Digital Marketing

Here’s Why Affiliate Marketers Fail And How to Fix the Problems in Five Steps.

As a bonus, I show five typical mistakes with viable solutions and provide ten best practices.

The main problem is not the nature of affiliate marketing but the marketers’ approach.

Rather than sugarcoating apparent issues, I prefer revealing the honest truth with the politeness of realistic points that my readers deserve to know.

Frankly, there is nothing wrong with affiliate marketing as an occupation but a lot wrong with the approach of failed marketers that I reveal.

The critical point is affiliate marketing is not an easy money-making scheme. Like any profession, it requires time and effort investment with persistence.

My goal is to unfold the mistakes and blindspots without judgment, offering viable solution perspectives with practical tips.

Purpose of the Article

I have been performing affiliate marketing in various formats for four decades, starting in large business organizations. But they don’t call it by that name.

Nevertheless, over the last decade, I transferred my skills gained in the corporate world to digital affiliate marketing on distributed platforms.

I mentor writers, bloggers, podcasters, and YouTubers, starting with affiliate marketing. Some of them make significant progress quickly, some grow gradually, and some fail by giving up entirely.

Subscribers who found the chapters of my book on various writing platforms mentioned they genuinely tried affiliate marketing, but it did not work for them for some reason.

I analyzed their situation and identified clear patterns. Thus, I decided to summarize the patterns and provide helpful perspectives to fix the errors from multiple angles with takeaway points including practical tips.

This is not a theoretical piece. It reflects on my experience and observations.

Readers can customize these perspectives based on their needs and goals. Each marketer is different and might require a suitable approach aligning with their goals and capabilities.

This article is for information purposes. As a principle, I intentionally don’t provide advice in my writings as it is impossible to know each reader’s position.

One thing that works for one person might not work for another. There are too many factors affecting the results.

As the topic is comprehensive, I only focus on the crucial items and outline my points at a high level to provide a valuable perspective. This is not a prescriptive piece.

Here are the five critical points at a high level in summary.

1 — Lack of Fundamental Knowledge and Skills

This item is the most apparent and common pattern in my findings.

Every job on earth requires fundamental knowledge and skills. As affiliate marketing is an income-generating job, it also requires essential skills to succeed.

To elaborate on the situation, let me give you an example. I sent free copies of my book to 1,000 selected subscribers for educative and promotional purposes.

After six months, I surveyed the target group and found that only 7% completed a tiny book within this period.

93% of the people who did not complete reading the book informed me that they were too busy to allocate time. It was not a surprise to me as it is a typical pattern I discovered long ago in reading communities.

So, my point is aspiring affiliate marketers couldn’t even spend three hours investing in fundamental knowledge essential for a job expected to bring passive income.

Those who failed the affiliate marketing goals missed a critical step which is fundamental knowledge to start the profession.

I don’t intend to compare myself with others and have no intention of judging others.

However, to make my point, when I was learning about the mechanism and process of digital affiliate marketing years ago, I invested at least 300 hours (not 3 hours) in the beginning and never stopped learning informally by trial and error.

For example, I started from the most basic level and gradually progressed to analyze the most advanced methods.

For example, I invested 25 years of formal education supplemented with many years of informal learning to gain mastery and shine in my 40-year profession.

I learned that it takes around 10,000 hours of focused engagement to master a prominent skill. For example, mastering problem-solving skills took me over 30,000 hours. Frankly, If I Had Another Chance to Live in the Modern World, I’d Reinvest in Five Skills that are transferable.

My point is not to judge readers as people have different priorities. However, without making our learning a priority with focus, any profession we aim for might cause struggles. Some occupations require at least a four-year degree before starting.

Possible Solutions to Address This Issue

Here are the six viable options to improve your knowledge and skills to acquire for digital affiliate marketing.

1 — Complete at least one book explaining the process of digital affiliate marketing.

2 — Read articles and blog posts from experienced affiliate marketers.

3 — Join communities and participate in discussion groups.

4 — Undertake education programs on YouTube or other learning platforms like Eudemy, Teachable, or Skillshare.

5 — Share your learning and experience from your experiments to enhance your knowledge and skills.

6 — Obtain feedback from your readers.

2 — Unrealistic Expectations

Unfortunately, social media is full of exaggeration.

For example, on YouTube, I witnessed many scams exploiting the feelings of innocent people. They show them six figures and even seven-figure income within a month or even a week.

Achieving this goal is impossible unless someone has a gigantic network.

Ironically, as an experienced affiliate marketer, I even fell into one of those scams. They sounded intriguing and compelling with hidden risks.

After analyzing the situation, the compelling and overpromising method looked unethical and unsustainable. It was only possible for me to see the truth after actually trying the method.

The honest truth is that those so-called gurus never give their secrets naturally. Yet, they pretend they do to the perception of receivers. Their goal is to sell their expensive products and make themselves richer by exploiting the aspirations of new marketers.

Realistically, consumers don’t go to unknown websites and buy products.

Let me set your expectations.

The market’s competition is so big that thousands of experienced marketers use search engines to prioritize their sites to attract traffic.

So, beating that competition can be difficult. However, it is possible with the proper education, acquired skills, commitment, diligence, optimism, and persistence.

Aspiring marketers should not compare themselves with experienced ones to prevent disappointment. The situation resembles an unfit runner competing with an Olympic athlete.

