The Three Fatal Mistakes of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing can be the easiest and fastest route to making your fortune. Unfortunately, many affiliate marketers make three fatal mistakes and end up shooting themselves in the foot right from the get-go. With just a little forethought, these errors could have been avoided and their ultimate road to success could have been on a much faster track.
Probably the worst mistake is what I call bandwagon marketing. A new product comes on the market and it is suddenly the hottest property on the affiliate market. Immediately, the new affiliate becomes infatuated with this hot product and spends all of efforts at promoting it. The first thing that he misses is if he would even like the product himself. He is promoting the product only because he sees the dollar signs that this product is producing and is blind to the negative aspects of promoting the "Hot Product."
One of the things that he is missing is the incredible competition that he will be facing in marketing this "Hot Product." "Hot Products" are for the superstars of affiliate marketing. Think about this, how can you on a shoestring budget compete against the affiliate superstars who have a myriad of joint-ventures and millions of dollars in their budgets to promote this new product. You really have a snowball's chance of competing with such deep pockets. Yes, it does not take a fortune to be an affiliate marketer but, it does if you are going to try to compete against the super-rich affiliate superstars. This is one of the things that you rarely hear from the gurus when they sell you their products. You can become rich as an affiliate marketer but, not by beating your head against the wall.
The second fatal mistake that many affiliate marketers make is by spreading themselves too thin. With limited resources, there is only so many products and programs that you can successfully promote. With all of the talk of "multiple streams of income" many naive marketers sign on to too many programs and then don't have the time nor resources to properly promote all of these products. You would be much better advised to start with one or two products and put all of your resources into promoting these. As you become successful with them, then and only then should you consider starting another stream of income. Yes, multiple streams of income should be an ultimate goal but, you need to devote all of your heart and resources to one or two products in the beginning to give you a baseline of success before you take on the whole world. I know of some marketers who promote hundreds of products successfully but, they often have a staff of people working for them to take over the day to day tasks of monitoring their different projects. Aim for the moon before you aim for the stars. They are both within your reach but, you must build a solid foundation first.
The third fatal mistake is in promoting a product that you don't have an intimate knowledge of nor would that product interest you in purchasing it. I never promoted a product or program that I have not personally used and proven to myself that I can be successful with it. You must be sold on the product before you can be successful at selling that product. I just purchased a product (membership program) called Profit Lance. I am pretty sure that it is going to live up to it's reputation but, until I know for sure, I will not promote this product to my list. My list has grown to trust me and I can not let them down. One thing I will recommend however is to get on their mailing list. I found them on a bizop review site.
Avoid these three fatal mistakes and you may be well on your way to becoming the next affiliate superstar.
Stan Pontiere has been an online marketer since 1997. At first part-time and then full-time since 2004. For further information on Marketing on a Shoestring please visit: http://www.marketingonashoestring.web44.net or my blog at: http://www.internetbizops.myccblog.com
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