Yes, there are more than just one mistake affiliate do again and again. And although the mistakes are clearly in front of their eyes, but they don’t know do they?
Before we start, I have ONE VERY crucial step. You cannot go any further before you read this step. Affiliating is about marketing, and marketing effective developed formula involves…guess what? Targeting.
One of the same mistake people do OVER and OVER again, is to try to be “Everyone’s hang out place”. Of course, you can’t force someone to like fishing for instance, neither can you force someone else to be interested in what you are offering. However, you know that there are people out there who ARE interested, just like there are people who love fishing.
Being a flea market full of other people’s product is like trying to show one person a banner and sell to that same person. Yes, it’s THAT hard if you know what I mean.
So how do you develop your niche? (Or your target market in simple english)
Think of what your product is. Does it appeal to woman? or does it sell to certain geographical area? or maybe, does it appeal to another specific industry? … Think of what kind of customers would be interested in what you are selling. Get into the customer’s shoes.
Warning: Don’t pick what suits you!! pick what suits the market. (Of course, what I mean is, no matter what you are targeting, you have to make sure that there is a market out there).
Now that you have your mind to sell to SPECIFIC target, let’s get into the action, the step by step actions you should take. Yes, that’s right, ACTION, do don’t expect that you would be sitting and reading only doing nothing. Of course, while reading is good, and much reading is better, but action, is something that you MUST take to succeed.
NOW Let’s discuss what OTHER mistakes MOST/ or like, 90% of all affiliates do to NOT make any profit:
1. Doesn’t want to spend any money
I think this is one of the biggest problems in affiliating that I see with many affiliates out there. You know why? It’s because there are far too many HYPES out there who keep on telling YOU “NO MONEY, no matter, we’ll do the rest for you…just join for free…” – by this time I think they are getting money that they are paid for every other people joining their program…
This problem goes on as affiliating is basically promoting product. Trust me, you would have to spend some money to make money – it’s not how much you spend, it’s making sure that every single cent you spend is going to make you dollars in return. Guess what? no smart guy would not invest $2500 in order to get $30000 in that same month.
Reason many people haven’t invested, and fail, is that there are far too many HYPES,…again? yeah, too many of them trying to steal and pickpocket from YOU, they know, getting some good hard earned money from you and giving you practically, NOTHING in return…
2. Do NOT Advertise
Again, so many hypes that say to you by just sitting there doing nothing, you’ll earn millions if you join my such and such system. There is no such system. People’s system or information product (So-called ebooks) would tell you how to make money, but I can bet you NONE of those ebooks/information would tell you to sit back, relax, and let money come to you – of course, you can, but AFTER your effort, and that time would be called (Ripping what you sew earlier).
I mean, seriously, what is so hard to advertise for example, at 2 buck an ad, you can send mailings to all these people, and the key point is: Using this email to promote YOU, not your affiliate programs…
3. Put up a link and hope customers would click and buy
This is another biggest problem, when I was 16, I use to do this, I put up a link on every page, everywhere too, affiliate programs that are having nothing in common, nothing with whatever I am offering – you want to check how bad it was before? Fine – if you go to http://www.freewebs.com/incomefisher – you’ll see so many mistakes I MADE before. You know, don’t just put up a link and hoping for the best to come, you’re losing your shirt here.
4. Focus on too many programs
well, it’s like turning your website into a flea market. Of course, people won’t buy it off you, you wouldn’t have the chance to convince them enough to buy something from you. Alright, to make it clearer, read the above section on “Target your customer”, it’s crucial folks, remember that…
5. Shifting between programs too much
This is for the dodgy affiliates out there…They just read one of a hype saying and then believe, and then join the program, after that, they would expect a night millionaire… I’m sorry to say this bad news but, one night millionaire or one week rich do not happen! It is unrealistic, think about it! in the real world, even if you have sooo much money and you invest in a big factory or something, you won’t become rich overnight, so what makes you think that using the internet, especially with free programs (Yeah affiliates are free) you’ll make yourself rich overnight? especially, when you aren’t willing to even spend a cent…
6. Writing sales letter instead of recommendation
This is another big problems to take notice. There are so many affiliates out there who write sales letter instead of recommendation. What would you feel that when you go to a site, you are bombarded with sales letter, and then you click on the link (Most people don’t click on the link) and you are bombarded with another sales letter, this time it is from the company. It’s made for YOUR offerings, for YOUR free ebook, not for the company’s product. I made this mistake too, earlier, I nearly made EVERY SINGLE MISTAKE I jot down in here – and since I know they are my mistakes, then I wouldn’t do the same thing again ever since.
Sally Widjaja is the editor of http://www.auBizHelp.com. Currently she’s offering “how to turn affiliate programs into your infinite CASH ATM” for FREE. (Click here for more info) Visit the site for more tips tricks plus insider’s secret on home business topic