The bottom line is that it is simply unrealistic to expect returns without making an adequate investment.

Possible Solutions to Address This Issue

1 — Keep your expectations realistic.

2 — Don’t fall into easy money-making schemes.

3 — Affiliate marketing is not an easy-to-make-money scheme. It requires time and effort investment.

4 — Before joining an affiliate collaboration program, analyze critically and cross-check facts with diligence.

5 — Success depends on gradual progress with diligence, commitment, and persistence.

3 — Methodical Errors

There are different methods to leverage the power of digital affiliate marketing. As I started affiliate marketing before the digital age, I developed a unique method based on traditional principles.

My method does not suit beginners as it is different. For example, I don’t use writing platforms to attract consumers. I have better ways that I developed over the years. The prominent one is my mailing list, which is categorized in consumer profiles.

I don’t sell computer architecture to pet owners or gardening enthusiasts.

Beginners need to leverage the public networks to grow their mailing lists. Leveraging public networks is essential for beginners.

From my experience and observations, creating passive income from affiliate marketing does not seem feasible unless each marketer develops a reasonable mailing list.

In short, from a methodical aspect, a writer, blogger, podcaster, or YouTuber with 100 followers and 100,000 followers needs different approaches.

Possible Solutions to Address This Issue

1 — Start small with a few compelling products in your niche area.

2 — Gradually add more products in relevant fields.

3 — Develop your mailing list using public networks such as writing platforms and social media.

4 — Consider creating multiple landing pages on your websites to grow your mailing list.

5 — Learn about the marketing and sales funnels.

4 — Impatience and Inconsistency

Every job and career requires patience and consistency.

It is not possible to grow a business with impatience and inconsistency. Digital affiliate marketing is a job and a career for some people.

Therefore it requires a professional approach. Without investing time and effort, it is impossible to succeed.

Possible Solutions to Address This Issue

1 — Start small and be patient to see the results of each iteration.

2 — Create a master plan and several tactical plans.

3 — Measure progress objectively and subjectively.

4 — Be flexible in adjusting the master plan with tactical moves as required.

5 — Act with consistency to remain credible.

5 — Lack of Credibility, Influence, and Trust

This is the most challenging and involved pattern from my observations.

Let’s be honest! Would you purchase products from people you don’t know and trust?

For example, if a product with the same price is offered by two people, one from a person you know and trust and another is a stranger.

Let’s assume both sell the same product on the websites that you have access to. Which one would you select? The answer is obvious.

As I mentioned in this chapter, creating trust and credibility is an essential success factor in digital affiliate marketing.

Creating trust and maintaining credibility takes time. It requires diligent, consistent, and persistent effort.

Possible Solutions to Address This Issue

1 — Start with products and services you are hundred percent comfortable advertising.

2 — Choose products you have hands-on experience with.

3 — Provide an honest representation of products showing both pros and cons with neutrality.

4 — Avoid using superlatives in your descriptions like “the best”, “the most”, “the least”, “superb”, “magnificent”, “incredible”, “guaranteed”, “panacea”, “phenomenal”, and “magical”.

5 — Keep neutrality and provide credible statements using established norms based on your experience, interactions, observations, and previous customer testimonials.

Ten Best Practices of Affiliate Marketing

Apart from educating yourself and gaining skills by experimenting, you may consider the following ten principles I accumulated over decades.

1 — Learn about your stakeholders, including merchants, partners, and consumers.

2 — Improve your knowledge of products and services you advertise

3 — Create your brand with quality and consistent delivery.

4 — Increase and use a variety of products and services gradually.

5 — Understand the legal and ethical requirements.

6 — Track your traffic and earnings.

7 — Leverage SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media tools.

8 — Don’t overwhelm customers with too many demands (e.g., prevent spammy approach like posting emails to subscribers everyday).

9 — Invest your time and effort systematically.

10 — Keep a growth mindset with optimism, passion, empathy, and compassion for consumers.

Final Words

I hope these best practices resonate with you.

You might find the details of these points in my book freely available on this platform in article format in 25 short chapters.

The book might sound boring for beginners, but I intentionally wrote this book in simple language with not much entertaining style to appeal to a broader audience who need facts rather than entertainment.

You might leave comments on each chapter to elicit feedback from me as the author and collaborative reader.

So far, I have only used a few affiliate links to give examples to my audience, as I don’t plan to do affiliate marketing through my writing.

I mainly use my customized mailing lists compiled over the years via various consulting, education, speaking, and writing engagements.

However, there is nothing wrong with adding affiliate links to your content on writing platforms. The best practice is to declare them to remain ethical. For example, I guided writers in the attached article.

I hope this piece provides valuable perspectives to my readers.

If you need clarification on any point and have questions on digital affiliate marketing, please feel free to leave your questions in the comment section. I’d be delighted to respond as my time allows.

Digital affiliate marketing is a profession to earn our living and lifestyle. The compelling aspect of digital affiliate marketing is generating passive income.

Writers can triple their income by including affiliate marketing in their content marketing strategies and goals.

To conclude, from my experience the key success factors are an open mind, optimism, education, curious experimentation, flexibility, commitment, diligence, persistence, empathy, and collaborative spirit.

Generating passive income from writing might look simple, but it is not easy. Yet, it is possible with the right mindset. If you are willing to work hard and smartly with an open mind and optimistic approach, you can create a successful passive income stream from your content.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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