in form – to not your affiliate link. If you send the person on to an affiliate link, you're likely to never hear from that person again, whether or not it leads to a sale. Collecting leads is critically important. If you fail to try to do so—as many affiliate marketers do—you are leaving a lot of money on the table relative to the amount you are spending.
Last, do yourself a favor and keep track of conversion rates, bid prices, commission rates, product broker fees, and every one of the other little numbers that affiliate marketers prefer to ignore. Knowing, understanding, and tweaking these numbers might be the difference between profit and debt. you'll ignore them if you want, but doing so won't improve your business.
With all of that said, you’re now able to take a crack at affiliate marketing. There are plenty of risks involved, but you already know the significant seven; avoid these, and you’ll breeze through into profit, following the trail of past super affiliates.
Affiliate Marketing – the simplest Place to Start
Everyone has got to start somewhere. And, for neophyte Internet marketers, the simplest place to start maybe with affiliate products. instead of going through the laborious and expensive process of creating your own product and then trying to market it to the masses, why not start by finding a product that's well put together and comes from someone who already has a high degree of credibility? You could save a lot of time, money, frustration, and can power; and you could make money in the process, too—in fact, really, specialized money. Many top Internet marketers today still sell affiliate products, although they make a killing off of their own. Why? Because it’s still fantastic money and tiny effort is required.
Now, thereupon said, it’s important to say that affiliate marketing is no walk in the park, either. It’s certainly easier than pulling off a Jeff Walker-style massive product launch, but, like anything, there are many pitfalls just waiting to consume you and your money. Do yourself a favor: heed what I say and avoid those pitfalls. during this section, I will be able to go over the top 7:
1: Choosing a nasty Product to Promote
Not all products are created equal. In fact, that's probably the driving motivation behind your decision to sell affiliate products: for the most part, you've got accepted that there are plenty of high-quality products already on the market and, if you create your own, it'd not compare favorably. If you opt to pick your product off of a list on Clickbank, select it very carefully. instead of haphazardly selecting the product with the highest commission, search for the ones that have the highest popularity and gravity ratings. If plenty of people are buying them often, they need to be better than other products for sale within that niche.
In addition to picking good products within niches, you'll also want to look for good niches. Here’s a stupid tip that will illustrate my point nonetheless: don’t sell garden hoses in the winter. nobody will buy. specialize in products that a lot of people want; and if their popularity just surged, now's the best time to get in the market.
2: Picking a coffee Converter
As an affiliate marketer, your goal is to take advantage of the hard work others have done; and the money they have spent on copywriters, product developers, and software. If you decide on a product that underutilizes these advantages, you're likely to benefit less.
Take, as an example, conversion rates. Not all product creators hire a top-notch copywriter. In fact, many of them just write their own copy. Many also don’t hire someone to try to do graphs for the sales page. Instead, they struggle to do their own. the top result? The page looks hideous, the copy contains major errors, and therefore the product converts poorly.
Before you begin promoting any particular product, read the sales page carefully and compare it with others. does one feel compelled to buy? Did the graphics throw you off? Did the copy fail to reel you in for the catch? These can all amount to fatal errors for both the seller and you. you can't help the seller at this point, but you'll avoid his product and find a better one.
3: Selling Snake Oil for a Snake Oil Salesman
This pitfall is particularly important to avoid if you have a list. All it takes is one erroneous product promotion and you'll end up with a mass exodus from your list. Again, don’t make this error.
Even though you may be tempted to promote the next “biggest launch,” ensure you don’t buy into just anything. Several marketers have lamented their choices to market Rich Jerk’s latest offering after list members complained that his sales page was loaded with profanity and sexist comments. Don’t be one among these guys. ensure you carefully inspect anything before you promote it to your list. Unless you happen to be the Rich Jerk, you almost certainly don’t want people to think you’re just that—a rich jerk.
Additionally, avoid jumping on the affiliate product bandwagon for major promotions. Instead, wait until the excitement dies down slightly; and then release a comprehensive review (something most affiliate marketers do not provide) of the product. This features a much better chance of getting sales for you, and it will also help you to maintain credibility.
Last, avoid promoting products that make outrageous and fallacious claims. As Carl Sagan once said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In most cases, these snake oil peddlers cannot provide you with any extraordinary evidence, but they are doing make the claims. Avoid promoting them and becoming related to them.
4: Picking Products that provide Meager Commissions
If you’re marketing to an inventory of people, who’re only visiting consider so many products offers in a given period, so select those you promote wisely. If you promote something that only generates a 25% commission, then you’re leaving plenty on time. actually, you'll probably find a similar product that offers a 50% or 75% commission. In terms of the particular dollar value of the commission – don’t sweat that as much. While many top-name Internet marketers now say that they consider promoting high-ticket items (since only a few sales will generate a lot of money), you'll still make a killing selling relatively cheap reports. The rising popularity of the $7 report is a testament to the present fact.
