8 Issues I Would Like To Know Earlier than I Began Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most interesting and lucrative industries on the internet, where commissions are earned by promoting a business and / or driving a sale. Made up of a strong center of web publishers looking to monetize their websites, it is a great opportunity for marketers and advertisers to work with others to promote their products, services, brands, or affiliate programs. I have been an affiliate marketer in this field since 2007 and I can safely say that I love my work, not least because it allows me to come into direct contact with my audience without many intermediaries.

However, there are a couple of things I wish I knew before I started.

1. Track success metrics

There is no way to grow an affiliate website or make more money if you don’t know how many visitors visit that website every day and where they are from. Hence, it is important to track analytics and determine which marketing channels are bringing the most traffic so that you know what to focus on when promoting affiliate offers.

Here are some of the metrics you need to track:

• Monthly visits and unique daily visitors. The more your website receives, the higher the sales opportunities.
• How many sales have you made this week? Track the performance of each partner offer to see which offers convert best.
• How much was earned with each offer? It is important to keep track of how many sales are generated by each affiliate program as each publisher receives a different commission for selling the same product. That way, you can find out which affiliate network and products for your website or blog are converting better, and get better deals to get even more sales.
• Which countries do visitors come from? This measured value shows in which country the target group is better suited to yours and thus helps in choosing the right offers for your market.

Related: The Essential Basics of Social Media Marketing for Small Business

2. Don’t expect huge overnight earnings

If you’re just starting out as an affiliate marketer, don’t expect success too quickly as thousands of web publishers have been doing this for years but are still struggling to generate income. I am not suggesting avoiding goals, just that it is important to be patient and work hard persistently to get significant results. This is a business like any other, so income will depend on how much time, effort, and patience you want to invest.

3. Never stop learning

One of the most important lessons I’ve internalized over the years as an affiliate marketer is that there is no end to learning or knowledge sharing. This industry is changing very quickly; New trends appear all the time and old ones quickly die out. So called gurus retire their affiliate sites every few months just to start new ones. So you need to be willing to capitalize on change and devote resources to learning – including affiliate marketing blog posts, interviews, and case studies in the process.

4. Avoid overvaluing your product or service

One of the first things many marketers do when starting an affiliate website is to promote their own products and services, but it’s important not to overestimate them as this will only backfire in the long run. Remember, you need your audience more than they need you. Therefore, provide valuable resources, information, and insights to help them solve their problems. First, build authority in a niche, regularly share free content, and get involved in the community. Once you get real traffic to your website, create an offer that closely matches what you’ve already shared on your blog or website.

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5. Don’t miss out on visitors

One of the biggest mistakes affiliate marketers make time and time again is trying to sell their visitors instead of offering high quality offers that fit their wants and needs well. For example, if someone is looking for a dog bed or a leash, they would not buy an offer on yoga classes because it is completely irrelevant and does not fit what they are looking for. So before you try to sell anything to your visitors, make sure you’ve done your research and found offers that match exactly what an audience is looking for.

6. Include testing

Another mistake I see a lot is guessing what works best rather than testing ideas before investing the time, effort, and money. For this reason, I suggest A / B testing tools for at least some campaigns, as they provide valuable insights into what is currently working, without risk.

7. Don’t leave money on the table

Many affiliate marketers quickly start promoting a new listing as soon as it goes live. Still, they fail to fully optimize and promote it before it is made available. In many cases, this means you will be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t test your landing page, images, copy, and ad copy first. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend days or weeks doing A / B testing, but at least try doing split testing before promoting an offer broadly. This will give you a better chance of converting more visitors into subscribers or buyers since you’ve taken the time to tweak everything from start to finish. I use this process for every new campaign for my online shop and it works like a charm.

8. Don’t be afraid to give up

Finally, remember that giving up something that clearly isn’t working is not a vice. While it may be difficult to get away from an affiliate campaign or website, it is important to ask whether the results are worth the time and effort, and then possibly invest that energy in something that has a better chance of success. Don’t let others feel guilty about changing something because there’s not everything to be done right, so just do what makes sense.

Related: How Affiliate Marketing Can Work For Entrepreneurs

Ultimately, there is no absolutely right or wrong way to do affiliate marketing, but you should at least have a rough plan – one that includes knowing how much you want to spend on advertising, and where your niche traffic is and what offers are coming best to convert. The more time and effort you put into learning and testing everything first, the more likely your success is.