Why do people fail in affiliate marketing? Despite affiliate marketing being one of the simplest business models available, around 95% of affiliates fail. But why? There’s a few reasons why affiliate marketers fail. For starters it has a very low bar to entry.
Pretty much anyone with a laptop can become an affiliate, providing they have an internet connection. There’s very little cost involved in getting started which means more people are getting involved all the time.
With a traditional business there are much larger overheads involved and you need a physical business premises, equipment, staff and advertising to name just a few. All of this acts as a huge barrier to entry. A Franchise for example requires a huge investment, just to buy the rights to sell something.
But with affiliate marketing you can join a program for free, and use many methods to promote your affiliate links; even free ones! This makes it attractive to anyone globally who wants to make an income from the internet; that’s a lot of people! That also means there’s a lot of competition from other affiliates who are selling the same products as you!
But that’s just the start of the problem for affiliate marketers. Let’s have a look at some of the other reasons why affiliate marketing doesn’t work for the majority of people who try it.
Why Do People Fail In Affiliate Marketing: Expectations
Nearly anyone can join an affiliate program for free and start promoting their affiliate link. In such a market, consumers become more sceptical and are all the more cautious of online sales people.
When there’s multiple people selling the same things it’s more difficult for individual to get their share of the market.
When you couple this problem with the high expectations of new affiliates, you start to see why 95% of affiliate will quit. Why do new affiliates have high expectations? – Other affiliates selling their training courses! If I told you affiliate marketing was almost impossible to make money with, would you try it and buy my course? Of course not, I’ve just told you it’s not worth your time!
Affiliates selling courses may exaggerate the ease with which you can earn money. Despite new regulations and clear disclaimers being required legally, the idea of earning “easy money” with affiliate marketing is still a huge motivation. When entry requirements to start are so low, why wouldn’t you jump on board? Sadly though the high expectations of earning with affiliate marketing soon turns into disappointment. When the reality doesn’t match the fantasy, most will quit within a short time frame.
Why Do People Fail In Affiliate Marketing? Jobs Vs. Entrepreneurship
An affiliate marketer is essentially an entrepreneur who is out on their own trying to make money selling. When they don’t sell, they don’t make any money; any!
Since most people who attempt affiliate marketing are coming from an employee background, they don’t have the required skills or mindsets to make a success of entrepreneurialism.
For most people working a 60 hour week results in a pay packet of some kind for their work. But in business, (and especially in affiliate marketing), you can work longer than that and still get nothing in return financially.
That’s a hard pill to swallow especially if your expectations don’t match the reality.
But if you can understand that affiliate marketing is a long term business, which requires constant input for only small outcomes (initially), you’re more likely to stay the course and come out on top!
Why Do People Fail In Affiliate Marketing: Lack Of Knowledge
People also fail in affiliate marketing because they don’t know the business. They might get some small insight of knowledge and head off with high hopes doing the wrong kinds of activities. For example, it can be easy to think a few blog posts will result in a nice income from selling affiliate products. But the reality is quite different. In truth if your sole focus is blogging, it can take months or even years of work just to make one or two sales. Most people simply don’t want to maintain this amount of work for such small gains.
There are of course faster ways to build an affiliate business; using paid marketing and building an email list, for example. But the faster methods require more investment in advertising. Still, nothing is guaranteed and even throwing money at the problem doesn’t ever guarantee you will succeed.
The odds are dramatically stacked against you when you’re working with the wrong knowledge, or even if you lack understanding. Even with personal help and support, affiliate marketing is tough. Going it alone makes it more difficult still, added with the very likely possibility that you’ll find yourself down a rabbit hole wasting time (and money).
Why Do People Fail In Affiliate Marketing: Shiny Object Syndrome
Once you start out affiliate marketing, you’ll likely sign up to many email lists to get more information. This results in you being inundated with emails and marketing messages which ultimately lead you to the many courses and products which marketers want you to buy!
You can easily spend a few weeks or even months working through the videos and step by step instructions on any given affiliate course. This learning curve is necessary but it’s also necessary to start some productive action as soon as possible. Otherwise you risk falling into the trap of being a perpetual learner!
Getting stuck in learning mode is a trap and although it can be additive going through video after video, it doesn’t make you any sales!
Likewise, you can finish one course and jump to another “shiny object”, which promises more than the last! The true learning in affiliate marketing is through trial and error which feels like many failures but in fact is part of the learning process. If you don’t take any action at all, you’ll never learn from your mistakes!
The Wrong Marketing Strategy
There’s so many ways to sell affiliate products online that it can be tough to decide on your marketing method. When you do, it can be tough getting traction. Far easier to jump on another course than go through the motions of learning a marketing strategy with all it’s pitfalls and disappointments! Here’s a few of the most common strategies used by affiliates:
- Blogging
- Video Blogging
- PPC – pay per click advertising
- Email marketing – build an email list of subscribers
- SEO – search engine optimisation – used by bloggers and content creators
- Social media platforms
Your marketing strategy might be determined by your business model and your budget. The different affiliate marketing business models will have a say in whether your marketing method is a viable one. For example, with low value products, it’s much more difficult making profit by running paid ads because the margin is so low. With a high ticket affiliate program or product, this is much more attainable.
Different marketing strategies and budgets will offer different timelines to success too! A high ticket program can give you a return much more quickly if you’re using paid marketing, for example than a low value product being sold off a blog. While blogging is a cheap way to advertise, this also means more competition. So if many bloggers are also selling what you are, there’s going to be a lot of work involved in making a blog profitable.
Giving Up Too Easily
Affiliate marketing does work and it can be very profitable. But you need to sell in the high numbers to make it work. How you approach your affiliate business has a lot of say about the numbers you will reach with your products and services. Of course you can sell subscription affiliate products and high ticket affiliate products and this can mean you can be more profitable with fewer sales.
But still you need to break through the barriers which most affiliates will face. Most affiliates will struggle at first because it takes some time to build up a website, get a marketing campaign profitable, or find customers through content creation. The longer you stay, the better your chances are at succeeding. If you continually strive for improvement, rather than perfection, work on your knowledge and your marketing strategy, you’ll keep improving and eventually make that first important sale.
Once you prove that affiliate marketing does work for you, you will have the belief in it and in yourself. But before this happens it can be a long process of struggle. This process should be seen as the learning phase but more often than not, as the numbers tell us, it means people will quit and look elsewhere!