Affiliate marketing offers newcomers a low-cost entry into making money online. And there are plenty of courses that teach a variety of methods. What they often leave out is what not to do. As you experiment with different methods, be careful to avoid these common mistakes:
Promoting flash-in-the-pan, trendy products
You can waste a lot of time scouring the net for the next “loophole” or flashy sensation. Remember that you can earn commissions by promoting solid, essential, “evergreen” with ongoing demand. If you promote products that are too trendy, interest drops off rapidly, and you have to find another shiny object and start all over again. In the meantime, you build an unfortunate reputation as an affiliate for not-so-helpful products.
Limiting yourself to a narrow range of affiliate markets
Clickbank is a great starting place for new marketers—approval is almost always automatic, and the commissions are often 50% of the product price—even more. But while you’re marketing Clickbank products, explore other markets—places like PayDotCom and Max Bounty. This way, you’ll be exposed to a wider range of products and different affiliate models (for example, CPA, aka cost-per-action).
Furthermore, look for independent affiliate programs. In your web browser, search for “your niche” + “affiliate program.” For example, “prepper affiliate program.” You may find some products you can promote with less competition and you can increase your range of offerings to your audience.
Building your entire business on someone else’s platform
Social media platforms offer a fabulous opportunity to promote affiliate products without having to build and maintain your own site. But remember—the Facebook fanpage you create or the YouTube channel you painstakingly build up are not your online properties. You participate at the whim of platform owners who could shut you down for violating their terms of service, or even without providing an explanation at all. Create your own site while you’re at it—you’ll enhance your credibility and exercise more control.
Failing to build an email list
When you “direct link” to a product owner’s sales page, you’re likely to make a few sales to people who haven’t been exposed to it before. But many more visitors won’t buy on their first visit. It can take repeated exposure to persuade potential customers to make the purchase. Now, if you provide a well-written, free resource (an ebook, video, or other info-resource) in exchange for a visitor’s email address, you can follow up with additional information and remind the to consider the product. And whether they buy the first product or not, you can contact them about related products in the future.
Buying every new tool you hear about
New marketing tools come along all the time. If you purchase or subscribe to a video creation/editing tool, be sure you learn everything you can do with it before signing up for another one. And trust me—there will be another one. And another. You can easily find yourself owning or subscribing to multiple tools designed to do the same job, without having mastered any of them. Find solid, reliable tools and get good with them. Then you can make an informed decision about needing any more.
