In today’s post, I will share the top 6 deadly don’ts of Affiliate Marketing you need to avoid so you save yourself from damaging your reputation, credibility, and trust with your audience.
Decreased trust leads to lower engagement and, consequently, only a handful of sales or commissions.
Additionally, if you commit the “don’ts” I am about to share, you could be removed from affiliate programs. In other words, your affiliate account could get terminated or banned.
So to avoid any potential issues or negative consequences, you should be aware of the following “don’ts” of Affiliate Marketing.
(1) Don’t Expect To Make Commissions Overnight
I will get straight to the point: You will NOT make commissions overnight! Anyone who tells that you can, is lying! There are exceptions, however, and exceptions are not examples.
Every Super Affiliate will agree with me when I say, “Affiliate Marketing is NOT a get ‘rich quick’ scheme.”
There are many who slog for months or even years before generating a sustainable income from Affiliate Marketing.
Talking about myself, I generated my first commission in the 9th month! I had to be patient for 9 months to make my first commission.
If you come across anyone who says you can start earning right away is lying to you! And, you cannot blame yourself for believing them.
Many affiliate platforms and their vendors use an overly-hyped approach that makes you believe that Affiliate Marketing is a “get rich quick” business.
The real Affiliate Marketers out there are working extremely hard to teach you the methods that worked for them in terms of:
- Selecting your niche
- Finding the right product for your audience
- Creating content to provide value
- Marketing to the right audience
- Generating leads, sales, and commissions
- Building trust and credibility in the market
Everything I listed above takes time, effort, and occasionally, a little investment. If Affiliate Marketing were a “get rich quick” scheme, everybody would be earning millions, isn’t it?
But the reality is, 95% of Affiliate Marketers fail and 7 out of 10 earn nothing!
So if you’d like to learn real Affiliate Marketing, you can enrol in my Affiliate Mastery Foundation membership. It usually requires a one-time investment of ₹4,999, but since I am on a mission to help 10,000 people live a life of financial independence, you can grab it for absolutely FREE!
I will conclude this point by adding that Affiliate Marketing is a great way of making income on the Internet, but you’ll need to develop your skills, learn new things, and have an intention of providing solutions to your audience.
(2) Don’t Spam Your Affiliate Links
When I started training beginners in Affiliate Marketing, many of them told me that they blindly posted affiliate links in YouTube comments, Facebook posts, WhatsApp messages, personal messages, and emails because some “guru” told them so.
As the definition of Affiliate Marketing goes, “Affiliate Marketing is the process of promoting someone else’s products and if people buy through your affiliate link, you will make a commission.”
Beginners in Affiliate Marketing feel that spamming links is a promotion strategy. Affiliate Marketing is a serious business and “gurus’ tricks” do not work in the long run.
You might get results once or twice, but if you plan to make spamming your primary marketing strategy, you are inspiring yourself to be a one-campaign wonder.
The top Affiliate Marketers spend hours on content research, content creation, audience research, marketing, targeting, creating and promoting lead magnets, and so on.
And if you’ve been guilty of spamming your links, I’d recommend you read this post where you will find methods for promoting your affiliate links that work.
(3) Don’t Forget To Mention That You Are An Affiliate
Every beginner makes this mistake! You should ALWAYS mention in your content that you are an affiliate of the product(s) that you are promoting and you will make a commission if people buy from your link.
Why should you mention this?
Because the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires Affiliate Marketers to tell their audience that they will get paid if people buy from the link. This is to maintain transparency and honesty in advertising and also to keep your audience informed.
The FTC made it mandatory because your audience should know if you really love and are passionate about the product or if you are promoting it only for commissions.
If you fail to mention that you are an affiliate and that you will make commissions if people buy from your link, it might result in legal issues, such as not disclosing affiliate relationships or making false claims about a product.
It can also lead to fines, legal fees, and even the suspension or termination of an affiliate’s account.
Furthermore, if an affiliate marketer is part of a larger affiliate network or program, repeated mistakes could result in their removal from the program or a decrease in commissions.
Therefore to save yourself from the negative consequences, such as hurting your reputation, credibility, and income, and potentially leading to legal and contractual issues, it is essential to follow the FTC guidelines and tell your audience that you are an affiliate.
(4) Don’t Forget To Utilise Marketing Materials
Many affiliate programs or platforms provide marketing materials – banners, graphics, email messages or text ads – to help you create impactful marketing campaigns.
However, please ensure that you do not copy and paste everything blindly. If you find any marketing material, recreate them in your own words and/or use your brand colours so they are unique to you and/or your website.
Although you know what your audience likes, creating marketing materials to acquire new customers takes time and effort.
Won’t your life become easier if you could get marketing materials that you can utilise to run ads and marketing campaigns?
So when you find a platform or program that provides find high-quality, branded marketing materials, you can utilise them to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.
(5) Don’t Overload Your Website With Banners
Don’t ever load your site with lots of flashing, rotating, blinking banners that make it look like a firework display!
Although there are no limitations on the number of ads that you can display on your website, I’d recommend that you include between 3 and 5 banners.
If you serve ads with little content and no value for your audience, you could violate Google Webmaster guidelines.
According to Google, “Advertising and other paid promotional material added to your pages should not exceed your content. We may limit or disable ad serving on pages with little to no value and/or excessive advertising until changes are made.”
According to my experience, if you overload your website with ads, you could face the following:
- Lower rankings on Google
- Lower Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
- Increased bounce rate
- Lower engagement
If you have been believing that you will generate more commissions by displaying a lot of ads on your website, well, the truth is: The conversions depend on how valuable your content is!
If you provide value to your audience, solve their problems, and help them overcome their challenges, you are likely to maximise your leads, sales, and conversions.
So, as the cliche goes: CONTENT IS KING!
(6) Don’t Give Up!
As I said earlier, “Affiliate Marketing is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme and it’d take a lot of time, effort, and experiments to make a sustainable income.
Every now and then, you will feel:
- Affiliate Marketing is difficult
- Affiliate Marketing is not my cup of tea
- Affiliate Marketing is a scam
- Affiliate Marketing is not going to work for me
- And, so on.
When your mind is overwhelmed with negative thoughts, it is extremely easy to give up! But if you give up too soon, you are definitely not going to succeed!
If you stay only for one more day, you could start seeing progress. Whenever I got thoughts of giving up, I watched the below video and it filled me with inspiration like never before.
I have placed it below for you, so when things get tough, you get tougher!
And, if you are seriously wanting to learn Affiliate Marketing, I am here to help you! A few weeks ago, I launched the Affiliate Mastery Foundation membership. It usually requires a one-time investment of ₹4,999, but since I am on a mission to help 10,000 people live a life of financial independence, you can grab it for absolutely FREE!
I will end this point by saying, “Don’t quit! Success is ahead!” 😊❤️
Conclusion
So those were the don’ts of Affiliate Marketing to save you from damaging your reputation, credibility, and trust with your audience.
Let’s revise them:
- Don’t Expect To Make Commissions Overnight
- Don’t Spam Your Affiliate Links
- Don’t Forget To Mention That You Are An Affiliate
- Don’t Forget To Utilise Marketing Materials
- Don’t Overload Your Website With Banners
- Don’t Give Up!
As a bonus, I would love to give you my premium Affiliate Marketing membership worth ₹4,999 for absolutely FREE!
Click the below button and grab the membership, now!
