Why Do So Many Affiliate Marketers Fail So Miserably?

One of the great things about affiliate marketing is that it all seems a bit too easy: you don't need a product, you don't need a website, and it costs you nothing to join.

Newcomers often make the mistake of thinking that's it's easy money, and indeed it is, but it's not that easy. One reason why affiliate marketing has survived and prospered is that it works. The problem is that it only works for a very few top affiliates.

Almost all the big players in internet marketing have an affiliate program of some sort: that's probably how they became a big player.. The important thing to remember is that affiliate marketing had become more sophisticated since the days of armies of affiliates all selling the same product.. Affiliates can really boost an online marketing campaign, but the marketer only wants active affiliates, and not the dead wood that most of his affiliates are.

So Why Do So Many Affiliate Marketers Fail So Miserably?

The biggest reason for failure is that affiliates do not treat it as a business. Because an affiliate program is free to join, it is easy to have the attitude that failure doesn't matter too much because it hasn't cost any money.

Those who look at affiliate marketing as a hobby will always fail. Remember there thousands of affiliates selling the same products, so the competition will be intense, so you will have to work harder than your competitors. But once you realize that the potential is there to change your life, you should be motivated enough to take serious action: you should not allow anything to distract you from your goal. If you treat affiliate marketing as a hobby you will only get 'hobby money', and quickly lose interest.

What are the advantages of affiliate marketing?

• For the product owner, affiliate marketing gives him a much larger market for their products and services. More affiliates selling his product will naturally lead to more customers and eventually more sales, especially if it is a niche product and the affiliate sites where their products are being advertised are places their target customers would usually visit. This way the product owner can potentially get lots of customers without spending valuable time and money in finding them. The ads on an affiliate website might interest visitors enough to make them click on the ad and thus reach his sales page.

• For the customers, they may find a product that they may not have known about if they had not visited the affiliate's website.

• For the affiliate marketer, the affiliate business has proved to be a relatively easy way to get additional revenue from their website. If the ads are compelling enough, they may generate enough sales to provide a healthy level of commissions. The affiliate can get that income from his website without having to invest in his own product and without having to worry about customer support or refunds. In affiliate marketing, the merchant takes care of all that, leaving the affiliate to concentrate on promoting the product.

What are the advantages of affiliate marketing?

Even though there seems to be advantages to merchants, customers and affiliate marketers, unfortunately there are also disadvantages.

• For the product owner, he may have the high maintenance costs that are associated with a large number of affiliates he also loses control over the way in which his product is advertised. An affiliate may use false advertising and make extravagant claims and promises, just to get his commission. When this happens, it is the product owner who has to deal with the complaints and refunds, and their product will get an undeserved bad reputation.

• For the affiliate marketer there is a risk that dishonest merchants will just close down programs without telling the affiliates or without paying commissions which are due. Some unscrupulous merchants attract new affiliates by promising high commissions, but once the affiliate has signed up, drastically cut the commission rates. Also, for some reason, some customers will just drop the affiliate ID on the url, and just go straight to the product owner's sales page, thus denying the affiliate his proper commission For this reason, never put the url with your affiliate ID where the customer can see it: always direct your ad clicks to another page on your own site.

Affiliate Revenue