1. Publishing Content that is Low-Quality
When creating content, it is easy to get into the idea of making money as soon as possible, which often leads to content needing to be more timely and high quality.
Affiliate marketing is imagined as a way to make money while doing almost nothing, but the truth is this comes with the amount of effort you put into it.
People can tell when you are just copying and pasting someone else’s work or, worse, when you are just putting content out to put it out.
5 “mid” posts are not going to be better than one good-quality post/blog.
So begin with identifying a topic that is not too saturated and that you can work with to rank high when it comes to SEO.
Questions you may ask are:
How much time did I take to work on this blog?
And not just the time you sit in front of the computer staring at the screen but how many genuinely productive minutes have you put in to make your blog a genuine resource for others.
Did you proofread it?
Did you use any other tools like Grammarly to add another set of eyes to your proofreading? The details will lead to your success when marketing to others because your main objective is to help them.
The money is just a by-product of unique and outstanding content that should be a fundamental resource for others.
What is the word count of the top-ranked posts?
1,890 is the average word count for a first-page post. So you may want to keep your posts within 200 words of this average.
How many root domain backlinks does the competition have?
Backlinks are links from outside domains that point to pages on your domain, essentially linking back from their domain to yours.
So how many times do other pages and blogs lead their viewers to the competition’s viewers?
This can be easily found with a tool like Mozbar.
For example, when researching affiliate marketing tools to avoid, I found one of the top posts had 17 backlinks to their site.
2. Don’t Forget to Keep Your Content Easy to Read
Apps like TikTok have terrorized our attention spans as we live in a time where your message has got to interest someone within the first few seconds. Keep sentences at 25 words and paragraphs at 4 sentences each to keep the reader interested. If most people find your content too hard to read, they will keep scrolling.
You can also keep your article reading level at 7-8 grade, as studies show readers from the U.S. prefer this when reading blog posts. This applies to readers who may far exceed these levels, as they usually are just looking for beneficial information, not a case study.
An app like Hemingway is perfect for doing this as it tells you the reading level you’re writing at and how to get to the level you’re aiming for.
Remember, your content has to beat the competition. This means using any method to engage your reader.
This means using bigger fonts to stand out.
Anything bigger than 18pt is excellent, especially if you have a mobile website.
The type of font you use is also essential. Make sure your titles have a bolder font, and your paragraphs have a lighter font. This may be a given, but by this, I do not mean simply bold the same font and unbold it.
An example could be seen below.
Use Sans Serifs fonts for headers.
And Serifs for paragraph sentences. This way you may indicate your main message in the headline, table, or figure with ease.
3. Not Knowing SEO fundamentals.
You need to have proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) basics to outrank the competition. You must be able to come out with the top results for your page to receive any traffic, especially if you are promoting your content organically (without paid ads).
Step 1. If you are using a WordPress website, ensure your settings have search engine visibility. You can find this in SEO settings if your hosting site does have this.
I personally use Hostinger (Hostinger.com), which has built-in steps to optimize your SEO. Below you can see the website comes with built-in articles to help increase visibility to your audience.
However, this may not be enough to get your site to the top of Google searches and you still need to be aware of other steps to increase SEO.
Step 2. Make a good title tag and meta description.
The title tag should include all the keywords used when you have done keyword research to outrank the competition. When using plug-ins like Yoast or All in One Plug-In, you receive an actual score of how well it ranks to the competition and how to improve it.
Many SEO writers believe meta descriptions are useless; however, this is not true. It is good to get into the habit of writing a mini description for everything you do, as this description is also shown when sharing it on social media platforms.
Step 3. Aim to have content so good that google summarizes it for you.
It has been proven that a 32.3% click-through rate is thanks to Google-featured snippets. The featured snippet, shown below, can get you a highlighted list to help readers answer their questions quickly.
There is no exact way to promise this, however, if your site gets to the front page, that is a good indicator you are on the right track.
4. Not knowing everything about the product you’re selling/marketing
To truly be successful, you will want to know quite a lot about whatever product you recommend. I recommend learning at least 80% of the uses if you’re selling a digital product. If it’s not a product, know that any resource you recommend PROVES success.
This is important because you are competing against people who also have access to the internet. Your job is to be thorough and to the point, and you need to be fully aware of what you are selling to beat the competition.
We recommend following blogs within your niche and actually reading them to be up to date with the newest insights on anything related to your niche. Reddit and Quora are also excellent sources of information for specific questions you may have.
5. Signing Up for Way Too Many Affiliate Products
In the beginning, getting giddy and ready to sign up for as many affiliate products as possible is easy. This may seem like the best use of your time but what usually ends up happening is you spread yourself out too much.
Begin with one product you really like. If it is a digital product, you should first test it out and then begin to write your blogs, tutorials, and reviews on it to genuinely showcase the product. If you are selling a physical product, write all your content in a weekly plan to film or take pictures of the product.
Once you see some profits from that one product, you can move on to other products that may be similar in a niche. Then rinse and repeat.
Your job as an affiliate marketer is to produce TOP tier content for your customers to follow. This may seem simple, but it takes work. Without great insightful content, you will spread so wide you don’t end up doing anything.
In conclusion, when starting affiliate marketing, you should avoid the following:
- Publishing content that is low-quality
- Not making your content easy to read
- Being unaware of SEO fundamentals
- Not knowing everything about the product you are selling/marketing
- Signing up to way too many affiliate products
We hope this was insightful for you and can gain some genuine advice from this. If you want to support us and keep this content going, check out our affiliate partners below to help you on your affiliate marketing journey. If you have any questions for us, feel free to contact us at DoubleADevelopment.org
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