What’s the truth about why affiliate marketing does not work? Affiliate marketing is a performance based business model in which affiliates get rewarded for referrals. You don’t need a product to become an affiliate, or even to deal with any customers.
That’s why affiliate marketing is so attractive. Anyone can do it from anywhere in the world! All you need is a laptop and internet connection. But despite this many affiliates fail to make any money out of the business model. In fact, only something like 5% of affiliates continue long enough to make it work. The affiliate marketing failure rate is huge. But why? Many people look to affiliate marketing as an easy escape for their 9 to 5 jobs. There’s several problems with this which stops people from succeeding:
- They assume it’s going to be easy, incorrectly
- They are employees and not entrepreneurs and therefore don’t have the necessary mindsets needed to succeed in business (see affiliate marketing mindset)
- Friends and relatives are of a similar mindset and don’t help them, in fact they will most likely encourage them to quit instead.
- Most people are impatient and desperate to earn money instantly, so they get frustrated and quit
- It’s easier to quit than to keep going unless you have a huge reason to succeed
- They don’t get the help and support they need
- Financial limitations stop them from investing in their growth and in training and software which will help their online earnings grow.
Why Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work – Impatience
For some reason, many people think affiliate marketing is some dream business in which they swan around in their pyjamas all day, browsing social media and chatting with their friends! No wonder so many people don’t succeed with it!
Affiliate marketing is a business, and like any other business it requires hard work and persistence. But because it’s so easy to “give it a go”, and nearly anyone can do just that, there’s a huge drop out rate. When people discover that it’s not a “push button” system, which does all the work for them, they give up!
I was in the same camp when I started affiliate marketing back in the early 2000’s. I bought many courses and tried everything. If I hadn’t really needed it, I would have quit too! I built hundreds of websites, had my advertising accounts shut down, tried numerous courses and tactics, and still failed to make consistent sales.
Difficulties
After all of that, I would make a single online commission of $40! Months of work for $40! Nobody is going to sustain this amount of effort for such little reward unless they see the bigger picture. Especially if they need an income immediately, to feed their family and pay their bills!
Affiliate marketing doesn’t work in many cases simply because it doesn’t meet an immediate need for income. But, if you stick at it for the longer term, and overcome your need for immediate gratification, it can give you so much more than just an income. This is the bigger picture most don’t see about affiliate marketing.
Over decades in a job you despise, you eventually see the need to escape. But after those decades you have become more obsolete in any other role. Plus, you have become dependent on your income. Given these circumstances, someone will do anything to escape. But for those not in this kind of situation, shorter term results are what is required. Unfortunately, this might not happen in affiliate marketing. So many move on and never realise the goal of building a passive income from affiliate marketing.
Why Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work – Wrong Marketing Strategy
There’s another reason why affiliate marketing does not work. I chose the wrong marketing strategy with affiliate marketing when I started. I promoted cheap products using slow, cheap marketing strategies.
My strategies were cheap because I had no money to invest. And so my journey was much longer than someone with a marketing budget and a high ticket product offer. Instead, I promote books from Amazon, and other low value items because I didn’t know any different. Amazon pays ridiculously low commissions (from 1% to 11%).
Organic marketing strategies can take months or years to generate traction, unlike paid marketing strategies which can give you instant feedback. Even when my blogs and videos found a customer, I would earn only tiny amounts from each sale because I chose the wrong products to promote!
Why Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work – Wrong Business Model
There’s more than one business model within affiliate marketing. Different affiliate marketing business models pay differing amounts of commission. Amazon affiliate program pays some of the lowest in the industry. Physical products tend to pay less than digital products. With a digital affiliate product you can earn 40-60% commission, compared with 1-11% commission offered by Amazon’s partner program.
So if you have chosen to promote physical products with organic marketing methods, you could have a very long road before you see any results from affiliate marketing. On the other hand, if you choose high ticket products and subscription affiliate programs, you can see a recurring income quite quickly, especially if you choose to use paid marketing strategies to build your business.
With low value physical products, it’s so much harder to use paid marketing and still turn a profit. But with a high valued product range, this is much more attainable.
Knowing How Affiliate Marketing Works
Knowing how affiliate marketing works prepares you for it. With the right mindset and attitude, anyone can succeed with affiliate marketing. Unfortunately for those who jump in and get started without any knowledge, there’s a long learning curve. Once you realise that affiliate marketing requires a huge effort, you’re already disappointed with your results!
To be forewarned is to be forearmed! Affiliate marketing isn’t easy. You need to keep at it and learn and grow. Results don’t come easily. But if you keep your eye on the big picture, maintain a positive outlook and choose to never quit, you can make it work!
For most people looking for a quick income alternative, the long arduous road just isn’t worth the effort. Especially after several months of work with nothing to show.
But if you understand how affiliate marketing works, and see that your previous efforts can be multiplied quickly, you’re much more likely to stick the course.
The Chinese Bamboo Tree Analogy
I like the Chinese bamboo analogy because it relates well to affiliate marketing. The Chinese bamboo requires a gestation period of up to five years. For five whole years a bamboo shows no growth. It needs watering and feeding under the soil.
If you had a bamboo plant, and it showed no promise for 5 years, you would likely have thrown it out, assuming it was dead! But if you knew what the plant was like, you’d keep at it!
But once the gestation period is over, and the plant breaks the soil surface, the Chinese bamboo tree can grow 90 feet tall in 5 weeks!
Wrong Mindset
Many people come into affiliate marketing with an employee mindset, looking for a way to earn an income and escape their 9 to 5 job. But since employees are paid for their time, and affiliate marketers are paid performance related commissions, there’s a massive disparity.
Affiliate marketers don’t get paid for their time! They get paid for their results! In the beginning, you’re learning more than you’re doing. So it can take several weeks of study, just to get off the starting blocks with affiliate marketing. If you’re juggling a 9 to 5 and family obligations this leaves little time for building your online business. So it can take months before you break through and see any results, depending on the activities you focus on.
With the right mindset, and a long term approach, this isn’t a problem. But if you expect to earn from your affiliate efforts and it doesn’t happen this can be damaging to your belief in what you’re doing. See affiliate marketing mindset.
Belief
When I first started learning affiliate marketing, a lot of people tried to dissuade me from doing it. Well meaning friends and relatives told me affiliate marketing was a scam! Even though they knew nothing of it themselves! If your belief is hampered, it’s much easier to quit. Knowing affiliate marketing doesn’t work is a sure fire way to guarantee failure. You can’t work on a business you don’t believe in. In the words of Henry Ford “whether a man believes he can or he can’t, he’s right”!
Unless you have belief in your affiliate marketing business which is unrelenting, you’ll dawdle and your results will dwindle! Unless you can fire up your enthusiasm throughout the difficult times, when you’re not making money, when nothing seems to be working, the odds are good that eventually you’ll begin to feel as though it’s really not going to work.
To be successful as an affiliate requires you to keep believing in it, and keep moving forwards. Being part of a community can help with this. Access a free video series here to learn more.