5 Common Mistakes in Affiliate Marketing

If you are involved in affiliate marketing, you always want to be looking for ways to increase your affiliate sales. One way to do that is to eliminate any mistakes that may be costing you sales. In this article we will look at five common affiliate marketing mistakes, and steps you can take to correct any that you may be making:

1) Simply providing an affiliate link. This is a common mistake of those just getting started in affiliate marketing. They put an affiliate link on their website, with little or no additional content, and then wonder why they have made little or no sales.

Anything worthwhile takes some effort, and affiliate marketing is certainly no exception. What this means is that the affiliate marketer should offer lots of valuable content on their website and then include the affiliate link as a tool or resource that the reader can use to implement what they learned in the article.

Let me give you an example: Suppose you are an affiliate for some search engine optimization (SEO) software. Instead of simply putting your affiliate link on your site, write an informative article also. Maybe you’ll write an article titled: “5 Things to Look for When Shopping for SEO Software”, or “3 Common SEO Mistakes” – something like that. Then at the end of your article include your affiliate link to the SEO software package you’re promoting. Now it’s a resource for your visitors instead of just another link someone wants them to click on.

2) Not knowing the product or service. Too many internet marketers, lured by high commissions, end up promoting a product or service they know little or nothing about. Some make sales but a number do not.

Knowing the product or service you are promoting, and the industry it’s used in, can give you a tremendous competitive advantage in the affiliate marketing arena. Here’s why: If you know the product or service you are promoting, and the industry it serves, you can become an expert – a resource for your visitors. You’ll know the technical aspects of the product, how to maximize its results, typical questions buyers have, etc.

If you know the industry, then you will know the key challenges its participants face – and how the product or service you are promoting can help them. You can use this knowledge by participating in forums, answering emails from your customers, and by writing articles – all which represent opportunities to include an affiliate link to the product or service you are promoting!

3) Not being interested in the product or service. This goes hand-in-hand with number two above. An affiliate marketer sees an affiliate program paying a huge commission and jumps at it. They may have little or no interest in the product or service being offered. This is a mistake.

Why is it important to be interested in the affiliate product or service you are promoting? Because it comes across in your website’s sales message to your potential customers. After all, if you don’t find the results of the product or service your promoting exciting (or believable) then how can you communicate otherwise to potential customers?

4) Choosing a low paying affiliate program. Once you’ve found an affiliate program you’re excited about, and you know something about the product or service, it’s time get down to the bottom line: Commissions. Everything else being equal you want to promote the program paying a $50 commission versus a $25 commission. Now notice I said “everything else being equal”. This is where you will need to do your homework and really evaluate each affiliate program you are considering.

5) Choosing a low converting affiliate program. Many new affiliate marketers don’t pay much attention to the conversion rate of a particular affiliate program – and end up losing potential sales they may have otherwise made.

It’s very important that you find an affiliate program with a high conversion rate. A high conversion rate means they know how to sell the visitors you send to them. It can take a lot of time and effort to generate each visitor you send to an affiliate link, so you want to maximize the chances of converting them to sales.

You now know five common affiliate marketing mistakes – and what you can do to avoid them. Review each mistake and see if you are making any of them. If so, take steps to correct them. It may be just what you need to increase your affiliate marketing sales.