9 Painful Reasons Why Affiliate Marketers Fail

“Don’t be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson

Are you an Affiliate Marketer? Are you a beginner or a pro? Irrespective of our experience, we all make mistakes. This is what makes us, us! When we take up anything new – playing cricket, learning to play a musical instrument, graphic designing, or affiliate marketing – we are bound to make mistakes, isn’t it?

Some mistakes do not cost us anything. For example, if you miscalculate 3 + 4, you can calculate again. However, if you invest your money in a dropping / failing stock, well, you will lose your hard-earned money.

Certain mistakes sting because you invest your most precious resource – time! Say, you are setting up your affiliate marketing business, you educate yourself for a year, you implement every system, you write knowledge-rich blogs, you provide the best-in-class courses, but your bank balance still shows the dreaded 0.

“How can I fail if I did everything right?” you might ask. There could be a few leaks, here and there, maybe.

In this post, I will walk you through the 9 mistakes which keep Affiliate Marketers far from success.

(1) Mistake 1: You Do Not Have a Long-Term Vision

• The biggest mistake, by far, that beginners at Affiliate Marketing make is promoting “bad” products. By “bad”, I mean, you could be promoting a product which is trending in the market and may not belong to your niche.
• Secondly, you could be promoting products with the highest commission. If you’re promoting a product based on its commission rate, you will fail to provide value to your audience. And, they will be confused about what you actually do.
• Another reason why this technique fails is when you promote products based on higher commission rates, you will eventually lose interest and your content will take a severe hit.
• To surmount this, please finalize your niche first and then start to promote products only of that niche. Your business should revolve around the niche that you chose.

(2) Mistake 2: You Do Not Review Affiliate Links

• Before talking about this mistake, I request you to please see the image above this line. Did you find anything? Let me guess – “No, you did not find any image.”
• The second mistake Affiliate Marketers make is not checking if their affiliate link is active. Websites may go down, hence, it is necessary to always check if your affiliate link is active and it sends users to the product you are promoting.
• If you place an inactive link, your effort of generating traffic will be in vain and your visitors will see the gloomy 404 page.
• Suppose, you ran Google Ads and spent ₹1,000 or $1,000 or £1,000 to get traffic. People visit your website through Google Ads and click the inactive link. After clicking the inactive link, they are either directed to the 404 page or an incorrect page. As they did not find the intended product or page, they will exit the site and might never return. Now, the amount you invested in running Google Ads will be wasted.
• Hence, please review your affiliate links and check if they direct to the correct product or website.

(3) Mistake 3: You Spam Affiliate Links Everywhere

• This in itself could be a standalone topic. The biggest reason why Affiliate Marketers fail is they spam links everywhere.
• During my initial days as an Affiliate Marketer, I made this mistake too many times. I used to get affiliate links from Affiliate Platforms and then I posted them on every group – that I was a member of – on Facebook, WhatsApp, and everywhere else. I still remember being kicked out of many Facebook groups. (I can laugh about it now! :D)
• In addition to spamming links on social media, many novice Affiliate Marketers mail their links to irrelevant audiences.
• For instance, one of my students was beginning his journey as an Affiliate. He registered on a platform and generated his first link of a technology related product. As soon as he got the link, he emailed it to everyone he had email addresses of. The result? 0 sales!
• It is, therefore, important to understand the techniques behind Affiliate Marketing. I would recommend you to educate yourself, set up a funnel, build a community, provide value to your audience, and create high-quality content.

(4) Mistake 4: You Have No Intention Of Helping People

• No matter what business you have, you should always, always, always aim to help people. What are the pain points of your audience? Where could you help them? Identify such areas and solve their problems.
• My mentor, Mr. Siddharth Rajsekar always tells us “It’s not about how much knowledge you have, it’s about what problem you can solve.” Even if you are the best businessman / businesswoman in the world, please help people and solve their problems.
• Secondly, if you sell online courses, please ensure that you provide 10x in value. By that I mean, if your courses cost ₹5,000/-, you should aim to provide ₹50,000/- in value.
• Thirdly, I would request you to educate your audience. If someone needs your help, please educate them. Instill a belief in their brains that they can achieve what they want.

