What is most important in affiliate marketing, is it techniques or mindset? When I was just starting out as an affiliate, all I wanted to know is ‘how’ to do it: how do I get sales online? As time has passed, I’ve come to understand how important mindset is for success with affiliate marketing. I tried many tactics to actually sell affiliate products, but many of them didn’t work, at least not straight away.
This is where your mindset comes into play. Without the right mindset, you’ll try a tactic, it will fail and you’ll assume (wrongly) that affiliate marketing doesn’t work. Many affiliates will throw the baby out with the bathwater here, and lump ‘affiliate marketing’ in with their tactic (which didn’t work) and their mindset (when they gave up). “It doesn’t work” they declare! In fact around 95% of affiliates will quit.
The ones who don’t quit, and look at their “failures” as an opportunity to start again with more wisdom, have the right mindset. So you can see that techniques aren’t the most important thing when it comes to affiliate marketing; mindset is.
Affiliate Marketing: Techniques Versus Mindset
Of course you need a technique in order to get your affiliate links in front of customers. But any given technique will bring about at least some challenges. With organic marketing, for example, your first blog post isn’t necessarily going to bring home the bacon.
Paid marketing too will definitely throw you some curveballs and most advertising campaigns won’t work on your first try. On a recent video one member of the community I’m a part of shot over 60 videos before he hit a winner! While some affiliates can get lucky and find a strategy that works quite quickly, most aren’t going to find this. I personally tried various strategies before I found one which worked for me.
Different strategies will suit different people too. If you’re working full time, you probably don’t have a lot of time for content creation, for example. So paid marketing is likely to be a better option for you. But whatever method you choose as a promotional tool for affiliate marketing, a “never say die” mentality is going to help you overcome the obstacles you’re likely to face on your journey.
Affiliate Marketing: Techniques Versus Mindset – Growth Mindset
Having a growth mindset means you can always learn some new skills and get better. With a limited mindset, you’re more likely to throw up your hands and quit. Affiliate marketing is a tough business and unless you make a sale, you don’t make any money. Initially there’s going to be some hurdles to overcome but over time your experience will help you choose the best course of action.
This is much more difficult when you’re new to affiliate marketing because you have no experience to draw from. As a result of this, your results can be slow and intermittent. You can spend a huge amount of time implementing a certain technique to no avail. This can be frustrating and disheartening when you’ve worked really hard but have no actual sales to show for it.
Don’t quit! Keep going, no matter how slowly. As you gain experience in affiliate marketing, you results can rapidly grow exponentially. Here’s why…
Why Results Grow With Experience
In the beginning you’ll likely be making lots of mistakes and learning the ropes as they say. But over time you’ll gain some understanding. Don’t stop learning because it is your own personal experience which is the most valuable thing with affiliate marketing. However much theory you learn, it’s never a match for personal experience; running ad campaigns, testing sales funnels, building content and so on.
The longer you can “stay in the game” the more experience you’ll accumulate. At some stage you’ll make a sale, or find a winning campaign. This becomes easier with time for two good reasons:
- Firstly you’re experience shows you where your time is best spent – making you more efficient
- Secondly, you accumulate data and traffic. With an email list for example, the longer you build it, the more people you have to sell to.
Therefore, results can compound later on in affiliate marketing if you stay the course.
Frustrated With Your “Tactic”
If you’re frustrated with your marketing “tactic”, perhaps you haven’t mastered it yet. What leads someone to master a tactic is a good mindset. Or, perhaps you expect too much from what you’re doing, expecting a lot from a little effort? A good mindset will carry you through the difficulties and help you overcome the obstacles.
If you aren’t aware of your limiting beliefs/ideas, any entitlement you’re carrying, or you expect an easy return on your efforts, you’re likely to keep running into problems and frustrations. Once you can shine the light of awareness on these issues (you may be carrying), you can change your behaviour and turn things around.
A Big “Why?” & Controlling Your State
In my early years as an affiliate marketer I experienced setback after setback. It’s a miracle I stuck with it as long as I did! The one thing which kept me going was an excitement and passion for what affiliate marketing can do for not just me but for anyone – it can set you free both financially and geographically. But for me, the biggest reason was so I could be independent of a job or a boss.
It’s important to remember your reasons for building an online business. When you hit a setback, which you definitely will, you’ll be much more resilient if you have a strong reason to continue. If you’re just doing it as a “side gig” and don’t really need/want it, you’re much more likely to quit.
Knowing your “why”, becoming aware of your limiting beliefs, and shining a light on any attitudes you carry which hold you back is part of a growth mindset. These “awarenesses” are just as important (if not more) than a strategy to drive sales in your affiliate marketing business. Controlling your inner state is also an important skill too.
When you lose your cool and want to throw your laptop through the window, this can lead to quitting as a beginner. Over time, if you stick with it, you’ll learn to know when to step away and maintain your most productive inner state for the growth of your business.
Affiliate Marketing: Techniques Versus Mindset
There’s many ways to promote affiliate products and not all of them are going to work for you. But stick with one for long enough and at some point you should see some sales (depending of course on what you do). Still, nothing is guaranteed in affiliate marketing. But if you quit, you’re guaranteed not to make any sales! How long you stick at something which isn’t working is going to depend on a number of things:
- Your belief and confidence in your marketing strategy
- The training you received and trust you have in your mentor/coach
- Your mindset – how long you can endure “failure” without quitting
- Your understanding of your marketing method, and how much you can learn from it through your efforts over time
When you focus only on a technique, it’s easy to blame your tactic when things don’t work out. But if you focus on personal growth and your technique, getting clearer on your tactic, more productive and limiting negative state of mind which will inevitably surface, you are much more likely to succeed with affiliate marketing.
Summary
I haven’t covered any marketing techniques within this article but I have written a lot about marketing strategies before. If you’re looking for a strategy, type your tactic into the search bar to find previous posts on different marketing tactics for affiliates. Or read my article 22 ways to promote affiliate products.
As a beginner, I was solely concerned with marketing tactics. I just wanted something that “worked” so I could make an income online. I didn’t understand the importance of having and nurturing the correct mindset for success online. So I just went through the motions with my tactics and had frustration after frustration. If this sounds familiar, check out my post on what to do when your affiliate business isn’t working.
The answer is to look after your mindset as well as focusing on a tactic. Set goals and intentions and do the inner work too. If you can be consistent with your actions in affiliate marketing you’ll have much greater success than if you dip in and out, give up and then return later. Long term consistency trumps short term intensity.
For more information and to get regular emails to help you with your affiliate marketing business, join my email list on this website. For training and support click here.
One thought on “Affiliate Marketing: Techniques Versus Mindset”
Comments are closed.