One of the main reasons to get involved in affiliate marketing is to multiply your income stream. There’s really no limit to how much you can make, but before you get all excited, here are some affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid if you are new to all this.
Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake #1 – Too Many Niches
Generally, most people start a business based on their interest. So if you are someone with A LOT of interests, you could easily come up with a lot of niches. It gets more exciting if all these niches have a very profitable market trends.
The fix – It’s good to be adventurous and to seek for new opportunities. But if you are just starting out, even having 2 niches can be too much. The affiliate business involves a lot of web tools, community engagement and niche research. So by focusing on one niche, you’ll have more time to master these skills before moving onto the next.
Mistake #2 – Too Many Affiliate Programs
Most affiliate networks are easy to join and with some auto-approval programs like the one you get in ShareASale, it’s very tempting to sign up for a lot of programs to grab all the opportunities out there. This could potentially make your site cluttered with ads which can have a negative impact for the user experience.
The fix – It’s not wrong to multiply your income stream, but more programs do not necessarily translate to more profit. Ever heard of quality is better than quantity?
The same applies to your online business as well. Essentially, you want to work with good quality affiliate programs that can provide you with a long term income and not some kind of product fad that will disappear into the future.
Even if you are only associated with 2 programs within your niche, you are good to go. I know it doesn’t sound very ‘profitable’ but there’s a reason for this and I’ll get to that later.
Mistake #3 – Taking the Shortcut
The rules of using affiliate links can be very obscure. Seeing that they are the sales conversion points, it’s quite a common behavior to blast them all over social media postings, right?
The fix – Well, wrong way there, buddy. Placing affiliate links directly to social post is blatant spam and if you do this excessively, be ready to get some cold shoulders from the online communities. Leading people directly to the sales page without providing any information beforehand is often associated with scam tactics.
So, what’s the best way to engage with your readers without being too pushy? Build an affiliate website that offers good quality content and let them click through your affiliate links naturally. This will take longer time to generate profit, but it will have a positive impact on your business reputation for the long term.
Mistake #4 – Content With No Intent
One of the major tasks as an affiliate marketer is to recommend good products to your readers. However, writing a brief content embedded with affiliate links will not be sufficient.
The Fix – Well, unless you have done the following, there’s a high chance that no one will ever read your product review online.
- Are you using long tail low competition keywords to write your articles? This will attract more targeted audience to your site.
- Are you using relevant keywords to interlink your articles together? Internal links will provide more information to your readers.
- Are you using any call to action (CTA) at the end of your page/post? A good CTA can improve your conversion rate.
- Do you engage in discussion with your readers? Content that has a lot of comments rank better on the search result page.
You see, ONE product from ONE niche can actually generate a lot of long-tail keyword ideas. That’s more than enough to create a ton of engaging content. That’s why you don’t need to apply for too many affiliate programs in the first place.
By using a powerful keyword tool like Jaaxy, you’ll be able to find great keywords to diversify your content.
Mistake #5 – No Business Attitude
The affiliate dashboard is everyone’s favorite place, but it can be a long time before you see any sales commission. Obviously, this is becoming more difficult than you think. Does this mean that you have to search for other affiliate programs?
The Fix – No one says that building an online business with the affiliate marketing model is going to be easy. It takes time to do product research, to experiment different keywords and to track the users’ behavior before you could actually see the traffic and money coming in.
If things don’t turn out the way you expected, DON’T GIVE UP. Go back to your site and figure out what’s wrong. Ask people for feedback and try different strategies. However, don’t go searching for something speedy and automated to make your site ‘work better’ because those things never work.
If you are already profiting (even a little), use the money and reinvest into your business. Change your website theme, try out paid traffic, or enroll in an online business program. Anything that can improve your business is always worth paying for.
Taking action is the key to making your online business a success. Yes, you might take longer than most people, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never get there. Have faith and allow yourself some time. After all, you want your business to provide a recurring income, not just one sale.
Are You Making These Mistakes?
