Being an affiliate marketer can be a very lucrative career. One that you can earn more money than in a traditional job. Many affiliate marketers make millions of dollars, many pull in six figures, and even more make a solid full time living as affiliate marketers.
But, as with all worthwhile things in life, to become successful at affiliate marketing takes work, knowledge, and, usually, a lot of mistakes. We reached out to a handful of successful affiliate marketers and asked a simple question, “What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started out?”
"I thought the money would just start rolling in magically, right away."
Just because you decide to become an affiliate doesn’t mean you’re immediately going to earn money. Being an affiliate for any type of products or services is just like being a salesperson who works on commission. If you want to make good money, you must believe in the product. In addition, you’ll need to explain to your audience how and why they should try the product. Think about how much you’ll earn on each sale so that you can determine how much time and effort you can devote to making that sale.
"I didn't start building my email list immediately... big mistake."
You need an email list full of your target audience to earn a full time living being an affiliate marketer. If you know who your audience is, you can start building your email list even before you have affiliate products to share. Just share a topic/problem related freebie to get them on the list, and then share your knowledge and experience. The products and “finds” can come later.
Choose the right software so that you can automate a lot of the process of building your email list so that you can promote solutions to your audience. There are many programs you can use to build a list such as Aweber.com, MailerLite.com, Convertkit.com, Getdrip.com along with landing page software like LeadPages.com or, better yet, host your own landing pages on your domain using WordPress and Elementor.
"I didn't pick a niche that I liked."
Choosing a niche just because it’s popular is a big mistake. Affiliate marketing is not all about the money. To succeed as an affiliate marketer, you should choose a niche and audience that you know and enjoy. If you don’t enjoy the topics or can’t relate to the audience and their problems, it will show in your content, solutions, and sales.
You must be able to write content that shows your enthusiasm about the topics and solutions you offer your audience. Research your potential niche options to ensure that you can make enough money with the audience, provide the solutions the audience needs, and enjoy talking about the niche topics. Your enthusiasm is contagious and profitable.
"I offered way too many product options."
When you decide to be an affiliate, it’s easy to go overboard choosing products to promote. You don’t want to promote everything that is available, only the items that your audience needs. Research and pick a very specific product that solves one of their problems or difficulties. Don’t try to promote multiple items that solve the same problem. With too many options, readers have difficulty choosing and ultimately don’t take any action.
"I neglected to do research and damaged my own reputation."
The most important thing that you can do for your affiliate marketing business is to research everything. Continuously research your audience. Always research the products you want to promote, including the creators of the products you want to promote. Your reputation is on the line. If you promote a product that turns out to be a scam or the seller doesn’t live up to their promises, you may lose your credibility. Always do your due diligence.
"I didn't put enough effort into the quality of my content."
As an affiliate marketer, you probably have a blog and social media accounts that need content. You may be tempted to toss something up that isn’t up to your standard. There is no point in putting up inferior content. It only makes you look unprofessional and damages your reputation.
If you need quality content, hire a writer. Content strategists can help you plan and manage your content from blog posts, to freebies, and more. Sites such as UpWork.com have highly qualified and professional writers, many of whom specialize in SEO conversational content.
"I avoided doing product reviews and once I started, I waited too long to create YouTube reviews."
Another mistake is not doing product reviews. On most corporate websites, where people shop, there are reviews. Customers really do pay attention to reviews. Your audience will appreciate your honest product reviews, even if you do make a percentage of sales. Just be upfront about whether you get money if they buy or not.
"I was using too many affiliate links."
Adding too many affiliate links can make content look like spam. They can also give readers the impression that making a sale is your top priority rather than helping them. Limit the number of affiliate links to the focused solution in emails and articles. When you reference supporting content or examples, use straight links. In short, use links sparingly and only when they are important to the message or content.
"My affiliate links were so ugly!"
Affiliate links are typically ugly, with odd letters and numbers, question marks, or other characters in them. Most people realize they’re affiliate links, but they’re more likely to click them if they’re not ugly. You can make them look good by using a link shortener. You can also set up redirects to cloak your link. You can use a service such as PrettyLinks.com.
"I should have focused on building relationships, from the beginning."
One of the best things about becoming a profitable affiliate marketer is the friendships you make along the way. Building relationships with your community will make you the ‘go-to’ person for your subject matter. Many affiliate marketers skip this because they don’t want to be ‘public.’ However, if you are open with your audience, you’ll make more money.
And there you have it! The most common mistakes you can avoid straight from the world’s top affiliate marketers. It doesn’t get easier than that!
