Are you an Affiliate Marketer who follows trends and goes with the flow? Are you hesitant to try new things and experiment? Do you ever question anything you read or heard?
If you answered yes to the above question, then you are suffering from “Following The Herd” syndrome.
Although it is quite common to see what other Affiliate Marketers are doing and blindly follow them to avoid being an outcast, not everything they do is right for you! Many Affiliate Marketers think that if many people are doing something, it must be right! Well – surprise, surprise – it isn’t!
Yes, there are things that you need to follow, such as creating valuable and high-quality content, generating leads, driving sales, etc., but with other things, you should not blindly do what others are doing.
When it comes to figuring out the strategy for your Affiliate Marketing business, you should think about whether following others is the best way forward or you should introspect and come up with your strategies and plans.
To help you out, I will share the 3 steps that will help you establish your unique positioning and avoid following the herd.
Step 1: Pause & Think
It is extremely easy to do the things other Affiliate Marketers are doing. It doesn’t require much thinking, planning, strategising, and execution on your part.
But, when you have to make crucial business decisions, you should pause, take a deep breath and carefully think about all the options available. For example, other Affiliate Marketers could be generating traffic from Facebook and maybe Facebook doesn’t work for you. So, stop and think about the other sources of traffic that you can target.
Unless you are in a building blazing with fire where you must follow others to the closest exit, it is wise and recommended to stop and think about the possibilities and options. I know hard work is painful, but this effort will result in a better decision.
Step 2: Find Information
The main reason why Affiliate Marketers follow the herd is a lack of information and knowledge. If you are a beginner, I suggest you put in the effort to research information, find statistics, facts, and reports, and identify your goals. This, in turn, will help you better analyse a particular situation.
For example, if you discover that a particular tool or technique is not good for you, then following other Affiliate Marketers will be nothing more than a howler.
Step 3: Seek Out Multiple Perspectives
A one-sided approach to things usually results in bad decision-making that could be damaging for your Affiliate Marketing business. Hence, it is crucial to assess the options from various angles.
You could apply this to listening and following other Affiliate Marketers. Although you might feel that if everyone is doing something, it is the best, you will discover with careful thought and analysis that it may not be the best thing for your business, okay?
Before you follow someone blindly like a mechanical hamster, you could research and discover other methods and techniques that hardly anybody is doing – but they work!
I know following the herd is the easiest of choices to make when you see no ray of light, but this desire to do what others are doing may weaken your ability to make good decisions. So instead of letting people decide what you should do, take some time to introspect and find if the decision you made is truly yours or influenced by some “guru” or “expert”.
More often than not, the most popular “trick” is not always the right one and you must have the courage to do what you feel!
Affiliate Disclosure
I, Shubhamjeet Kumar, participate in various affiliate programs, and I will earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through the links on this page at no extra cost to you. I have worked hard to put together items that are high-end and helpful.
Why You Must Stop Following The Herd?
Reason 1: You Would Hate Your Life!
One simple reason I could think of for not following the herd is that if you do what other Affiliate Marketers do, you will end up in a place that you do not want to be!
If you care about what people say, don’t say, and think about yourself, you will live a life that you will hate! Yet what others say determines 99.99% of human life!
Reason 2: Affiliate Marketers Are Scared
I will put forth this point with a story.
Once upon a time, a family camped near a spring. Seeing them, the second family camped near them. Seeing two families camped near the spring, the third family camped near the spring. This went on for some time and by sunset, 20 families had camped near that spring!
This story from John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, depicts the reality of human nature. This story reminds us that in uncertain times, people are scared and when they are scared, they rely on others to help and guide them.
Affiliate Marketing is a lonely journey and it takes a lot of time to get noticeable results. There might be times when you could leave your ethical ways and follow the “tricks” shared by some guru or expert, especially when you do not get results.
But when you follow the herd blindly for a long time, you get lazy and instead of using your brain to make decisions, you follow what other Affiliate Marketers are doing.
Reason 3: Others Are Not Always Right
I will like to share another example shared by Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale. Suppose two restaurants open next door to each other:
- Restaurant A – which looks royal but provides substandard food
- Restaurant B – which looks simple but provides delicious food
The first customer sees two empty restaurants and chooses Restaurant A due to its royal appearance.
Now, the second customer notices one person eating at Restaurant A and an empty Restaurant B. The second customer makes their choice based on two things:
- The appearance of each restaurant – based on their information
- A customer is eating at Restaurant A – that is external information
Now, when the third sees two people eating at Restaurant A and an empty restaurant B, where do you think they will go?
Restaurant A, isn’t it?
As people continue following the herd, they prompt others to do the same. Eventually, in the restaurant example, each customer will end up at Restaurant A which provided substandard food.
From the above example, Affiliate Marketers should learn that following the herd is not always the best option and they must find information about what works and what is right.
Conclusion
Are you an Affiliate Marketer who follows trends and goes with the flow? Are you hesitant to try new things and experiment? Do you ever question anything you read or heard?
If you answered yes to the above question, then you are suffering from “Following The Herd” syndrome.
Although it is quite common to see what other Affiliate Marketers are doing and blindly follow them to avoid being an outcast, not everything they do is right for you! Many Affiliate Marketers think that if many people are doing something, it must be right! Well – surprise, surprise – it isn’t!
Your reliance upon the herd plants the seeds which will influence the products you promote, the content you create, or even the ad campaigns you run. The solution is not to avoid all external information, rather the idea is to become more aware of the information you’re using to make decisions, especially when you’re observing what other people are doing.
Following the herd does not mean bad or horrific, however, your over-reliance on the herd prompts ignorance and distorts the information you use to make decisions.
