Top Reasons Why People Fail at Affiliate Marketing and the Solutions

Most people decide to be affiliate marketers simply because they were told it is a very easy and lucrative way to make money online. And if you think I was going to say it isn’t, am sorry to disappoint you – Affiliate marketing is quite an easy and fun way to make money online. But then again why do a lot of affiliate marketers fail at it if it was that easy?

Using my own personal experience and that of other people I have read about. I have put together the top reasons why most people fail at affiliate marketing.

1. The Cart before the Horse Mentality
Yes, I did fall prey to this a lot of times. But what exactly is the cart and what is the horse?

The horse is the business of Affiliate marketing.
The Cart is the Money.

Most often, people are easily sold to fancy and over hyped sales pages. We easily buy into the idea of making money the next day just by clicking a few buttons or simply “copy and paste” then see money flow to our account. We are even sold the fact we do not need some of the core entities of the business like building a list or having a website. Well affiliate marketing is easy but not that easy. Even if those methods were to work, it will never provide us consistent earnings.

Because we quickly want to make money, pay our bills, go on expensive holidays, buy the latest cars and do a lot more working 1-3hrs daily, we fail to learn the affiliate marketing business properly. Rather we go for shortcuts to making money as affiliate marketers. It is of course no wonder why many newbies get their fingers burnt.

Solution:
Do not be money driven; see it as the end product. Do not start your affiliate marketing business and believe you will quit your day job the next day. It takes time to get to the top and make a steady income. And believe me it will never be possible if you do not learn the basics of the business properly. Do a lot of research, learn from a lot of successful marketers, go through their blogs, see what they do, practice as you learn. Learn from your own mistakes, celebrate your little success, build your own audience and surely the Money will come.

2. Lack of Motivation
Just as affiliate marketing is easy to get in so also is it easy to get out. All you need do is procrastinate or do nothing. Since there is no boss to check or query whether you write a guest post, or join a new affiliate network, or test out a new offer. It is very easy to keep procrastinating till you give up completely. Making money your chief motivator could also be very dangerous. If the money does not come in time then you will lose focus and motivation. Also, laziness, lack of self-confidence and self-affirmation can easily make people fail in this business.

Solution:
Before, I would read mails from super affiliates and wonder if I ever will be good enough to compete with them. I never knew until I started. TAKE ACTION! No one can motivate you more than you can do yourself. There is room for everyone. You are unique in your special way and your audience will love and respect you for who you are.

Always have a To-do List. Do your best to keep to it. Set up marks or milestones for yourself and your business.

3. Huge and Unnecessary Expectations and Goals
It is very common to see new affiliate marketers wanting to make $10,000 or more within their first month without having a list or a website or even deep pockets. I do not blame them most times; there is a lot of hype in the affiliate marketing world. Setting unrealistic goals will inadvertently lead to a Heart Break and the end of your affiliate marketing journey.

Solution:
Set realistic goals, it is best taking it one step at a time. Even if you have a ton of money to invest on traffic, do not spend all at once.

4. Choosing the Wrong Strategy
There are a lot of strategies to make money as an affiliate marketer. While a strategy might work for me it is not a 100 percent sure it will work for you. Why is this? The simple answer is we are all on different skill levels, have different working ethics, different personalities and different budgets.

Some strategies are capital intensive and give good returns almost immediately. Others do not require much spending and some are absolute free. Should you go for a strategy that involves a lot of adspend and all you have is just about $3 then of course you are on the path to failure. And note it was not the strategy that failed; it was your choice of it that failed you.

Solution:
Be open-minded; learn a lot of working strategies. Study each one properly, write down the pros and cons. Decide which suits your personality and budget. Go for it, stick with it and surely profits will come.

5. The Technical Stuffs
Building a site, setting up an autoresponder, creating a squeeze page, etc. These things can be too technical for some people. But they are all essential if you intend to earn consistently.

Solution:
I have two solutions to this

1.) Improve your skills – There are thousands of tutorial guides and video training online. Just go to YouTube and search. I’m sure there is training already for whatever technical skill you might need in affiliate marketing.

2.) Outsource – You necessarily do not have to do all the technical stuff. Go to sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer and there are a lot of talented people who are ready to have it done for you at a low cost.