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Allan Gardyne
12 Mistakes Affiliates Make - And How To Fix Them
Affiliates struggling to earn $100 a month often find it hard
to believe that other people could possibly earn as much as
$10,000 or even $100,000 a month in commissions.
Believe it. Big commissions do happen. And you can expect to
hear about even bigger commissions.
Forrester Research http://www.forrester.com predicts that
affiliate programs and affiliate networks will represent 20%, or
$53 billion, of e-commerce sales by 2005.
In most programs, 5% of the affiliates generate the vast
majority of the sales. If you're not in that 5% and want to be,
you'll have to change what you're doing.
Here are 12 mistakes you could be making, and how to fix them.
1. Are you telling people how to make money on the Internet when
you don't know how yourself?
Perhaps just perhaps you can succeed at this, but it's the
most obvious trap into which new affiliates fall. You join a few
affiliate programs and set up a site offering Internet marketing
tips, work-from-home tips, instant-business tips, or
be-your-own-boss tips.
The advantages of doing this include having great products to
promote, high commissions and lots of help from Internet
marketers.
However, if you do this, you face two massive challenges.
1. You'll have hundreds of thousands of web pages out there
competing with yours.
2. You're competing with the planet's best marketing EXPERTS.
Some of the brightest brains in Internet marketing are working
full-time to grab the attention of your target audience.
I'm not saying you can't succeed in this field, but if you're
new to affiliate programs, this is definitely NOT the best place
to begin. If you're struggling, find a less well traveled path.
You don't have to abandon your existing web site. Just launch a
new one based on a new theme. Later, when you've learned more
and really have something to offer, it will be time to revamp
your marketing tips web site.
If you want an idea for a product to promote, here's one.
You could promote the new book Make Your Net Auction SELL!
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/netauctions which tells
people how to make a great income from Internet auctions. They
don't even need a web site.
Sure, you'll have some competition, but it's not TOO lively.
Here's an indication: The top spot for the key phrase "Internet
auctions" costs only 21 cents per click on GoTo.com today. In
comparison, the keyword "marketing" costs $1.11.
Choose a new theme. Try a new niche.
2. Are you promoting the PROGRAM instead of the PRODUCT?
Over and over again, affiliates join a two-tier affiliate
program and then create a page telling other people to join it.
I've done this myself with LifetimeCustomers.com.
http://www.LifetimeCustomers.com However, that site is not my
core business. It's just one page, which I created fairly
quickly.
Feel free to try that technique, but don't pin all your hopes
on it.
Unless you're really skilled at signing up key people in key
places, or know how to sign up many thousands of affiliates,
you're not likely to get rich on second-tier commissions.
The people you sign up will tend to copy you and try to sign up
more people... Whoops! That sounds like the worst aspects of
multi-level marketing. Who's going to actually SELL something
and earn commissions?
I once read a report which claimed that my success with the
SiteSell affiliate program http://makemy.sitesell.com is due
to the fact that I've signed up thousands of sub-affiliates.
That suggestion was just a silly guess and it's utter rubbish.
Only a tiny percentage of the thousands of dollars I earn each
month from SiteSell is from second-tier commissions. I succeed
because I sell the PRODUCTS. They're incredibly good value, I
believe in them, and I succeed by telling people so.
Here's proof that "affiliate programs" is a tough, competitive
field.
Try typing "affiliate programs" into Google http://www.Google.com
. You're competing with 302,000 other pages. Try the phrase
without the quotation marks and you're competing with 1,020,000
other pages.
Promote the PRODUCTS.
3. Are you using banners instead of endorsements?
I know. It takes time, effort and money to buy and study the
product you're trying to sell. It's much easier just to cut and
paste a bit of HTML code. However, personal, enthusiastic
endorsements out-sell everything else by miles.
If you put in the effort, you'll get the sales. You can
probably quadruple your sales by endorsing the products you sell.
You can also combine graphics, text, short descriptions and
relevant articles. Here's an example: Cynthia Arko's
KidsTownDirect http://www.google.com . Best of all are
your own, original personal endorsements.
Write honest, enthusiastic endorsements.
4. Are you failing to capture e-mail addresses?
If you don't collect addresses, your marketing effort is a
one-shot wonder. You're making only one attempt per visitor to
achieve a sale and then giving up.