If you are, good on you. How else will you learn to be an online entrepreneur, anyway? I used to make more mistakes than the above, but I became a better affiliate marketer as a result of that. I’ve come to understand what my niche is all about, I blog better than before and most importantly, I see positive growth in my business from all this learning experience.
I hope these tips have given you a better idea on what mistakes to avoid as an affiliate marketer. If you wish to learn other ways to grow your online business, visit my recommended training platform for more information.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about this topic? Feel free to leave them in the comment area below and I’ll get back to you.
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Dan Maxwell, Jr says
Hi Cathy, this is a great article. I made a lot of these mistakes early on. Especially the one on applying too many affiliate programs.
As a beginner it’s easy to think that because you’re promoting so many different things, you’re increasing your chances of success. Sadly, the opposite is rather true. Thank you for the reminder.
Alyssa says
Hi Cathy,
I can personally attest to the mistake of signing up for too many affiliate programs. I have checked that box and regret it. It was so overwhelming and my attention was to scattered. So, I reassessed, regrouped and now I’m just using one affiliate program. I feel much more in control and focused. Still waiting on the money, but I’m not obsessing, because my pages aren’t on Google page 1 yet. Once I reach that milestone I might start checking the bank account :). You’ve shared some great information!
Gail Hope Media says
Cathy, I enjoyed this, it’s precise and I liked that the headers led my eyes to some very key points. Not aware of some mistakes that affiliate marketers make. I’m still working on my material. Thank you for the heads up. With this information now to my knowledge, I should be set.
Cathy says
Good to know things before hand. Hope these tips will save you the time (and troubles) while planning your online business.
Rubel says
Hello,
Well, I am trying to learn affiliate marketing from last few months, but I am finding it very difficult, specially the conversion part, as I am not able to attract any sales expect one or two.
Although, I am learning it quickly, and Now, I can say, I made a mistake by picking products without enough research and also, I reviewed the product without even using it, so all this resulted in failure.
But I hope, I will improve on my skills and will succeed in Affiliate marketing soon.
Cathy says
Hi there Rubel,
There are a lot of factors that can affect your conversion rate – quality content, call-to-action, publishing frequency, targeted keywords, broken links etc. It doesn’t mean that you are not good in affiliate marketing if you are not getting any conversion. You just need to learn every aspect, apply them on your site and keep making mistakes until you get it right.
You seem to have identified one – writing better product reviews, so that’s a good start. Researching the ins and outs of a product can take time and it’s not something that you should rush through. As long as you write them for the benefit of your readers, your review will eventually convert.
David says
Hi Cathy
Indeed a great post about internet marketing mistakes. I am glad that you have covered the major internet marketing mistakes which almost every internet marketers do.
Internet marketing is the best way of making money online and the best part about it is, it allows internet marketers to earn with few but potential visitors. We don’t need huge amount of traffic to earn. We only need 10 targeted visitors who can purchase the product.
The most common mistake which internet marketers make is, they promote so many products at once without having any experience with them. To earn more, internet marketers pick every high paying product and start promoting them but don’t get any sales from them because they don’t focus on each product correctly that’s why they are unable to makes sales.
Every successful internet marketer suggest to promote only those products which you have personally used. I would like to thank you for sharing such a great piece of content. 😀
Cathy says
That’s very true David,
At the end of the day, there’s only a handful of products that every marketer would use because they are easy and cost-effective. These are the type of products that other people are also searching for. In order to diversify a content, I think product comparison is good to show which one is better and product tutorial is a great way to compliment two products together. If you wish to learn more, read this article about how to write a good product review.
Rob says
Hi Cathy,
You have a knack of pinpointing where we can or have failed in our efforts to build useful online businesses. I started off with too many passions and too many affiliate programs, and now don’t seem to have time for more than one passion – and barely have time for that one!
Procrastination is my bugbear. To remedy that and following Jay’s advice to write with the minimalist program, iA Writer, which I bought for use on my MacBook. It’s fantastic, as you have a completely distraction-free interface to work on, so no shiny things to side-track you while writing.
