This Is Why You Keep Failing With Affiliate Marketing
Reasons People Fail With Affiliate Marketing!
Many People Fail To Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing!
Medium Non-Members Can Read The Full Story HERE!
Learn about 6 of the reasons in this article.
The inflated expectation is a dream killer.
Lack of product knowledge and research.
Why unique content is so important.
Failing to create order and establish direction.
Falling for bulk traffic packages.
Not targeting a specific GEO location.
The inflated expectation is a dream killer.
Most beginners have a completely wrong perception of making money online, be it through affiliate marketing or otherwise. There is no magic button that will turn your PC into an ATM. It is but a marketing strategy, nothing more and nothing less.
All those fancy screenshots you see with the insane amounts of sales. Are they legit? Well, yes, in most cases they often are. But what you’re not told is the time it took to get there.
The time it took to come up with and test content marketing strategies, to find the ones that work. That is what you’re often not told. And that can often take years, just trust me on that.
However, the marketing material showing you the screenshots is aimed at a single purpose, which is often misinterpreted. It is not a way to promise you instant riches, instead, it is an indication of what is possible not necessarily imminent.
How well the particular program will work for you, is entirely up to you. Instead of the “overnight riches” idea. Rather have realistic expectations. My own first sales were a little embarrassing, but I will share them, nonetheless.
In fact, my very first online commission was for $1.84, and I was rather excited. Not about the amount, but the fact that what I was doing was working. You might have better and faster results, the point is it is not going to happen overnight.
This was in 2018, just about halfway through my online journey and also figuring out how to use my PC. Just to show you sales might start a bit slower than you expect. But focus on the strategy you use so you can know where the sales came from.
Then just keep “hitting that tree in the same exact spot”. Your first sales are your most important sales because they show you which direction you need to head in for more buyer traffic.
When you have unrealistic expectations, you will get discouraged when reality starts setting in. And this is where most people give up, realizing that it is more work than they ever had to do just working the 9 to 5.
Lack of product knowledge and research.
Affiliate marketing is about a whole lot more than just choosing random affiliate products that pay well. And then flood every platform on earth with affiliate links in posts, comments, and private messages.
Lack of product knowledge and research is a reputation and trust growth damper. When you promote just any product, and there is a review or testimonial video that says it “sucks”. Then you will have no sales!
Product Popularity.
Knowledge-Based On Experience.
Product Reviews.
Product Testimonials.
Above mentioned are the four most important areas of product research. Starting with product popularity, you need to find out how popular the product is that you intend to promote because that establishes your level of competition.
You need product knowledge preferably based on personal experience. This means you might want to purchase and personally test the product before promoting it.
That way you will be able to write much better unique content about the product. Because you know how it works, and you know what results you had with it. But in the event, you are on a bit of a tight budget, there are options.
Just watch product reviews and testimonial videos on YouTube. You will soon learn which products are platinum quality, so you can filter out the fluff and false promises. You are not supposed to sell false promises.
You are supposed to sell solutions that work and build recognition and trust. You cannot do that with random products and content to random people at random times. That is the recipe for failure to make money online.
Why unique content is so important.
With affiliate marketing, most digital products will provide you with all the promotional content you need. Banners, Videos, Email Messages, Articles and Keywords For Ads. This is all good.
In fact, I use many of these videos myself. There is nothing wrong with using the affiliate promotional material provided. But just ask yourself this question.
How many people are using the exact same content, to promote the exact same product?
Thousands of marketers are using the exact same content. This means that chances are good that the audience you reach might have seen that promotional material a hundred times over. They might already be a little annoyed by it.
Unique content will always result in much better results, as can be seen in the illustration below. Just my Quora activity over the last couple of years (around 5 years). Averaging a bit more than 1 million content views per year.
Creating your own unique content, designs, presentations, articles, and videos, however, is next level. You can promote the same product, but with your own unique content, you stand a much better chance at people “taking a look”.
Failing to create order and establish direction.
Frantically trying to get traffic and generate sales without a plan, and set goals has disappointment written all over it. You need content marketing strategies in place, with your own unique content.
Some of the best ways to get started for free, especially as a beginner are mentioned below. However, it is your responsibility to read and understand each site’s rules and requirements.
Writing Medium Stories.
Writing LinkedIn Articles.
YouTube Channels.
Answering Quora Questions.
But let me explain the basics of content marketing strategies, using the examples mentioned above. You can write a Quora answer, and then link to a Medium story relevant to the topic and answer.
In your Medium story footer, you can include your affiliate offer provided you abide by Medium’s rules. That way, not only get reads on your Medium story but also eyes on your affiliate offer.
Quora Answer With Medium Story.
Medium Story With Affiliate Offer.
Quora Answer With YouTube Video.
YouTube Video With Affiliate Offer.
You can choose to write a Quora answer and then include one of your videos that adds value to the answer. From your YouTube video description, you redirect to your affiliate offer.
But these are just a few really simple content marketing strategies, just to give you a basic idea of what a content marketing strategy is. It is a journey you take your reader on. From one step to the next, and ultimately your affiliate offer.
Falling for bulk traffic packages.
Bulk traffic packages are about as successful as this “follow for follow” trend going around. The perfect way to build a gigantic audience not even remotely interested in your work.
That is what most bulk traffic packages are, instead, in most cases nothing more than robotic hits. Meaning you can forget about sales with bulk traffic packages. I spent a tiny fortune to prove myself right!
With paid traffic and Google Ads, for instance, a laser-targeted visitor can cost you as much as $1 to $2 per visitor. So, convincing me of 100K USA targeted traffic for $10, good luck. It doesn’t make sense in the first place.
With bulk traffic packages, however, you can have yourself suspended from promoting a product. Because you are interfering with the product’s popularity and even website ranking. You are providing fake bot traffic!
Not targeting a specific GEO location.
You need to target a specific audience to establish availability and affordability. Especially with high-ticket affiliate products, you want to target only top-tier countries.
Therefore, you need to calculate the time difference between where you are, and where your target audience is so you can reach the right audience at the right time.
Making money online with affiliate marketing is all about reaching the right audience, at the right time, with the right solution. When your timing is out, your traffic attempts will be in vain.
This is where many beginners get it wrong, they might be targeting the right audience. But they are posting at the wrong time when their audiences might be sleeping. Completely defeating the purpose in the first place.
GEO location targeting is important for both free and paid traffic. I think this is one of the major factors separating the super-successful marketers from the ones not quite as successful yet. GEO location to establish timing and affordability.
You are either reaching the wrong audience with the right product, or the right audience with the wrong product based on product knowledge. Or you are reaching any audience simply at the wrong time based on GEO location.
These are among the top reasons why so many beginners fail with affiliate marketing. Because affiliate marketing and making money online is a journey, not a contest. A journey that favours planning and preparation.
Ex-factory worker gets slapped by Google and Facebook only to discover the ultimate free traffic source that brings in up to 16,364 targeted visitors per day! No paid ads! No making videos! Just pure free targeted traffic! — Source
AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: Some of the links in this post are links to affiliate offers. If you visit them to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is entirely up to you. All offers come with a full money-back guarantee!
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