10 Affiliate Marketing Lessons I wish I knew 10 Years Ago

Affiliate marketing is an excellent Internet money-making business; It has changed the lives of many online entrepreneurs for the better. From zero to millions in affiliate commissions, it has helped many live their dreams. 

They are going on vacation, living in palatable country homes, buying luxury cars, helping those in need, investing in multimillion-dollar businesses, etc. This business model is worth all the effort and investment.

But as profitable as it is, affiliate marketing is more challenging than it sounds. Doing it for over a decade, I have seen the ups and downs of an affiliate marketer’s life, the struggles, the wins, and the heartbreaking stories. 

Today, I am sharing with you ten affiliate marketing lessons I learned the hard and easy way. You will benefit from reading the diary of an affiliate marketer. 

1. Don’t Focus on Selling

If you focus on selling the affiliate products, you’ve already lost the customers. 

Nobody wants to be sold; they want to be told. Your job as an affiliate marketer is to educate a potential buyer on why the products/services can be good value for money. 

Your content should help a buyer learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of the product. It should share more information about why product A is better than product B and why A might be the better option based on XXX’s reasons. 

You should also tell why product B could be an option, maybe regarding the buyer’s budget, needs, or experience. These are just examples; there are many reasons why subpar products might be the better option. 

At the beginning of my affiliate marketing journey, I focused on selling the products. My reviews always focused on singing the praises of affiliate products because I cared more about the commission than helping a buyer make the right decision. 

This strategy led to no sales, no commission, and no payment. 

I struggled with this for a few years before I realized I wasn’t helping people; I wanted to trick them into buying so I could get a commission.  

2. Build Trust and Authority.

Trust and industry authority play crucial roles in affiliate conversion rates. 

The more your readers trust your recommendations, advice, and tips, the more willing they are to click your affiliate links. 

Here is a typical scenario: imagine Neil Patel recommends an SEO tool, and Justin Bieber (the Singer) recommends another one. Which SEO tool will you purchase based on the influencer recommending it? 

Of course, you’d choose the one Neil Patel recommends because he is a well-known figure in the digital marketing space. He runs a digital marketing agency, blogs about SEO, does SEO, and teaches it. 

His SEO and marketing advice is more trustworthy than Justin’s, who promotes the tool by chance or through a partnership with the SEO tool developer. 

Focus on building trust and expertise in your industry to make more affiliate marketing sales. This will increase your chances of earning consistent affiliate revenue in the long run. 

3. Pay Attention to Your Affiliate Dashboard

Monitoring your affiliate account activities is crucial to your success as an affiliate marketer. If you suspect something is wrong, contact your affiliate manager. 

Affiliate managers are there to assist you, help you succeed, and protect the dignity and safety of their affiliate program above all else.

I once actively promoted an affiliate product that paid well at the time. However, I noticed an inconsistency in the tracking links at one point compared to several weeks or months earlier, based on the traffic to relevant pages on the blog promoting the affiliate product. 

This made me wonder why the conversion rate suddenly dropped and why there were fewer clicks on the affiliate links. 

I decided to test the affiliate links. I opened another browser on a different computer, opened the page, and clicked on the affiliate links using two different email IDs to sign up for a free account.

To my surprise, although the accounts were created, they were not recorded in the affiliate dashboard. My affiliate dashboard showed no record of these leads. That was when I realized the links had stopped working. 

I emailed the affiliate program manager, but there was no response after several attempts. So, I decided to reach out via their official Twitter account. Luckily, someone responded to my DM.

Here is their reply…

While that was pretty good and reassuring, I lost the seal and energy, which pushed me further into affiliate products. Transparency, trust, and accurate analytics are crucial to an online business like affiliate marketing campaigns. 

Promoting an affiliate product to drive sales takes a lot of effort and resources; even slight inaccuracies or a lack of transparency in analytics can demoralize affiliates and reduce interest in the program.

I hope you learned something valuable from this section. 

4. Join Reliable Affiliate Programs

There are thousands of affiliate programs, but in my experience, not every program is rewarding or worth the time and effort. 

