When it comes to Affiliate Marketing, there are a lot of folks who totally suck at making money online from it. And if you’re one of them, some of your struggles may or may not be your fault. 😛
But in this article, I’m gonna share with you 6 good reasons why you’re making very little to no affiliate commissions and what you can do to solve your problems, whether you’re a complete noob or you already have some level of digital marketing experience under your belt.
Promoting other people’s stuff on the web can be super-lucrative and also a game that’s a lot of fun at the same time if your strategies are effective.
But what will separate you from the unprofitable affiliates are the “golden nuggets” you’re about to receive in this article.
Sound awesome to you, my friend?
Now, let’s discover the 6 reasons why you currently suck as an affiliate and how you can overcome your failures (or minor setbacks, as I call them) for crushing it on the internet…
Table of Contents
#1 Learning From a “Fake” or The Wrong Course
Hiring the wrong mentor or joining the wrong training course is a recipe for disaster from the very beginning.
Unluckily, there are many so-called experts and “Gurus” claiming they know the secret loopholes for huge success and will gladly share them with you through their costly mentorship products.
In reality, there are no loopholes. These types of people are simply exploiting you for a quick buck in their own pockets.
Secondly, be careful of shoddy training sites because, in this day and age, there are numerous programs providing you with outdated tutorials and ineffective tools that are highly likely to contribute towards your failures than successes.
Quite often, these sites also convince you to purchase unnecessary monthly upsells or ‘One Time Offers’ for the purpose of taking you for a ride.
TIP: Before buying into any mentorship package or affiliate training platform, use Google for research. Always search for reviews and scam complaints to get a bigger picture of the individual/site.
Two additional free awesome resources for your research are the Warrior Forum and the Quora Q&A site. Due Diligence is the key here.
Need further help with finding the right step-by-step training, tools, and 24/7 support for building a successful affiliate marketing biz from scratch?…
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#2 You’ve Forgotten The BIGGER Picture
Many affiliate newbies always make the same mistake of putting “money” and their own best interests first.
They transform into salespeople and try desperately to sell affiliate products and services to any Tom, Dick, and Harry who crosses their path online.
If you’re guilty of this, then stop right now!
People absolutely hate being sold to on the internet, and they’re certainly gonna make a dash for it if you’re ramming products down their throats.
TIP: Your job as an affiliate marketer is to “help” people with problems. Whatever your niche is, be the approachable expert who folks look up to for answers to their questions.
Only when you prove yourself trustworthy, will you succeed at making commissions. Best practice? Learn how to build a free website and brand yourself.
#3 Making Flawed Assumptions
Unfortunately, newbies approach affiliate marketing from the wrong angles – assuming quick and easy businesses are gonna be built, and 5-6 figure incomes will come flooding in over the course of a few weeks or months.
These are some of the main assumptions, but there are plenty more. So scrap the idea of “getting rich quickly” on the web because it’s never gonna happen!
However, with the circulation of fluff and hype, I can understand why noobs would assume that the path to internet wealth is a simple and speedy one. From my own experiences, it’s not, I’m afraid.
TIP: Never assume anything when it comes to making money online from affiliate marketing because you’ll feel like a huge disappointment when it all goes pear-shaped and your dreams are flushed down the lavatory.
Online businesses are built brick by brick and take time to develop. Set some realistic goals, design an online biz plan, learn the effective strategies for biz growth, work very hard at helping peeps, and have patience.
#4 You’re Following The Wrong Crowd
If you’re following the wrong type of marketers on social media or other platforms and “duplicating” their actions, you’re being led down the garden path.
These are the kinds of people who think it’s perfectly acceptable to “spam” their way to success and also implement other seedy tactics for earning an income. It doesn’t work!
In addition, there’s a second group of individuals I’m classing as the “wrong people”, and they are the naysayers offline who have very little faith and very few ambitions.
They will talk you out of affiliate marketing and anything great that you want to accomplish in life from it. People without dreams and goals become stuck, unhappy, and broke. Don’t lower yourself to their situations.
Tip: Follow and be influenced by only the successful marketers who are using the correct strategies for building their online businesses, rub shoulders, and learn as much as you possibly can.
When it comes to the cynical “dream stealers”, disassociate yourself from them if possible and only associate with the positive ambitious people because they will lift you up to higher ground.
Be the person and marketer who shines bright, not the one who’s unsuccessful and blends in with the wrong crowd of people.
#5 NO Data Being Measured
How can you succeed at any online strategy if you’re not measuring your data, huh?
If no website or affiliate offer visitors, clicks, conversions, and commissions are recorded – how will you ever know which of your strategies are the most effective and which don’t produce a single dime?
The answer is, you won’t have a clue!
