Starting an affiliate marketing site is one hurdle to jump over: the next one is maintaining that affiliate site. Affiliate marketing is a lucrative business, but things can still go wrong if you, the affiliate marketer, do not avoid certain mistakes that are bound to ruin your business. Don’t just sit back and wait for the passive income to come in just because you have set up the site, put up some content, and have started receiving visitors and customers.
Don’t just sit back and wait for the passive income to come in just because you have set up the site, put up some content, and have started receiving visitors and customers. Go to your affiliate site regularly, look at your affiliate marketing strategy, and make sure you are not making any of these costly mistakes. Actually, try to avoid them completely.
- Do Not Delude Yourself: Affiliate Marketing Is Not A Quick-Money Scheme
Affiliate marketing needs work, time and effort. It is a source of income, true, but it is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Affiliate marketing, like any other business, needs you to invest in it well for you to make a good profit. Prepare yourself, mentally and physically, to work for what you earn.
- Work More On Pre-Selling
The art of making a sale is a delicate one. As an affiliate marketer, you are promoting a product or service that already has its own page with reviews and product descriptions. If you ‘wax poetic’ about the greatness of a product, telling the visitors every single detail on your affiliate site, you make them want to buy it. When they follow the link or banner ad to the advertiser’s page, what do they see, but another set of reviews and product descriptions. You have effectively put them off that product. You are not to focus on selling the product you are promoting: focus on pre-selling it. Write enough to make the customer curious and interested, and by the time they have clicked the link and seen the main product description on the actual sales page, they feel like they need that product in their lives. And that is how you make a sale.
- Do Not Promote Products You Cannot Vouch For
In other words, use the product before selling it. Customers are very discerning people and would prefer to go for products they can trust. Blindly harping about a product you know nothing about could harm your affiliate marketing business if the customers feel like you are exaggerating, and you don’t actually know how well the product works. Use the products you promote before promoting them, so that you can give honest, first-hand feedback about it. Customers will trust you more when they know that you are vouching for something you have used personally, and they can ascertain how it has worked for you.
- Make Sure Your Site Has Content
This can never be said enough: content is king. Your site should always have quality, helpful, and interesting content, be them articles or reviews. Don’t just post links and banner and text ads on your site and leave it at that. Give visitors something to read, content that will convince them that clicking on that link may just be worth it. Your business isn’t running itself, even if it is an online one. Write posts and update your site at intervals, once or twice a week, and even encourage comments from your readers.
- Have a Mailing List
Yes, you are trying to get customers to another individual or company, but you are getting paid for it. What kind of affiliate site are you maintaining if you do not have a mailing list? Get your visitors to sign up for their emails and have an email list of customers, so that you can send them promotional links in their emails. Don’t bombard them with emails though: schedule them for twice a week, or at other intervals, you may find convenient for you and the customers. Give them helpful information in your emails, and even tell them about discounts and sales that you are promoting. Customers are important for business: having a mailing list is just as important.
- Do Not Promote Products Of Low Quality
This can’t be overstated. Unless you are catering to an audience that actually wants low-quality products, do not promote such products on your affiliate site. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Your reputation as an affiliate marketer carries a lot of weight, and you need to live up to it. Selling low-quality products will get you a bad rep with customers, who will end up taking their business elsewhere; your conversion rates will suffer, and you might end up losing your job with the affiliate network you have signed up with.
- Do Not Promote Too Many Products
A drive to succeed would mean having three products to promote and doing that effectively with good results. Being an idiot would be promoting a myriad of products, some from even different niches, and trying to make a large profit from all of them. To maintain your affiliate site, do not fall into the second category. No matter how well you think you can multi-task, this is not worth the time and the stress you will put yourself through.
- Do Not Pick An Unsuitable Affiliate Program And Product To Work With
When picking an affiliate program to join, as well as a product to promote, consider the payout value, how well the product can be used, and how much time you will need to commit to promoting that product. Some affiliate programs have tasks where the effort the affiliate marketer puts in outweighs the effort. Sometimes, the product is not of great use or value to your target audience. Avoid getting into this as you work to maintain your affiliate site. The payout and the effort you put in have to be balanced, and the product you are promoting must be of good use and value to your target audience. In this way, you can do the business you love while giving the customers what they need, and making a tidy profit for yourself.
I made the mistake I remeber years ago of making a directory of products sort of like a virtual mall…I think Clickbank had a product called cbmall…I havent seen it anymore on Clickbank. Anyway, the best sites Ive made money with are those ones in where I just promote one solution to one very searched problem.
Hello, Juan!
I don’t recall seeing or hearing about cbmall on Clickbank, but it’s true that offering a solution to people’s problems is one of the best ways to earn from affiliate marketing. It’s a great example of how focusing on the customer first and sales second can really pave the way to massive earnings.
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers,
Kleia