Do you promote affiliate products? Are you struggling to increase your sales? Are you wondering if you are making affiliate marketing mistakes? You are in the right place.
Affiliate marketing is the BEST way to monetize a blog or website.
For what ? It can help you generate sales even while you sleep.
Over the last year, we have generated a lot of money per month from the blog you are currently reading.
But reaching this milestone has not been easy. We've made a ton of affiliate marketing mistakes in our 12 years of blogging.
In this article, we'll talk about the three most common affiliate marketing mistakes and how to avoid them for better sales.
Let's start with the beginning.
Table of contents ☰
3 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2024
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
When we started BlogPasCher, we relied heavily on hosts like HostGator. Suddenly people started complaining about the servicesaccommodation from HostGator and their pathetic customer support.
That's when our sales started to drop. We learned a BIG lesson. Don't put your eggs in one basket. Don't rely on just one affiliate program. NEVER !
Yes, your favorite affiliate product may earn you significant commissions per sale, but you'll never know its future.
Many things can go wrong, such as;
- They may stop adding value to their products
- They may stop accepting affiliates (SiteGround is an excellent example).
- They can stop paying large commissions (Semrush used to pay 40% recurring commissions, now it only gives us one-time commissions).
- And the list is still long
How to solve the problem ?
Choose recurring affiliate programs : Recurring affiliate programs allow you to earn commissions throughout your life, not just once. For example, the host Kinsta offers you recurring commissions.
Likewise, you can try these best recurring affiliate programs if you want to earn commissions repeatedly.
Always choose 2 or 3 alternatives: Let's say you're promoting an SEO product like Semrush, and you REALLY like it. But don't stop there. Find other alternative tools (affordable or better) and promote them too.
This way you will give your target audience more relevant recommendations. Let them decide what they want to buy.
Not creating engaging content
Don't try to sell with your content. Help your audience.
Read it again.
But most specialists in affiliate marketing focus on promotional content rather than informational content.
Also, some people place ads all over their site (in the footer, header, sidebar, in posts, etc.)
When someone visits your website and finds ONLY promotional content or advertisements, chances are they will turn away from your site.
How to solve the problem ?
Stick to an appropriate content ratio. You can consider something like 3:5 (3 out of 5 blog posts you publish must be informative).
If you're struggling to create epic content, here are some tips we often use to create engaging content on BlogPasCher.
Use strong titles : 8 out of 10 people will read your headlines, and only 2 out of 10 will read your content.
If your headlines are bad, people will NOT read your content, which will lead to fewer conversions and affiliate sales. That's why you need to start with a magnetic title that conveys the main idea of your blog post.
Strong headlines instantly grab your readers' attention and encourage them to continue reading your content.
Use images and videos : Using images and videos can help break up your blog post and make it more visually appealing. It can also help you explain your points quickly and make your content shareable.
Remember that most online readers prefer to scan information rather than read every word. Be sure to use short paragraphs and subheadings to break up the text and make your content easier to read.
Use concrete examples : Most affiliate marketers do not include concrete examples. This is why they often struggle to generate more sales.
If you want to create high-converting blog posts, use examples to illustrate your point.
Not only does using examples make your content more understandable, but it can also help you increase your sales.
Use strong calls to action (CTAs) : If you promote affiliate products, you need to know when and how to use calls to action.
A call to action is a text prompt designed to encourage your audience to take action.
This could include asking them to leave a review, sign up for a free trial, share your article on social media, or sign up for your email list.
Neglect SEO
Do you want to succeed as an affiliate? You must learn and implement the SEO.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
If you do not take into account the SEO, your target audience will have difficulty finding your website, resulting in lower traffic and sales.
How to solve the problem ?
Here are some tips from SEO that we use on BlogPasCher and which can help you improve your ranking.
Target long-tail keywords : There is HUGE competition in almost every niche. You can't compete with other high-authority websites by targeting exact match keywords.
This is why targeting long-tail keywords helps to rank faster. They are easier to rank for because they are often searched less monthly.
Did you know that search engines like Google use over 200 ranking factors to determine the relevance and quality of a web page? They also take keywords into account. This is why using relevant keywords for every article you post helps to rank higher.
When doing keyword research, come up with multiple keywords with similar intent.
For what ? It's a good idea to use several related keywords in your content rather than focusing on one or two keywords. This can help your content rank for a lot of relevant search queries.
Don’t Forget On-Page Optimization: On-page optimization is about optimizing your content for relevant keywords to attract more search traffic.
Use relevant, high-quality keywords in your blog post titles and throughout your content.
Use heading tags such as h1, h2, h3, etc., to divide your content into subheadings and make it easier for search engines like Google to understand the key points of your blog post.
Use ALT tags to describe images in your blog post. This can help search engines understand images and their relevance to your content.
If you use WordPress, install the Rank Math SEO plugin, which helps you optimize your content better.
Internal links are essential : Most people are unaware of the importance of internal links and often post new content without having any. This is a BIG mistake if you are looking to increase your search traffic.
Make sure your blog post has a simple, user-friendly URL structure. SEO. Link to other relevant articles on your blog, as this can help search engines like Google understand the context and relevance of your content.
The internal links can also contribute to obtaining link juice, better indexing, better User experience, etc ...
FAQ's | Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
Here is a list of frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing involves affiliates promote products from other companies and to receive a commission on the sales made.
What mistakes am I making when it comes to affiliate marketing?
You don't focus on SEO. If you want to increase your affiliate sales, you need high quality traffic. Search engines like Google can help you attract highly qualified visitors who can ultimately buy from you.
What's the biggest problem with affiliate marketing?
Creating content that ranks is the biggest problem. Most people create generic content that doesn't add any value. Poor content will NEVER rank and does not contribute to sales.
What are the disadvantages of affiliate marketing?
Here are some of the most common cons of affiliate marketing;
- No control over the affiliate program
- Irregular earnings
- too much competition
Why Do Most Affiliates Fail?
One of the biggest reasons most affiliates fail is because they don't care what their audience wants. They only focus on promoting products instead of helping people with their content.
Relevant resources for SEO beginners:
- Link Building Awareness: A Simple Beginner’s Guide
- Link recovery: What is it? How to Recover Lost Backlinks
- Buying Backlinks: Everything You Need to Know About Paid Links
- 8 Best Link Building Tools for Finding Link Opportunities
- Things to Balance When Doing SEO: 5 Important Things
- 10 Highest Paid SEO Tools That Are Worth Every Penny
- Future of SEO: 5 Trends That Will Impact Your Website Ranking
- What is timeless content? Beginner's guide with practical tips
- 10 Best Link Building Tools to Find Link Opportunities
Final Thoughts on Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
Affiliate marketing is hard work. You won't be able to succeed if you're looking for results overnight.
Make mistakes. But learn from them!
Be consistent. Know your audience. Promote the right products and you'll start generating sales. There are no other shortcuts.
What do you think of the mistakes most affiliate marketers make? Do you do it? Let us know your views in the comments.
