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Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes Part 1
Written by Charles Mburugu for Gaebler Ventures
Affiliate Marketing is a powerful and effective way to earn a living online. Through affiliate programs, everyone has an opportunity to make a profit on the internet. Most affiliate marketing programs are easy to join and pay a commission on a regular basis. This has resulted in many people joining this promising business venture. What are the common mistakes made by affiliate marketers?
There are pitfalls associated with the Affiliate Marketing business. These mistakes are costly and may result in huge losses if not rectified or avoided.
Selecting the wrong affiliate products
Many people want to make money from affiliate marketing as quickly as possible. In their rush to make money in the shortest time, they are likely to choose a product that they think is a 'hot' item. The affiliate marketer chooses the product in demand before considering if the product appeals to them. This is not wise. Instead, you should select products which you truly have an interest in. For any venture to prosper, it needs time for planning. Choose a product that interests you, research about it and find out if they are in demand. Pick a product that you will promote with a passion.
Not using the service or buying the product
As an affiliate, your work is to market a service or product convincingly an effectively and find customers. To effectively recommend and promote any service or product, you must be able to explain to customers its benefits. A common mistake of affiliate marketers is that they do not try the service or product. Hence, they are unable to recommend or promote the service or product convincingly. Before signing up as an affiliate, try the service or product personally and determine if it delivers what it promises. Using the service or product personally enables you to credibly promote its benefits and advantages. Your prospects will sense your sincerity and are likely to purchase.
Focusing only on non-viral marketing strategies
Viral marketing is a very effective way to raise awareness about a service or product. It especially comes in handy when sending a message to many people. Many affiliate marketers fail to use viral marketing and pay the price in poor sales. As an affiliate marketer, you should exploit all strategies for finding customers as this will into more profit for you. Using viral marketing builds a huge customer base, and more profit.
Disposable customers
Finding prospects and convincing them to avail or purchase the service or product is hard work. However, what happens after the customer buys the product or service? Should you that customer be disposed of? That would be a big mistake. The wise thing to do is to retain that customer for promotion of new offers. Find a way to save their email address so that you can reach them in future. Building a customer list is one of the best strategies of increasing profit.
Joining excessive affiliate programs
For many affiliates, joining multiple affiliate marketing programs seems wise since it may provide multiple sources of income. However, the disadvantage is that being in many programs may hinder you from giving each program full attention. This means that the potential of the programs will not be achieved and the income will be disappointing. To get excellent results, join a program that pays at least 40% commission and promote it enthusiastically. When you start making a good profit, then you may join another program.
Charles Mburugu writes for us from his home in Nairobi. He has a graduate degree in Business Management from Kenya Institute of Management. He is interested in writing about branding, CSR and intellectual property.
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