Hello and a very warm welcome back today. We are going to cover the subject of Why Do 95% Of Affiliate Marketers Fail In Their Online Business Every year?
Thousands of people every day are typing into Google How To Make Money Online?
This is nothing new but it has become so much more prolific in the past year.
One of the most popular ways to achieve working online is through Affiliate Marketing.
The reason for this is the high amount of money that can be earned.
Lots of people earn a 6 figure income from Affiliate Marketing and that’s why it is so popular to get into.
On the other side of the coin are those that start in this venture and fail we are going to look into why 95% do indeed fall out before reaching the finishing line.
According to statistics from the Warrior forum, there is only a 5% success rate which in anyone’s language is a very low percentage.
This number has been the same for many a year.
A major problem is how Affiliate Marketing is portrayed to potential starters as getting rich quick schemes as well as only do 2 hours of work a day and earn 5 figures a month.
That is very obviously not how you build your own sustainable business as with everything it does take time to become successful.
Let’s dive in and find some reasons why people fail at Affiliate Marketing every year:
#1 Not Enough Valuable Content
It is not enough to just write blog posts that are only 500 words long and only take 25 minutes to complete.
You just cannot get away with that these days.
As a longtime visitor to blog posts my aim is to get my questions answered in a valuable way, How about you is this why you read posts?
When reading an article that gives me what I’m looking for if it has something for sale I’m much more likely to read it and make a purchase even if that was not my original intention.
User experience is everything.
Many new starters put too much emphasis on traffic, if you are not giving out value then you will not receive any traffic. Makes sense right?
I never visit a post with the express intention of buying a product and helping the author out and I’m sure that is the same for most of us.
The only exception would be if I had read the post before and could not at that point make the purchase for whatever reason.
This post may contain Affiliate Links. This means if you click a link and make a purchase that I could receive a commission. The price you pay will not be affected.
P.s. I only recommend products and services that I use.
#2 How Many Businesses Fail Due To The Wrong Expectations?
All businesses are the same fundamentally. Online or Offline they all take work and plenty of it.
Who do you know that started a business on Monday that was a raging success by the following Monday?
Having all of the correct tools is absolutely essential as well as the right planning and expectations.
Many successful affiliate marketers did not succeed with their first attempts, that is what separates them from most others, they picked themselves up and started again and kept going until they succeeded.
Affiliate Marketing is a slow burn that could take more than 12 months to see any real ROI.
Most that start don’t give it a chance they want it all now and that is a totally unrealistic expectation!
We need organic traffic from the search engines and that can take a minimum of 6 months to build up for starters.
You can use faster methods like Pay Per Click but even that takes time.
Some people are just so under-prepared! Having a plan in place is paramount.
#3 Why Do Visitors Not Stay On Your Site?
You are on the first page of Google in the number 1 position but you still don’t get any real traffic why is that?
One reason is that your writing is not answering the questions that the user is looking for so they go elsewhere to find the answers.
Another reason could be your site loading speed if it’s very slow they will just hit the x and try somewhere else for the answer.
Google will soon replace your post if people don’t stay on your site.
Ranking at the top is hard to come by so make sure you are thinking about the users and what they are searching for.
To become a good affiliate marketer you need to help not to sell.
#4 Doing Too Much At Once
In the beginning, it is very exciting starting a new website and people often try to work on 2 or 3 at the same time.
This is possible to do if you are full-time and you have a fast typing speed.
Otherwise, just stick to the one site that you can confidently write for on a regular schedule.
Your publishing frequency at the start should be to aim for 3 a week for the first year and you may require a team of people to keep you on target!
The posts should be between 1,200 and 2,000 words in length. That can be so tough to do at the start!
My first posts were nowhere near 1,000 words but as I continued they got progressively longer.
There’s nothing stopping you from updating your old posts. In fact, it’s a great thing to do.
Doing one thing to the best of your ability is far better than doing many things badly!
#5 Affiliate Programs
The best thing about Affiliate Marketing is the ability to choose who’s products you wish to promote.
At the start, you may not get accepted by some you really wish to write for.
Don’t be disheartened there’s no rule as to when you need to monetize your site.
A lot of very low-paying affiliate programs will accept you when you don’t have much content. Just remember with this scenario you will have to work harder for longer.
This is a big reason so many fail in the first year.
Waiting is not many people’s strong point!
Don’t worry I know it’s hard to do.
look on the bright side once you are getting 4,000 visits a day those small commissions will soon mount up to a sizeable chunk at the end of every month.
Related Post: 18 Best Blog Tips For New And Advanced Bloggers For 2021
#6 Knowledge Is Power
While you don’t need any specific skills to get started you do need to gain knowledge of how to do things from somewhere.
There are millions of free tutorials around the internet which is available at your fingertips.
Can you learn everything for free?
possibly if you have the time needed and you are in this for the long haul and understand that it could take years to make any money.
It is not just about writing a blog post a few times a week there is much more to it than that. For instance, you must connect your site with the search engines.
Learn how to do email marketing, social media marketing as well as learning SEO.
You also need to build a rapport with your visitors!
Knowing just how impatient I am I chose the much easier route of joining the Wealthy Affiliate University a platform that teaches everything you need to know.