Cathy says
Great to hear from you again, Rob.
I’ve seen the iA writer in action on Jay’s webinar – the layout reminds me of the time when I was played with my father’s manual typewriter 🙂 I don’t use MacBook, but I get the idea. Recently I have switched to using Google Docs to write and store my articles (love the quick autosaving mode) and if I enlarge the page view a bit more, I can actually (almost) create a distraction-free writing zone for myself. Plus, it’s free so that’s really cool too.
I can tell you have a lot of passion, Rob. Was it wine, photography and all-things online? Nice to hear from you as always.
John says
Great article, Cathy!
I am glad to say that I am not making any of these mistakes with my online business so I am definitely on the right track 🙂
I have however seen people making these mistakes, in particular the spamming of affiliate links on social media, but also not treating it like a business.
You may have to work on your online business in your spare time until you can build it up, but it is essential that you treat it like a proper business if you are going to get the desired results that you want long-term!
Cathy says
You are right, John. Using affiliate links directly on social media is not welcome by a lot of people. In fact, some communities in Google Plus will ban you if they catch you doing it frequently. So, one really got to be careful with that one.
Allyn says
One mistake I feel that I made early on was that I chose to pursue a niche that didn’t yield much traffic. After working with it for 6 months or so, I understood a little more about niche trends and found that my niche had been on a downward trend traffic-wise for several years.
I haven’t abandoned that niche but I have set it aside for now until I can figure out a better trending portion of the niche. Meanwhile, I’ve found another niche that is on an upward trend and am building a site with that focus.
I’m still learning every day, of course, and enjoy the opportunity provided in the affiliate marketing field.
Cathy says
Very interesting observation you have there Allyn,
In fact, when researching on what products to sell online, we should be aware that each has a product life cycle. Depending on which stage you enter, you could be hitting a profitable upward trend or in your case, a not-so-popular downward trend. I am not saying that downward trend can’t make money – look at antiques and collectibles – you just need to research in depth on how to create a good funneling strategy.
It’s probably easier for beginners to start on an upward trend niche whereby keyword competitiveness is still moderate. I like to use Google Trend to check out the demand pattern of my targeted keywords, just to make sure that I am on the right track. The tool is really great as it provides some visual graphics too.
Peter says
Hi Cathy, brilliant article.
Much like yourself, I have made plenty of mistakes in the past in the pursuit of my time and financial freedom including all of the above. Mistake #5 caught my eye in particular because I didn’t really have a true business ethic in the past, when things weren’t going well for me i.e.
I wasn’t making any sales or only a few here and there I would just move on to “the next big thing”. In the end though, I discovered that it was a dead end technique as it was detrimental to my reputation online and to my well being. In the last couple of years I’ve learnt that I’m rubbish at multi tasking but excellent at sticking to the one project.
So now my online brand and website is going from strength to strength, in saying that I’m always open to tips like the ones you have provided here. Have you got anymore?
Cathy says
Hey Peter,
Welcome to my blog. Having the ability to focus on one task is a strength – not a weakness – and that is actually a good habit to becoming a successful online entrepreneur. I multitask when it comes to routine work, but when it comes to creative stuff (I like to think that my online business is a creative project :)), I need to give myself some space and time to produce good quality work.
Regarding the tips, if you are just starting out, you might want to use these free Google tools to grow your online business.
Gaby says
Thanks for this post Cathy. This reminds me of some o the mistakes I did when I first started out. I didn’t even know how to narrow down a niche. But thankfully this is all part of a process and you learn a lot in your journey. Keep on writing these constructive posts!
Jill says
Great post Cathy. I was guilty of signing up to way too many affiliate programs when I first started. Then I regrouped and concentrated on my content. You’re spot on – there are no short cuts – it takes time and commitment. Well done for pointing out the errors people can easily and often make when they first start out.
