Common mistakes affiliates make and tricks on how to fix them

What mistakes should you avoid as an affiliate

Affiliates struggling to earn a few dollars every month have a hard time to believe that some affiliates can earn as much as $10,000 or even $100,000 a month in commissions, so some of them don't make the common mistakes that 95% of affiliates make.

Believe it. Big commissions do happen. An affiliate selling pills made $24,000 last may. The top 10 affiliates in a financial affiliate program make an average of over $14,000 each, every month and you know what last august their average was $18,000. And you can expect to hear about even bigger commissions.

Forrester Research predicts that affiliate programs and affiliate networks will represent 20%, or $53 billion, of e-commerce sales by 2005.

In most programs, 5% of the affiliates generate the vast majority of the sales. If you're not in that 5% and want to be, you'll have to change what you're doing.

Before we get into the 12 common mistakes you could be making, and how to fix them. Let's take a look at this small but very important story:

Pets.com: Branding Goes to the Dogs
By Daniel Janal

The recent demise of Pets.com offers important points about building a brand on the Internet for businesses of all sizes.

Let's recap their story.

Pet.com entered a crowded playing field of startups that wanted to sell pet food, supplies and toys to price-conscious pet owners. The field also included bricks and mortar stores, like Petsmart.

Pets.com needed to stand out from the crowd. They did an admirable job by creating a lovable character, the sock puppet and a catchy slogan to answer the question of why shop at an online pet store: "Because pets can't drive."

They spun a good PR story about the creation of the sock puppet. They said their marketing team created a six-page bio of the character that included gender, age, personality and other traits.

They spent a fortune on TV ads that featured the sock puppet, whose sassy style did a great job in differentiating the company from others.

That's good branding.

As a result, pets.com was:

-The leader in the online pet category
-An award winning site, as rated by Gomez.com
-Highest number of unique visitors in the category according to Media Metrix, Nielsen/Net Ratings and PC Data Online
-Counted 570,000 people as customers

Yet, as the company noted in its press release "we are unable to continue operations."

But it obviously wasn't enough.

What went wrong?

You can't build a brand on a bad business plan. Sure, a lot of people own pets and they want to spend less money on pet food. But can any market support dozens of companies with the same business plan? The story of Pets.com tells us a resounding, "no!"

Pets.com lost because they failed to learn an important rule:

In a product area where the retailer adds no extra value, Pets.com was doomed to disaster the day the first wave of competitors came along.

That's because if you plan to build a company by offering discounts, you will lose to the next company that comes along and offers a bigger discount. If the field is crowded, go elsewhere! Your chances of winning are slim.

The cost per customer acquisition by companies like Pets.com is about $80. There's no way you make that back when you sell a product with a paper-thin margin - and have 10 other competitors doing the same.

It's no wonder why Wall Street has punished dot-com look-alikes this year.

Pets.com teaches us that strong brand assets can help a company gain visibility and awareness in a crowded field. But Pets.com also teaches us that if you build a brand on a shaky foundation (i.e. business plan), you are doomed. That's why I predict that some toy company will buy the sock puppet assets and turn him into a major cartoon character. Move over Barney!

The real lesson: You can only win if you add real value that customers can't get anywhere else.

That's the essence of building a good brand on the Internet. The clever logo, the sassy character, the cute slogan are merely brand assets that help to build the brand. But so are the business plan, the competition and the realities of the marketplace.

Dan is an internationally-recognized speaker and marketing expert who teaches Internet Marketing at executive level conferences sponsored by Stanford University and University of California Berkeley Extension. He is also the author of the definitive guide to online branding, "Branding the Net: Your Personal Blueprint for Profits on the Web" and several best-selling books on marketing and the Internet. He was also a key player in the PR teams that launched America Online and Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia.

Go to Dan's site and take the psychic marketing quiz that will "freak you out." Click below. Branding the Internet
 

1. Are you telling people how to make money on the Internet when you don't know how yourself?

Perhaps – just perhaps – you can succeed at doing this, but it's the most obvious trap into which new affiliates fall. You join a few affiliate programs and set up a site offering Internet marketing tips, work-from-home tips, instant-business tips, or be-your-own-boss tips.

The advantages of doing this include having great products to promote, high commissions and lots of help from Internet marketers.

However, if you do this, you face two gigantic challenges.

1. You'll have hundreds of thousands of web pages out there, just like yours, competing with yours.

2. You're competing with the planet's best marketing EXPERTS. Some of the brightest brains in Internet marketing are working full-time to grab the attention of your target audience.

I'm not saying you can't succeed in this field, but if you're new to affiliate programs, this is definitely NOT the best place to begin. If you're struggling, find a less well traveled path.

You don't have to abandon your existing web site. Just launch a new one based on a new theme with a different concept. Later, when you've learned more and really have something to offer, it will be time to revamp your marketing tips web site.

If you want an idea for a product to promote, here's one.

You could promote the new book Make Your Net Auction SELL! which tells people how to make a great income from Internet auctions. They don't even need a web site.

Sure, you'll have some competition, but it's not TOO lively.

