Have a peaceful ride by avoiding affiliate mistakes
1. Taking on too many sites
Once bitten by the Affiliate Marketing bug, it’s hard to stop yourself getting addicted. Many affiliates have lots of ideas for new sites and new niches. STOP. To make a site, and thus your affiliate marketing, work you must have determination and perseverance. All too often, affiliates create several sites and try to work on all simultaneously. This creates problems not only in thinking up fresh content, but also having enough time to dedicate to each website. Try to concentrate on one or two and build on those before starting new projects.
2. Over-populating site(s) with too many ads
Too many ads on a site can look spammy - be careful which advertisements you choose and where you place them. Try to organise it so they fit neatly around the borders of your site, unless of course you are using text links, videos or some other form of advertising. Check out our post on how many ads are too many?
3. Not relating the ads to the content
This in some way relates to the above point on integrating too many ads into your site. Affiliate ads which don’t relate to the content within the website are likely to receive less clicks and conversions than those which do. If a visitor finds you via SEO and Google, it means they are looking for either more information or to buy a product related to what your website is all about. If the visitor types in hair product reviews, for example, and they come through to your site, they may perhaps not want to click on an ad for gaming or online betting.
4. Expecting ££s to come rolling in immediately
Thinking that your website will be generating £xxx’s in its first week is a little extreme. Most affiliates who generate these sorts of numbers work hard for their profits and revenues. Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick scheme. It involves hard work, time and dedication to something which can be, in the long run, very rewarding (both financially and personally).
5. Not creating awareness of own site
With great SEO, your site can rank highly in Google. That’s not all it takes though. Knowing how to create a buzz around the site and publicise its existence in the online industry is what differentiates the good affiliate marketers from the great affiliate marketers. Social networking and attending industry conferences are fantastic ways of connecting with new people in the same field. The use of Social Media strategies is now also highly recommended as a tool for increasing brand awareness and interacting with potential visitors/consumers. More and more companies are taking to Social Media to join and converse the throng of people known as brand engagers. Creating that awareness is a great first step to becoming a key player in the affiliate marketing industry.
To start your affiliate marketing with Shopzilla, check out our Publisher Program.
