Affiliate networks to Watch out for when promoting

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There are many horror stories about affiliate programs and networks. Affiliate networks to Watch out for when promoting, People have heard them over and over again, that some are even wary of joining one. The stories they may have heard are those related to illegal programs or pyramid schemes. This kind of market does not have an authentic, worthy product.

You do not want to be associated with these schemes. You want to be with a program that offers a high-quality product that you will readily endorse. The growing number of affiliates who joined and are succeeding is proof that there are reliable and quality affiliate programs out there.

Common Affiliate Mistakes to Avoid

As the handbook draws to a near end and closing publication, here are some hazard signs and dangerous waters you shouldn’t be treading on in the affiliate marketing scene! So listen up.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning money online. This program gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement, and pay a commission regularly, more and more people are now willing in this business.

However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost marketers a large portion of their profit every day. That is why it is better to avoid them than be regretful in the end.

1. Choosing the wrong affiliate market.

Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. It is the kind of product that the program thinks is “hot.” They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. It is not a very wise move.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try to choose a product in which you are genuinely interested. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.

Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if it is in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is more straightforward than promoting one for the sake of earnings only.

2.Joining too many affiliate programs.

Entering multiple programs to maximize earnings is very tempting since the affiliate market are easy to join. Besides, you may think there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining numerous programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

The result? You will not achieve your affiliate program’s maximum potential, and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you initially thought it would. The best way to get excellent results is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission. Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program.

The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking bright, and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a long time.

3. Not buying the product or using the service.

As an affiliate, your primary purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and find customers. To achieve this purpose, you must relay to the customers that particular product and service. It is therefore difficult for you to do this when you have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also forget to create a desire in your customers to avail yourself of your offering.

Try the product or service personally before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it delivers what it promises. If you have done so, you are one of the credible and living testaments aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel your sincerity and truthfulness in you, which will trigger them to try them out for themselves.

Many affiliate marketers make these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. To not fall into the same situation they have been in, try to do everything to avoid making the same mistakes.

4. Choosing a Bad Product to Promote

Not all products are created equal. That is probably the driving motivation behind your decision to sell affiliate products: for the most part, you have accepted that there are plenty of high-quality products already on the market; and, if you create your own, it might not compare favorably.

If you decide to pick your product off of a list on Clickbank, select it very carefully. Rather than haphazardly choosing the product with the highest commission, look for the ones that have the highest popularity and gravity ratings. If many people buy them often, they must be better than other products for sale within that niche.

In addition to picking good products within niches, you will also want to look for good niches. Here’s a stupid tip that will illustrate my point nonetheless: don’t sell garden hoses in the winter. No one will buy. Focus on products that many people want, and if their popularity just surged, now is the best time to get in the market.

5. Picking a Low Converter

As an affiliate marketer, your goal is to profit from the effort others have done; and the money they have spent on copywriters, product developers, and software. If you select a product that underutilizes these advantages, you are likely to benefit less.

Take, for instance, conversion rates. Not all product creators hire a top-notch copywriter. Many of them write their copy. Many also don’t hire someone to do graphs for the sales page. Instead, they try to do their own. The result? The page looks hideous, the copy contains significant errors, and the product converts poorly.

Before you start promoting any particular product, read the sales page carefully and compare it with others. Do you feel compelled to buy? Did the graphics throw you off? Did the copy fail to reel you in for the catch? These can amount to fatal errors for both the seller and you. You cannot help the seller at this point, but you can avoid his product and find a better one. Do yourself a favor: choose your products carefully.

6. Selling Snake Oil for a Snake Oil Salesman

This pitfall is critical to avoid if you have a list. All it takes is one erroneous product promotion, and you could end up with a mass exodus from your list. Again, don’t make this error.

Make sure you don’t buy into just anything, even though it is tempting to promote the next “biggest launch.” Several marketers have lamented their choices to endorse Rich Jerk’s latest offering after list members complain that his sales page is full of profanity and sexist comments. Don’t be one of these guys. Make sure you carefully inspect anything before you promote it to your list. Unless you happen to be the Rich Jerk, you probably don’t want people to think you’re just that—a rich jerk.

