Top 7 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes You're Making (+ How to Fix Them)

Do you know what the biggest affiliate marketing mistake that’s stopping you from making money?

If you’re struggling to make money with affiliate marketing as a blogger you’re not alone.

For many years, when I did affiliate marketing on my blog, I struggled making any amount of income.

I made mistakes with affiliate marketing big time and I wasn’t earning any money from it. But, with my Twins Mommy blog, I wanted to try new methods to make money as a mom, so I kept on trying and I ended up using some methods and eventually figured out what to do.

And because of working diligently with my affiliate marketing strategy, I was able to make almost seventy thousand dollars in one year!

So, I want to share the top affiliate marketing mistakes established bloggers or new bloggers might be making in case you might be struggling with this monetization method.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of this post, I do have a new free guide for you!

It’s called Affiliate Success – Going from Zero to a Thousand Dollars a Month.

It’s about 18 pages of a planning guide. In it I share how to add affiliate links to your blog post the right way and proven tactics to increase your affiliate income.

The planner is also fillable so you can use it straight away. So grab your free planner today!

Mistake 1: Only Relying on Amazon Affiliate Marketing

I feel this is the biggest affiliate marketing mistake new bloggers are trying to do with a niche site as their plan to make money blogging.

And I’m at fault too!

I’m doing this with my niche site but want to change this. I just haven’t had the time to sign up to other affiliates, so right now I am just doing affiliate marketing with Amazon on my niche site and it’s okay.

As of now, my niche site isn’t earning that much money from Amazon, but I am making somewhat consistent sales even though I’m not blogging consistently.

So, how do you fix this?

Easily – by signing up to more affiliate programs that aren’t Amazon!

Once you sign up to these affiliates, start brainstorming content ideas you could write about.

Or, you can just use Jasper Chat!

This uses the power of GPT-3 and gives you awesome blog post ideas for your affiliates.

Here’s how I came up with 10 ideas using my bullet journal as a mom blogger.

You can quickly come up with a few good blog post ideas for all of your affiliates based on your audience or style of writing!

Mistake 2: Not Having Many Affiliate Products to Promote

Another mistake you might be making is to only have a handful of affiliates instead of having dozens of affiliates.

With my Twins Mommy blog, I do have about a dozen products I promote like my blog hosting, a lot of tech tools like Tailwind or Convertkit, and I also do Amazon.

I could definitely add more affiliates since I know many bloggers that make six figures with affiliate marketing have closer to 25 or more affiliates (some have hundreds more!) they promote on their blog and making substantial income because of that.

So, don’t just stick to Amazon and don’t just stick to a few affiliates.

Instead try to get at least 12 products to promote.

Start with adding one or two per month and keep finding new affiliates.

For example, an easy way to gain more affiliates to promote on your blog is to sign up to other bloggers’ affiliate programs.

I have an affiliate program for my Twins Mommy brand and my Elna Cain brand.

You can become an affiliate and you get a 30% commission rate.

This is an easy way to find a lot of places to become an affiliate for especially if you ask in Facebook groups or even search online for bloggers’ products (if you know the name of their products) and then see if they have an affiliate program for them.

And you can also Google tools and services to see if they have an affiliate program. Just search, “product + affiliate” to see if they offer one.

Mistake 3: Focusing on Money and Not Value

I don’t know about you but I get excited when I sign up to an affiliate program.

It’s usually after I use the tool or service and see how much of a difference it makes for my business. But sometimes this enthusiasm is mixed up with wanting to make money.

This is an important distinction because once you sign up to a dozen or more affiliate products you’re probably thinking how are you going to promote all of these products and what content are you going to put out.

But that’s not the mindset to have.

You HAVE to think of your audience first and how that will help them if you mention this product or service.

I’m an affiliate for Tailwind, so when I’m using the tool and find a cool feature or something I enjoy, I’m going to write about it.

I will then promote Tailwind in that post since I’m talking about a specific feature or tip but it’s always because I want to help the reader understand the tool and use it to their advantage.

It’s the same with Jasper AI.

