7 Hidden Reasons Why Do Affiliate Marketers Fail
Written by: Wali Qasemi
Do you want to discover why most affiliate marketers fail?
In this article, you will learn the 7 hidden reasons that cause most affiliate marketers to fail in affiliate marketing.
If you fix these 7 golden principles correctly, your affiliate business will go from zero to millions quickly.
Let's Get Started...
Why Do Affiliate Marketers Fail?
I have been doing affiliate marketing since 2014.
Sadly, I failed in this beautiful business multiple times and lost a lot of money in the beginning.
I often wondered why so many people managed to make millions in this field while I struggled to recover my expenses.
I thought there were some secrets behind their success.
After months of learning and curiosity, I found the 7 hidden reasons that cause most people to fail in affiliate marketing.
I revealed each of these principles below, and if you apply them quickly, your affiliate business will grow unstoppably.
1. Not Choosing A Profitable Niche
What is a niche? A niche is a specific segment of a big market.
For example, digital marketing is a big market, but email marketing, a subset of digital marketing, is a niche.
Niche definition in Google Dictionary.
Health is a market, but diabetes is a niche because it's a specific segment of the health market.
What is a profitable niche?
A profitable niche is a specific market that a group of people is very interested in and is willing to spend money on.
For example, "weight loss for new moms" is a profitable niche because many new moms want to lose weight, search for solutions, and buy products like workout plans, supplements, or coaching.
Many affiliate marketers fail because they do not conduct proper market research to determine the profitability of their chosen niche.
They may select a niche with little to no market demand or one that is too broad and highly competitive, leading to their failure.
How To Choose a Profitable Niche?
Step 1: Select A Topic
Choose a topic that interests you the most.
It would be something that you are passionate about and have some knowledge or expertise in.
Step 2: Use Social Media
If you do affiliate marketing on social media, therefore, start market research on social media like Facebook and YouTube to validate your topic.
Go to Facebook and find at least 10-20 Facebook pages and groups with 5,000-10,000 followers related to your topic.
For example,
If your topic is diabetes, just type diabetes in the Facebook search bar, and you will find hundreds of pages and groups related to diabetes.
Follow the same market research for YouTube as well.
Enter your topic in the YouTube search bar and find 10-20 videos related to your topic.
Make sure each video got more than 50,000 views in the last 6 months to validate your topic for affiliate marketing.
Moreover, go deeper and find 10-20 YouTube channels related to your topic.
Step 3: Do A Google Search
Do you want to build an affiliate website or blog?
This step would be golden for you.
Enter "Best + topic + Blogs" in the Google search bar to find top blogs related to your niche.
For example,
1. Best Diabetes Blogs
2. Best Email Marketing Blogs
3. Best Tennis Blogs
4. Best Cooking Blogs
5. Best Weight Loss For Women Blogs
Find at least 10-20 blogs related to your topic and enter the domain URL of each in a keyword research tool like Semrush to see how much organic traffic they get per month.
If a blog gets more than 100,000 organic traffic per month, it indicates the popularity of your topic for affiliate marketing.
Repeat this criteria for each topic that you love the most until you find a demanded topic for your affiliate business.
2. Not Building An Email list
What is an email list?
It’s a list of subscribers who join your email list through your website, blog, and social media to receive your email newsletters or offers.
Affiliate marketers who fail don’t pay attention to building email lists; they promote an affiliate product directly with paid ads without capturing the leads.
They don’t know that email marketing has the highest return on investment, $36 for every $1 invested.
Moreover, they spend money on ads from time to time without a return on investment, but if you build a high-quality email list, you can promote affiliate products to your list without paying your hard-earned money on ads.
An email list is worth hundreds of times more than social media followers because it’s a real asset that is under your control, and no one can take it from you.
How to Build Your Email List?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your email list.
Step 1: Join an Email Marketing Software
Email marketing software is a system that helps you create an opt-in page, build your email list, create email automation, and manage your email list.
