27 Affiliate Fails. Or, How To Improve Ebook CTR and Online Commissions In 27 ways.

I dont like writing about affiliate fails. I used to but then I realised that honest people who spent money on XY and Z product have had limited success. I wondered why.

Sometimes the system is OK the problem comes with execution. A lot of people use ebooks for affiliate sales or they use ebooks to presell. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes, just sometimes the whole mix is just wrong.

With so much information online it is very hard to figure out what is the best route.

Do you do Adwords, articles, Facebook, other social media....argghhh!!

So most people dabble at one then dabble at something else. Nearly getting it but then stopping before the tipping point.

Most of the fails comes from not stopping, thinking and not pretending to be like your customer. We assume and we believe what people are telling us rather than looking at the evidence and stats that we have built up.

Searching online, through forums and posts I have collected the most common fails and questions answered on to why your affiliate direction just isn't working.

As a side note. Only 2% of affiliates in 2014 earned $10k/month. Around 50% of all affiliates earned around $50-100/week.

With those stats you wonder why people continue- or more imprtantly what is actually going wrong. I suspect that most affiliate fails are because people are going after the same thing. Hyped products that they think will convert well. They:

send articles to the same directories
links to the same directories
use the same vendor articles/ adwords
do a "is XYZ" a scam etc
product review (not necessarily a bad thing- but when everyone is giving the same product 5 stars?)

The unfortunate thing is that there are people working and writing and giving it their all. There is motivation, which is awesome. But sometimes, it is focused in the wrong direction.

27 Affiliate Fails

1. Using the same graphics as everyone else- especially on title pages and to carry an article forward. Graphics are meant to add something to your text. By applying stock gfx it can be nice and cool. But if your competitors get their hands on the same pics, then your site looks kinda samey. High quality and maybe even someone (similar to your customer profile) using the product would be more helpful

2. Using $97 or $47. The idea was based around a marketer that thought that $47 was good for their product. People then believed it was the best for all products. Not true. The only way to figure out if that price is good for your product is to test. Looking at your competitors might give you an overview, but who knows, they might not have a clue either

3. Never use “highly recommend” then a link. Doesn’t usually work. A full page of information is much better- then a friendly link of where they can get the product (with bonus?).

4. Using the vendors copy and placing it on your website, then the eager prospect clicks through and finds exactly the same copy. It subconsciously gives a red flag and a click away. The prospect clicks on the link- great CTR for you, but no sales. You then blame the vendor copy.

5. One of the top affiliate fails this. Not knowing what is inside the product. I am medically trained and some of the ingredients on bottles of potions and pills do not do the thing that the products states that it does. You might get a sale, but probably a one off one when the product doesn’t work. You can also talk with authority when comparing products. Sales people often get asked "why doesn't your product have this feature like XYZ product?". Sales people know how to handle this and come back with an honest answer.

6. If you are promoting a product through your email then you have to figure out who bought what and who didn’t. Some good business people thin down their list to differentiate people who bought an affiliate product and those that didn’t (list segmentation). I would get mighty annoyed if I bought the product that you promoted only for you to promote the same product to me again, again and then some more.

7. A paragraph to sell a $100 item might not cut it. The higher the price the better the selling you are going to have to do. Ask yourself: how on earth would I sell a $2k TV? How on earth would I sell a $350 camera? By articles? By links to your site? By text on your site? On the flip side of this, a a small article might be able to sell an ebook. The affiliate commissions on those might be small but if you can get enough people to buy, well it might be better in the long run- and also a continual stream of income.

8. Please question the reasoning behind the product you are going to sell. Most people go to Amazon to find a product. If you can somehow get in front of my searching, persuade me from using Amazon for most products, then hats off to you. If you can’t and it isn’t a product that most people would check Amazon for, then go for it. Amazon is becoming the “go to” place for shopping, bypassing the lone website. People don’t Google for some items anymore. Amazon has built that trust mechanism. However, people will look for issues on how to fix a variety of things, or look for groups of products in comparison.

9. An article on your website is much better than an article on an article directory.

10. If your website can not convert a shopper to buy something, Adsense it.

11. Don’t sell money making items if you can not back up the stats on what it did for you.

12. Only participate in a launch if you know your audience (who you have regular contact with) will love the product. Too much competition for all the free websites, article sites and Adwords will reduce your budget and time very quickly.

