The problem that many affiliate marketers have is that they do not realize that they are in business. Affiliate marketing is indeed a business, and if you do not look at it with that attitude, you run the risk of not succeeding as you might have otherwise.
This failure to realize that one is in business leads to unprofessionalism. It is much like the difference between wearing your pajamas or wearing a suit. When you are dressed in that suit, you become more professional and businesslike. When you are lounging around in your pajamas, you are – well, lounging around in your pajamas.
Aside from not adopting the right mindset, affiliates make other mistakes that make them appear to be unprofessional, simply because they do not know better. Below you will find 10 sure-fire ways to make yourself look as unprofessional as possible as an affiliate marketer.
1. Send Spam Email – Spam has ruined many otherwise good business people. It can be alluring, because common sense tells us that since spammers take those high-dollar risks they must be getting results.
This isn’t necessarily true. Most spammers are spamming because they don’t know any better – or because they do believe that spamming brings results, only to find out later that it instead brings fines and potential prison time. The people making the money in the spamming business are those who are collecting and selling the addresses to the spammers.
Of course, email is not the only venue for spam. Forums are also targets for spammers. In many ways, spam in forums is more noticeable than spam email, because there are no spam filters on forums. There are, however, moderators. There are also other forum members that will see you spamming them. Whether by email or forum, spamming should be avoided at all costs.
2. Have an Unprofessional Website – You’ve probably been to those sites that are just awful. They are awful to look at, and awful to listen to; and by the time you leave, you have no idea why you were even there in the first place. These sites have no real content, and they consist mostly of banners, some of which are blinding. Such sites are poorly designed and may even include blinking text and background music.
This is the sign of an amateur website, and it is not the type of website any affiliate marketer should strive for. Websites should be clean and easy to navigate, and full of useful content for their visitors. They should also be highly focused on one topic. Choose a good domain name for example, a good domain name will make the customer remember you.
Furthermore, it is considered unprofessional to use free web hosting and to not have your own domain name, because it is a sign that you aren’t serious about what you do. Make sure that you have your own domain name and that you use paid hosting. Neither is very expensive and can easily fit into any budget. The worst thing you can do is fail to have any website at all.
3. Fail to Read the Affiliate Agreement – This is a mistake that a great many affiliate marketers make. They do not fully read and understand the affiliate agreement that is presented to them when they sign up for an affiliate program.
Each affiliate program is different – with different rules. These rules often pertain to how a product can be advertised, the use of a trademark, spam, and even pay-per-click advertising keywords. Affiliate agreements also address issues such as payment of commissions, how and when commissions are earned, and other issues of importance to you and your business.
Failing to read an affiliate agreement is the fastest way to get tossed out of an affiliate program. The Internet marketing community is fairly tight, and you can bet that when one merchant tosses you out of their program for failing to follow the rules laid out in the affiliate agreement, other merchants will know about it.
4. Fail to Use the Product or Service – One of the biggest mistakes that affiliates make is not actually trying the product or service before they promote it to others. You have probably heard that it is easier to sell a product that you have tried and that you believe in than it is to sell something that you’ve never tried. While you may not see this as a big problem, it really is.
You see, it’s not just about knowing how good a product is or what it can do. You need to know what the downside of the product is as well, or even if it is something that you want to promote. When you promote a product or service, those who buy it from you will always associate your name with it – good or bad. Make sure that you test out the products that you want to promote, in order to protect your reputation – and to be better able to sell the product.
5. Fail to Educate Yourself – Failing to keep up with changes in how business on the Internet is done, or how technology plays a role in how products or services are marketed, is not a good thing.
If you are using outdated methods of advertisement, not only will you fail to succeed, you may also come off as someone who is not putting forth their best efforts. Be sure to keep up with what is going on, and when new technology comes out (which is usually at a pretty fast clip), educate yourself.
Also take the time to educate yourself concerning marketing and ecommerce. This way, you will protect yourself in the legal sense as well as in the professional sense.
6. Improperly Use Email – We’ve already touched upon spamming email, but this refers to another improper use of email – forwarding email. There are those who love to receive those cute jokes, poems, and images, and then there are those who are extremely irritated by it.
For business purposes, simply do not send these out, and you will not be offending anybody. Furthermore, never forward hoax emails, such as those ones that warn of viruses, and never tell people that the email is being tracked and so much money is being raised for each forward.
7. Promote Poor Products and Services – While this is related to not trying out the product, this act of unprofessionalism goes a bit further. Sadly, there are people who will promote a product or service despite already knowing that the product or service is below par.
People who do this are only interested in the money, and have no values or integrity – and they certainly don’t possess any resemblance of professionalism. If you know that a product or service isn’t up to standard, simply do not promote it. Remember that your name is always associated with the products or services you promote. While promoting a poor product or service may bring you a quick buck today, tomorrow you won’t be making anything on any promotion, because that poor product or service ruined your reputation.
8. Use Inappropriate Signature Files – We’ve all seen these. These are the signature files that go on and on. They have all capital letters shouting at us, they are full of hype, and they often have nothing to do with the subject at hand.
Don’t use inappropriate signature files. It makes you look desperate, as well as unprofessional. A good signature file will be between five and seven lines long, with 45 to 50 characters per line. They will not use all capital letters. They will not use abbreviations that people can’t understand, and they certainly won’t have any poor spelling or grammar! They definitely won’t have any hype in them.
By using all capital letters and having a signature file the length of a short article, you aren’t getting your message across. Messages using such an approach will be ignored – or worse, people will take note of the approach and decide they don’t want to do business with you.
9. Use Tired, Overused Sales Copy – Many merchants try to help their affiliates by providing them with sales materials. These may include short ads, long ads, articles, videos, ebooks, and more. Using some of these items, such as ebooks and videos may be okay; but for the most part, you should avoid using the same ads that all the other affiliates are using. You should also write your own articles, or pay a ghostwriter to write them for you.
Take the time to learn to write your own sales copy. There are numerous courses available online, and they are affordable. You can even find free information. Copywriting is a part of being an affiliate marketer; you have to know how to get your message across to your market.
Don’t depend on the merchant to do this for you. Your ability to do this for yourself is one of those things that will set you apart from other affiliates, and eventually lead to super affiliate status.
10. Ruin Your Good Name by Defaming Others – Few people think about this one. As an affiliate marketer, you will most likely be putting yourself out in the “public” eye – or at the very least, the “cyber” eye. As you grow your business, a growing number of people will be paying attention to what you say and do.
When you make the mistake of going on a forum where your market hangs out and defaming someone else, you’ve just defamed yourself as well. Make sure that you behave in a way that you can be proud of. Just because you don’t come face to face with anyone doesn’t mean that you can just say whatever you want to say and not be affected by it.
You may not get punched in the nose, but you may very well take a hit in the wallet! Not only will you turn many customers off, you may also get sued. Other affiliate marketers and Internet marketers will also take note of what you have said or done.