5 Biggest Mistakes That Can Quash Your Affiliate Income

5 biggest affiliate marketing mistakes

Are you leaving money on the table?

On the surface, the affiliate marketing concept is very simple. Just plug your affiliate links all over the Web, sit back, and wait for the money to flow in.

Unfortunately, many beginners waste their effort by focusing on the activities that bring almost no return. Here are 5 common mistakes that can severely affect the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing effort.

Not familiar with how affiliate marketing works? Check out our quick affiliate marketing glossary.

Mistake 1: Focus purely on selling

Don’t focus purely on selling, rather focus on helping people to solve THEIR problem by suggesting the right product or service.

Don’t create purely promotional content, like a rehash of the original product page. Learn why people may want this product and offer the solution.

How to offer the solution? Create tutorials, case studies, start a poll, be creative with your content.

People are much more likely to trust an objective review rather than a sales pitch that makes unsupported promises.

Mistake 2: SPAM

Don’t spam your affiliate links on social networks and forums. You won’t see much (if any) return and may irreparably damage your reputation. Nobody likes a spammer and people rarely trust the content they perceive as spam.

The same applies if you post affiliate links all over your own site. It’s tempting to simply add banners and links to all your existing posts even if the ad has no relevance to the topic of the post. Only promote products that your readers are or would be interested in.

Don’t create a gazillion of shallow promotional posts. Focus on creating quality content. Don’t just copy text from the product’s sales page, especially when posting on your own Web site. You don’t want Google to penalize your site for duplicate content.

It’s best to promote the products you personally use and enjoy. Otherwise, the chances are your pitch will sound thin and not convincing. Want to try TunePocket music library before writing a review? Please contact us to see if you qualify.

Creating quality content takes time. Don’t expect immediate results. In fact, don’t expect any results if you’re not willing to put in the work.

Mistake 3: No testing

Test your links! Seriously, test every link you publish. You don’t want to miss a big sale only because you made a typo. Use TunePocket affiliate link generator to make sure the links are valid.

Track and analyze results, see what content bring in the referrals and what links lead to sales. For example, if your link gets 0 referrals – you may have posted in the wrong place or in a place with no traffic. If you’re getting the referrals but no sales – there may be a mismatch between how you present the product and the actual product. Maybe the price has changed? New functionality was added (or removed)?

Mistake 4: Not discussing the alternatives

People like to shop around and like to think they’re getting the best deal possible. Try a side-by-side comparison with similar products and explain the advantages of the product you’re promoting.

Here’s another idea. Find a mediocre product, review it, highlight the issues, and suggest a better product as an alternative. For example you can compare TunePocket to other royalty-free music libraries and explain why it may be a better choice for video creators or marketers (price, unlimited access, affordable commercial license, ease of use?).

Mistake 5: Pretend to be something you’re not

Don’t create a site that looks like a Web shop but only serves affiliate links. If you are willing to spend all that time on setting up a site like that, look into starting a drop-shipping business or put your energy into creating quality content.

Be transparent about your affiliate status. Don’t pretend to be the merchant, don’t trick people with non-existing offers or false promises just to get their click. Honesty goes a long way with building trust. And when you have your readers trust, they will be happy to buy the products you recommend without you having to trick them into clicking the links.

Earn up to $25 per referral as TunePocket affiliate

Want to promote cool royalty free stock music and earn up to $25 per successful referral? Apply now

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