Dos-And-Donts-Of-Affiliate-Marketing

12 Crucial Dos And Don’ts Of Affiliate Marketing

Last Updated on May 17, 2023 by Jordan Alexo

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money online, but it’s important to do it the right way. There are many dos and don’ts of affiliate marketing, and if you’re not careful, you can lose a lot of money.

In this blog post, I will discuss the most important dos and don’ts of affiliate marketing. I’ll also give you tips on being a successful affiliate marketer!

1) Do: Choose A Money Making Niche

choose the right affiliate marketing program

Not all niches make money online. Some make more money than others. For this reason, you should start before anything by choosing a profitable niche.

This should be a niche where you can find plenty of products and services to promote. Here are a few examples:

These are just a few examples. Many other niches make money online. Do your research and choose a niche that you think has potential!

When choosing a niche, it’s also important to consider the competition. If there are already many successful affiliate marketers in your chosen niche, it may be difficult to make money.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t choose a competitive niche. Just be aware that making money in a competitive niche may be more difficult.

Once you’ve chosen your niche, it’s time to move on to the next step!

2) Do: Choose Relevant Affiliate Marketing Programs

There are thousands of affiliate marketing programs to choose from. Not all of them will be relevant to your niche.

For example, if you’re in the health and fitness niche, you wouldn’t want to promote an affiliate program for cooking products. That’s not relevant to your niche!

When choosing affiliate marketing programs, make sure they are relevant to your niche. This will help you make more sales and earn more commission!

It’s also important to consider the commission rate when choosing an affiliate program. Some programs offer a higher commission rate than others.

You’ll notice a difference between the commissions earned from a digital and physical product.

Digital Products

Digital products include online video courses, memberships, ebooks, software, etc. Often the average commission rate is around 50%. However, some programs offer up to 75% or even higher rates.

Physical Products

Physical products include clothes, health supplements, kitchen appliances, etc. The average commission rate for physical products is around 15%.

As you can see, there is a big difference in the commission rates between digital and physical products. When choosing affiliate programs, consider the type of product you will be promoting!

However, you can promote digital and physical products side-by-side. For instance, you can promote as an affiliate business clothing sold on Amazon. At the same time, have an online course teaching people “15 Steps To Dress As a Successful Business Owner.”

There are endless possibilities when it comes to promoting affiliate marketing programs. Be creative and think outside the box!

3) Do: Promote High-Quality Products

high quality affiliate marketing program

Be careful when choosing products to promote. Not all products are good, and you don’t want to promote something bad.

It’s more likely that this will happen with digital products, but it can also happen with physical ones.

How can you find high-quality affiliate programs to promote?

Here are a few tips:

  • Read or watch video reviews about the product
  • If possible, try the product yourself before promoting it
  • Make sure the product owner or company has a good reputation
  • Check customer feedback on review sites such as TrustPilot and G2

By following these tips, you can be sure that you’re only promoting high-quality products! This will help you make more sales and earn more commission!

4) Do: Write Helpful Product Reviews

Your job as an affiliate is to help customers make informed decisions about products. One of the best ways to do this is by writing helpful reviews!

You can make a YouTube video or blog post reviewing the affiliate program. When making the review make sure to include the following:

  • What does the product do?
  • How does the product work?
  • What are the main features?
  • What are the pros and cons?
  • Your personal experience with the product (if you’ve tried it)

By including all this information in your review, you’ll be helping customers make informed decisions about the products they buy!

And remember, don’t just promote products you love. It’s okay to promote products that you don’t like. Just be honest in your review and explain why you don’t recommend it.

By being honest, you’ll build trust with your audience, and they’ll be more likely to buy from you in the future!

5) Do: Reduce Your Competition

You don’t want to go against the Giants! Promoting lesser-known products or releases is a great way to decrease your competition. Let’s imagine you have a YouTube channel where you review mobiles.

Instead of promoting Apple iPhone 11 like everyone else, you could be the first to promote the new iPhone 13 XS (I invented it)! So, always be on the lookout for new products or releases in your niche.

Another strategy is to promote less popular products. Like Xiaomi Mi 11, it can be easier to promote as an affiliate than iPhones.

6) Do: Promote Boldly

promote boldly your affiliate link

Many affiliate marketers want to make money online but are afraid to ask people to click on their affiliate links through YouTube videos. Or, in their blog posts, they add a few barely noticeable links.

Many people need to be told to click on your affiliate links. If you don’t tell them what to do, they won’t know what to do.

I know what experts teach out there! Many experts say you should not promote your product or service too strongly when starting. However, these same experts also tell their audience to check out their online courses at every turn.

Successful affiliate markets boldly promote their stuff! Now, you don’t want to overdo it. You want to find the right balance between being too pushy and not enough.

I like to tell people at the beginning, middle, and end of my YouTube videos to click on my affiliate link in the description. I also leave a comment on the video with my link.

1) Don’t: Choose A Niche You’re Passionate About

choosing an affiliate marketing niche

More times than not, getting into a niche you’re passionate about isn’t a good idea.