Additionally, avoid jumping on the affiliate product bandwagon for key promotions. Instead, wait until the buzz dies down slightly; and then release a comprehensive review (something most affiliate marketers do not provide) of the product. It has a much better chance of getting sales for you, and it will also help you maintain credibility.

Last, avoid promoting products that make outrageous and fallacious claims. As Carl Sagan once said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In most cases, these snake oil peddlers cannot provide you with any extraordinary evidence, but they do make the claims. Avoid promoting them and becoming associated with them.

Mistake number 7: Picking Products that Offer Meager Commissions

If you’re marketing to a list of people, select the ones you wisely promote because they’re only going to consider product offers in a given period, so. If you promote something that only generates a 25% commission for you, then you’re leaving a lot on time. In reality, you could probably find a similar product that offers a 50% or 75% commission.

In terms of the actual dollar value of the commission – don’t sweat that as much. While many top-name Internet marketers now say that they concentrate on promoting high-ticket items (since only a few sales will generate much money), you can still sell cheap products and make money. The rising popularity of the $7 account is a testament to this fact.

So avoid the cheap sellers, but don’t worry as much about the price.

8. Failing to Collect Leads

Always, always, always capture leads. Rather than generating traffic through pay-per-click, search engine optimization, and other methods and then sending that traffic to your affiliate link, you should make an effort to convert them into list members first. Why? Two reasons: simple mathematical reasoning and the collective experience of many marketers.

The simple mathematical reasoning goes something like this: virtually everyone who would have purchased the product will opt into your mailing list. And many who definitely would not have bought the product will opt into your mailing list.

You will convert between 15 and 40% of visitors to your mailing list instead of translating at a rate of around 1-3% in affiliate sales. From there, you will get the chance to contact the willing buyers and the more reluctant ones. Additionally, once they’re on a list, this is no longer a one-off effort. You get the chance to market to them again and again for months or even years.

As a marketer, one of the best tools you have available in your list. Always, always, always use your list over the one-off sale.

9. Ignoring the Importance of Timeliness

In business in general, the quick often outcompete those endowed with more significant resources. Today, Google is no longer a small company with meager revenues, but in the past, it emerged from nowhere to outcompete massively well-endowed rivals; and it did so with cunning.

How does this apply to you? Successful affiliate product promotion requires you to do more than simply slap an affiliate link in an email and send it out to a couple of thousand people. If you expect them actually to buy, your email should be newsworthy – not promotional.

You are far more likely to draw interest if you can genuinely write your email as if it were a news announcement than if you send a link to an Internet marketing e-book written in 1998 and wasn’t particularly popular then.

You need to find product launches that qualify as an “event.” Find something so big that people follow the event and comment on it. If you can find such a product (say, the iPhone of Internet marketing products), it is critical that you engineer your build-up and release, centered on the buildup and release of the product. You will want to make sure that your list members purchase from you rather than from another list owner.

To make it short and sweet: pay attention to the clock and the calendar. If there’s a big launch coming up, you need to capitalize on it quickly. There may not be a second window for opportunity. So take it when you have it.

10. Ignore Important Numbers

Many affiliate marketers fail to make many small—yet necessary— calculations needed to run a business and ensure you profit. For instance, many affiliate marketers will completely ignore the portion Clickbank extracts from each sale. Instead, they’ll simply look at the price and the commission.

Additionally, many will ignore conversion rates, pay-per-click bids, and the amount of time they put into projects. They’ll also fail to make realistic estimates of how much promotional efforts will cost; and how much of a risk they’ll be. They’ll glaze over all of these minor details and devote the majority of their time to daydreaming about the riches they will rake in.

Unfortunately, affiliate marketing doesn’t work like that. If you’re paying too much for traffic; if your conversion rates are too low; if you put too much time into projects that don’t have high yields – the outcome is terrible. Your numbers won’t add up, and at the end of the day, month, or year, you may end up in debt rather than profit. And since you’re a sole proprietor, not a CEO of a corporation, that means you don’t get paid at all. Even worse, you might lose some of your own money that you worked hard to get.

Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if you are on the right track. If done correctly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits.