5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

In my blog posts I usually explain strategies and techniques that you can use for your online business.  Today, I’m going to switch gears a little bit.  Instead of talking about what you need to do, I’m going to talk about what you need to avoid in regards to affiliate marketing.  In order to do this, I’m going to go over the top mistakes affiliate marketers make.

Mistake 1 – All Banners and No (Or Not Enough) Content

Some affiliates randomly place banners on their websites without creating any content to support them.  This is a huge mistake.  Each banner should have content to support it.  This will do a few things.  First, it will compel people to click on the banner.  Second, it will show people that you aren’t just posting ads.  You’re actually researching the products.  Third, it will make it easier for you to comply with Google’s latest algorithm change, which encourages website owners to have lots of content above the fold on their websites.

Mistake 2 – Choosing Too Many (Or Not Enough) Products

Affiliates also tend to choose the wrong number of products to market.  First, let’s look at what happens when you choose too many products.  Let’s say you’re in the diet niche, and you select 100 products to market.  It’s not very likely that you can research and provide quality content for all 100 products.  Thus, you’ll have lots of products, but little content to go with those products.

Now, let’s see what will happen if you don’t choose enough products.  Let’s say you’re still in the diet niche, but this time, you only choose two products to market.  Now, you have all kinds of time to devote to your products.  Thus, you can create some great content for the two products.  However, you won’t have much variety.  Because of that, people will visit your site but leave it before making a purchase.  Once they leave your site, they’ll go to a different site that has more choices.

Thus, pick a handful of solid products.  Don’t go overboard, but make sure you have some variety.  Start with five products, and build up from there.  Keep building until you realize that you don’t have time to research or promote additional products.  Then, you’ll know it’s time to stick with the products you have.

Mistake 3 – Lack of Preparation

Lack of preparation is another issue that some affiliates face.  These affiliates choose to jump in and start marketing before they have everything in place.

This is a HUGE mistake.  When you aren’t prepared, you can end up:

• Losing repeat customers (because you didn’t get them to sign up for your list)
• Putting bad information out on the Internet (because you didn’t complete your research)
• Changing your mind about your niche, which will cause you to lose all of the work you’ve put into marketing up to that point
• Alienating your target market, because you don’t understand them

Thus, before you start marketing, you need to:

• Choose a niche
• Find products within that niche
• Purchase a domain name (I recommend using Namecheap)
• Purchase a hosting plan (I recommend Bluehost)
• Write compelling content for your niche
• Submit your blog to directories
• Set up social networking sites
• Set up an opt in email list (AWeber)
• Write emails for your list
• Analyze your target market with Quantcast

Mistake 4 – Not Using the Products

Some affiliates also fail to use the products before they begin marketing them.  It’s always a good idea to order the products and use them before you market them so you can:

• Recommend the product
• Provide a real testimonial
• Answer any questions

Ensure that you only market products that you personally believe in – this will help you build trust with your audience.  This is a great way to build a solid reputation as an affiliate marketer.  Additionally, it will help you make more sales.

Mistake 5 – Thinking You’re In it All By Yourself

Finally, some affiliate marketers make the mistake of thinking they have to do all of the marketing on their own.  That’s actually not the case at all.  Instead of going at it alone, consider entering into a JV (joint venture) partnership.

A joint venture partnership will allow you to partner up with another person, and then share the commission from the sales with that person.  When you do this, you can benefit from someone else’s expertise.

For example, let’s say that you have a great blog that has a lot of readers, but someone else has a huge email list.  You can partner up and market a product together.  You can use your blog to get sales, and the person can use his email list.  You’ll both benefit from the increased traffic, and can share the proceeds of the sales.

If you want to enter into a JV partnership, you’ll need to find a partner.  You can approach blog and list owners via email, or look for a partner on forums.  Once you find a partner, you can create a JV contract with ClickBank.  Go to http://www.clickbank.com/help/account-help/account-tools/joint-venture/ and scroll down to the section that says “Setting Up an Affiliate JV Contract.”  Read the steps and set up your contract.

Now that you know what you need to avoid, it’s time to get an affiliate marketing plan in place.  What will your plan entail?  How do you intend to avoid these mistakes?

Thanks for reading 5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid and please share on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.