10 Reasons Why Affiliate Marketers Fail - Part 3

Affiliate Marketing - Part 3 - Finding Products – Top 10 Mistakes

It is said that more than 80% of affiliate marketers FAIL.  These are the top ten reasons why they fail, so you can join the 20% who are enjoying a successful and lucrative business, working from home.

1. Not promoting the product which suits best

Choosing several products that are just remotely aligned with your niche is like a toyshop throwing some car tyres in their isles. Strange logic is often applied to such decisions. “Well the customers come here by car, so surely they may need tyres from time to time”!  It’s not reasonable is it?

This is usually prevalent to those affiliate marketers who have built a list around a hobby/past time, and have decided to go into the “make money online’ niche.  Suddenly, next to the “best dog training tips” ebook they have been promoting for their dog breeding web site, a load of “make money from home” style information products appear.

In a nutshell, you have spent all that time carving your niche, so keep it a niche.  If you are branching in to other areas, you can email your list stating that you are launching a website on a different website and politely ask them that they can opt-in if they are interested. Otherwise, just stick with the dogs!
There are so many products to promote; it cannot be hard finding very suitable products.  If you are building your dog-breeding site, it is suicidal to start throwing in Cat merchandise or Poodle breeding ebooks, if you are promoting to a niche on Mastiffs.

2. Not testing the product

This is pure laziness and may cost you everything. If you ran a restaurant, I presume you would try your own food? You need to personally test the products you are offering yourself. This also becomes a great marketing tool. You can explain to your visitors how your experience was, including delivery of the product and how you put it to best use.

If you want to convincingly promote your product, you must be able to relay that specific product to your customers. As mentioned in the introduction to Affiliate Marketing, you are a ‘recommender’. How can you recommend something you have never touched or used?

3. Not doing real research on the market

In addition to the keyword research that I have already stressed in previous blog posts, you need to ‘become a customer’.  Browse the Internet and get a feel for the customer’s experience when fishing for information on the Internet.

This includes reading articles, news, reviewing information and visiting blogs.

Get a feel for all the keywords available for each product you are considering promoting. You should then choose a selection of words to include the variety of services/products you are offering.  Promoting affiliate products that are lacking demand by ignoring the competition and the market research for testing the product's efficiency are things you should seriously avoid.

4. Promoting too few products

When you are in this business, it is important to know that you must offer your customers alternatives and buying options. It is true that at first you must focus on only one product that suits you best and promote it as best as you can, but if you are selling only one or two products forever, the customer gets the feel you are forcing a product on them.  So move and and promote a variety of products, but not all at once (see mistake #5).

If you offer your readers enough space, they will have the feeling that it is them who are in control of the purchase. Moreover, if you have a larger variety of products to sell, you will consequently increase the likelihood of larger sales. But don't fall on the other side and promote all sorts of products for sake of making a fast buck.

5. Promoting too many products

This is a very frequent mistake made by new affiliates. At the beginning there will be the intention to promote as many products as possible, thinking that the more products promoted, the more profit will result. But this way of thinking is erroneous, because promoting a product requires plenty of time, rolled out a controlled pace.

Once you decide to promote several products, you implicitly have to diminish the amount of time for each product, which will eventually lead to an efficient promotion. Another aspect is that a wide range of buying choices more often than not, confuses the customer.

It is highly advisable that you come up with enough products that are well classified and that are an indicator of the top selling ones in order to help them make the right choice.

Promoting too few products is a mistake and so is promoting too many products. Thus, you must find the balance between these two.

6. Focusing on the product not on the site

Never forget that you are a “recommender” not a product seller.  Your sole business is based on people believing in YOU, enjoying YOUR information and visiting YOUR web site. If you shift that focus to the product, you are selling yourself short and your visitors will diminish. Most importantly, by building YOUR reputation, you are able to sell many other products to the same people that bought your first product. So keep you visitor focused on you and your site with creative and innovative ideas, with the product being a subliminal part of your infrastructure.

The “product” is actually just an added bonus to your customers.

7. Failing to invest in viable means of advertising

In order to do this, pay attention to the response of your target market and you will definitely be able to tell which specific form of advertising is more appropriate for affiliate marketing. Ensure you invest in well-made endorsements, banners, emails and links.

Some markets respond very well to all of these. However, you must make sure that every advertisement is informative and has viable content that will convey your credibility. This will eventually lead to increased sales from satisfied customers.

8. Failing to keep up with latest news in the industry of your chosen products

Things change. And so will information regarding your chosen product. Keeping abreast of these changes is essential to your longevity in the business. As you are building an income based on your integrity and presumed expertise on your niche subject, it is disastrous if you are producing out of date or incorrect information.  Keep abreast of all news. (Subscribe to google news, visit other sites, and use other mediums such as newspapers and magazine subscriptions to keep ahead of your industry.

9.  Not to exchange your ideas, experience and knowledge

Not to actively participate in the most popular forums, web boards, and membership sites or chat rooms is a big mistake, because it is here where marketing entrepreneurs can identify the problems in the market.

In addition, it is highly advisable to join Internet Marketing Forums with the idea of helping others. Sharing information with what is considered ‘your competition’ may seem like a bad business move. In the Internet marketing business this has a beneficial effect on your reputation. Exchanging knowledge is a great opportunity for you to find more about the affiliate marketing niche and also to find which products best sell on the Internet. In addition, it will help you find out how to come up with new methods, make your site useful and also add a personal note to it.

Hearing other people's experience might give you a better perspective on things and try to avoid possible mistakes.

10.  Not Building Relationship with Your Customers

Ask yourself why you buy certain products from certain experts and not the others? Is it because the experts have sent you emails, given you tons of free information and have been a reliable source to you? This is called building a relationship with your customers.

Try to relate to your visitors and be as generous as possible with your information. Share your experiences – even the bad ones, as this reiterates that you are human and your customers will relate to that.  Be witty where possible and always keep your selling message subtle. Sell YOURSELF and your product second. If you can get your customers to like you, you are more than halfway there.

To conclude, if you don't make these mistakes, follow the suggestions and analyze the collected information, you cannot fail to discover the right affiliate product for you to sell. Focus on the problem and try to find a solution for the problems people are facing on the market. If you are passionate about these products, you will find the key to success!