5 Common Mistakes New Affiliate Marketers Make and How to Avoid Them

If you are like most internet marketers, your first foray into the world of making money online might be promoting other people’s products…in other words as an affiliate marketer. You send them the traffic and they handle all the selling, product fulfillment and follow up and you are paid a commission for your efforts. Sounds simple enough and there is money to be made, but there are also a lot of mistakes that people make, some that can be very costly.

1. Picking the wrong program to promote

There are literally thousands of products that you can promote. Don’t believe me…just go on Clickbank, JvZoo or Warrior Forum and you will see all the various programs that you can promote and make a commission. Pick the wrong program and you could spend hundreds of dollars (or more) with nothing to show from it. Look for a program with a proven track record and unless you are an experienced copywriter, available emails, ads, etc that have converted well that you can use. I also try and find evergreen products to promote. These are products that aren’t a fad or a trend, but rather ones that have been around for years and solve a problem that will be around forever.

2. Expecting instant results with little effort

So many new affiliate marketers think they will place one ad and suddenly huge amounts of commissions will come in. This might be true for highly seasoned super affiliates with large lists of buyers that are responsive to their emails, but when you are new it takes time to develop this business. Map out a plan that is realistic and then work the plan every day consistently. This is a business and you need to work it like any other business you would own.

3. Lack of a focus

If you are trying to hit a bullseye on a dartboard you aren’t going to throw 5 darts at once and expect to be successful. Instead you are going to throw one at a time and keep adjusting your actions until you hit the bullseye consistently. So many new affiliates start with about 5 or 6 traffic methods at once or start with one and after a few days give up and move to another one without really giving the method a try or making adjustments to make it work. It takes time to master a skill much as it takes time to hit the bullseye. Start with one method and work that until you are successful. Then you can add another method.

4. Advertising your affiliate link directly

As soon as you choose and sign up for an affiliate program you will be given a link where you can send traffic. This link is coded to make sure that you are paid a commission if someone buys from your link. But the problem is that everyone who signs up will be given the exact same page to promote. Plus you will be given a link that is obviously an affiliate link and a lot of advertisers (including Facebook who will ban your account) frown on you going directly to an affiliate link. Instead you want to build a simple bridge page where traffic goes before going to your affiliate link. This could be a review site (where you review the product) or just a page outlining the benefits of the product and then a link from there to your affiliate site. This makes you look more professional because your link that you advertise would now look like yourname.com/review vs the long affiliate link you are given. All you need is a domain and a hosting account. You also have the option to add a way for people to optin for more tips, etc using a service like Aweber, Get Response, etc so you can promote other related products vs emails.

5. Giving up too soon

So many new affiliates get frustrated if they aren’t making huge money right away and dismiss affiliate marketing as a waste of time and money and quit. Often times they do this without truly giving it a full shot. It takes time and testing to find what truly is going to work for you, but once you enter that sweet spot and start making a consistent income it’s very easy to scale and add additional products and make a very good income. If you are getting lower than wanted results, seek out people that have already done what you are wanting to do and learn from them. You have to make an investment in yourself if you are truly wanting to make this a business.

I made the first four of these mistakes when I first started doing affiliate marketing so I know what to do to avoid them. Take my advice and learn from my mistakes and you will be much more likely to have success in your affiliate business.

Let me know how I can help you succeed.

To your success,

Chuck Abbott

P.S. The most profitable way to become a super affiliate is to have your own product. As an affiliate you are competing against 100’s of other affiliates to sell the product you are promoting. As a product owner 100’s of affiliates are competing to sell your product. And as people buy your product you know that they trust you enough to purchase from you so it’s much easier to recommend other products to them and have them buy those as well. You owe it to yourself and your business to check this out.