13 massive errors new affiliate marketers do (don’t be one of them)

Affiliate Marketing 101: 13 huge mistakes new affiliate marketers do (don’t be one of them)

When you start with Affiliate Marketing, it’s easy to think there are no rules and the law of the far-west applies.
Nothing is further from the truth. Customers are now used to most of the tricks your marketing guru told you. There are hundreds of books for affiliate marketing beginners about how to successfully market to people. And even if your customers have not read all of them, they have at least read the excerpts of some of them.

So, they know.

Don’t fall into the marketing trap and avoid those Affiliate Marketing Mistakes…

1 Do not send potential customers directly to the sales page of vendors.

There are plenty of ways to do affiliate marketing even if you don’t have a website. What’s important is you know how to send targets to your vendor’s cart. That, you MUST do. But one important thing is to make sure not to send your customers to the sales page of your vendors.

2 Do not pick up products that have less or no temperature.

Temperature shows how a product is being accepted in the market. The Hotter a product is, the more views, sales, and commissions it has generated. The Temperature can go up or down in a short period of time, which means that a hot product today may not be so hot tomorrow. The Temperature is also influenced by several other factors, such as complaints made by buyers, the blueprint and others.

It’s quite difficult to make a product’s temperature go up, therefore, if you find a product that is very hot, you can be sure that affiliates are getting on with it!

Likewise, if a product has a lower temperature, it doesn’t mean they are not selling well or don’t have potential. It may simply mean it’s warm at the moment.

3 Do not pick up products that have a low Blueprint score.

Blueprints is a rating system that evaluates the products according to the information provided by the product’s creator. The more relevant and thorough the information on the product is, the best rating it gets.

In other words, the higher the score, the better the evaluation of a product!

4 Make sure to send potential customers into some funnel system.

An affiliate marketing sales funnel is a great strategy to promote your affiliate products efficiently.

5 Pick up products that pay at least 50% in affiliate commissions if the sales price is inferior to $10.

6 Pick up products that have less than 30% commissions if they are
Above $300

7 Do compare between products

This must be done both within HotMart and outside (Amazon for example)
One of the best converting tactics I use to sell affiliate products online (especially physical products from Amazon) is to compare the “main” product with two other similar products.

When your customers are in buying mode for a physical product, they tend to have their options narrowed down to 2 or 3 and need help making the choice that is best for them.

By comparing the “3 Best Widgets For _______”, I not only help my readers make a choice, but I also have my affiliate links there for THREE products instead of on only one.

Over time, when I track that web page, I will be able to see which product is most interesting to readers and move the best converting product to the top of the page for better CTR.

Comparison web pages are not only very popular and helpful for readers, but they are also very profitable for you.

8 Do track your sales

This was a BIG mistake I made when I first started out. I began my affiliate marketing career using free-to-make web pages on a site called Squidoo (and I still do this to this day).

I am fond of promoting Amazon products on these pages, but would forget to use unique tracking affiliate links on each page.

Why is this a mistake? Very simple — when you make a sale, you want to know WHERE the sale came from. This enables you to know which pages are converting well so you can grow and scale that campaign.

Creating a unique tracking ID for an Amazon link is easy. Simply log in to your Amazon affiliate dashboard, click “Account Settings” at the very top on the right, then click “Manage Tracking IDs”. From there you can make a new tracking ID so you can track which web page/campaign sold what. You can learn more about using Amazon’s Tracking IDs here.

Yes, making any commission is cool, but knowing where and how you made that commission is what makes you a better marketer. It lets you grow and scale your campaigns — as opposed to working blindly.

9 Don’t try to promote or sell too many products at the same time

This is another big mistake I made when starting out — joining any and every affiliate program I came across. While I absolutely do believe in cultivating multiple streams of income when working online, there is a point where you have too much to deal with, and it becomes unmanageable.

Choose your affiliate programs wisely and don’t overload yourself.

10 Don’t sell, help people

Yes, the word “marketing” is part of the phrase affiliate marketing, but for the most part, our job as an affiliate is not to sell — that is the job of the sales page our affiliate links lead the reader to.

When I first started, my overwhelming (and totally naive) impulse was to fill my pages with words and links that screamed: “BUY THIS NOW!”. I didn’t help the reader learn why they should have this product. I only wanted them to click a link which would hopefully lead to a commission for me.

People want to hear from other people when making a decision to buy a product or not — that’s why the reviews on Amazon products are so powerful. Those reviews are genuine feedback from people who (usually) have absolutely nothing to gain if someone buys that product or not.

When we talk more like an unbiased reviewer rather than a high-pressure salesperson, we will find we make more sales and people will come back for advice on other products in the future.

11) Do Test

Whenever I choose to promote any offer, I put myself in the shoes of a potential customer and opt-in to test the vendors’ follow up sequence.

I learned this the hard way.

Nothing breaks a reader’s trust more than being led to a promotion that will blow up their inbox. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer and see what will happen if they follow your advice.

12) Don’t Make False Claims

Perhaps you’ve seen this before. You’re in a “learn online marketing” type forum. A person publishes a post complaining that they can’t make a dime online. But in their signature line, they have something along the lines of “I Made 50 Million Dollars with This” followed by their affiliate link.

It happens all the time. Please, don’t be that person.

If you’re new and you want to promote products in the Make Money Online arena, don’t make false claims that it made you money. In fact, don’t make false claims at all!

Sure, talk about the benefits of the product/training — maybe even why it sounds incredible to you — but don’t try to trick people. You will ruin your credibility.

13) Avoid the Shiny Object Syndrome

This is the biggest downfall for any new affiliate marketer. In fact, it can cause really big issues for seasoned affiliate marketers as well.

It is all too common to be working on one thing when all of a sudden, something “shiny” comes through your inbox or is mentioned in a forum you frequent. Then off you go chasing some new idea to make money online.

Ignore the “butterflies” that are sure to fly by on a constant basis. They will just distract you from your project/campaign at hand. One completed and profitable campaign is worth so much more than 50 almost half-finished campaigns or projects.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a business that requires self-motivation and focus. For many of us, these are learned skills. Once you are aware of the affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid and that that can cause a lack of profits and productivity, you will be better able to grow your business and be profitable long-term.