“To err is human,” but whilst we're all bound
to experience our own share of failures from time-to time, they never get any
easier to bear. If you're reading this article then chances are (given the
title) that you tried affiliate marketing and failed spectacularly. Well join
the club. Affiliate marketing failure rates are estimated at around 80% for new
affiliates, and most fail as a result of the reasons listed below. So listen,
learn, and get back on that horse!
Motivation
Be honest with yourself here; what is it that
motivated you to get involved in affiliate marketing? If you don't have a
definitive answer, then maybe you were simply not invested enough. Consider
your motivation for becoming an affiliate marketer. Were you fed up of the 9-5
rat race and fancied working for yourself at your own pace and at hours that
suit you? Or did you simply need a secondary source of income to put some money
aside for a new car or a family holiday? Whatever the motivation, keep it as
your primary focus, as it doesn't matter how realistic your goals are, if you
don't have the motivation to achieve them, they will go unfulfilled.
Expectations
Speaking of realistic goals, it's important
for any affiliate marketer to understand that the lion's share of the hyperbole
you hear about affiliate marketing is just that; industry fluff and piffle.
Many websites will try to tell you that you will be an overnight success and
that you'll make thousands of pounds in 30 days. If you joined the industry on
the back of these outright lies, then no wonder you failed! Have reasonable
expectations and goals, stay grounded, and put in the effort and eventually you
will start to see decent returns on your efforts.
Preparation
“Fail to prepare and prepare to fail,” an old
phrase, but a salient point when it comes to affiliate marketing. Before you
launch your next affiliate marketing campaign, make sure you have a clear,
concise vision that extends from your content, right down to the layout of your
site. Doing things on the fly is not recommended as 'making it up as you go
along' will result in wasted time. Being able to control your own work schedule
means that you can spread your working hours out and base your work around your
life, not the other way around. So preparation shouldn't be as much of a hassle
as you might think.
Hours
Even though you can do it from the comfort of
your own home, affiliate marketing is no cakewalk and if you went into it
expecting to work less hours than you would at a 'traditional' job, then you
were frankly deluding yourself. If anything you'll need to work more hours in
order to make your affiliate marketing campaigns successful (you are working
along after all), but it can be a fun and rewarding job as long as you
keep your motivations at the forefront of your mind. Simply put; if you're
working less than 50 hours a week, then the only person you have to blame for
your failure is yourself.
Skills
To be a successful affiliate marketer, you
should be combining 4 keys skills; Research, SEO, Copywriting and Web
Development. These are skills you don't need to take a course on to master,
they are skills you can learn simply through trial and error. If your skill
levels in either of the above key areas are below par, you'll want to do some
'levelling up' before you restart your affiliate marketing campaign.
Trust
Your affiliate site shouldn't look like
an affiliate site, it should look like a legitimate site that users actually
want to read, share and be involved with. Crap content will lead to crap
returns, so if you are simply copying and pasting reams of indifferent text and
writing about subjects/promoting products that don't interest you in any way,
shape or form, this is something you'll really need to rectify. If your site's
viewers don't trust you, and see your site as little more than a corporate
shill, then they won't click on your affiliate links and they won't be
returning any time soon.
Conclusions
Don't give up! Just because you failed last
time, that doesn't mean the next time will be the same. Take the advice above
seriously and keep yourself focused and your goals realistic and before you
know it, you could be the next great affiliate marketing success story!
