Everyday I see more and more affiliates making the same mistakes. The worst part is that
they’re just doing what they’re taught by the so-called “experts.”
It’s no shock to me that 95% of affiliates make no money. The problem isn’t that some
people are just “better” than others – the problem is just the way the 95% are
running their business. That’s why I’m going to diagnose the 6 most common mistakes
AffiliateClassroom.com sees affiliates making everyday.
The 6 Mistakes you better learn to avoid like the plague:
1. Not Building For Search Engines:
If you’re an affiliate and want to be successful at it, you better learn to make search
engines your best friend. Search engines are a better source for long-term, targeted and FREE
traffic. Make sure to build your site in clean HTML coding, provide good content and optimize all
your pages (not just the home page).
I firmly believe that all affiliates need to study search engine optimization closely. If you want
to learn how to optimize websites quickly without spending years studying, check out my
“push-button” system at http://www.DominateSearchEngines.com
2. Not Enough Text – Too Many Banners:
This might be the #1 problem – I come across hundreds of these sites almost daily. Think back
to why “YOU’RE” online – to find information right? What good are banners
to you? Do banners provide you any good information? Absolutely not.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t discourage using banners – I just say to only use them
after you have content on your website. And stick to just 1 or 2 banners. The goal here is to hook
someone with good content, then urge them to click the banner to learn more. Don’t just slop
up a bunch of banners and expect to become a super affiliate…
3. Promoting Only One Product:
This was something I learned from Ken Envoy and it made no sense to me until I tried it. Let’s
use an example to illustrate: Let’s say you’re looking for a car and you ask someone
“Hey, which one should I buy?” Would you rather have the person show you 3, give you
the positives and negatives and then “suggest” a car or just shove one of them down your
throat and refuse to talk about anything else?
I think the answer is clear – you much rather have someone RECOMMEND something. So, do the
same on your websites – let your consumer choose what link they click on (your conversions
will go through the roof).
4. Not Giving Away FREE Products:
Another mistake I see done on almost 98% of the websites I visit – they have absolutely no
viral marketing build into their system. If you want to hook someone and build loyalty, put some of
your best information into a small PDF – give it away for free and watch your sales and
traffic multiply. NOTE: This is a more long-term strategy so be patient…
5. Hard-Selling:
If you know anything about affiliate marketing, then you’ve heard of “PRE-SELL”
– well it’s a shocker that most people never use it. PRE-SELL is when you warm up to
your visitor with some good content and information and then slowly “recommend” them to
buy something.
I also never thought this would work until I tried it. Hard-selling is what your merchant should be
doing, you, however, should avoid it at all costs.
6. Too Much Going On…
This mistake is a bit related to the “Too many banners” mistake. I can’t even
begin to tell you how many times I have WANTED to buy something but just couldn’t find the
right link to do it.
Some affiliate websites have a million things going on – the reader gets so confused that they
hit the back button and “poof,” never come back. Keep your pages targeted and clean
– go for ONE goal – to get the click over to the merchant(s) you’re promoting.
Golden Rule: The more you show them, the more confused they get.
I highly suggest reading those 6 again – they are very important to master if you want to
become a super affiliate one day. Even I am going back to my old projects and still fixing my
mistakes – they’re all over the place. But, the second I fix them, I see an enormous
difference, you will too.
