Affiliate marketing is a great way for bloggers and other content creators to earn income; however, there are many mistakes that can be made when first entering this business.
Fortunately, most of them are easy to fix. The list below illustrates many common mishaps that can be avoided as long as one knows about them in advance.
Join too many networks
As the affiliate space continually expands, the number of networks available has grown exponentially. Newbies may have the bright idea of joining as many as possible to keep their options open. Instead, an experienced publisher will know to select a few reputable networks and start small, paying close attention to each campaign until it starts to convert (or cancel it and replace it with a higher quality offer). Whether affiliates join a public or private network, the success of a campaign depends more on the affiliate’s implementation strategies than on the source.
Not investing in the right resources
One of the telltale signs of a new affiliate’s story is their eagerness to earn millions of dollars through their free email and hosting accounts. As with many things in life, affiliates must spend money to make money. Investing in servers, IP addresses, data, and a complex tracking interface allows serious publishers to capitalize on the potential ROI of the campaigns they run. Many profitable affiliate companies consist of small teams that have a solid understanding of manipulating backend systems for massive exposure. Skimping on the necessary tools will not make a sender rich.
no tracking
An affiliate who doesn’t follow up can also throw their money down a well and wait to see how much it comes back up. It doesn’t make sense to put considerable effort into optimizing and implementing a campaign only to rely on the advertiser or network to report earnings. Tracking platforms top the list of necessary resources affiliates need to get started. Many times, technical problems (and sometimes fraud!) significantly distort the earnings report. Without a tracking mechanism, affiliates cannot prove their case for the leads they legitimately obtained.
No A/B testing
Part of optimization includes a/b testing. The merchant and/or the network are responsible for providing quality assets that appeal to their target consumer; affiliates, however, are responsible for implementing these assets in a way that maximizes conversions. Whether they’re tweaking subject lines, testing two different email creatives on the same data pool, or running banners on sites in different verticals, publishers have a lot of power when it comes to proper ad delivery and placement. A/B testing also benefits the advertiser, strengthening the working partnership with their affiliate and making them more likely to give them better payouts.
Competitor Scouting
One of the best ways to understand consumer behavior is to understand what is already out there. By considering what people have already seen or experienced compared to what they’re offering, an affiliate can assess which approaches are most effective for certain demographics, as well as which brands they’re promoting as outlets. While affiliates don’t want to copy their competitors, they still need to know what they’re up against and follow some advice from reputable companies within an industry. The key to a successful campaign is a unique value proposition without sacrificing what everyone else is already offering.
Running too many campaigns
Another mistake that new affiliates often make is running too many campaigns in the hope that one will work. When just starting out, it’s important to focus more on strategy and develop a broad understanding of effective tactics before taking a shot in the dark with multiple campaigns. If an affiliate focuses on just a few proven offers and spends their time dissecting what worked and what didn’t, they are more likely to be successful in the future. Affiliate marketing is an industry that is constantly growing and changing because it is largely driven by consumer trends and evolving technology, both of which can transform overnight. What’s more, the time they take to figure out which campaign works well in a given vertical and which payout is competitive enough to be worth their while will save them time and resources to run other offers that are unlikely to convert. Good publishers will seek a solid working knowledge of industry tools before launching each campaign offered to them.
Don’t use SEO
SEO is not dead despite its archaic reputation. In fact, many of the online technological advances made in recent years are primarily based on the use of SEO but in a non-traditional way. While SEO is too complex to sufficiently summarize in a few sentences, new affiliates should take the time to learn about its versatility and the different ways it can be incorporated into affiliate marketing. One surefire way a beginning publisher can make some money is by placing their links on a page that already has a high number of keywords for optimal traffic. SEO works because it simply connects consumers to the information they are looking for through the words or terms they use to find it. Why not place ads and links exactly where a customer would go looking for them?
Not diversifying your affiliate products/verticals
Another common misstep affiliates make is to limit themselves to posting offers within one category. There are many verticals to choose from, be it automotive, education, dating, or finance. All industries have peaks and troughs in sales and growth, which means that a campaign will work well for some seasons and simply not for others. While it’s still important to refrain from running too many deals at once, there’s a need for diversification, regardless of the number. If anything, it will help maintain traffic flow and conversion rates when one campaign isn’t performing as well as others in a different industry.
direct sale to customer
Affiliates need to remember that while they are selling for a brand or advertiser, they are not sales men/women. Instead, they are a gate between the product or service and its ideal consumer. New publishers must let the merchant dictate the sales strategy and value proposition, and then decide the best methods to push ads. If you spend too much time building an online store for potential customers, you lose energy that could be invested in the best ways to reach users. Instead, affiliates should see themselves as traffic drivers that bring all the consumers they reach back to the advertiser, who then becomes responsible for the actual sales transaction. Affiliates do not sell products or services; link consumers to it.
With the right balance of time, resources, and tenacity, many new affiliates grow their startup entities into highly lucrative affiliate marketing channels. Diversification, moderation, and experimentation will turn a novice into a pro over time.