Why Most Affiliate Marketers Fail


Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

Many people coming online and deciding to sell affiliate productsnever sell a single product. The reason is glaringly obvious, andit's not the unfortunate affiliate marketer's fault.
Think about any job that you've ever held in the offline world.What happened? You were hired and told when to report for work.

When you showed up for work you were entered into training.Depending upon the job, you spent weeks, sometimes even months,with a trainer guiding you and looking over your shoulder.
Compare that with your typical affiliate program that thecomplete newbie can join.
You fill out an affiliate registration form and are handed anaffiliate link. With some affiliate programs you are alsodirected to an affiliate resource center.

With a few of the better affiliate programs, you are alsodirected to some affiliate training videos. The affiliatetraining videos are the exception rather than the rule.
Affiliate marketers are basically left to figure out what worksall on their own.
It's really not much better for new people coming online whodecide to launch their own product.
They come online and read over and over again that you reallyneed you own product. So they decide to create one, perhapsputting it on Clickbank, or a somewhat better option - decide touse the Rapid Action Profits script.

These new product owners understand that they need affiliates, sothey put a link to an affiliate signup page somewhere on theirsite. They often stick this affiliate program signup link in theworse possible place - right on their salespage where itdistracts buying customers.
As a side-note, a better place to put your affiliate signupinvitation is on your download page, or you can tell your newcustomers about your affiliate program in a follow-up email. Whatbetter person to recruit as an affiliate than a satisfiedcustomer who actually knows your product?
These new product owners sign up affiliates, give them theiraffiliate links (and a few tools) and then wait for the orders tocome flooding in.

When the orders don't come surging in, the new product ownwonders what he did wrong, and concludes that affiliate programsreally don't work.
The problem in both of the above cases is simply a lack ofadequate training for affiliates in what works in promotingaffiliate products.

The sad part is that there is lots of information available onwhat has proven to work for top producing affiliates. I, as asuper affiliate, have written over 1300 article on the topic ofecommerce. Many of those articles outline techniques that workflawlessly for me.
For the product owner or affiliate program operator, there areentire affiliate training programs in a box. One that I looked atrecently included 52 weekly autoresponder training sessions. Iteven included video lessons to SHOW the struggling affiliate howto do many things.
Each of the weekly lessons in that "affiliate training programin a box" taught a skill that the aspiring affiliate marketerneeds to understand.

If you are an affiliate program owner and wants to check out that"affiliate training program in a box" it's at:http://WillieCrawford.com/TrainYourAffiliates/
Seasoned marketers and copywriters understand that marketing isnot guessing. It's testing until you discover what works, andthen USING those things proven to work.
Seasoned marketers and copywriters understand that they are oftenWRONG as far as what they think will work. Only the marketdecides what will work. That's why they don't experiment, butinstead stick with the "tried and true."
If you are a new (or unsuccessful) affiliate marketer, yoursolution is simple - learn and stick with what's already provento work.
If you are a product owner with an affiliate program that's NOTproducing, your solution is simple - train your affiliates.
When you train your affiliate, they will experience successselling your products, and having finally figured it out, willdouble their efforts in promoting your products.
Like any other paying job in the world, affiliate marketing doesrequire training. Make sure that you're not overlooking thiscritical element of the online marketing puzzle!
===========================================================
Willie Crawford is a leading Internet marketing andtraffic generation expert. His favorite method forgenerating free website traffic is distributing videos,audios, articles and press releases using the automateddistribution service at http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com
===========================================================
For Recommended Affiliate Programs visit: http://www.business-fromhome.com