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Services | Support | Coaching Lessons | Affiliate Program Solo Build It Mastery Lesson
41 - The
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Although anyone can achieve success with affiliate programs, not everyone manages to do the same.
The reason?
Well, I think there are 10 main reasons, actually. These are the biggest mistakes that make success in affiliate marketing very elusive.
Study them well, and read up on how to avoid them. Hurdling through these mistakes can spell the difference between monumental profits and dismal performance in your affiliate marketing campaigns.
1. Believing that people would just click on their affiliate links. Though an affiliate’s job is merely limited to pre-selling, pre-selling involves more than just displaying the affiliate links.
It also entails encouraging people to click on them by outlining the benefits
they will enjoy from the affiliate merchant’s products, giving favorable recommendations about the use of their
products, and providing an encouraging offer that would entice readers to check out the package.
2. Believing that there’s such a thing as
FREE organic traffic. Organic traffic, or traffic that is naturally generated by a
website without you setting things up correctly, is a myth.
If you’re hosting your affiliate links in one website, you can’t expect people to find it just like that. You have to make them find it. This can be done through effective SEO techniques and efficient marketing strategies.
This is why we spend so much time in the Action Guide and this coaching course on optimizing your pages and images - do this correctly and you will have search engine traffic arriving at your site. However, it's not FREE traffic.
It takes time (or money) to create the content that attracts this 'free'
traffic, and it takes time and effort to get this content ranking well. Your
time is not free and has to be factored into the cost of promoting affiliate
products.
3. Believing that employing one marketing strategy is enough. Some people actually think that submitting one article to the article directories would give them the amount of traffic they need.
This is a fatal mistake. Limiting yourself to a single, or even a couple, of marketing tactics would be limiting the number of visitors you could generate for your website. Also, you’ll fail to tap into other segments of your targeted market if your tactics aren’t flexible enough to expand.
4. Failing to study your campaign’s performance. Most affiliates merely check on how much they have earned per day, and if such an amount remains at low levels, they fail to make corresponding adjustments because, well, they don’t know which aspects of their campaigns need improving.
It is important to study every facet of our marketing strategies.
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How many visitors are we generating for our website?
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How many of them are unique?
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How many are returning?
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How much time do they spend in our pages?
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Where are they coming from?
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To where are they exiting?
These are the questions that can be answered by an excellent visitor tracking software program, and these are the questions that could help us improve the performance of our marketing endeavors.
5. Failing to find an affiliate program which actually offers sellable products. Some affiliate programs may offer as much as a 95% commission per sale. But if the products are impossible to sell, you’d never realize the profit the program promises.
If the affiliate program has established great relationships with the members of its target market, then it has established a brand which is recognizable for its excellent service.
You’d have an easier time pre-selling such an affiliate program’s products. This is where Sitesell really shines - no other affiliate merchant goes so far in helping their affiliates succeed. If you aren't a Sitesell 5 Pillar Affiliate yet, visit this page to join and see how a great affiliate program is run...
You don't have to promote Sitesell's products if you don't want to, but you
can build a very lucrative business with residual income if you do.
7. Failing to keep up with the latest developments in the industry. There will come a time when the marketing knowledge we know would become obsolete, more so in the field of internet marketing where everything transpires at a rapid pace.
You have to constantly update yourself with the newest trends, techniques and news in this field to always keep your competitive edge.
Again, the 5 Pillar Program helps us keep up on the latest affiliate marketing
techniques, so we can apply them to all of our affiliate products, not just
Sitesell's.
8. Failing to invest on knowledge. Knowledge likewise evolves and you have to evolve with it. Buy noteworthy eBooks, special reports and the likes… those which would teach you the latest tactics to help you conquer your field.
9. Resting on your laurels once a small
amount of success is achieved. Success is not eternal. You have to sustain it. If you leave your business alone once it shows the promise of success, you’re just setting it up for failure.
10. Believing that affiliate marketing is a “get rich quick” scheme. It is not. You have to invest a certain level of commitment, a lot of time, some financial resources on occasions, and a whole lot of effort if you want to truly realize the many wonderful things that this field does promise.
Action Steps
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Join the Sitesell 5 Pillar Program if you haven't already and see how a top class affiliate program is run
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Read all of the 5 Pillar Newsletters for tips and ideas for promoting all of your affiliate programs
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Build a list so that you can promote multiple affiliate offers to your readers instead of relying on a one shot potential sale at your site
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Download and read (or re-read) the recently updated Affiliate Masters Course for a powerful grounding in making the most of your affiliate marketing business
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Test different affiliate merchants to compare conversion rates and the income you receive. Never stop testing to find the most profitable products to promote
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Look for products that have huge demand. By promoting products that people actually want to buy, you stand a good chance of making above average returns
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Try to include monthly membership products in your recommended programs list. By building residual income you insulate your business from the ups and downs of the market
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Continue to invest in products that help you to increase your marketing skills. You have to invest some of your profits in continued education to stay ahead
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If you haven't made it yet, NEVER GIVE UP! By sticking to your niche, your vision, following the Action Guide. Make Your Content Presell, and this coaching course, you will make it if you are committed...
I really hope this lesson helps you to increase your affiliate commissions and sets you on the path to financial freedom from your SBI site.
Until next time,
Take it easy,
P.S. If you need any help setting up your site, your autoresponders, or anything else in your business, I can help. Just visit my Services page to see the various ways I can assist you to get the most out of Solo Build It.
P.P.S. And don't forget, you can review any of the other lessons in this coaching course by visiting this page.