Joe says
Cathy,
Thanks for publishing this post. Your mention that not using long tail keywords is a mistake made me think it was time to do more research on LTK.
Which I started on another open window on my browser before writting this comment. When doing the research, I also become aware that I never used one keyword searches to find what I was looking for. So, why was I thinking other people searching for info were only using one keyword searches. DUH!
I’ve been concentrating on trying to create informational and comprehensive content and not paying attention, as of now, to getting traffic to my site. Thanks for pointing out these mistakes, very helpful to my future growth as an affiliate marketer.
Cathy says
Hi Joe,
You are right about working on the content first because that’s what people will want to read when they come to your site. As you go in-depth into long-tail-keyword research, other keywords will also surface within the content which will attract new traffic as well.
I used to be quite skeptical about long-tails, but Jaaxy or even WA keyword tool are quite good at revealing them so I thought I give it a go. Some of my articles have been sitting on first page for some time now; they are even ranked for some broad keywords too. Now, I am convinced that they do work.
So keep building your content with the long-tails Joe; you’ll be surprised how it improves your website SEO.
Sean says
Hi Cathy,
Great post here – I think you’ve nailed the most common mistakes that beginner affiliates fall for.
I had a really hard time coming up with a niche that I wanted to focus on in the beginning, and the temptation was definitely to ‘spread myself too thin’. As you said, you can’t really make too much progress this way, without getting worn out.
I think many folks could learn from point #3 here too. Just putting up affiliate links all over the show is a real turn off for me whenever I visit a website. It really feels like the website owner is only seeing me as $$$ 🙂
Cathy says
Hi Sean,
One thing that I learned about my niche is that you can’t really create a good quality content without doing some research. Your knowledge is always limited unless you merge them with new information from the web.
Like anything else, research takes time and if you just started affiliate marketing, you can take a fair number of days to write a good blog post. Even so, there are follow ups to do after like replying to comments (like what I am doing now) and sharing it on social media. After a while, you might also want to go back to some old articles that are not performing well and see what you can do to fix them.
yunier says
You hit the nail on the head with this post !
Many bloggers tend to write just to make a buck but they forget what their audience are actually coming to their site for! If you have a sales pitch every where, I’m leaving your website. There is no longer that intent to help out.
I’m the type of person that if you are just attempting to make a sales pitch to me, I’ll leave your website right away. You need to connect with your audience on a more personal level and stop looking at them like they are just a dollar count. I really enjoyed your post, awesome job! 🙂
Cathy says
Hi Yunier,
The most effective way to really connect with your audience is to deliver good quality content through your website. It is by reading and engaging with relevant topics – especially the ones that matter to them – that people can truly relate to the person behind the website that’s you! And there’s a good chance that Google will like you for this too. Here’s the proof on how I improve my website SEO after removing some affiliate links.
Tony says
Hi Cathy,
I’m being honest here when I say I’m finding affiliate marketing quite difficult, but I keep plugging away as from everything I’ve read, once you get your head round how everything works and the search engines rate you as a trusted source of information, things will start to pick up. At times though I do wonder if my niche isn’t great or if it’s me.
As far as I see it, I’m avoiding most of the mistakes you mention above, but finding good keywords is always a tricky thing for me for some reasons. Keyword research is something I get a bit overwhelmed by, I’m always trying to pick the best one whilst still trying to keep it as relevant as possible to what I actually want to write about.
As far as keyword research tools go, Jaaxy is great, but the keywords you find are only as good as Google, Bing, and any other search engines deem your blog to be. To really do well with keywords, you have to be seen as an authority first, and that takes time with creating plenty of quality content.
Cathy says
Hey Tony,
I hear your every word. Affiliate marketing, keyword research, SEO – what’s all that, right?!? My first few months was overwhelming too, but just like you, it’s all about understanding the system.
I have a little tips on finding keywords here (it seems to work for me lately);
1 – Use Google Search AND the related search terms at the bottom to help you out.