Here's an indication: The top spot for the key phrase "Internet auctions" costs only 21 cents per click on GoTo.com today. In comparison, the keyword "marketing" costs $1.11.

Choose a new theme. Try a new niche.

2. Are you promoting the PROGRAM instead of the PRODUCT?

Over and over again, affiliates join a two-tier affiliate program and then start telling other people to join it. What you're doing actually is you're working like an MLM member trying to build his organisation.

You can try this technique, but don't pin all your hopes on it.

Unless you're really skilled at signing up key people in key places, or know how to sign up many thousands of affiliates, you're not likely to get rich on second-tier commissions. The reason is simple, you're only signing people in, not customers, so you end up with a huge membership with no money.

The people you sign up will tend to copy you and try to sign up more people... Whoops! That sounds like the worst aspects of multi-level marketing. As I said who's going to actually SELL something and earn commissions?

There was a report saying that Allan Gardyne's success with the SiteSell affiliate program was due to the fact that he's signed up thousands of sub-affiliates.

That suggestion was just a silly guess – and it's utter rubbish.

Only a tiny percentage of the thousands of dollars he earns each month from SiteSell is from second-tier commissions. He succeeds because he sells the PRODUCTS. They're incredibly good value, he believes in them, and he succeeds by telling people so.

Here's proof that "affiliate programs" is a tough, competitive field.

Try typing "affiliate programs" into Google. You're competing with 815,000 other pages(). Try the phrase without the quotation marks and you're competing with 1,790,000 other pages.

Promote the PRODUCTS.

3. Are you using banners instead of endorsements?

I know. It takes time, effort and money to buy and study the product you're trying to sell. It's much easier just to cut and paste a bit of HTML code. However, personal, enthusiastic endorsements out-sell everything else by miles.

If you put in the effort, you'll get the sales. You can probably quadruple your sales by endorsing the products you sell.

You can also combine graphics, text, short descriptions and relevant articles. Here's an example: Cynthia Arko's KidsTownDirect. Best of all are your own, original personal endorsements.

Write honest, enthusiastic endorsements.

4. Are you failing to capture e-mail addresses?

If you don't collect addresses, your marketing effort is a one-shot wonder. You're making only one attempt per visitor to achieve a sale and then giving up.

As branding expert Rob Frankel says, people like buying from people they know, like and trust. (That's why, when I already receive far too many newsletters, I've just paid $18 to subscribe to FrankelTips because I know, like and trust Rob and expect him to deliver valuable content.)

If you're not giving people a chance to get to know and trust you, don't be surprised if they don't buy.

If you're not collecting e-mail addresses, you're seriously crippling your marketing. Remember how the big dot-coms poured buckets of money into banner advertising and TV advertising? Now they've finally realized that collecting e-mail addresses is much better value.

It's getting harder and harder to do, because we're all deluged with spam and newsletters which don't provide the information we need. So get started now, before the competition becomes even stronger.

You may not want the commitment of publishing a weekly newsletter. Perhaps you don't believe you have the necessary skills. One option is to simply offer a monthly Update newsletter, telling people what's new on your site.

Perhaps you don't like the thought of being tied to a weekly or monthly publishing schedule. You don't have to be. You can publish irregularly, only when you feel you have something worth saying – or selling.

If you want a non-nonsense, no-hype guide to newsletter publishing, I highly recommend Ezine Adrenaline: How to Create, Publish and Market A Profitable E-zine on the Internet by Kate Schultz. It tells you all the stuff you need to know.

Build an opt-in e-mail list.

5. Do you have visitors but no sales?

Some affiliates complain that they receive thousands of visitors but can't turn those visitors into buyers. To them, I usually recommend re-reading Ken Evoy's article on pre-selling. Studying that article and implementing Ken's suggestions could have a huge impact on your sales.

Here's another fascinating, useful article.

Donald Skarzenski reports on a company which bought a MILLION visitors but – whoops! – hadn't first taken the time to figure out what to do with them. It's a tale of stupidity on a grand scale. Donald explains what the company should have done:

http://www.digitrends.net/marketing/13639_15229.html

Learn how to PRE-sell.

6. Are you doing the same tired old things over and over?

It's time to try something new.

If you keep repeating actions which fail, you'll continue failing. If what you're doing isn't working well, it's time to change it, to move out of your comfort zone and try something new.

Here's something you can do. You can syndicate your columns or tips all over the Net to other web sites. Imagine how that would boost your image, your traffic and your sales.

Each web site publishing your column simply puts two lines of JavaScript code on its page at the location where your column is to appear.

All you do is paste your column into a Syndicator form and click a button. That one button click automatically updates all syndicated web site pages.

You don't even have to create the script. Acclaimed CGI expert William Bontrager has done that for you.

You can learn how to syndicate your content here.

Try new techniques.

7. Are you building a business on a foundation of sand?

Are you promoting questionable products and services in the hope of earning high commissions?

Or are you building something of VALUE? Are you creating a business you're proud of?

Even if it's a small site, build a USEFUL, strong web site, one which provides valuable information and helps people. Not only will this give you a great sense of achievement, it will do wonders for your marketing.

If you build a site or write a newsletter which helps people, your readers will do a lot of your marketing for you.