To become highly successful, you need data in front of your eyeballs to see what methods are producing the most amount of money and also which ones need tweaking for more effective results.
Without the right stats, you’re building a biz in the dark.
TIP: If you have a niche blog, I highly recommend you install Google Analytics for all the important website traffic stats you require. In addition, use tracking software for recording hits and sales conversations.
If you really wanna do things old school style, you should also grab a notebook and pen, and jot down the strategies you implement and the results produced each day. Keep track of everything!
#6 You’re Over-Excited
It’s one thing to be excited about your online business which is only natural for any affiliate marketer. But when you’re “too excited”, now there’s a different story to be told.
When you go way over the top (OTT) with your online business, you’re like a bull in a china shop, doing this, that and the other, spreading yourself too thinly on the internet as quickly as possible, etc.
In a nutshell: You create multiple websites, join numerous affiliate programs, and promote as many affiliate offers across a number of different platforms as you can.
Approaching the internet this way will not only result in physical burnout, but it’s mentally draining, and you will fail as an affiliate. I’ve been there myself, and I know of other affiliates who have too. It’s a disaster!
Tip: Rather than going in with all guns blazing, take it slow and focus your energy on one aspect of digital marketing at a time.
Make a daily/weekly plan and break down your tasks into small digestible chunks. Steadily build your online biz step-by-step, and you’ll become a successful affiliate on the web.
My Final Thoughts on The Subject…
There are many reasons why you could be failing at building a successful affiliate marketing business and earning a full-time income, but the 6 I’ve highlighted are some of the main ones that hold most folks back from crushing it and accomplishing their goals.
These will give you some insights into why you may suck 😛 lol.
If you follow the tips and take my advice on board for overcoming your obstacles as an online business owner, there’s no reason why you can’t be a highly profitable affiliate in your niche market.
From my experiences as a marketer – when you gain access to the right training platform (that also provides tools and support), focus on the bigger picture, make no assumptions, follow and learn from the right people, monitor your results, approach your biz level-headed, and work hard every day…
YOU WILL SUCCEED.
Don’t know how to get started off on the right foot?
No problem…
==> Click Here to Start Your Affiliate Biz Free <==
Your Friend, Neil 😀
(My Thanks goes to Chris Luck ‘founder of this program here‘ for the ideas within this article).
What’s been holding you back from making money online with affiliate marketing? We’d LOVE to hear your thoughts below…
Hi Neil,
That was awesome! I actually committed a few of these errors myself before I found what evidently is a top quality training program.
The difference? less sporadic sales that were down to potluck (and spamming) and more consistency of results and zero spamming social media! Solid SEO base for sustainability.
Great read…even found myself checking my stats on WMT halfway through…
Hello, Derek!
Cheers, man! 🙂 I think all of us affiliate marketers have suffered from one form of failure or another on the web. But at least our failures help with laying out a roadmap to success eventually.
I’m glad to hear you’ve found your feet with affiliate marketing, and it does make such a huge positive difference in your online biz when you get the right affiliate training that works.
Thanks very much! Good on ya for monitoring your online business progress!
Hi Neil,
Your reasons are very real troubles that affiliate marketers go through. At the beginning, when there is no traffic after 3 months, they blame themselves.
Patience and the right mindset are 2 of the most important skills to have as an affiliate marketer. Learning from the right people is really important, and Wealthy Affiliate can certainly help you with that!
Cheers.
Hey, Greg!
Unfortunately, newbie affiliates don’t always know they’re making huge mistakes and still continue with their ineffective strategies. And before they know it, they’re completely lost in the woods. I do agree that being patient enough and adopting the correct mindset with your efforts are also the keys to success. Unfortunately, there are affiliates who give up on the 1-yard line because they assume success is never gonna happen.
When you have the right mentor/training as an affiliate, doors will start to open up. 🙂
Great stuff here Neil! You’ve really written down all the right mindsets that anyone wanting to become a successful affiliate marketer or anything in life for the matter.
I’ve been bogged down by some of the symptoms you’ve listed above Neil. Scared, laziness, feeling of insecurity are some of the emotions that I had when I first started out with affiliate marketing, and those things are still there.
But what I’ve always kept the mantra “just do it!” When things seem too hard (or when I’m being lazy lol!). Stop thinking too much and just do it!
Cheers, Isaac!
There are other aspects to bear in mind when it comes to succeeding as an affiliate, but I think it’s important for novices to understand some of the main reasons for failure, so they can learn from their mistakes and move forward. And as you say, the points in this post can also be applied to life in general.
When you’re starting out as an affiliate marketer, I guess it’s only natural to go through negative experiences. I agree with you – Just work hard every day, keep expanding your comfort zone, and you will see positive results in not only your affiliate marketing business but also in yourself. Continued action and growth will bring you success.