Why is Affiliate Marketing So Hard? 5 Things you’re doing wrong

Wondering why is affiliate marketing so hard? You just might be doing it wrong. If you are you feeling frustrated and about ready to throw in the towel, don’t give up on affiliate marketing just yet.

In this post I’ll share with you what you just might be doing wrong, so you can get back on track and start making money online. Cool?

Okay so you want to make money online and you’ve chosen to do that via affiliate marketing. You’ve found yourself, the best affiliate marketing training opportunity, but even so, it’s taking you a while to get that first long for sale. I’m I right?

So because you haven’t had that sale, you’ve convinced yourself that affiliate marketing is so darn hard. Now you’re wondering if affiliate marketing is a scam, does it really work, whether it’s for you or not, and you’re ready to chuck it all in and call it a day.

Well, you can do that. But before you make your final decision to chuck all your hard work down the drain, first I want you to think about why you got started in affiliate marketing in the first place?

Most likely you saw the potential for financial and geographic freedom. Right? You saw the possibilities of a side hustle allowing you to make money from home or even turning your passion into a profit. So why is affiliate marketing so hard?

Listen to me for a minute.

This is not about me trying to convince you that you should stick with affiliate marketing. Who knows, you might be more inclined to having your own online store. But if you think that affiliate marketing is hard, then having your own online store may not work for you either. Because the same principles apply.

Why is Affiliate Marketing So Hard?

It’s not really. But if you are struggling to make it work, you just might be doing the wrong thing. Here are five (5) things that you just might be doing, that might be causing you to ask yourself that question.

#1. Build it and they will come

If you’re only using SEO to make money with affiliate marketing, then you’re going to have to work a little harder and wait a little longer, for the money to start rolling in. Most people who make money online quickly enough, will tell you that waiting for people to arrive at their site, just doesn’t work, if you want to make money online relatively quick. I can relate to that.

Why is Affiliate Marketing so hard

Here’s a little bit of my personal experience. When I started promoting one of my websites, the money started rolling in quicker and I didn’t write as much articles. In addition to which, I didn’t even do keyword research for the article I was promoting. What? Yep.

Now, you could keep focusing on SEO if that’s what you want to do. But to me, having to write article after article to facilitate SEO ranking, is a recipe for burnout and making your online business feel like a regular job. Know what I mean?

#2. Right opportunity, wrong mindset

So you found the right opportunity and you’ve built one of the best looking websites out there. But if you have the expectation that the success will just start rolling in because you have a website that’s up and running, then you’ve got another think coming.

MORE for You: Is Having an Online Business Really worth It?

The fact that there are billions of people online, does not necessarily mean that your target audience will automatically find and start interacting with your website right away. So for you to think that the success of your affiliate website would be automatic, is the wrong mindset to have. You’re simply regressing to the build it and they will come mindset.

#3. Running a business?

Think about that for a minute. How do you run a business? What you need to do is think of getting into affiliate marketing as a business. That being said, you need to promote your business.

Ever notice that people who are in business, even brick-and-mortar, actually promote their business? That’s why you see the ads on television, or social media or where have you. They want people to know and remember that they are out there.

Likewise, you have to let people know that your website is out there, so that they can start interacting with it. I’m not suggesting that you d television ads or anything like that (lol), but you need to promote your website if you want to make money with affiliate marketing.

Still wondering why is affiliate marketing so hard, or are you seeing the possibilities? There are just two more important aspects we need to look at here; promotion and target audience.

#4. What’s your promotion efforts like?

Are you promoting your website? If so, how are you doing that? Free methods only? Now there is nothing wrong with using free methods to promote your website, but this too will take some time before you reap the fruits of your affiliate marketing efforts. It could also be time consuming, depending on the platforms you’re using.

Why is affiliate marketing so hard?

On the other hand, paying for targeted traffic allows you to make money quicker with affiliate marketing. I know you’re thinking paid ads cost money. Well, yes, but it’s not as expensive as you might think. For example, I ran a paid campaign for one post (article) and I paid $.01 per engagement. I am serious!

So here’s the thing.

When you are spending money on advertising, you can determine the amount you want to spend, so you can work with your budget. This takes us back to the idea of thinking of affiliate marketing as a business. Businesses have expenditure budgets. You might want to think about having an advertising budget for your affiliate marketing business.

