It's not just beginners who're prone to making mistakes in affiliate marketing; the experienced souls, too, sometimes fall prey to their wrong decisions and ruin their progress.
Mistake #1: Organizing Someone Else's List
Creating someone else's list at your own expense can (and should) be avoided by simply recording your clients information when (s)he visits your website.
You must have a squeeze page that records the names and e-mail addresses of each and every client who visits your website. This method builds you an invaluable opt-in list of individuals, that you can approach again and again to sell other products and/or services you may have in the future. The gold is in the list.
Mistake #2: Not Keeping In Touch With Your Prospects.
You must keep in touch with your prospects -- especially those who've already purchased something from you. Never take your prospects for granted. When you think about all the time and effort you've put in to get these individuals to visit your website, there's simply no way that you can just let these interested prospects slip through your fingers.
Do you have any newsletters, articles or free reports that you could send to your prospects to keep in touch with them? How about any updated or valuable information about your products and services? These are all ways that you can keep in contact with your prospects. But bare in mind here that you're walking a tight rope between stalking your prospects, and keeping in touch with them.
Mistake #3: Take It Easy With Your Prospects.
The one thing you don't want to do is attempt to make a sale the first time. It's a nice thing to have happen, but statistically, the odds of you making a sale the very first time are not very good. It usually takes 3 to 5 (sometime more) exposures of your product or service for most people to respond to your offer. Why? One reason could be that people want to be sure you're a legitimate enterprise, because companies come and go all the time. Secondly, the more they're exposed to your product or service, the more confidence they'll have that this is not some sort of "fly-by-night," "here today, gone tomorrow", type of thing.
Patience is the key to building up a good clientele of loyal customers. Let the customer decide for himself/herself if your product or service is what the person needs or wants. If the person has any questions or problems with your product or service, they'll tell you. The last thing you want to do, is to be pushy by making the buying decision for them. Obviously you may feel that what you have to offer is exactly what that person needs, but let the person decide that for himself, don't you make that decision for him.
Mistake #4: Sending Multiple Offers In One Mailing.
Don't send or promote more than one offer to your clients. If you do, you'll only create confusion, and your client may decide not to do business with you. Why would you want to confuse your customer by sending multiple offers, when (s)he asked for information on just one? There's simply no reason to do this, unless of course, the customer specifically asked you about other programs, products or services you have or are involved with.
Mistake #5: Marketing Several Affiliate Programs At The Same Time.
If there's one thing I've learned about affiliate programs it's this. No matter what program you join, you're going to have to spend time, money and effort to build. If you jump from one program to another without giving your current program time to develop, you'll never achieve true wealth. It also shows that you can't make up your own mind in regards to what program you join. All affiliate programs require you to put some effort into it before you can get anything out of it, and if you don't give it the time to develop, and you don't have the patience to stay with it, you're setting a bad example to both you and your customers.
If you're guilty of committing any one (or more) of these mistakes, there is indeed hope for you. As long as you take corrective action as quickly as possible before your business suffers from it. - 15431
Mistake #1: Organizing Someone Else's List
Creating someone else's list at your own expense can (and should) be avoided by simply recording your clients information when (s)he visits your website.
You must have a squeeze page that records the names and e-mail addresses of each and every client who visits your website. This method builds you an invaluable opt-in list of individuals, that you can approach again and again to sell other products and/or services you may have in the future. The gold is in the list.
Mistake #2: Not Keeping In Touch With Your Prospects.
You must keep in touch with your prospects -- especially those who've already purchased something from you. Never take your prospects for granted. When you think about all the time and effort you've put in to get these individuals to visit your website, there's simply no way that you can just let these interested prospects slip through your fingers.
Do you have any newsletters, articles or free reports that you could send to your prospects to keep in touch with them? How about any updated or valuable information about your products and services? These are all ways that you can keep in contact with your prospects. But bare in mind here that you're walking a tight rope between stalking your prospects, and keeping in touch with them.
Mistake #3: Take It Easy With Your Prospects.
The one thing you don't want to do is attempt to make a sale the first time. It's a nice thing to have happen, but statistically, the odds of you making a sale the very first time are not very good. It usually takes 3 to 5 (sometime more) exposures of your product or service for most people to respond to your offer. Why? One reason could be that people want to be sure you're a legitimate enterprise, because companies come and go all the time. Secondly, the more they're exposed to your product or service, the more confidence they'll have that this is not some sort of "fly-by-night," "here today, gone tomorrow", type of thing.
Patience is the key to building up a good clientele of loyal customers. Let the customer decide for himself/herself if your product or service is what the person needs or wants. If the person has any questions or problems with your product or service, they'll tell you. The last thing you want to do, is to be pushy by making the buying decision for them. Obviously you may feel that what you have to offer is exactly what that person needs, but let the person decide that for himself, don't you make that decision for him.
Mistake #4: Sending Multiple Offers In One Mailing.
Don't send or promote more than one offer to your clients. If you do, you'll only create confusion, and your client may decide not to do business with you. Why would you want to confuse your customer by sending multiple offers, when (s)he asked for information on just one? There's simply no reason to do this, unless of course, the customer specifically asked you about other programs, products or services you have or are involved with.
Mistake #5: Marketing Several Affiliate Programs At The Same Time.
If there's one thing I've learned about affiliate programs it's this. No matter what program you join, you're going to have to spend time, money and effort to build. If you jump from one program to another without giving your current program time to develop, you'll never achieve true wealth. It also shows that you can't make up your own mind in regards to what program you join. All affiliate programs require you to put some effort into it before you can get anything out of it, and if you don't give it the time to develop, and you don't have the patience to stay with it, you're setting a bad example to both you and your customers.
If you're guilty of committing any one (or more) of these mistakes, there is indeed hope for you. As long as you take corrective action as quickly as possible before your business suffers from it. - 15431
About the Author:
Chas. McDuffie has been in the Internet/Affiliate Marketing Industry for over 10 years, and has worked withnumerous mail order, network marketing and affiliate companies both on and offline. To learn more about the "One and Only" Internet Money Making System Of It's Kind, that can help you avoid the 5 Deadly Mistakes In Affiliate Marketing, click here.