As branding expert Rob Frankel says, people like buying from
people they know, like and trust. (That's why, when I already
receive far too many newsletters, I've just paid $18 to
subscribe to FrankelTips http://www.FrankelTips.com because I
know, like and trust Rob and expect him to deliver valuable
content.)
If you're not giving people a chance to get to know and trust
you, don't be surprised if they don't buy.
If you're not collecting e-mail addresses, you're seriously
crippling your marketing. Remember how the big dot-coms poured
buckets of money into banner advertising and TV advertising? Now
they've finally realized that collecting e-mail addresses is
much better value.
It's getting harder and harder to do, because we're all deluged
with spam and newsletters which don't provide the information we
need. So get started now, before the competition becomes even
stronger.
You may not want the commitment of publishing a weekly
newsletter. Perhaps you don't believe you have the necessary
skills. One option is to simply offer a monthly Update
newsletter, telling people what's new on your site.
Perhaps you don't like the thought of being tied to a weekly or
monthly publishing schedule. You don't have to be. You can
publish irregularly, only when you feel you have something worth
saying or selling.
If you want a non-nonsense, no-hype guide to newsletter
publishing, I highly recommend Ezine Adrenaline: How to
Create,
Publish and Market AProfitable E-zine on the Internet
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/ezine-a by Kate Schultz. It
tells you all the stuff you need to know.
Build an opt-in e-mail list.
5. Do you have visitors but no sales?
Some affiliates complain that they receive thousands of
visitors but can't turn those visitors into buyers. To them, I
usually recommend re-reading Ken Evoy's article on pre-selling
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/pre-selling . Studying that
article and implementing Ken's suggestions could have a huge
impact on your sales.
Here's another fascinating, useful article.
Donald Skarzenski reports on a company which bought a MILLION
visitors but whoops! hadn't first taken the time to figure
out what to do with them. It's a tale of stupidity on a grand
scale. Donald explains what the company should have done:
http://www.digitrends.net/marketing/13639_15229.html
Learn how to PRE-sell.
6. Are you doing the same tired old things over and over?
It's time to try something new.
If you keep repeating actions which fail, you'll continue
failing. If what you're doing isn't working well, it's time to
change it, to move out of your comfort zone and try something
new.
Here's something you can do. You can syndicate your columns or
tips all over the Net to other web sites. Imagine how that would
boost your image, your traffic and your sales.
Each web site publishing your column simply puts two lines of
JavaScript code on its page at the location where your column is
to appear.
All you do is paste your column into a Syndicator form and
click a button. That one button click automatically updates all
syndicated web site pages.
You don't even have to create the script. Acclaimed CGI expert
William Bontrager has done that for you.
You can learn how to syndicate your content here.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/syndicator.shtml
Try new techniques.
7. Are you building a business on a foundation of sand?
Are you promoting questionable products and services in the
hope of earning high commissions?
Or are you building something of VALUE? Are you creating a
business you're proud of?
Even if it's a small site, build a USEFUL, strong web site, one
which provides valuable information and helps people. Not only
will this give you a great sense of achievement, it will do
wonders for your marketing.
If you build a site or write a newsletter which helps people,
your readers will do a lot of your marketing for you.
They really will.
I love it when I see my sites mentioned on other web sites, in
newsletters, in mailing lists and in books. I love it when web
sites link to mine.
For example, Nathan Power is building a useful resource with
PayPerClickSearchEngines.com
http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com , the first directory
of pay-per-click search engines. Most of the links to it were
created simply because web site owners like it and want to
recommend it.
Ralph Wilson's
http://www.WilsonWeb.com a massive, valuable Internet
marketing resource earns links the same way. Such voluntary
links are pure gold. People see the site recommended, visit it,
and add a link on their site, and so on...
Such a site takes time to build but after a while momentum
builds. If you're the expert in your niche, you'll be
interviewed for articles in newsletters and books and those
articles will attract more interviews for more articles...
All those links and favorable mentions don't just boost your
reputation and sales, they help boost your ranking in search
engines such as Google.
Build something useful.
8. Are you selling ONLY other people's products?
It is possible to earn a living that way, but such successes
are rare.
Create your OWN product. Then you can use affiliate programs
for back-end sales. That works well because someone who has just
bought a product is often in the mood for buying a second,
complementary product.
