Disclaimer: This page may contain some affiliate links. If you click through and purchase an item, we may earn a commission. Thank you for supporting Minded Marketing!
When I was a new affiliate marketer, I made a lot of mistakes that set me back on my journey to being an online entrepreneur.
I promised myself that one day when my platform is big enough, I would make sure that I help as many people as I can to avoid the mistakes that I made.
Today is that day!
Nothing hurts me more than seeing another online entrepreneur make the exact same mistakes that I did and knowing what kind of an impact it can have.
So in this article, I am going to share with you 3 major mistakes that I made as an affiliate marketer and how to avoid them.
The Truth About Picking A Niche
Before we get into the mistakes to avoid, there is one essential topic that we cannot brush over: Niches.
People will tell you that picking a niche is going to be the most important part of your journey. This is actually very true.
However, they also say that some niches are terrible and you won’t make any money from them.
That is where I disagree.
Not all niches are created equal.
Nevertheless, you can still make money from these niches. The only difference is you need to manage your expectations.
Certain niches make more money than others and some are more scalable than others.
If you are looking to make $100,000 a month talking about goldfish, you may have a hard time. That being said, you could maybe make $500-$1,000 a month if you play your cards right in that niche.
So make sure you do some market research and look at the numbers that you can expect to see from the niche that you are picking.
This will save you a lot of disappointment.
1. Not Doing Enough Keyword and Market Research
As newbies in the affiliate world, you are almost conditioned to believe that all you need to do is get a link, share it, and then start making money.
Yet, there is a whole setup behind the scenes that the gurus forget to tell us. Without this setup, there is a very slim chance to become successful.
One of the biggest mistakes I made was going into an affiliate marketing platform without doing enough keyword and market research.
Here are some key aspects the beginners tend to miss:
- How many people were looking for the product
- How trendy it was
- How expensive it would be to run ads
- How much volume the topic was getting
This is a rookie mistake that I see so many new affiliates make, but honestly, I don’t blame them. Everyone tells you to just go on Clickbank and find the product with the most gravity.
When in fact, the higher gravity products are sometimes the hardest to promote if you are a beginner. Because most of the sales are actually coming from a few affiliates that have already established audiences.
So it may look like a good idea to promote but really it is just a smokescreen. You need to take more time to do research on the product before promoting it.
2. Not Focusing on Targeted Traffic (Buyers Intent)
Another huge mistake that I made, in the beginning, was not focusing on targeted traffic.
Not just any traffic, targeted traffic.
As an affiliate, you may think that the most important thing is just getting clicks on your links because clicks equal sales, right?
Wrong!
I once took a product and didn’t spend that much time targeting the audience.
Guess what that got me?
Over 250 clicks and absolutely no sales. Zero dollars.
So what was my mistake?
I went in thinking that this product had a broad audience without taking into consideration buyer intent. I didn’t take into consideration why the person would want the product. If you miss this, then you miss it all.
The more focused you can become with your audience, the more likely you are to get more sales.
3. Having Spammy Behavior
Now I am going to include this one even though I personally have never done it.
I was too scared to bother people and I didn’t want to get blocked.
But the amount of dm’s and emails that I get from other affiliate marketers, as a regular social media user, is a bit alarming.
Again, I don’t blame them for doing this because, unfortunately, the “make money gurus” have been telling people to do this for years.
This is why social media platforms and forums are no longer friendly towards sharing links on their platforms.
Sending people dm’s to promote your affiliate link or product is not something that you should be doing as a beginner.
To be honest, I wouldn’t do it if I were a successful affiliate either.
What you should be focusing on is building your email list instead and then gaining trust from your audience. At that point, you can send emails and newsletters and you will be far more likely to make money from your affiliate products.
The Key To Becoming Succesful As An Affiliate Marketer
If there is one thing that any affiliate marketer needs to be successful, it is targeted traffic. There is no going around it.
You could have the best high-quality product in the world, but if you are not putting it in front of the right people with the right buyer intent, then it is worthless.
You may get some clicks because people are naturally curious.
But you will not be finding the people that will actually want to take the extra step to invest their money into it.
You should also make sure that you keep in mind that you are trying to help people find a solution to a problem.
So matter what you do, please take the time to do the necessary research to find the people who will need your product.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate marketing is by far one of the most popular and lucrative ways for beginners to make money online.
The reason why is because you generally don’t need a huge audience to make money with it.
Take my youtube channel as an example. I have around 250 subscribers and I get around 600-800 views a month.
It’s a small channel.
But I have made over 30 recurring affiliate sales in the past 2 months from one video.
Which is bringing in hundreds of dollars extra every month.
But the only reason I was able to do this is that I have a targeted audience that I have built trust with and that I am trying to help.
Never go into affiliate marketing just trying to make money from people.
Go into it trying to help people and you will be successful.