You must put your time, resources, and efforts into a program that maximizes your potential to generate regular, high affiliate income. Programs that support affiliates usually pay on time and have a reliable affiliate tracking system. 

If you need a list to get you started, I have compiled reputable programs in several posts:

I have signed up for numerous affiliate partnerships, some of which have been fantastic, while many weren’t worth checking or putting in too much effort or time. 

Before joining an affiliate program, make sure it aligns with your industry topics, has several relevant affiliate products, and that you check the payout methods, structure, and affiliate terms and conditions. 

A good rule is to check whether the affiliate program has a preset payout schedule. 

For example, some affiliate programs release affiliate commissions on a specific date every month. Shareasale (Moved to Awin), for instance, makes payouts on the 20th of each month. On the 20th, you’ll receive the commission earned in the previous month for sales past the locked period. 

I have had affiliate programs without a set date that pay out in a particular week of the month. The Astra affiliate program makes payouts in the third week of each month for sales older than 45 days. 

Consider these things when joining an affiliate program. Small details like this can lead to arguments or payout disputes later. 

However, affiliate programs with preset payout dates are more reliable and give more confidence. Payments are automatically released on schedule, based on the payment details you have on file. 

In other affiliate programs without a specific payout date, I have had to contact them a few times to arrange payment. 

5. The Money is Not Yours Until It Is Paid.

This is one of the affiliate marketing lessons I learned the hard way. When I ran into this, I lost focus in my marketing. 

You see, it’s a good feeling when you see sales notifications like this: 

But these commissions aren’t yours until the payout date, when the money is released to your bank account. 

Each affiliate program has a refund policy and terms and conditions governing the affiliate and the program. A refund or money-back guarantee is one policy you should know about. 

Customers may return the products and request a refund, voiding their affiliate commission. 

I have had 17 transactions reversed since I joined the Shareasale affiliate network. The last reversal happened on the payout date, leaving me speechless and confused about why affiliate sales would be reversed on the supposed payout date. 

As you can see, the commission is only yours once it is paid. So don’t count your chickens before the eggs are hatched. 

6. Analyze Performance Data

The program you joined can make or break your marketing efforts. If you’re promoting low-quality affiliate products, your marketing efforts won’t yield better results.

No matter your efforts or affiliate strategies, you will need help to make sales. Studying the affiliate program performance data becomes essential to ensure you’re promoting the right products. 

Affiliate network programs have performance data on every product or service in their network. These details help determine if an affiliate program is worth the time, effort, and investment. 

Shareasale and Impact, for example, provide data to help you analyze program performance. You can get insights into a program’s payout history, approval level, cookie length, conversion rate, average sale per order, EPC (earnings per click), etc.

Here is the Heart Display affiliate program on Shareasale. 

First, the Heart Display affiliate program is in the Shareasale top 100 Power Rank, has an average EPC of $1,096.62, and converts well on mobile and desktop traffic (20.27% conversion rate). But wait, you may have to wait for 240 days to receive your payout (extended lock period).

In comparison, the Cloudways affiliate program is in the 1,000+ power rank, with 90.17% conversion on desktop traffic, 45 45-day extended lock period, a 3.26% conversion rate, and an average ECP of $49.40. 

If you’re choosing between these affiliate programs, you must weigh your options: expected commission payout time, marketing strategies, audience type, and traffic source. 

One converts well on both devices, while the other focuses more on desktop users. This suggests Cloudway users may be businesspeople and advanced online users, not typical internet users. 

Although the Heart Display affiliate program converts better and, by all indications, is the better affiliate program, the extended 240-day lock period is worth considering. 

As an affiliate marketer, you must read, analyze, and understand this data to make the best of your affiliate marketing campaigns. It will help you set realistic expectations and refine your marketing strategies.

7. Review Affiliate Program TOS

This is a crucial affiliate marketing lesson to take seriously; otherwise, you will get kicked out of the program.

Affiliate programs have strict policies against PPC advertising, fraudulent traffic sources, self-referrals, etc. You should read the affiliate program terms and conditions carefully before promoting the program.m

If you run pay-per-click advertising to promote your affiliate offers, ensure you’re not bidding on the merchant-branded keywords. Also, to be safer, don’t send traffic directly from your paid promotion to the affiliate product landing page.