5: Failing to gather Leads
Always, capture leads. instead of generating traffic through pay-per-click, program optimization, and other methods than sending that traffic to your affiliate link, you ought to make an effort to convert them into list members first. Why? Two reasons: simple mathematical reasoning and therefore the collective experience of many marketers.
The simple mathematical reasoning goes something like this: virtually everyone who would have purchased the product will opt into your mailing list. and lots of those who definitely would not have purchased the product will opt into your mailing list. rather than converting at a rate of around 1-3% (in affiliate sales), you'll convert between 15 and 40% of visitors (to your mailing list). From there, you'll get the chance to contact the willing buyers and the more reluctant ones. Additionally, once they’re on an inventory, this is often no longer a one-off effort. You get the prospect to market to them again and again for months or even years.
As a marketer, one of the best tools you have available in your list. Always, use your list over the one-off sale.
6: Ignoring the Importance of Timeliness
In business generally, the fast often out-compete those endowed with greater resources. Today, Google is no longer a small company with meager revenues, but in the past, it emerged out of thin air to out-compete massively well-endowed rivals; and it did so with cunning.
How does this apply to you? Successful affiliate product promotion requires you to try to do more than simply slap an affiliate link in an email and send it out to a couple thousand people. If you expect them to truly buy, your email should be newsworthy – not promotional.
If you'll genuinely write your email as if it were a news announcement, you're far more likely to draw interest than if you send a link to an Internet marketing ebook that was written in 1998 and wasn’t particularly popular then.
You need to find product launches that qualify as an “event.” Find something so big that folks follow the event and comment on it. If you'll find such a product (say, the iPhone or Internet marketing products), you must engineer your own build-up and release, centered on the build-up and release of the merchandise. you'll want to make sure that your list members purchase from you, instead of from another list owner.
To make it short and sweet: pay attention to the clock and the calendar. If there’s an enormous launch coming up, you would like to capitalize on it quickly. There might not be a second window for opportunity. So take it once you have it.
7: Ignore Important Numbers
Many affiliate marketers fail to form many of the small—yet important—calculations needed to run a business and ensure you are in profit. as an example, many affiliate marketers will completely ignore the portion Clickbank extracts from each sale. Instead, they’ll simply examine the price and the commission.
Additionally, many will ignore conversion rates, pay-per-click bids, and therefore the amount of time they put into projects. They’ll also fail to form realistic estimates of how much promotional efforts will cost; and how much of a risk they’ll be. They’ll glaze over all of those minor details and devote the majority of their time to daydreaming about the riches they will rake in.
Unfortunately, affiliate marketing doesn’t work like that. If you’re paying an excessive amount for traffic; if your conversion rates are too low; if you put too much time into projects that don’t have high yields – the outcome is bad. Your numbers won’t add up. At the top of the day, month, or year, you'll end up in debt, instead of profit. And since you’re a sole proprietor, not a CEO of an organization, meaning you don’t get paid at all. Even worse, you would possibly lose some of your own money that you worked hard to get.
Conclusion
So how does all of this come together? As you read, there are seven common pitfalls in affiliate marketing. If you fall under them, your affiliate marketing will put you in debt, instead of making you wealthy.
So how are you able to avoid these traps, make better decisions, and ultimately become wealthy via affiliate marketing? First, start by selecting literally good products. As I discussed previously, a coffee-demand product will make few sales, regardless of how hard you try to promote it. If the demand isn’t there, you can’t create it. Don’t try.
Next, within the niches that are in high demand, search for a product that is actually a winner. Find something that converts alright. you'll do this by looking for high-popularity, high-gravity products on Clickbank. you'll also do this by scanning sales pages to find ones with extraordinarily compelling copy, good bonuses, and reasonable prices.
In addition to choosing a product that is likely to convert well, you'll also want to make sure that the claims are reasonable and that the seller is credible. One bad product could seriously knock you down some pegs with your list of members. Making one sale and losing an otherwise repeat buyer is rarely worth it.
Once you begin generating traffic for your affiliate marketing campaigns, remember to drive it to an opt-in form – to not your affiliate link. If you send the person on to an affiliate link, you're likely to never hear from that person again, whether or not it leads to a sale. Collecting leads is critically important. If you fail to try to do so—as many affiliate marketers do—you are leaving a lot of money on the table relative to the amount you are spending.
Last, do yourself a favor and keep track of conversion rates, bid prices, commission rates, product broker fees, and every one of the other little numbers that affiliate marketers prefer to ignore. Knowing, understanding, and tweaking these numbers might be the difference between profit and debt. you'll ignore them if you want, but doing so won't improve your business.
With all of that said, you’re now able to take a crack at affiliate marketing. There are plenty of risks involved, but you already know the significant seven; avoid these, and you’ll breeze through into profit, following the trail of past super affiliates.