(5) Mistake 5: You Did Not Build An Email List

• One of the major reasons why novice Affiliate Marketers fail is they don’t build an Email list.
• If you ask any successful Affiliate Marketer, they will tell you that an Email list will be your biggest asset. Let me explain how. Suppose, you run a Google Ads campaign for 10 days. People who visit the website once may not visit again and you have only 1 shot to convince them to purchase your product.
• And, if you observe human beings, you will notice that nobody purchases anything online the first time they see it. People think 4-5 times before paying, isn’t it?
• On the contrary, suppose you build an Email list of 10 people. With an Email list, you can educate them, tell about the benefits, refund scheme, etc. You can also share case studies of people who purchased your product and got phenomenal results.
• By sending Emails, you’d have educated your audience, they’d know about your product, they will also be convinced that it works for people, and if it doesn’t, they will get their money back.
• Hence, through an Email list you can send multiple Emails to people and if they don’t buy your product today, somewhere down the road your Emails will convince them to buy.
• Another reason to build an Email list is that Emails have a 38x ROI. It is like investing ₹1/- and earning ₹39/-. To build your Email list, you can use an Email Autoresponder which successful Affiliate Marketers use for communicating with their leads.

(6) Mistake 6: You Did Not Set-up Systems

• Could you build a bungalow without a solid foundation? Let me think… No, you can’t! Similarly, if the “bungalow” is your business, the “foundation” will be the systems that make up your business.
• Most Affiliate Marketers do not set-up a system. Why beginners fail is that they get the link and share it with people with the anticipation that they will purchase the product(s). And, even if people do end up purchasing, you will have no data of where they came from, which device they were using, and so on.
• The biggest boon for any businessman / businesswoman is data. With data at your disposal, you can find out where your audience comes from, which device they use, you can also find out the number of people who purchased your product, and you can draw other useful insights.
• According my research, you must have the following systems:
  • Personal Website
  • Email Marketing System
  • Link Tracking System
  • Funnel System
  • Webinar System
  • Learning Management System (for hosting online courses)

(7) Mistake 7: You Do Not Have a Funnel

• Usually, inexperienced Affiliate Marketers send the people directly to the product page. As someone who doesn’t know you or the product, it is unlikely that I will purchase it straight away.
• Therefore, to convince people to buy your product, you should educate them first, tell them about the product, its benefits, refund policy, and so on. In essence, you should craft people’s journey across your website. The journey that you create for the users is a funnel.
• A typical sales funnel has the following 4 steps / stages:
  • Step 1 – The Landing Page: On the landing page, you should capture people’s Emails. Once people enter their Emails, you should add them into your Email List to promote content / products.
  • Step 2 – Pre-frame: In this stage, tell people about your product. You should also share how the product will benefit them (answer people’s question – “What is in it for me?”). Preferably, have a video or conduct a webinar. Below the video or webinar, place a button so people can proceed to the next step.
  • Step 3 – Sales Page: After educating people, you should direct them to the payment page where they will enter their details and purchase the product.
  • Step 4 – Thank You Page: On this page, thank people for purchasing the product and make them believe that their decision to buy is a life-changing one.

(8) Mistake 8: You Do Not Retarget People

• If you have every system in place – you are capturing people’s Emails, you have the funnel in place, and so on – but if you are not retargeting or remarketing them, you will lose them forever.
• An ideal strategy would be to set up your  landing page in a manner in which even if they leave your website, you can communicate with them again. This is called “Remarketing” or “Retargeting”.
• Let me explain this with the help of a real-life example. Suppose you visited Amazon and searched for a t-shirt. You do not purchase it and close the app / website. Then, after a while, you visit Google and read a blog, you will see the same t-shirt there. Then, you go to YouTube and you see the same t-shirt there. This is Remarketing!
• My mentor encourages me to retarget every visitor to my website. I would recommend you to retarget every visitor and bring them back. It will require some work, but they can convert into your customers.

