What are the do’s and don’ts of affiliate marketing? There’s many ways to do affiliate marketing but some ways are definitely more effective than others. Before I had much success as an affiliate I tried a number of strategies which didn’t work very well.
I sold products which hardly paid me andI built websites which didn’t get any traffic. I jumped from one thing to another, looking for the “easy” path. But none of it worked. It wasn’t until I got the right help and support that things changed.
In this post, I’ll share some of the affiliate marketing do’s and don’ts which I think have helped me the most on the affiliate journey.
Do’s And Don’ts Of Affiliate Marketing: Do Get Help
So my first “do” is to get help and support and even though there’s a hundred affiliates claiming that their’s is the “best” whatever, not every program is alike. I jumped from one program to another, many of which are no longer operating. But affiliate marketing is much more difficult alone, so whatever program you join, it’s always worth getting some kind of training and support.
Ideally find a program which offers a community of other like minded individuals who’s expertise you can tap into. (There’s one on this website – just sign up to my email list).
If you go it alone, you’ll have to trawl through numerous YouTube videos, many of which will be offering up conflicting advice. Access an online community and training resource here.
Do’s And Don’ts Of Affiliate Marketing – Do Build An Email List
I struggled for some time before I understood the power of email marketing. Without an email list you’re stuck trying to send traffic directly to an offer. This can be costly if you’re using paid marketing and also wasteful – since most traffic won’t buy. If you’re building content, it’s going to take time and most of your website traffic will leave without having taken any action.
With an email list, you can extend the time period with which someone can make a buying decision. On a website, most are gone within a few minutes. But once on your email list you can send out information and build a longer term relationship over months and even years. Get an email autoresponder for free here.
Do’s And Don’ts Of Affiliate Marketing – Don’t Send Paid Traffic To A Website
Using this same logic, it’s a good idea to send paid traffic to a landing page, rather than a website. If you are sending paid traffic to a website, unless you’re doing it very cheaply, and even so, you’re much better off sending traffic to a landing page.
Why use landing pages? A landing page is specifically designed to capture your visitor’s email address. Although not everyone who lands on the page will opt in, once you do capture their email, you’ve got a greater chance of converting them to a customer.
Since paid marketing is expensive, it’s well worth doing this. Get a landing page builder software here. With a landing page, you can test and measure and optimise for performance. This can help you get your cost per lead right down and your profits up. It’s much more difficult doing this on a website because there’s so many choices for your visitors. On a landing page, there’s only 2: sign up or leave.
Don’t Rely On Low Paying Affiliate Products
Low paying affiliate programs, such as Amazon’s, can pay affiliates as little as 1% commission! 1%! With low value products you’re going to need to sell a huge number of items to make your affiliate business profitable.
So although this kind of program can allow you to sell a variety of products, and is well trusted, it’s not the most profitable business model. Digital products pay much more than physical products (30%-40%) so they are going to be more profitable even with fewer sales. There’s also high ticket affiliate marketing products you can consider and subscription affiliate programs which pay you a recurring commission for each sale.
Amazon also has a bad rep when it comes to affiliates and it often slashes affiliates’ ability to earn. When I started out as an affiliate I use eBay and Amazon but both paid peanuts when I eventually made a sale.
Do Use High Ticket Products & Subscription Products
While Amazon can help you subsidise your income as an affiliate, it may not be the best way to earn online. Commissions are way higher with high ticket affiliate products and subscription affiliate programs. With a subscription sale, you can earn every month for the life of a customer. So a sale can bring in an income, rather than a one-off commission.
Good subscription products, such as business tools and software will likely be maintained by the customer. If so, you could be making lifetime commissions from making those sales. With business essentials such as email autoresponders and data tracking products, for example, a profitable business will definitely keep their subscription going if these tools are essential for online success.
Don’t Expect Overnight Success
While there are many affiliates who do incredibly well, their success comes after a lot of work and time invested. They build email lists into the hundreds of thousands of subscribers and promote high valued and subscription products to their subscribers.
Over time, and through learning marketing strategies, you can create huge financial success with an affiliate business. But many affiliates quit even before they make their first sale online. In fact, the success rate for affiliates is very low – around 5%. This means around 95% of affiliates drop out. Make sure you’re not one of them by staying focused and motivated even when things are tough.
“Overnight success” comes often after many months or even years of hard work. So don’t expect too much too soon. It takes time to build an online business but it’s worth the effort if you want to escape the 9 to 5!
Don’t Expect Huge Traffic From A New Blog
Don’t expect a huge amount of traffic if you’re going after organic traffic from a blog or a YouTube channel. It can take a long amount of time and effort before you can attract website traffic organically.
Paid marketing is far faster and more scalable. There’s over 600 million blogs on the internet and around 51 million YouTube channels which means whatever niche you’re in, there’s going to be some competition. In a popular niche, expect to work for longer.
See also PPC vs organic marketing.
This website has over 700 blog posts on it now but it’s taken a long time and huge effort to start generating regular traffic to it organically – partly because affiliate marketing is such a competitive niche.
Do Learn From Your “Failures”
Without “failures” in affiliate marketing there can be no successes. Failures are really only learnings and unless you step into the unknown frequently, you’re never going to learn anything. All the affiliate marketing theory in the world won’t help you when it comes to affiliate marketing. You need to get your hands dirty and try a few things. Most of them don’t work! But see this as feedback rather than a failure.
Keep trying things and make a habit out of taking small daily steps with your affiliate business, however you’re feeling. Make sure you track everything and when you do make your first sale, you can see where it came from and repeat it without too much trouble. This is where you’ll gain traction. But without the initial effort, you won’t get to this stage at all.
If you’re ready to start, access a training resource here.