2 – Ask more specific questions towards the end of your post because…
3 – It will lead to more readers leaving their opinions that can yield different types of long tail keywords (you got to really read in between the lines) in the comment.
4 – Join communities or subscribe to YouTube channels (I see you are already taking advantage of YouTube videos here) to get more information.
5 – Read, read and read anything you find interesting. You never know when you’ll get that ‘AHA moment’.
I used to squeeze my brain cells to come up with the perfect keyword. It’s so tiring. Now, I get most of my blog ideas from my readers (like you) then I go into Jaaxy, research a bit and come up with more (unexpected) keywords. It’s very fascinating once you get the hang of it – not to mention very addictive too 🙂
I find people who like comedies tend to have more creative cells (no prejudice whatsoever here) so I am pretty sure you’ll get there. If you need any help, just reach out to me at WA and we’ll see what we can do. By the way, there’s nothing wrong with your niche. It’s a great niche; any normal human being can benefit from a good dose of laughter 🙂
Wendy says
This is a very valuable post Cathy. The problem with shortcuts, in the long run, people don’t get results. There are no short cuts. I love that you have included a fix for each of your 5 affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid. This way people can change what they are doing right away and get back on track. ~ Wendy
edy says
These are common mistakes made by many new online marketers. I know I did them when I first started out. But as soon as I realized how online business really works, I refrained from that mindset and tried to stick to just one niche. By learning and practicing, the results will come!
Martyn says
Hiya Cathy, and yes, I have been guilty in my earlier days of a few of those mistakes. I think the biggest problem for many starting out is that there are so many make-millions-online sites that many think they can just click and go. Not a reality as I found out. Good information, hopefully it will be of great benefit to those just starting out – Martyn
Cathy says
Hi Martyn,
I think get-rich-quick sites are going to be around until Google finds the magic formula that will ‘erase’ the sites for good on the search engine. Until then, it’s worth learning how to identify these online scams to avoid becoming like one of them. Meanwhile, I see you have a good start on your niche, so keep it up 🙂
Emily says
Hi Cathy
Excellent tips! It does take time and there is no magic way of making money with affiliate marketing. One has to do what you just described. I have visited sites in the past, just cluttered with links and ads. And it just cheapens the site. And made me lose interest.
One has to be picky and only place the best on their site. But a question for you. I have had times written a post on FB about a product. Just an intro, describing why I love the product or a site, how I discovered it and placed an affiliate link. Is that okay? We are talking about maybe 5 posts of the sort over the past 4 months. So maybe around once a month. Just promoting a company or product related to my niche.
Cathy says
Thank you for your question, Emily.
Placing affiliate links directly on social posts is regarded as spamming in certain (if not all) social networks. I know for sure that they are not welcome in Google Plus communities. Not sure about FB tough. If you aren’t getting a lot of (positive) feedback from those posts – no engagement, no click-through, etc – people are probably not keen. Directing them to your website is a better option where you can offer more information without being too ‘salesy’. Hope this helps you clear some doubts 🙂
Steven Dinmore says
Great advice. Have to agree if you are starting an online business, begin with something that you are passionate about. You can be more personal, and draw on your experiences and knowledge when writing the content.
Cathy says
That’s true, Steven. If we focus on the things that interest us, the words come naturally and you are able to write a good blog post without thinking too much about it. This technique is very helpful for beginners to break that writing barrier.
chris says
You’ve hit the nail on the head there with too many niche choices – a mistake I continually made through the first year of my internet marketing training. I currently run three websites whose topics are close to my heart. Whilst being easy to write for, they are still a LOT of work. Great article here, sound advice.
Cathy says
You are absolutely right, Chris.
Creating a good quality content takes me at least 2 days of research and another one day to write a 1000 word article. And if you are a busy blogger like me who juggles with a day job, finding a quiet time to focus on article writing can be quite a challenge.
I learned my lesson early to just stick with one niche until I have more time to move onto the next. Quality is far more important than quantity.