Using Google Suggest (aka autocomplete) to spot some of the most popular affiliate marketing-related questions, we see 5 questions score particularly high. I’ve answered them all in my previous blog posts and articles, and today I’ve decided to put them together into an easy-to-use compilation.
1. What is affiliate marketing?
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing, whereby affiliates promote a merchant’s product/service and get remunerated for every sale, visit, or subscription sent to the merchant.
2. Who are affiliates?
Not to be confused with any of the traditional business or legal definitions, “affiliate” (especially when used in conjunction with “marketer”) is an independent marketer who may choose to promote a business, and be paid on performance-based basis. Read this post for further details.
3. How to define super affiliate?
I like to define super affiliates in terms of the following three characteristics: (1) maturity, (2) potential, and (3) income. More in the “Super Affiliate — My Definition” post of mine.
4. What is the best affiliate program?
For a full answer to this one see both my answer to the “What is the Best Affiliate Program?” question, and my “Most Profitable Affiliate Marketing Niches” post.
5. Why affiliate marketers fail?
This is an extremely important question. I believe that there are 5 main reasons why people fail at affiliate marketing: (1) lack of education, (2) laziness, (3) lack of persistence, (4) failing to diversify, (5) not testing.
I hope my answers will help both newer and seasoned affiliate marketers. As always, your comments are heartily welcomed.
Adding another reason if I may, Geno. Promoting too many programs (and not earning much at any of them) is another reason some affiliates don’t succeed. It can be tempting to join a lot of programs and quickly put up promos instead of taking the time to get to know one program at a time, learn about it’s products/services so as to understand how to effectively promote them before going on to the next program.
Yes, I guess, I can see where you’re coming from, Erin. It will be different for different affiliates, but having a clear focus (be it merchant-specific, niche-specific, deal-specific, etc) has never hurt anyone.
Hi Geno,
I am a first time visitor to your blog and enjoyed this post. I can definitely relate to #5.
My blog is about my journey of what it takes to truly start making money online and I share my results with my readers. Persistence, education and consistency have been vital to my success so far. And no, I’m not making a ton of money but I’m proving what hard work and taking action can accomplish. It’s really not that hard and the results are so rewarding.
I’ll have to drop back by and read more of what you share with us in future posts. Until then, have a glorious day!
Adrienne