Most folks that try affiliate marketing eventually stop trying. It’s a sad fact of the business. Many people get into it, spend cash (sometimes a lot of cash), and fail. Affiliate marketing is not for everyone.
After years of being an affiliate, teaching affiliates, and speaking with affiliates I’ve seen a few common factors for failure.
#1 – Too Many Campaigns (AKA – Lack of Focus)
This goes for paid traffic campaigns or organic campaigns. Too many of either and you’re setting yourself up for failure. Big time failure.
Both forms take time to perfect. PPC’ers constantly tweak their ads, landing pages, and offers. How are you going to do this effectively if you’ve got 20 campaigns and none of them are doing well?
Organic guys build out sites and promote them with backlinks SERP rankings. That takes a lot of time. How are you going build out 20 new urls with good content any time soon? How are you going to build high quality links to each of those sites? If you answered “outsource” you’re in for a real surprise…
Start small in the beginning. One PPC campaign or one site. Get some experience in the trenches first. You’ll learn way more than you ever could through ebooks. When you’ve learned the ropes and you’re comfortable with the work, grow. Add another campaigns or add more content and get that ranked.
Don’t drown yourself before you learn to swim.
#2 – Unrealistic Expectations
This one can be even more deadly to the affiliate marketer’s career than #1. Your mind can be your greatest ally or your greatest enemy.
Understand that nothing worth doing is “easy.” (Don’t confuse easy with simple either)
Affiliate marketing is no different. You’ve got hours and hours of education and trial and error ahead. Is it worth it? Yeah, it can be. That’s not to say you’re not going to hit speed bumps along the way because you will.
Instead of planning on making your first million this year, plan on making your first dollar. Set small attainable goals. There are a few of you who are going to see the word “attainable” and run with it. Earning $5k a month starting your first month is attainable but most likely is way off base. Set a goal to make a dollar. When you’ve done that set a goal to make $10. Then grow.
Have you found common pitfalls in affiliate marketing? Have any thoughts on how to overcome them? Let us know in the comments below.
I have been doing affiliate marketing for about 8 years and the one thing I know is that it’s constantly changing. I have had $5,000 months and most recently a $20 month. Once you find something that works you better be looking for how to sustain it when your product goes out of favor, Google changes it’s algorithm, etc.
I agree with not spreading yourself to thin. I have about 20 web sites; 2 are heavy content sites. Of those sites only a half dozen are really working well; they have traffic but not necessarily sales. If I were to do it over again, I would have 3 sites:
1) a content site
2) an ecommerce site
3) an affiliate only site that looks like an ecommerce site
With each of these I would fully explore how to keep the traffic increasing and how to monetize. My biggest headache is I can build sites all day long BUT I am having the hardest time monetizing them even with my 2000 unique users per day. This is where it may make sense to find someone who has an internet marketing specialty. You can have the greatest product in the world but if you can’t tell anybody about it in a cost effective way then you really have nothing to show for all your work.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to find a good marketer that will profit share then I’m all for it. Half of something is better than zero of nothing.
Thank you for your information! I’ve been trying Affiliate Marketing for about 8 months now and it’s not easy, but I know that it will work if I stick with it.
Could you recommend someone who knows what they are doing to be a good coach/trainer? I’ve paid $ for training and was 1. disappointed 2. got ripped off by one:( They all seem to say what to do but not how to do it.
What is an affiliate only site that looks like an ecommerce site?
I’m still real new and have a lot to learn. so thanks for any kind of advice or help!! Heidi
I just started about 3 months ago and am not in a hurry, I also know a good thing when I see it. I have tried many things and now I know I can develop a revenue stream for my retirement. It is a good feeling.
This is so true. Affiliate marketing is not as easy as it is made out to be by some of the “gurus” and the goalposts are constantly being moved (by Google changes). You’d better have something to say because if you’re only in it for the money then you’re probably wasting your time. Otherwise, don’t give up.
Thank you for the very helpful information you provided on affiliate marketing. You are right it is not as easy as most people who trying to sell you their products and make a quick buck or the gurus makes it sound. I have been trying affiliate marketing for about 12-15 months and is still trying to make some money. Even though, I am constanly spending money trying to find the right product to sell. I notice they are constanty feeding you more products and when you do decide to sign up for one before you realize it, they are saying you need 2-3 other products to go along with the first product you just purchased and it can go on and on.
Good affiliate marketers:
Andrew Hansen –Unstoppable Affiliate
Adam Short-Niche profit classroom
Howie Schwartz — just google him
Their products cost money, some monthly fees. Andrew Hansen and Adam Short teach the same technique, build small niche sites and monetize with affiliate offer or adsense.
Howie, a very bright person, is in a world of his own, more expensive too, but usually ahead of the curve on google changes. Black hat at times.
Hi Dustin
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 allow 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. 😀