affiliate mistakes � Glowleaf

Apr 13

10 Common Mistakes Affiliates Make

Mind over Pixels, Noobs 1 Comment �

Setting affiliate offers to open in a new window. If you are promoting a product, chances are that you are targeting stupid people. Make stupid people think that the transition is seamless, i.e. the product is yours. Stick to the merchant’s template and colors.
Getting a keyword rich domain instead of a brandable one. Brand, brand, brand. When you tell someone go register a domain, do you tell them to go to “best-online-domain-registration”, or “Moniker”? Rule of thumb: Keyword rich domains are for splogs, brandable domains are for sites.
Doing what everyone else is doing. In a saturated market, do you really expect to get a piece of the pie with the same tactics as everyone else? Be competitive for a change!
Putting adsense on their corporate site. Point discussed in http://www.glowleaf.net/taking-visitors-from-your-competitors/
Giving nothing for free. Internet is based on freebies. Free info, free memberships, free tips, free guides, free downloads. You need a substantial reader base to sell them something, so create that readership first with freebies, and then charge them when they are hooked. Pairing up a freebie with a sale always works. Just take a look at the supermarket shelves.
Not using a tool that saves time. Never, ever use something that takes more time than it should. Use cms for your sites, find templates instead of creating them, use big affiliate networks instead of working with individual merchants. If there is something that does the job faster but sloppier than something else, use it.
Targeting international visitors. The internet is much bigger than you think. So is the world. Dont expect to reach out to everyone with a single site or offer. Go for the people you know, those that you can understand their mindset. Convincing a Greek to put his credit card online is 100 times harder than it is to convince an American. The former is just not used to online purchases. He will happily click through 12 ads though.
Not letting their page mature. Every site will take from 6 months to a year to reach its true potential. Do not expect results in a week. Be patient, keep building, keep on linking, and if necessary work on another project to take your mind off the first one. Results can take time.
Not monetizing right from the start. You dont need thousands of visitors to make a sale. Set up your site to look exactly how you want it to look in 2 years. Think big, monetize right away. Dont overdo it though.
Relying on a single project, or a myriad small ones. Both concepts are wrong. You need 2 big projects to work on. No more, no less. Do work on small projects, but make sure they take as little as possible of your time.