Click here to Learn More About Affiliate Marketing

#5. You’re Targeting the wrong audience

So check this out. You join a couple of groups online and you start sharing your posts/articles. But are you sharing your stuff with the right target audience? You have to think about who your target audience is and join those groups. Make sense, doesn’t it? It’s the same way if you’re doing paid ads.

Why is Affiliate Marketing so hard?

For example, here’s what some people do wrong when they advertise on Facebook. They do a $10 ad campaign and instead of targeting a specific audience they target everyone on Facebook.

Newsflash! As much as you might like them to be, everyone on Facebook is not your target audience. So if you do your Facebook promotion to people who are not in your target audience, what kind of results can you expect? I’ll let you answer that question for yourself.

But the funny thing about this is that when people do this and they don’t get the results they are after, they complain that advertising on Facebook doesn’t work. They do the wrong thing then they complain that it didn’t work right. Well, I’ll just leave that alone. But I think you get where I’m going with this.

What I will say is that, you’ll definitely get a better result from a more targeted audience that’s for sure. Once you find what works, you simply rinse and repeat.

So Why is Affiliate Marketing So Hard for You?

You most likely have not been focusing on these five (5) aspects that can make all the difference to your affiliate marketing business. Neglecting these aspects could very well be the reason why you’re not succeeding with affiliate marketing.

It’s not everything we’ll be successful at right off the bat and affiliate marketing is one of those things. My thing is, you saw the potential in the opportunity, so you need to have the patience to make it work for you. Sometimes it’s a process of trial and error to find what works. But like I said, once you find what works for you, all you need to do is rinse and repeat.

So that’s it from me. I hope that the 5 points I’ve shared with you will help you see affiliate marketing in a different light and that you’re no longer wondering  why is affiliate marketing so hard. Hey, if the rest of us can make money with affiliate marketing, so can you.

If you want to learn all about affiliate marketing the right way? Then join us at Wealthy Affiliate and get started absolutely free!

Of course, feel free to share your experience and insight with us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Related Article: Is Having an Online Business Really worth It?

6 thoughts on “Why is Affiliate Marketing So Hard? 5 Things you’re doing wrong”

  1. Wow, this was a great article! you gave a lot of advice that came from your own experience, that made it more personable and interesting. As an affiliate marketer myself, I can totally relate to what you’re talking about. Some people don’t really look at these aspects of their online business and when they don’t see that first buck, they just give up. Which really is a pity, since affiliate marketing really is a very lucrative online opportunity. 

    David

    Reply
    • Hi David

      Thanks for stopping by. It is reported that quite a number of people fail at affiliate marketing. Most likely because they’ve got that instant success mindset because it’s an inter/online business. But like any business, if you’re not treating it as a business, it won’t do as well as it can possibly do. Even if it’s an online business, we still need to do the right things to make it work and like I said, once we find what works, we simply rinse and repeat to bring in more success.  

      Reply
  2. Really nicely put, I gained a lot from your article and it just goes to show that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
    Facebook ads are great of recently, I’ve been contemplating using them to boost my posts.

    After reading this, I am going to try them out, also do you know what the ROI is per ad?

    Reply
    • Hi Excelle

      If you do Facebook ads right, you can get a great ROI. The thing is Facebook gives you lots of insight when you run ads, so that you can see how to improve you ad so you can get the best returns. I say, find your target audience and go for it. See what works for you and once you find that, like I said, rinse and repeat. 

      If you’re interested, just click the link and grab your free guide to Facebook Advertising and if you need a hand with anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.

      Reply
  3. Hi, thanks for the brilliant article! I will definitely take these into account as to why I’m struggling with affiliate marketing at the moment.
    It’s true that you need to spend a little to receive back the traffic, but do you know of any of the free ways to promote your business?
    Thanks in advance,
    Sophie

    Reply
    • Hi Sophie

      Thanks for dropping by and happy to know that you appreciate the article. There are a number of ways you can promote your online business for free, like joining forums, making sure you share your posts on various social media; Facebook, Instagram, etc. You can also check out Yahoo questions and answer forum and WIKI how to and maybe try and answer questions related to what you do online.

      Just know that the free methods would take you a bit longer to realize your financial objectives. So if you can wait, then that’s okay. But using paid and direct traffic, will help you reach your financial goals quicker. If you want to learn more about using Facebook, I’ve included a free guide so you learn about Facebook Advertising. It’s mainly targeting eCommerce users, but the same principles apply to boosting posts etc. 

      If I can help you in any way, please just let me know.  

      Reply

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