I believe that there are 5 main reasons why people fail at affiliate marketing:
- Lack of education — thorough (and ongoing) education saves you both time and money
- Laziness — there is no such thing as big-bucks-fast (if not at the expense of violating rules, of course), and you want to be prepared to work, and do so in a highly disciplined way
- Lacking persistence — to succeed in affiliate marketing you want to be patient and persistent
- Failing to diversify — never put all your eggs into one basket
- Not testing — to achieve considerable success any online marketer must constantly test and optimize
Regardless of what you may see written elsewhere on the web, there is no such thing as fast and easy money earned through affiliate marketing. Yes, there are shortcuts that let you “work smarter, not harder”, but you still gotta work. Every super affiliate I know passionately loves what they do, and has achieved success by avoiding all of the 5 above-quoted reasons others fail.
Great list Geno. I’ll add one more: Not knowing when to let go of bad ideas. No matter how passionate you are about an idea, you’ve got to test it to see if it’s a good one. If there ever is a point where you’re not making money from the idea, move on to the next one. Don’t take it personal.
Very good one, Missy. But how/when does one tell the line between being healthy persistent and crazy persistent (read: investing time/money/energy into something that isn’t meant to happen)?
There are a lot of factors that go into determining the right answer to that and it will be different for everyone. It comes down to finances and time commitment as far as I’m concerned.
I agree. It will be different in different situations, but the general rule of thumb would probably be: if it just sucks out your time and money without yielding a positive ROI, move on to something else.
This is a very thorough article on affiliate marketing. I have been at this for a long time and can tell you first hand that it does not happen overnight. You must work very hard for a long period of time and it will pay off. The key is never give up. Thanks for the article. Well worth the read.
John