Mistake #1: Choosing the wrong affiliate program
One of the pitfalls of affiliate marketing is choosing the wrong affiliate program to join. Most beginning affiliate marketers often choose ‘flavor of the month’; product to promote in order to make quick money online. However, the product may not be suitable for the affiliate marketer who has no interest in it or promoting it online. Also, this approach is short term and not strategic in helping you build a strong business online.
Therefore, the best way to start online is
Choose a niche in which you want to specialize
Choose a series of related products within the category that appeals to you
Do some research on the product before signing up as an affiliate to promote it.
Build a relationship with your customers so you can continue to market related offers to them.
Mistake number 2: overextending.
Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you may be tempted to join many programs to maximize your earnings. You may also feel like there is nothing to lose as you only need to fill out a simple form and click submit before you are accepted as an affiliate.
This can be a good approach for generating multiple sources of income online. However, by joining multiple programs, it may become too spread out. As a beginning affiliate marketer, you have limited resources to get started and committing to too many programs will result in a fuzzy approach that won’t produce the results you want.
You also won’t be able to maximize the potential of your affiliate product if you don’t focus on promoting one program at a time.
Therefore, the best approach to take will be
Choose a program that pays more than 40% commission or at least $20.
Do your best to promote this product and make a reasonable profit before you commit to promoting another product.
This approach can be slow, but it is a surefire way to create steady streams of income online.
Mistake number 3: Not having previous experience with the product.
Most affiliate marketers often make the mistake of marketing a product without prior experience with it. Therefore, they find it difficult to convince others to buy their product.
They usually base their promotion on the sales tools provided by the merchant. A successful salesperson is able to put their own angle and ‘turn’ towards promotion. They can also create their own customer base that comes to trust them.
The best way to promote the product is to first buy the product and try it before signing up as an affiliate. In this way, you can write and speak convincingly about the benefits of the product, its advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, you can create a “quick start” guide to help your customers get the most benefits from the product you’re promoting in the shortest amount of time.
Don’t fall prey to the three affiliate marketing mistakes above; otherwise you will waste your time and efforts with only negligible result for your efforts.