I recently became an affiliate for Jasper, and I’ve been creating video content and I’m currently writing a blog post about Jasper on some cool new ways you can make money using this tool.

I mean, every month Jasper comes out with something new to talk about!

Why am I doing multiple videos and posts about this one tool?

Because anything that’s helpful to my readers will ultimately help you as a person that’s promoting the affiliate to make money.

And the more I share this tool to make it easier for my readers to use it, the more likely they will sign up and use Jasper themselves.

So, when you focus on the VALUE you’re giving to the reader, it will show through how helpful you are being in your videos and posts!

It’s a win-win!

Mistake 4: You’re Neglecting SEO

This is another big affiliate marketing mistake you are probably making.

I should know because when I started with affiliate marketing, I did not even THINK about SEO at that time, let alone making sure my money-making posts would rank in Google.

You can actually do both affiliate marketing and SEO.

I use Ahref’s to find specific keywords associated with tools and products but you can use free SEO tools like Ubersuggest or Keyword Surfer (this is a Chrome Extension).

For example, if I’m doing a fitness and exercise blog or I can start searching for reviews of products or the products I use to see if they’re actual keywords.

This keyword has over a thousand searches a month and it’s easy for newer bloggers to write about it since it’s in the 20’s according to Ahrefs, it’s not that hard to rank for.

So, for this keyword you can do a review for and take pictures of you using that app to make your audience trust you more.

There are hundreds, even thousands of keywords that are products, tools, apps and services that you can be an affiliate for and write about.

Many have thousands of search traffic too and are easy to rank for.

So, as a new blogger you want to focus on affiliate marketing but to maximize your income potential you should also pair it with SEO.

That’s something I didn’t know for the longest time!

It’s only when I started doing this strategy and had a few of my affiliate posts ranking in Google that my income ramped up. These posts are at the top spot or the top second or third spot so that brings in a lot of traffic and a lot of conversions.

Now let’s get into more mistakes that I didn’t mention in the video!

Mistake 5: Not Doing Enough Research

One of the most common mistakes I see bloggers make when it comes to affiliate marketing is not doing enough research.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been blogging for a while, many bloggers fail to take the time to properly vet potential partners, fail to check their terms and conditions for compliance regulations, or don’t even bother to learn about the products and services they intend to promote.

When you sign up for an affiliate program, it’s important you understand what regulations apply and what compliance requirements need to be met.

Depending on where you live, different laws may apply regarding disclosure or proper use of logos or images in promoting products or services.

For example, with Amazon images, you can’t use them for your Pin images but I do see many bloggers doing this. This is a big no-no with Amazon!

Not taking the time to check these requirements can lead to problems down the line—including hefty fines or even jail time!

Make sure you know what rules apply before entering into any agreement.

Also make sure the affiliate program is legitimate.

Do some research online about their reputation in the industry, read reviews from other affiliates who’ve worked with them, and if possible talk directly to someone who’s already working with them. You don’t want to spend your hard-earned money promoting something only to find out later it was a scam.

I know for some of my affiliates people think it’s a scam and you know a sneaky way to flip the script on this? It’s to use Scam in your title!

This will get looky-loos to your post to see if you say it’s a scam!

Mistake 6: Having No Blogging Plan

Blogging without a strategy is another big mistake I see soo many new bloggers make!

I mean, I started blogging without a plan too but luckily I fixed that early on!

If you start out promoting affiliates without any kind of plan you are likely going to run into trouble (like not knowing the terms for each affiliate platform) more often than not.

You must create a content calendar, come up with creative ways to promote different products and services, and track their performance regularly so they can find what works best for them and their audience.

(Psst..my Affiliate Success guide helps you with all of this and more!)

Mistake 7: Not Spending Enough Time on Affiliate Marketing

Look –

Everywhere you look there’s something new happening.

Shiny object syndrome is a real thing for bloggers!

But one fatal mistake you might be making is not paying enough attention to attracting quality traffic to your affiliate posts.

Instead you’re focusing on growing your subscriber base or building relationships with influencers who could potentially spread the word about your work online, which is great but there are better way to promote your affiliates (that I share in my free guide).

SEO is one of them, but using social media is another way to get the word out!