They really will.

I love it when I see my sites mentioned on other web sites, in newsletters, in mailing lists and in books. I love it when web sites link to mine.

For example, Nathan Power is building a useful resource with PayPerClickSearchEngines.com , the first directory of pay-per-click search engines. Most of the links to it were created simply because web site owners like it and want to recommend it.

Ralph Wilson's http://www.WilsonWeb.com – a massive, valuable Internet marketing resource – earns links the same way. Such voluntary links are pure gold. People see the site recommended, visit it, and add a link on their site, and so on...

Such a site takes time to build but after a while momentum builds. If you're the expert in your niche, you'll be interviewed for articles in newsletters and books – and those articles will attract more interviews for more articles...

All those links and favorable mentions don't just boost your reputation and sales, they help boost your ranking in search engines such as Google.

Build something useful.

8. Are you selling ONLY other people's products?

It is possible to earn a living that way, but such successes are rare.

Create your OWN product. Then you can use affiliate programs for back-end sales. That works well because someone who has just bought a product is often in the mood for buying a second, complementary product.

When you create your own product, you control your destiny. You control how it is marketed. You control how much profit you make. Neil Shearing's newly revamped Internet Success Blueprint tells you how to do it, how to create an ebook, illustrate it, and sell it, with or without a merchant account. Neil describes, step-by-step, how he earns his living online.

If you need help with brainstorming to come up with an idea for your info-product, I highly recommend Make Your Knowledge SELL! which also lists hundreds of places to promote your ebook. It's fantastic value.

Create your own product.

9. Are you just SELLING instead of HELPING?

I hope you subscribe to John Audette's I-Sales Digest. It's an absolute MUST. There are many reasons for its success. One is that members of that commonity help each other in their posts to the mailing list.

John says that I-Sales Digest was the major force behind his success in building a multi-million-dollar business. The digest gives him an opportunity to build credibility, respect and trust while encouraging people to help others.

Is your web site or newsletter just selling, or is it helping people learn?

In his 138-page book, "Helpfulness Marketing: How to Charm Web Visitors to Buy and Buyers to Help You Sell!" Paul Siegel says that if you create a helpful, learning commonity you'll put people in the mood for buying.

His book may make you rethink how you do business.

The book doesn't contain affiliate links. It's just pure useful, helpful advice on how to build a commonity. And it's free until June 1.

All Paul asks in return is feedback.

You can get the book free here:
http://www.learningfountain.com/helpfulnessmarketing.htm

Help people learn.

10. Are you learning from mediocre sources?

Because conditions are changing so fast on the Net, you need to learn fast and grab the opportunities which exist now.

One way to save time is to learn from Internet experts. You won't make so many mistakes that way.

Learn from people who are earning a very good living from Internet marketing.

Neil Shearing persuaded 10 Internet experts – some of whom are earning millions of dollars – to reveal what it takes to make huge profits on the Internet. These aren't "magic bullets". They're valuable insights for serious business-building. They could change the way you do business and change your life.

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/diamonds/

Learn from experts.

11. Have you forgotten to add a dash of personality?

Have a look at Chris Pirillo's Libera Manifesto and the huge flood of responses .

Chris received that outpouring of support because he injects his personality into his writing (and because he's acknowledged as a hard-working expert in his field).

Too much of the Internet is cold and anonymous. Your web site visitors appreciate knowing that there's a real person running the site they're visiting.

Inject your personality into your site.

12. Are you failing to PLAN?

Don't buy a domain name and after that try to decide what to do with it.

Whoops! That's getting things backwards.

First you have to decide what you want to do. Here are three main options for affiliates. They all work.

Option 1: "Go where the money is," says the highly successful Marlon Sanders.

Do research on what is popular and sell that. Do a survey, find out what people want and sell it to them.

Want to know what's hot? Here's a really fast way. Keep an eye on Yahoo! Shopping – http://shopping.yahoo.com/ . Yahoo! has done lots of research and endless experimenting. It knows what sells.

Look at the "What's hot" list, where you'll find such things as digital cameras, MP3 players and Razor scooters.

Option 2: "Follow your passion," says Ken Evoy. Choose a topic in which you are passionately interested and build a site around that theme. That way, you'll enjoy what you're doing and derive a great deal of satisfaction from it. It won't seem like work.

"Everyone, absolutely EVERYONE, has a special interest... a passion," he says.

Having trouble choosing a topic? See Day 2 of Ken's free "Affiliate Masters" course. It shows you how to brainstorm your concept.

Option 3. Become passionately interested in something. Immerse yourself in all the little details about a topic and suddenly you'll become so absorbed that it's like a hobby, not a business.

That's what affiliate programs have become like for me. Perhaps for you it could be digital cameras.

If you become passionately interested in products which are hot sellers with little competition, that's even better!

To learn how to find those HIGH PROFITABILITY topics and products, see Day 3 of the "Affiliate Masters" course.

To get the free course, just send a blank e-mail to tamsnovasa@sitesell.net

Plan first, set your goals, and then act.

If you need more help about common mistakes made by affiliates write to me at:

commonmistakes@novasa-affiliates.com

... and have fun.
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