Why Affiliate Marketing Is Great For Newbies
Everyone must begin somewhere. And, for inexperienced Internet marketers, affiliate products may be the ideal place to begin. Rather than going through the time-consuming and costly process of developing your own product (of questionable quality) and then attempting to advertise it to the public, then why don’t you begin by finding a product that is well-made and comes from someone with a high level of credibility?
You that would save a significant amount of time, funds, frustration, and energy, and you could also make money — really, really good money. Even if they make a fortune from their own products, many top Internet marketers still sell affiliate products. Why? Because the money is still fantastic and very little work is required.
Having said that, it’s important to note that affiliate marketing is not that simple either. There are many traps just waiting to snare you and your money, but it’s undoubtedly simpler than trying to pull off a Jeff Walker-style major product launch.
In this short report we’re going to cover the top 7 most common blunders that we see affiliates make everyday. With this knowledge you’ll know exactly what you need to avoid so you don’t fall into those traps. So lets go over them shall we?
#1 – Don’t Promote Bad Products
Not every product is made equally. In fact, you probably chose to sell affiliate products because, for the most part, you accepted that there were already a lot of high-quality products available on the market and that making your own might not stack up well.
Choose carefully if you decide to choose your product from a list on Clickbank. Look for products with the best popularity as well as gravity ratings rather than arbitrarily choosing the one with the highest commission. They must be superior to competing goods offered for sale in that market if many people are frequently purchasing them.
You should look for profitable niches in addition to choosing quality products within them. Here’s a ridiculous suggestion, but it will prove my point: don’t sell water hoses in the cold months. No one will purchase. Concentrate on selling items that are in high demand; if their appeal has recently increased, this is the ideal time to enter the market.
#2 – Don’t Promote Low Converting Products
Your objective as an affiliate marketer is to make money off of the laborious work that others have put in, as well as off of the cash they had also spent on copywriters, product developers, and software. You’ll probably get less value if you choose a product which under-utilizes these benefits.
Consider conversion rates as an example. Not every manufacturer of goods works with a talented copywriter. A lot of them simply write their own copy. Many people also skip hiring someone to create the graphs for the sales page. Instead, they make an effort to complete things independently. The final outcome? The product converts poorly, the page looks awful, and the copy is seriously flawed.
Before you begin promoting a specific product, take the time to read the sales page and contrast it with others. Do you feel pressure to purchase? Were the visuals confusing to you? Did the copy struggle to hook your attention and reel you in? All of these mistakes could be fatal for both you and the seller. At this point, you are unable to assist the seller, but you can steer clear of his offering and find a superior one. You’ll be doing yourself a favor if you choose the stuff you decide to promote wisely.
#3 – A Snake Oil Salesman selling Snake Oil
If you have a list, this trap is particularly important to avoid. All it takes is one incorrect product promotion to cause a mass exodus from your list. Don’t make this mistake again.
Even if you’re compelled to promote the next “biggest launch,” make sure you don’t fall for anything. Several marketers have expressed regret over their decision to promote Rich Jerk’s latest product after list members started complaining that his sales page was filled with profanity and sexist remarks. Don’t become one of these people. Before promoting something to your list, make sure you thoroughly inspect it. Unless you’re the Rich Jerk, you undoubtedly don’t want to be thought of as just that — a rich jerk.
Furthermore, for major promotions, avoid pushing the ‘latest and greatest’ as soon as they launch. Rather, wait until the buzz has died down slightly before releasing a comprehensive review of the product (which most affiliates do not provide). This will increase your chances of selling and will also help you maintain your credibility.
Finally, avoid promoting products that make outrageous or false claims. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” Carl Sagan once said. Most of the time, these snake oil salesmen cannot give you any extraordinary evidence to back up their claims. Avoid endorsing or becoming affiliated with them.
#4 – Choose Products With High Commissions
Choose the products you promote carefully if you’re marketing to a list of people because they will only consider so many product offers in a given time period. You are wasting a lot of time if you promote something that only earns you a 25% commission. Actually, you might be able to locate a comparable product with a 50%–75% or more in commissions.
Don’t stress too much about the commission’s actual dollar amount. You can still make a fortune selling relatively inexpensive reports, despite the fact that many well-known Internet marketers now claim to focus on promoting high-ticket items (because only just few sales will produce a lot of money). This fact is evidenced by the $7 report’s increasing popularity.
So stay away from the bargain-bin vendors, but don’t stress too much about the cost.