(9) Mistake 9: You Give Up Easily

• I will share a bitter truth – Affiliate Marketing, just like any other business, takes time. It is unrealistic to expect that you will make money from the first day itself. It takes hard work, skill, and patience.
• Many beginners fail once and quit. I am sure you would have heard or read, “Rome was not built in a day!”
• Similarly, to build a robust business, you should first invest in educating yourself, take time to build the required skills and systems, and learn from those who are already making a difference.
• Persist, give yourself time, and build a positive mindset. I read somewhere that your mind goes in the direction where your words guide it. So, please feed your brain positive words. My mentor suggested that I listen to the “Strangest Secret in the World” and it has brought about a paradigm shift!

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Conclusion

Although Affiliate Marketing is a $12 billion industry, there are as many as 95% of Affiliates who face failure. According to my experience and knowledge, the following are the top 9 reasons why Affiliates fail to make it huge!

1. Mistake 1 – You Do Not Have a Long-Term Vision: Affiliate Marketers look to promote high commission products looking to earn money at the earliest. Without passion and love for the product, they are doomed to fail. Hence, finalize your niche first and then promote products that you resonate with.
2. Mistake 2 – You Do Not Review Affiliate Links: Many times the affiliate links that you promote may be broken and could send people to the dreaded 404 page. Hence, to ensure that the links are directing users to the appropriate page, Affiliate Marketers should review the affiliate links.
3. Mistake 3 – You Spam Affiliate Links Everywhere: Spamming links is not an ideal way of promoting your products and should be avoided at all costs. If you promote links in every Facebook or WhatsApp group, you are likely to be shown the exit gate.
4. Mistake 4 – You Have No Intention of Helping People: One of the major reasons why Affiliate Marketers fail is they do not help people. My mentor Mr. Siddharth Rajsekar always says, “It’s not about the knowledge that you have, it’s about what problem you can solve.” Always help people and solve their problems. Thirdly, if you are providing courses, give 10x in value. For example, if your course costs ₹5,000/-, then you should provide value worth ₹50,000/-.
5. Mistake 5 – You Do Not Build An Email List: According to my research, Email Marketing has given up to 38x ROI, hence, is going to be your biggest asset. You can use Email Autoresponders to build your list. With an autoresponder, you have a chance to market products multiple times to the same person.
6. Mistake 6 – You Did Not Set-up Systems: Could you build a bungalow without a strong foundation? – Definitely Not! Similarly, if the “bungalow” is your business, the “foundation” will be the systems that make up your business. If you are a beginner, you must have the following systems:
   1. Personal Website
   2. Email Marketing System
   3. Link Tracking System
   4. Funnel System
   5. Webinar System
   6. Learning Management System (for hosting online courses)
7. Mistake 7 – You Do Not Have a Funnel: Usually, inexperienced Affiliate Marketers send the people directly to the product page. As someone who doesn’t know you or the product, it is unlikely that I will purchase it straight away. Therefore, to convince people to buy your product, you should educate them first, tell them about the product, its benefits, refund policy, and so on. In essence, you should craft people’s journey across your website. The journey that you create for the users is a funnel.
8. Mistake 8 – You Do Not Retarget People: If you have every system in place, you are capturing people’s Emails, you have the funnel in place, and so on, but if you are not retargeting or remarketing them, you will lose them forever. An ideal strategy would be to set up your  landing page in a manner in which even if they leave your website, you can communicate with them again. This is called “Remarketing” or “Retargeting”.
9. Mistake 9 – You Give Up Easily: Many beginners fail once and quit. I am sure you would have heard or read, “Rome was not built in a day!” Similarly, to build a robust business, you should first invest in educating yourself, take time to build the required skills and systems, and learn from those who are already making a difference.

Did you find this post helpful? Please comment your biggest takeaway!