I followed along with the lessons and got help from other very successful affiliate marketers in addition to much help from the community of over 1 million people.
With all of this help, I have learned what works and managed to quit my job just 10 months after starting!
#7 Don’t Fall For Shiny Object Syndrome
Do you like to purchase lessons and courses online? Me To?
That is one thing I had to stop doing to make Affiliate Marketing work!
Promises of overnight riches are very tempting, but in reality, 90% of them don’t work out as promised.
Many new affiliates stop building their sites to chase the newest shiny object.
Have you come across scam programs? Yeah me too!
Now I write all about them to save people lots of heartache after losing their money!
The biggest reason for choosing Wealthy Affiliate was the fact it is Free to join.
You can look around and do the first 10 lessons of the 2 main training courses and it costs absolutely nothing!
You don’t need to enter any credit card details, just sign up make a profile and follow the instructions.
#8 Success Takes Time To Build Everyday
Everyone needs to understand that any successful business takes a lot of time to build, lots become discouraged at the lack of traffic and/or income coming in.
This feeling is very normal and it’s a process that everyone goes through in their lives no matter what they are building.
I get it I have gone through it as well. This is a new site, not 4 months old yet and it’s only made a few $’s in that time.
The community at Wealthy Affiliate is so supportive they won’t let you quit without a fight! (so to speak)
They help you to understand right from the start how much effort and work goes into making this work.
They share their success stories with the community as well as the fails This all helps you not to give up.
#9 If You Don’t Quit You Cannot Fail
That is a very true saying!
Would having to re-write some of your early blog posts make you quit?
Would not earning any money for up to a year make you quit?
Would spending money before earning any make you quit?
Many people just don’t have what it takes to succeed with Affiliate marketing and that’s why 95% fail!
It is not that the job is difficult, it’s that it takes great patience and doing something every day to be able to move forward.
If you owned a shop you would put all that you have into it to make it work Why can’t you do that with a website?
It is no different after all is said and done.
#10 What Separates Success From Failure?
In my humble opinion, my answer to that question is it is all down to your Attitude.
Do you have the fight and will to succeed in you?
Can you run a business offline?
If you can then you have what it takes to run one online.
The only real difference is you have to be able to have the motivation and drive to do this on your own.
That is what is going to separate you from all of the others.
I get up and write even when I don’t feel like it because I am going to be more successful with my blog and Affiliate Marketing.
#11 Choosing the Right Subject
Another reason people fail with this is that they don’t choose the right subject to blog about and that leads to a lack of interest in the subject.
Think about it this way, You will have to be able to write about your chosen subject for years.
That’s the mistake I made with my first blog.
I just lost interest in the topic and couldn’t see myself writing for it any longer.
You don’t have to blog to do affiliate marketing you can have a Youtube channel, you can do it on Tik Tok and it can also be successful by placing links on social media.
I love to write that’s why I chose to do a blog instead of one of the other methods.
Whichever method you choose just remember it will take a lot of time!
My Final Thoughts
Getting started is the easy part keeping going is what separates the successes from the failures!
Can anybody do this?
Yes! I’m a mother and a grandmother with no technical skills and I didn’t go to college either If I can why can’t you?
Is it difficult? That’s hard to answer!
If you have plenty of motivation and can work on your own without going off on a tangent you will do well as doing the job is pretty easy.
I have a friend who suffers from Dyslexia and he has an awesome blog all spelled correctly. How is that achieved when he cannot spell?
There are programs and plug-ins that can do it for you.
Those are just some of the reasons why people fail at Affiliate Marketing.
Do you have what it takes to make this work?
If you do then join me on Wealthy Affiliate to get started!
Have any questions then feel free to ask them in the box below, I will be very happy to answer them for you.
If you found this of value then please share it to help others. Thank you.
Lisa Founder and CEO of mistakesbloggersmake.com
Your points are absolutely correct. I have been blogging for a year now, and let me tell you it’s not easy. I didn’t really take it that serious until recently, and as quick as I did the search engines started ranking me.
It takes a lot of time, dedication and patient. If you don’t have these three then affiliate marketing is not your thing. You will only waste time if you don’t have a plan.
Ask me about it, I have been there.
Very true, patience and planning are a must!
These are so very great tips Lisa. I’d like to add to the point of how affiliate marketing is being sold in some cases as something that requires very little work. I do honestly believe some people market it that way, but I also believe that people are also truthful about the amount of work they had to put into it before it got to the low work point, and unfortunately too many people skipped to the part at the end. It’s true for far too many people that no matter how many times you show them, “Hey, this is going to take time and effort. You will probably have to work on it every single day until it takes off.” they will completely miss the point and go into it thinking that they can just make large sums of money in a small amount of time. I’ve seen it way too many times.
Thanks very much and you are so right it is hard work and I make no bones about it!
You have to work your socks off, but it all comes good if you don’t give up.
This is an excellent post and full of really useful advice.
I totally agree that attitude is everything. If you don’t get your mindset and attitude right, then you are doomed to fail before you even start. So unless you have the mindset to succeed, then better to choose a different adventure from the outset.
The other most important thing to remember is definitely that it takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was any business. You need to to enter online business with the view that it takes time and you have to keep working away until you achieve success and if that takes a long time, then you need to keep consistently working away for a long time!
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks very much for your support.