Why?

It’s harder to succeed in a niche you’re passionate about because you have blinders. You’re not seeing the whole picture. It’s easy to get lost in promoting only what you love instead of what will make you money.

For example, you like collecting stamps, and you decide to build a relevant YouTube channel. You spend the next months creating awesome videos showing your collection and sharing your expertise. One day, you wake up and decide, let’s monetize my channel.

You look around, and what do you find? Nothing to promote! No video courses, apps, or anyone to advertise on your channel. So be careful about following your passion. It might not always lead you to affiliate marketing gold.

Remember, your ultimate goal is to make money as an affiliate marketer. So, don’t let your passion for a certain topic blind you from what’s actually profitable!

2) Don’t: Promote Irrevelant Products

When you’re in a hurry to make money, promoting any product that pays a high commission is easy.

For example, let’s say you have a blog about healthy plant-based recipes. You come across an affiliate gardening tool program that pays a 40% commission on every sale.

So, you start promoting these products on your blog, even though they’re not related to what your audience is interested in.

Do you think you’re going to make many sales? Probably not!

Your audience is coming to your blog for healthy plant-based recipes. They don’t want to be bombarded with ads for gardening tools. And if they click on one of your links and buy something, they will not likely come back to your blog.

So, it’s important that you only promote products that are relevant to your niche. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting your time!

3) Don’t: Give Up

dont give up

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nor will anything worthwhile. I am responsible for committing this mistake. For many years, I fell into the trap of wanting to make money overnight. This made me extremely impatient.

I would build a website and write 20 or more posts in a month or two. I didn’t see anyone coming and getting my affiliate products. Soon after, I gave up!

I was very inconsistent because I didn’t understand this concept. This cost me years of my life. Now, I am in a different place. If you don’t see results right away, don’t give up!

You need to be consistent and patient. It takes time to build a successful YouTube channel or blog. I recommend putting away a year’s worth of content before considering quitting.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t make money online before. Possibly, you may make money after a few months. Just having that idea in your mind helps you.

Tell yourself, “I’ll consistently build my YouTube channel or blog (or another platform) for a year. I won’t give up either way.” This thought alone will change your affiliate marketing game for the better!

4) Don’t: Only Promote One Affiliate Product

Some time ago, affiliate marketers were making thousands of dollars promoting a program called “MOBE.”

This high-ticket program earned affiliate marketers a commission of $1000 or more per sale.

So, these marketers were only promoting MOBE. I mean, they built websites and YouTube channels around it.

Can you guess what happened when MOBE went out of business?

They lost everything! All their hard work was for nothing.

Moral of the story: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Promote multiple affiliate products from different companies. This way, if one company goes out of business or they decide to close its affiliate program, you don’t lose everything.

Plus, it’s always good to have options. You never know which product your audience will respond to the most!

5) Don’t: Break Affiliate Policies

When starting out, it’s easy to get excited and break the rules without realizing it.

For example, let’s say you join an affiliate program for Company XYZ. Their terms state that you can only promote their products on your website.

But you see other people promoting XYZ products on their YouTube channels, so you decide to do the same. After all, you’re just trying to make some sales!

The problem is you’re breaking XYZ’s rules. And if they find out, they could suspend your account and keep any commissions you’ve earned.

So, it’s important that you read and understand the terms of each affiliate program you join. Don’t break the rules, or you could get kicked out and lose everything!

6) Don’t: Use Direct Affiliate Links

redirect your affiliate link

If you’re just starting out, you may be tempted to use direct affiliate links. These affiliate links often look something like “website. com/1209323aff-JA01”

You shouldn’t use these affiliate links to promote your offers. Most people will look at them and think they’re being scammed.

Instead, you should use a URL shortener like Bitly to create shorter, more user-friendly links. Or, if you have a WordPress blog, you may install a plugin such as Pretty Links. This will allow you to create shorter links redirecting to your affiliate links.

Both Bitly and Pretty Links are free to use, so there’s no excuse for not using them!

Last Thoughts

Those are just a few of the affiliate marketing dos and don’ts that I’ve learned over the years. By following these guidelines, you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer!

Do you have any other tips to share? If so, leave a comment below! And if you found this post helpful, please share it with your friends! Thanks for reading!

Dos And Don’ts Of Affiliate Marketing FAQ

Let’s take a look at a few frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing.

1) How to do YouTube affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing on YouTube is a great way to make money online! To get started, find a product or service that you can promote. Then, create helpful videos that showcase the product or service in action.

Finally, include your affiliate link in the video description so viewers can purchase the product or service you’re promoting.

2) Do affiliate marketers need a business license?

This depends on your country’s laws. You do not need a business license to be an affiliate marketer in the United States. However, you may need a sales tax permit to sell products online.

3) Do you need an LLC for affiliate marketing?

Again, this depends on your country’s laws. You do not need an LLC to be an affiliate marketer in the United States. However, having an LLC can provide some tax and legal benefits.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *