OK, Let’s talk about affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid. I have seen many affiliates make these common mistakes and that is why I feel it’s crucial that we address them. Of course, just like any other business, in affiliate marketing, there will be hits and misses but if we can avoid these common mistakes, I think we can scale our business to the highest level.

Affiliate marketing business mistakes to avoid. One of the biggest mistakes I have noticed is writing for SEO, now, although it’s very important to make sure your content is search engine optimized, you must also keep in mind that you are writing for real people, you are not writing for robots.

Writing For Robots, Remember Its Real People Who Are Reading Your Articles

You really don’t have to use titles that don’t make sense just because you want to target keywords, the funny thing is even Google itself tells you what people are actually asking and what they are actually typing in the search bar. In my opinion, the best keyword you can find is found in the “people also asked” section.

This is Google telling hey if you can create an article answering these questions, we are going to reward you. So why not take a few of those questions, and don’t change the wording and just create articles answering those questions, and make sure you answer them in-depth.

Using Pre Written Content From The Merchants Websites

If you are reviewing a product, and you opt to use the pre-written articles that are found on the merchant’s website, then your articles are not going to perform very well on Google because actually, Google does not like thin content.

Actually affiliate sites that use copied articles and product descriptions straight from the merchant’s websites, are described by Google as causing frustration to users, and do you think Google will want to send users to websites that will cause them frustration and poor user experience? I don’t think so. If you would like to understand Google’s guidelines for Affiliate websites, then I think this article will be very helpful to you, click here to read it.

Becoming A Sales Person Instead Of Helping People And Offering Information

I have noticed one thing when people get what they want, they will in return give you what you want. What I mean is, if you offer helpful information, and recommendations, without pushing people to buy, they will buy. I am saying not to add a call to action? No but I think it’s wise to do it in moderation.

If your every other word is bought now, click here to buy, people are going to get annoyed, and actually, it might affect the trust factor, I mean when you talk to people, they are not interested in what you are going to gain, they are asking what is in it for me? what am I going to gain by clicking your link, what benefits am I going to get? So I think, when you are creating content, you should have your reader/viewer in mind.

Address their problem, be relatable, tell them how you also had that same problem, and not tell them how to solve that problem, by recommending the product, educate them about the product, then you can add a call to action.

Affiliate Marketing Mistakes To Avoid Not Doing Enough Research On The Products You Are Reviewing

One of the questions beginner affiliates ask is “do I have to purchase every product that I intend to review?” It will be difficult to purchase every single product you review, not to mention quite costly. You can review products that you haven’t personally used, but it requires lots of research.

When someone is coming to your website, they are probably looking for as much information about the product as possible so they can make an advised decision. That means, they need to get a feeling that you know what you are talking about, and in order for you to know what you are talking about, you must do lots of research.

I remember once I was reviewing a product that I had to do lots of research about, it took me about three days, I even had to contact someone who I knew had been using the product and I had to speak to them and take notes. After taking notes I went online and continued with my research and in the end, I came up with a great review.

Trashing Other People’s Products So Yours Can Come On Top

I actually just posted a video on Tiktok, and Clapper about this very topic. I don’t think this way of doing business is the right way, and I have seen many affiliates especially those reviewing digital products like online courses make this mistake. It’s not right to trash other people’s products, especially if the products are actually good.

As an affiliate you will do lots of reviews because Let’s be honest, the money is in the reviews, but just because you are not affiliated with a product, that does not mean the product is terrible, and that is why I said, you must research those products thoroughly before you talk about them.

If you come across a product that you think is as good as your product, or even better, then say so, or even get an affiliate link for it and start promoting it too. There is no limit to affiliate offers that you can promote on your website or YouTube channel.

Leaving Money On The Table

You must not leave money on the table, I see people doing a review of a product, and this happens a lot on TikTok. For example, I saw this lady who had just received a juicer from Amazon and she was unboxing. She showed us how it works, she told us the price, and the whole time I was thinking, this is a review.

When I went to her comment section, she had hundreds of comments people asking how to get it, and asking for a link, she simply told everyone to go to amazon and search for the name of the juicer, as an affiliate you can imagine my frustration.

I couldn’t help myself I had to tell her that she needs to sign up for amazon associates and get a shortened affiliate link, and actually going through her TikTok page I noticed she had done quite a few of those unboxing videos and no affiliate links.

Not Engaging With Your Audience

Any Business requires you to connect and engage with people, you cannot just dump information on people and not engage and address their questions. Also, it’s a good SEO practice to encourage people to comment on your articles or videos. you must make sure that the last comment on a post or video is your own.

And also make sure you are actually answering the comments as soon as they are left because you want to show the search engines that you are active on your website or YouTube channel, if a comment is left on your page and it takes you a week to answer, then that shows you are not active.

Making Unrealistic Claims Just To Entice People To Join

To be honest, this will come back to bite you, people don’t like being lied to. I have seen these tactics, and I think it’s a bad idea to lie to people. Just tell people the truth, give them the good, and the bad, and if there is an ugly give them that too, so they are well-informed before they join.

These days, when you mention making money online, people are very quick to label you with all kinds of labels and that is because there are people who have made make money online sound like curse words. The side hustle gurus have made things so bad for the rest of us because of the unrealistic claims and fake income reports, with fake screenshots.

This is why I don’t bother with income reports, all I can tell you is that I have been doing affiliate marketing seriously since 2018, and I would be a fool for putting that much time and effort if it doesn’t pay.

Choosing The Wrong Niche

If you choose a niche just because you think it will be profitable, yet you are not interested in the topic, you are going to get tired very quickly. Remember you are building a long-term business, so you must choose a topic that you will be able to talk about for a long time and you know that you will not get tired of reviewing products within that topic.

Choose something you are really interested in or even better, something you are passionate about.

Placing Affiliate Links On Every Page Of Your Website

Although the goal is to generate sales, having affiliate links on every single page of your website is a bad idea. In my opinion, it’s better to write reviews and then link those reviews to other posts. For example, Let’s assume you are writing a post about how to learn affiliate marketing, what you do is explain the process and then link a page that contains an affiliate course review.

This practice is called internal linking and it’s a good SEO practice, and remember you must also do external linking. External linking is when you link to a page that is not found on your website, usually, you would find a page on an authoritative website, to make your page credible.

For example, if you are writing about skincare, you can find a page on the vogue website that’s related to what you are talking about and link it, just make sure to open it in a new tab so your reader doesn’t go for good from your website.

Conclusion

Just like any other business, affiliate marketing comes with its own challenges, but if you can avoid these common mistakes, I think you will do just fine. Now, I really would like to read your comments on this topic, what do you think about my list? Are there affiliate marketing mistakes I left out?

Please share your views in the comment section.

Thank you for your time.

Rose.

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