October 19, 2009

The 3 Reasons for Affiliate Marketer Death

The Three Horsemen of Affiliate Marketer Death!

The folks at Noble Samurai (NB) have been pontificating upon the reasons for why SO MANY affiliates fail to not only make a profit but fail outright. Now, while I think the below key failure points are resoundingly obvious, NB is right to point it out because when we THINK we are on a hot trail the best of us can forget to remain calm, be rational, and above all, be objective. They cite three key reasons why affiliates fail:

1. Targeting low traffic keywords

—Why would you target a low traffic keyword? Perhaps you were carried away by your interest in the subject and a hope that you can make it work. Perhaps so, but you will perhaps have a wait of YEARS to get the traffic you need. And then what? Will there also be profitability with the traffic?

2. No commercial value to keywords

—The second reason revolves around something more insidious than simple numbers. Its easy to be seduced by the mongol hordes of traffic! God, what I wouldn't give to have a million unique visits to my site every month., But so what if I did? Does high traffic necessarily equate to a high commercial factor, to extreme profitability? The short answer is "no." Sorry Charlie. But as NB points out, lots of traffic doesn't always mean big sales. When the novice affiliate marketer confuses traffic with profitability, s/he risks disaster or at least disappointment.

3. Fighting the losing battle

—This is SOOO obvious you wonder why we fall for it. The truth is, at least in my case, that its greed. Again and again people are seduced by mongol traffic no matter how stiff the competition may be. But an added complication is that the profitability is often obvious and we start to lick our collective chops in scintillating averice Imagine a long tail keyword such as "alternative insurance for classic automobiles." Further imagine Mongol traffic and high profitability. Well, hey, lets just whip up a handy guide on the subject, advertise on Adwords (so Adwords key for anything insurance is high but you wont have to advertise for long, right?), and next thing you know you'll have traffic pouring over the ramparts!

Not. Nope. Sorry. Do you REALLY want to compete against the likes of "Geico," "State Farm,"or even "Esurance" for that matter? Do you honestly think you are going to steal away a profitable keyword from multiple companies that have access to their own indigenous advertising divisions? Really? Pick battles you can win. Pick keywords below the radar of these industry titans. Believe me, you can compete within large industries..but you are not going to control "Insurance" on Adwords! As if…