#5 – Make Sure You Build A List
Leads must always be collected. Instead of driving traffic to your affiliate link via pay per click, keyword optimization, and other strategies, you ought to try to turn that traffic into list subscribers first. Why? There are two explanations: straightforward mathematical logic and the accumulated wisdom of many experienced internet marketers.
Almost everyone who might have bought the item will sign up for your mailing list, according to basic mathematical logic. Many people who would not have bought the product will also sign up for your mailing list. You will convert between 15-40% of visitors to your list, as opposed to only 1–3% in affiliate sales. After this, you will have the opportunity to get in touch with both more willing and less willing customers. Furthermore, once they are on a list, this is an ongoing effort. You have the opportunity to continuously market to them for weeks, months, or even years.
Your list ranks among the best resources you have as a marketer. Utilize your list over a one-time sale at all costs.
#6 – Timeliness Is More Important Than You Think
In business generally, those who act quickly often outperform those with more resources. Google used to be a tiny business with meager profits, but it once appeared out of nowhere to outcompete competitors who had enormous financial advantages.
What does that mean for you? You need to do more than just stick an affiliate link into an email and send it to a few thousand recipients to successfully promote an affiliate product. Your email should really be newsworthy rather than promotional if you want them to actually make a purchase.
You are much more likely to get attention if you can write your email as though it were a news release rather than sending a link to an Internet marketing ebook that was published in 1998 but wasn’t all that well-liked at the time.
Locate product launches that count as a “event” if you want to. Find something significant enough for people to pay attention to and comment on. It is crucial to design your own build-up and release, centered on the build-up and release of the product, if you can find one (let’s say the iPhone of Internet marketing products). Make sure your list members buy from you instead of another list owner if you want them to.
Keep an eye on the time and the calendar, to put it briefly. When a significant launch is approaching, you must seize the opportunity quickly. There might not be another window of chance. Take advantage of it when you can.
#7 – Missing The Important Numbers
Many affiliate marketers overlook many of the minor—yet critical—calculations required for the business and ensure profitability. For example, many affiliates will completely disregard the cut Clickbank takes from each sale. Instead, they will only consider the price and also the commission.
Furthermore, many will disregard conversion rates, pay per click bids, and the length of time they devote to projects. They will also fail to make reliable estimates of the amount promotions will cost and how risky they will be. They’ll gloss over every one of these tiny things and spend the vast majority of their time fantasizing about the fortunes they’ll amass.
Regrettably, affiliate marketing does not work in this manner. If you pay too much for traffic, have low conversion rates, or invest too much time in projects with low yields, the results will be negative. Your figures will not add up. You may end up in debt rather than profit at the end of the day, month, or year. And because you’re a sole proprietor rather than the CEO of a company, you don’t get paid at all. Worse, you may end up losing some of your personal money, which you earned through hard work.
Conclusion
So, how does it all fit together? As you can see from the list, these are the seven common blunders people make with affiliate marketing. If you slip into them, your affiliate marketing will make you poor rather than rich.
So, how do you avoid these pitfalls, make better choices and eventually become wealthy through affiliate marketing? To begin, choose products that are actually good. As previously stated, a low demand product will generate few sales no regardless of how hard you try to advertise it. You cannot create demand if it does not exist. Don’t even try.
Next, look for a product that is a winner within the niches that are currently in high demand. Locate something that converts exceptionally well. You can accomplish this by searching Clickbank for high-popularity, high-gravity products. You can also accomplish this by scanning salespages for those with exceptionally compelling copy, good perks, and reasonable prices.
Aside from selecting a product that is likely to convert well, you should also ensure that the claims are realistic and that the seller is credible. One bad product could knock you down a notch with your list members. Trying to make a single sale and losing a repeat customer is rarely worth it.
When you begin driving traffic to your affiliate marketing campaigns, make sure to direct it to an opt-in form rather than your affiliate link. If you send the person directly to an affiliate link, you are unlikely to hear from them again, whether or not the sale occurs. The collection of leads is critical. If you don’t, as many affiliates do, you’re throwing away a lot of money in comparison to what you’re spending.
Finally, make note of conversion rates, bid prices, commission rates, product broker fees, and any other small numbers that affiliate marketers prefer to ignore. Knowing, comprehending, and adjusting these figures could mean the difference between financial gain and debt. You could overlook them if you wish but it won’t help your business.
With that out of the way, you’re now ready to try your hand at affiliate marketing. There are many risks, but you already know the big seven; avoid these, and you’ll sail through to profit, following in the footsteps of previous super affiliates.