When you create your own product, you control your destiny. You
control how it is marketed. You control how much profit you
make. Neil Shearing's newly revamped Internet Success
Blueprint
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/scamfree tells you how to do
it, how to create an ebook, illustrate it, and sell it, with or
without a merchant account. Neil describes, step-by-step, how he
earns his living online.
If you need help with brainstorming to come up with an idea for
your info-product, I highly recommend Make Your Knowledge SELL!
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/myks/ which also lists
hundreds of places to promote your ebook. It's fantastic value.
Create your own product.
9. Are you just SELLING instead of HELPING?
I hope you subscribe to John Audette's I-Sales Digest.
http://www.adventive.com It's an absolute MUST. There are many
reasons for its success. One is that members of that community
help each other in their posts to the mailing list.
John says that I-Sales Digest was the major force behind his
success in building a multi-million-dollar business. The digest
gives him an opportunity to build credibility, respect and trust
while encouraging people to help others.
Is your web site or newsletter just selling, or is it helping
people learn?
In his 138-page book, "Helpfulness Marketing: How to Charm Web
Visitors to Buy and Buyers to Help You Sell!" Paul Siegel says
that if you create a helpful, learning community you'll put
people in the mood for buying.
His book may make you rethink how you do business.
The book doesn't contain affiliate links. It's just pure
useful, helpful advice on how to build a community. And it's
free until June 1.
All Paul asks in return is feedback.
You can get the book free here:
http://www.learningfountain.com/helpfulnessmarketing.htm
Help people learn.
10. Are you learning from mediocre sources?
Because conditions are changing so fast on the Net, you need to
learn fast and grab the opportunities which exist now.
One way to save time is to learn from Internet experts. You
won't make so many mistakes that way.
Learn from people who are earning a very good living from
Internet marketing.
Neil Shearing persuaded 10 Internet experts some of whom are
earning millions of dollars to reveal what it takes to make
huge profits on the Internet. These aren't "magic bullets".
They're valuable insights for serious business-building. They
could change the way you do business and change your life.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/diamonds/
Learn from experts.
11. Have you forgotten to add a dash of personality?
Have a look at Chris Pirillo's Libera Manifesto
http://www.google.com and the huge flood of
responses http://www.google.com .
Chris received that outpouring of support because he injects
his personality into his writing (and because he's acknowledged
as a hard-working expert in his field).
Too much of the Internet is cold and anonymous. Your web site
visitors appreciate knowing that there's a real person running
the site they're visiting.
Inject your personality into your site.
12. Are you failing to PLAN?
I received an e-mail this week from someone who had bought a
domain and was trying to decide what to do with it.
Whoops! That's getting things backwards.
First you have to decide what you want to do. Here are three
main options for affiliates. They all work.
Option 1: "Go where the money is," says the highly successful
Marlon Sanders.
Do research on what is popular and sell that. Do a survey, find
out what people want and sell it to them.
Want to know what's hot? Here's a really fast way. Keep an eye
on Yahoo! Shopping http://shopping.yahoo.com/. Yahoo! has done
lots of research and endless experimenting. It knows what sells.
Look at the "What's hot" list, where you'll find such things as
digital cameras, MP3 players and Razor scooters.
Option 2: "Follow your passion," says Ken Evoy. Choose a topic
in which you are passionately interested and build a site around
that theme. That way, you'll enjoy what you're doing and derive
a great deal of satisfaction from it. It won't seem like work.
"Everyone, absolutely EVERYONE, has a special interest... a
passion," he says.
Having trouble choosing a topic? See Day 2 of Ken's free
"Affiliate Masters" course. It shows you how to brainstorm your
concept.
Option 3. Become passionately interested in something. Immerse
yourself in all the little details about a topic and suddenly
you'll become so absorbed that it's like a hobby, not a business.
That's what affiliate programs have become like for me. Perhaps
for you it could be digital cameras.
If you become passionately interested in products which are hot
sellers with little competition, that's even better!
To learn how to find those HIGH PROFITABILITY topics and
products, see Day 3 of the "Affiliate Masters" course.
To get the free course, just send a blank e-mail to
makemytams@sitesell.net
Plan first, set your goals, and then act.
... and have fun.
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