Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

Affiliate Marketing mistakes can be costly

Are you making affiliate marketing mistakes that are costly? While mistakes help us learn and improve, we thought it would be helpful to review a short list of practices that you can correct in order to start generating better results today.

1. Fooled by Words

Far too often new affiliates visit industry "review" sites. Unfortunately, the credibility of review sites in the world of affiliate tends to be extremely low. More often than not, it's the company that pays the most in "sponsorship" dollars that receives the best reviews. Think about the sites you've looked at. Have you noticed that the same companies running banner ads are also near the top of the review list? Have you noticed that those same companies "never" receive a single bad review? Don't be fooled by the words.

2. Fooled by Numbers

Another common practice, or malpractice, in affiliate marketing is the manipulation of statistics. When dealing with affiliates, I often suggest that they look at their overall earnings and disregard the rest when comparing networks. An Affiliate Network may constantly adjust the amount of clicks they display to inflate the earnings per click that an affiliate is able to generate. Rather than racking your brain and trying to understand who is telling the truth, simply follow the money. At CPAlead, we'll always cut to the chase and talk dollars and cents like any good CPA Network should. This is a practice that a good CPA network will take and it tends to clear things up quickly. Sure, you can find a page full of manipulated statistics aimed at giving you a false impression, but the idea is that stats are simply a tool to help you analyze your efforts. If you want to know what solution is best for monetizing your traffic, keep an eye on your paycheck. After all, what would you rather see? Some numbers on a screen that tell you you're doing well or some numbers in your bank account that prove you are? As the old saying goes "Money talks..."

3. Go BIG or Go Home!

A lot of newcomers entering the affiliate marketing space learn about it through online forums. They see screenshots of other people who make $1,000 per day, they read about how others in the marketplace were able to quit their jobs and they feel a fire start burning. An Affiliate will sign up and put in 10 hours a day for two weeks then suddenly quit. The reality is that there is nothing magical about internet marketing. If you're hoping to hit it big in your first month, you should use your marketing budget towards lottery tickets and keep your fingers crossed tightly. You should be able to start generating revenue in your first month and the wise affiliate will look at the time spent as an investment towards their future. Keep your head down and work hard for 6 months. Don't focus on how much you've earned, focus on learning more and improving your practices. The money will follow.

4. Over Spending on Affiliate Marketing

In the same way that you don't need to wear a $10,000 suit when applying for your first job at the local grocery store, you don't need a $10,000 budget to get your start in affiliate marketing. Whether you're doing Content Locking, Display CPA, PPC or anything else, the barrier of entry is low. Too many beginners dream up a big idea then put a budget behind it and feel extremely discouraged when things don't pan out. Affiliate Marketing with a CPA Network is like anything else in life in that you need to learn and fail. Failures are learning experiences and help you understand what works. If you throw your budget into an idea when you have no experience and can't understand what will work, how can you expect to be successful? You're, in essence, buying another lottery ticket. Don't fall in love with an idea until you've done your homework and learned about what works or doesn't. Scale up slowly, make small investments and watch to see how things unfold. When you start getting the hang of it, you'll naturally increase the scope of your projects.

5. Play to Your Strengths

Don't worry about what seems to be on trend within the marketplace. All too often, newcomers in Affiliate marketing hear the buzz about a new method and want to get on board. Chances are, if everyone is talking about it then you're too late. There are a lot of different ways to engage in online marketing; Content Locking, display CPA, Lead generation, Pay per click and more. Let's take PPC (pay per click), being successful for most affiliates requires a strong grasp on mathematics so that you can calculate where and how to spend then forecast your results. Don't feel pressured into doing it because some guy with a blog took a picture of a Ferrari that probably isn't his. Focus on where you feel strongest. It might be that you prefer to create videos or software and want to market them with a Content Locker. You may have a very good understanding of the car insurance marketing and want to drive leads through lead generation campaigns. Whatever the case, you'll enjoy far more success if you play to your strengths than you will following a trend.

If you're new to affiliate marketing you should read this list then re-read starting at point one. When you're done, read another dozen articles from industry professionals then begin crafting out a plan. Its better to take an extra day performing research if it means that you'll save yourself months of heartache.