13. Only use email tools if you can, at the end of the year, pay for that service. Oh, and stop emailing me promotions every single time. And did I sign up to your email list when I bought a product…didn’t remember doing that.

14. If you are selling a real kick ass camera, highly likely then you are some pro right? Better conversions will come in if you can prove your product and what you do.

15. Find one product…then find anyway to promote that and to really be the sales person that you really are. Most of the affiliate fails come about because of a vast amount of products being promoted. If you can sell with one product you can do it with hundreds. One product is much easier and simpler than a directory of products or a “link wheel” system. The link wheel system only kicks in when all the links are healthy, not rusty. Oh, and Webmaster Tools only one site…kinda gives Google the heads up.

16. Not one person has emailed me on the digital products that I have bought. No follow up, no additional product, nothing. Nothing to say "hey, like the product? Can we help you?". Also make sure your product is available and links are working.

17. Does your link go to a page or a buy now button. “Click here for more details” should go to a page on more details. “Click here to buy” obviously means buy. How about both? Which one increases conversions? I don’t know, test. But don’t get in the way. If you believe that you have presold the customer, then lead them to a “buy now” button.

18. It has always bugged me when people buy a $300k dinner with Warren Buffet. Sometimes, if you are willing to spend that much money, you might have already made it. Same with some of the testimonials and sellers that you see. They make themselves all bling and then sell an ebook for $19 about a simple method for getting rich. The accounts don't match, so deep down I know you are going to try and sell me some higher priced product.

19. If you have cracked the code, if you have found the secret…why aren’t you giving your info away for free. Novel idea and against the grain. Sometimes you do not have to package your information to sell to gain a better audience or a legion of followers.

20. If your handle is “BigBux” or “Tons Of Cash” then, I have to admit, your credibility is iffy. Sorry but it is. Test to see which one gives you the better followers Maybe your name or a company name gets you more followers? I am unsure, sounds logical, but until you test you don’t know.

21. $10k/ month is a highly suspect figure- so is $9875/ month

22. “I make $500/week from Youtube” only really is warranted when you have a YouTube account, Youtube videos and more than 20 viewers per video.

23. “I am not a millionaire”…”I make $20k/month online passively!”…means that you are really poor at accounting and saving.

24. Tinyurls?…I don’t click on them. If you have a video though, allow me to find it easily- then the different parts within the video.

25. A lot of “gurus” left out one or two steps before they hit it big. Emulating them is hard work because you are not them (that is why the front page of this site has an iceberg as the main picture). Heck, in one Youtube video the speaker actually talks like a pro business person, by impersonating them, badly. Most of the comments are about the awful sound coming from this guys mouth.

I have studied most of the “gurus” that have recently appeared or have been around for years. They really do miss a ton of steps. Oh, and by the way, many if not all are not lone business people- they have a team. Every now and then they do mention the “team”.

26. If you use an affiliate forum and you are asking about how to affiliate market/ basics/ products to use etc, then don’t advertise that you make $X/ month affiliate marketing with a link in your signature text. Make sure that the advertisments match the destination and the text that you are "speaking".

27. Affiliates fails 101: If you are an affiliate marketer (which you are not, you are a sales person using the Internet as a sales vehicle) then I don’t want your website cluttered with info about affiliate marketing (what it is, articles etc). I want to see the products that you promote. I want to know about the brand that is you (if you are selling yourself as a brand). If you are as good as you are then you would have the products around you all the time. You would be proud of them and your name would be a synonym for cool products that people would enjoy and be helpful at the same time.

In a time where everything is samey, where privacy is quite high and trust low, I would love to know what some of my bookmarks are using. I would certainly trust their views and opinions rather than finding 14 different hosting packages on a page with all of them having 5 stars. What on earth are you using, why are you giving me all these packages?!?

Proof?:

Jeff Johnson (a veteran marketer of many a year passed) released a free version of the WP plugins that he used wrapped in a plugin. Simple, easy and downloaded a huge amount- by signing up to download. He got tons of newsletter subscribers for practically free.
My additional hosting was bought on the sole fact that Soundforge used the same one- and they showed people that they did.

Want more info on online eProduct selling? Check out the Jasonera blog.