The nice thing about email marketing software is that it’s completely automated.
You just write as many emails as you want, and it sends them automatically to you.
There are many email marketing platforms to choose from, but not all of them are affiliate marketing friendly.
My favorite email marketing software is Systeme.io, and it’s perfectly fine for affiliate marketing businesses and list building.
Moreover, this software is free for managing 2,000 email contacts, which is very affordable for new affiliate marketers who don’t have much money to invest in expensive platforms.
Step 2: Build an opt-in page
What is an opt-in page?
It’s a webpage that allows you to capture people’s emails by giving them a freebie (lead magnet) to join your email list.
Such as an ebook, free membership, or course.
If you can write 1000 words about a topic related to your niche, that would be a good lead magnet to use on your opt-in page.
Just make sure it is valuable to your target audience and can solve their problems.
If you don’t have time to create a lead magnet, you can use AI software such as AI Book Writer software to create a high-quality ebook or free reports in minutes.
Step 3: Set up Automated Emails
Automated emails are a series of emails that are sent to email subscribers who join your email list.
It’s also called email follow-up sequences.
Normally I set up 10 automated emails in my autoresponder that consist of 7 content emails and 3 promotional emails.
The content email allows me to build relationships and trust with my new subscribers, and promotional emails help me to make sales.
Usually, I promote an offer after a few emails, and if I start promoting at the beginning of automated emails, it will look like sales, and the subscribers will not purchase it.
You can set up as many emails as you want, but make sure to send value-based emails first, then start promoting an offer.
Step 4: Drive Traffic
Traffic is the lifeblood of every online business, and without it you can not build your email list.
After building an opt-in page and setting up your automated emails, now it’s time to drive traffic to build your email list.
There are two main ways to generate traffic: paid ads or organic traffic.
Paid ads such as Facebook, Google Ads, or Solo Ads can help you to build your email list faster, but they require some advertising skills.
So, it would be a good idea to take an affiliate marketing course and learn step by step how to run ads effectively without wasting your money.
Secondly, you can build your email list for free using organic traffic, such as getting VISITORS from your website, blog, social media channels, etc.
Organic traffic takes time and consistency.
You should publish content consistently on these platforms and wait months and years to achieve results.
3. Lacking Copywriting Skills
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the science and art of persuading people through the power of written words to take a specific action.
Without good copywriting in an affiliate marketing business, you can not convince and encourage people to purchase a product.
Successful affiliate marketers are excellent at copywriting.
They use powerful words, emotional trigger techniques, facts, data, and social proof in their copies to motivate their target audience to take action.
How To Write Good Copy?
Step 1: Use power words
Power words are certain words that trigger emotions in the target audience and motivate them to take action.
For example, advanced, proven, step-by-step, breakthrough, top, new, now, free, secret, hidden, solution, system, discover, amazing, etc.
Using these words in your landing page, sales page, and email copy boosts conversions dramatically.
Step 2: Tell stories
Telling stories makes your message more engaging and memorable, especially if you share customer success stories.
People connect with emotions, and stories trigger feelings that help build trust and relatability.
Instead of just listing facts or features, a story shows how your product or idea solves a real problem.
It draws the reader in, keeps their attention longer, and makes your message stick.
Stories also break down complex ideas into simple, relatable experiences.
Step 3: Use Social Proof
Copywriters are skilled persuaders, and one effective method of persuasion is incorporating social proof into your copy, whether it's for sales pages, landing pages, or emails.
Social proof, such as testimonials, reviews, and success stories, adds credibility and fosters trust in your offer.
This approach helps your target audience believe in your product and recognize its value, ultimately boosting conversion rates and sales.
Step 4: Mention The Benefits
Instead of focusing on the features of your product, emphasize the benefits it offers and demonstrate how it can help customers overcome challenges or achieve desired results.
Features refer to the characteristics of your product, such as color, size, and capabilities.
While benefits explain how those characteristics improve your customers’ lives and solve their problems.
