What could be the reason I'm not earning any money from my affiliate links?

Affiliate marketing seems like the golden opportunity when you first learn that you can earn money online by referring others to your affiliate sites; however, disappointment soon settles in when you realize you're not earning the money you had envisioned.

There are 10 common reasons that affiliate marketers do not make more sales:

1. They're afraid to invest and take action. You need to take action, choose a niche topic, and invest in your own website and marketing tools such as autoresponders and ad trackers. It's hard to run a real business without a location. Owning and marketing your own website is much more professional than posting affiliate links on hundreds of free classified ad sites.

2. They lack energy. This was the nicest way I thought of stating the facts without calling anyone "lazy", but it takes real "w-o-r-k" to make it really "work". You have to invest your time in educating yourself about online marketing. You must do more than just pasting affiliate banners and text links on your site.

3. They have targeted the wrong market area. You must target the right kind of visitors to your site according to the products or services that you offer, and you must choose the right kind of affiliate programs to complement your website's content. This is extremely important because you'll have a really tough time trying to sell lawn mowers to ladies browsing your site for purses.

4. The merchant's site doesn't convert sales. It's important to realize that it might not be your fault at all that you're not converting any sales. Check out the merchant's site really well before signing up for their affiliate program. Is the information easy to understand? Do their products, graphics, and other features appear professional? Test the shopping cart by starting a purchase to see if their instructions are clear or whether the shipping costs (if it applies) are outrageous. Does the site sell to you and make you want to buy? Did they place Google ads on their site? One row of google ads somewhere out of the way might not be too terrible, but if they're plastered right at the top or all over, you may be sending them visitors for which they're getting paid via Google adsense and you're getting nothing in return.

5. They're not using sufficient ads that lead visitors to the affiliate's site. Educate yourself about copywriting and what words are best used to draw more sales. Creating your own unique ads and providing your own testimonial often works better than using the graphics and text links provided by the merchant.

6. They're not building their own mailing list. You need to build a subscriber list. Even successful offline brick and mortar businesses build a mailing list. This helps you gain new customers and repeat sales. When you have a list, you can contact your subscribers about new products, specials and sales. Add your mailing list subscription form on all your main website pages.

7. They're not building trust. How many of you are ready to fork out a few bucks from a stranger on the street that approaches you to order some products from them? Would you trust that they'll deliver the product later to your home? Most of us would not, and yet, we expect our visitors at our site who have never met us to trust our word and buy from us. Again, your mailing list is the key tool to building trust. Talk to your subscribers as you would a friend; let them get to know who you are. Participate regularly at a few forums and networks that are within your targeted market. Be friendly, be helpful and above all, be genuine.

8. They're not getting enough traffic to their site. Write articles to gain more traffic to your site and establish yourself as an "expert" in your area. Don't fret about this idea. You don't have to know "everything" to start off with. You will gain plenty of knowledge along the way, but don't act like a "know-it-all" either. Education is a continuing process. Take a few internet marketing courses to help you learn some other important methods of bringing in more traffic to your website.

9. They never test the products or services they promote. You don't have to buy every single thing you promote through affiliate programs, but it sure does help to give your subscribers and website visitors your own experience and testimony using particular products or services. Once you buy a few things from one merchant that you really feel is of exceptional qualtiy, you can promote other products and services from that merchant with confidence because you know that merchant only offers the "best" of quality products or services. This also leads back to trust. If you promote a product that doesn't live up to all that you boast it to be, you're going to lose the confidence of your subscribers.

10. They quit too soon. You have to stick in there and work. You can't build a big income overnight. You have to perform some tests by creating different sales pages and see what works best. Also, continue to read and acquire more knowledge. Learn from other professionals. There's alot of free ecourses available on any topic of your heart's desire. Gather a little tidbit here and there. You will eventually sort through by experience what works and what doesn't.

Profiting from affiliate programs isn't as easy as it appears. If it was, everyone would be doing it. On the positive side, affiliate programs do offer a grand opportunity to those who are willing to invest a little time, money and education to make it work successfully.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Rhonda White, Owner of several Home Business Network Sites ~Get your Free Affiliate Marketing Ecourse at mommyaffiliates.com ~Get your Free Home Business Marketing Ecourse at wahm-announce.com

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