For example,
Rather than saying, "Our accounting course teaches you the basics of accounting,"
You could say, "Our accounting course provides advanced accounting skills that will make you an expert in your field."
4. Not Having Traffic Generation Skills
Traffic generation refers to the ability to run paid ads on social media platforms and search engines to drive traffic and generate leads.
Traffic is the engine of every affiliate business, and it’s the only thing that helps your business grow and make sales consistently.
Most affiliate marketers who fail are unable to drive traffic effectively on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google, etc.
How To Drive Traffic Effectively?
Here is a step-by-step guide that can help you to drive traffic for your affiliate business, generate leads, and build your email list.
Step 1: Learn Running Ads
Take a proven affiliate marketing course like Perpetual Income 365 to learn how to run ads effectively.
This system will teach you step-by-step how to create campaigns and target the right audience to generate leads while minimizing the cost.
Moreover, it teaches you how to create a landing page, a thank you page, and persuasive copies to turn visitors into leads and buyers.
Step 2: Choose One Advertising Platform
Pick one advertising platform first and become an expert at it. Never start running ads on multiple platforms at once.
Because every platform requires its own technical and conversion optimization skills, and you will not be able to master all of them.
So, select one advertising platform and learn how to run ads effectively to drive traffic to your landing page or affiliate offer until you become an expert at it.
Step 3: Start With a Small Budget
Begin with a small advertising budget; don’t invest all your money in ads at once, as this carries a high risk.
You won’t know if your offer or landing page converts well until you test it.
Start with an initial budget of $10 or $20 to evaluate your ad campaign's performance. If you achieve an optimal conversion rate, gradually increase your spending.
Utilize persuasive copywriting to enhance your conversion rate. If your copy fails to capture people's attention, they are unlikely to engage with your ads.
Step 4: Follow the advertising Rules And Guidelines
Every advertising platform has its own advertising rules and guidelines. So, don’t violate their ads policy because they will ban your accounts.
My Facebook advertising account was suspended multiple times in 2019 due to policy violations as a new affiliate marketer.
I appealed to the Facebook support team to unban my ad accounts, but they rejected it. So, I suggest you read the advertising rules and guidelines before running ads.
Step 5: Always Drive Traffic to an opt-in page
Always direct traffic to an opt-in page to generate leads, rather than running ads directly to an affiliate offer, which can be expensive.
This method helps you to build your email list, which helps you to promote affiliate offers from time to time without paying for ads permanently.
Other terms for opt-in pages are "lead magnet funnel, squeeze page, and landing page.
5. Not Building Strong Relationships
Another reason you might fail in affiliate marketing is not building strong relationships with your audience.
Building a strong relationship with your audience involves consistently providing valuable content and actively responding to their likes and comments on social media platforms.
Sharing the latest news or information with your target audience is essential to keep them engaged with your content.
I often search Google for trending news and topics to share with my email list, as sharing new information tends to delight my subscribers.
Additionally, I encourage my email subscribers to share their questions and concerns by replying to my emails, and I am more than happy to address them individually.
This approach strengthens my relationship with my subscribers, which ultimately helps boost sales whenever I promote an offer to them.
Whether you’re engaged in affiliate marketing on social media or a blog, aim to be a problem solver for your target audience to help them improve their lives or businesses.
Responding quickly to comments and likes not only fosters engagement but also helps social media algorithms promote your page to a wider audience.
Once you establish a strong connection with your email list or target customers, they are more likely to purchase an affiliate product when you promote it.
6. Promoting Low-Quality Affiliate Products
Choosing low-quality affiliate products from affiliate networks or other sources on the web can cause your affiliate business to fail.
If you've chosen the right niche, used effective copywriting, and focused on driving high-quality traffic, but you're still not making sales, it could be because you are promoting low-quality affiliate products.
A low-quality affiliate product typically has poor sales page copy, a high refund rate, negative reviews, and underperforming sales.
For instance,
If the sales page lacks a catchy headline and engaging body copy and fails to include authentic customer testimonials, potential buyers may not trust the product enough to make a purchase.
How to Choose a High-Quality Affiliate Offer?
Step 1: Look for the Number of Sales
When selecting an affiliate offer, it's important to consider the number of sales, as this reflects the product's market performance.
If a product has sold between 2,000 and 3,000 units, it indicates that consumers are already interested in it, making it a worthwhile option to promote.
You can check the number of sales in affiliate networks like ClickBank and JVZoo. Moreover, you can contact the product owner to provide the sales details.
Step 2: Check the Sales Page Copy
When reviewing the sales page of an affiliate product, ensure that it features high-quality, well-crafted copy.
Look for catchy headlines and subheadlines, engaging storytelling, appealing visuals, and genuine customer testimonials; these elements are indicators of a high-converting sales page.
If a sales page has a strong headline and compelling body copy but lacks real customer testimonials, I avoid promoting that product altogether.
Step 3: Look for Refund Rates
Check the refund rates of the affiliate product. The lower, the better.
I prefer to choose an affiliate product when its refund rate falls between 5% and 10%. This indicates that out of 100 buyers, only 5 to 10 return the product, which is a positive sign.
Most affiliate networks, including ClickBank, JVZoo, DigiStore24, and WarriorPlus, provide the refund rates for each affiliate offer.
Step 4: Look for Customer Reviews
A customer review is a short comment or rating that a person writes after buying and using a product or service.
It shares their honest opinion to help others decide whether it's worth buying.
If an affiliate product has numerous positive reviews, it suggests that the product is of high quality and has already gained customer approval.
So, you can promote that product through affiliate marketing channels and start making commissions.
7. Not Providing Valuable Content
What is valuable content? It’s a piece of information that your target audience needs to solve a problem or improve an area of their lives.
Content is the primary reason people choose to follow you on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
If you fail to provide valuable content to your audience, they are likely to unfollow you on social media and search engines, which can lead to failure in affiliate marketing.
For instance, if you constantly send promotional emails to your subscribers, it may come across as overly sales-driven, and as a result, your subscribers might begin to unsubscribe from your list.
How to Provide Valuable Content?
1. Informational Content
Sharing informative content enables your target audience to expand their knowledge and learn something new.
Additionally, share the latest news and research in your niche to help them resolve specific issues through how-to guides.
I search Google all the time, and when I find something new, I share it with email subscribers quickly.
2. Share Success Stories
Share the story of a satisfied customer who used the product or service that transformed their life or solved their problems.
Narratively describe their life before and after using the product, highlighting the pain points and struggles they faced prior to discovering the product or service.
Success stories like these are typically available on the sales page of most affiliate products.
3. Answer A Common Question
Answer the most frequently asked question in your niche. For example, how to lose your belly fat without cutting calories.
This type of content is really interesting if you do affiliate marketing with social media or email marketing.
4. Review A Product
Review a product or service in your niche in detail. Discuss its features, functions, and pricing.
Provide expert advice and share the pros and cons with your target audience. If you believe the product is not worth purchasing, make sure to inform your audience about it.
5. Live Videos or Webinars
Go live on your Facebook page or group and share tips, teach strategies, answer questions, and offer helpful resources.
You can host a webinar for your target audience or email subscribers, cover an important topic, and answer their questions.
Make sure to share the exact date and time of the webinar with your email list and inform them one hour prior to the webinar.
Conclusion
I revealed the 7 hidden reasons why most affiliate marketers fail.
I suggest you fix each reason to become successful in your affiliate marketing business.
Those are the only secrets that allow you to make sales consistently with your affiliate business.
Do you want to discover the #1 Digital Asset for affiliate marketing? Download my free book here...
About Me...
Hey, I'm Wali Qasemi, an email marketing expert and active affiliate marketer. I have been in the digital marketing space since 2014. I will help you make money online using only your email address. Read More...
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