Instead, create blog posts about the products or services and write detailed reviews or product comparison lists. Then, run your campaign to drive traffic to the post. 

Note: The post headline and URL should not contain the merchant-branded keyword or name. The post URL and title should be neutral, not directly at a particular brand.

For example, I could write about 10 WordPress cache plugins in 2024. In the post, I list WP Rocket. That headline doesn’t violate merchant policy because I didn’t mention any variations of WP Rocket in the URL or post title. 

Most affiliate programs have systems that check brand mentions online, especially in search engine marketing. I had my WP Engine affiliate account suspended once because I unintentionally ran PPC ads targeting WP Engine trademark search terms.

Although I started with pay-per-click marketing, I knew very little about keyword targeting and negative keyword setup then. I did what I could with what I knew and learned as I went. 

You’re lucky to have read this article today because you may not be lucky enough to get a second chance from your affiliate manager. After removing the trademark search terms from my ad campaign, I was fortunate to be reinstated into the affiliate program. 

8. Build a Niche or Focus Blog.

You will increase your chances of acceptance if you have a focused blog that aligns with the program’s target audience. 

A focused affiliate niche blog also increases your chances of driving the right traffic. You will attract the right audience, who are responsive to your offer. 

Most affiliate managers will be eager to have you on board if they know you’re a good fit for their program because your success is their success. If you succeed as an affiliate marketer, the product owner succeeds too.  

Again, I have had several affiliate program applications turned down because my blog topic isn’t focused on the program’s target audience.

Another one….

Even if the disapproval is for several reasons, content mismatch is always on the list. Building a niche site focusing on narrow topics is an ideal strategy if you want to succeed sooner in affiliate marketing rather than wait longer. 

Here is how to start a niche blog that helps you build your affiliate marketing business in six steps.

9. Invest in Paid Marketing

It isn’t easy to build a six- or even four-figure-income affiliate marketing blog relying solely on free traffic sources. It is doable, but you may need to wait longer for that to happen. 

Affiliate marketing is not a hobby; it is a business that requires your utmost attention and investment. The more effort, resources, and investment you put in, the higher your chances of success are. 

At the start of your affiliate marketing career, learning the terrain with free traffic sources is a good idea. You will learn many tactics and build effective strategies along the way.

However, as you gain confidence and understand what you’re doing, I suggest you try paid marketing channels such as pay-per-click search engine marketing and paid social media advertising. 

This will help you scale marketing efforts, drive more targeted traffic, and generate more qualified sales. Still, you must be careful running paid ads; losing a fortune and getting nothing in return is easy. 

Start with a limited budget, an amount within the range you’re comfortable losing. 

This is because PPC, like affiliate marketing, has its learning phase. You need time to understand how PPC works, which campaign settings drive better ROI, the right advertising channels, the target audience, etc. 

By combining organic traffic channels with PPC marketing, you can build solid traffic sources that help you grow and scale your business. 

If you need more information on running effective PPC for affiliate marketing, check out this post on the Affiliorama blog. 

10. In-House or Networks? Choose Wisely

I have better experience with affiliate networks than with in-house affiliate programs run by individual merchants. A consistent, regular payment schedule is often a problem for in-house affiliate programs; this is based on personal experience with the in-house partnership programs I have worked with. 

Either I need to reach out to request payouts, or there’s a delay in receiving payment, even after I get a notification that it’s been released. 

Another thing I noticed is that it is easier and more convenient to review several of your affiliate programs in one dashboard than to do the same individually. If you don’t keep a record of the in-house program you’ve signed up for in a centralized account to manage your affiliate business, it is easier to forget to log in for a long time. 

Additionally, you will reach the payout threshold faster than with in-house affiliate programs. Also, many in-house programs offer limited payout methods, mostly PayPal only.

In comparison, affiliate network programs usually offer several options to receive affiliate payments – PayPal, Payoneer, ACH, Wire Transfer, Check, Direct Deposit, etc. 

If I had to choose between affiliate networks and in-house programs, I would choose affiliate networks every time.

Conclusion

I’ve been into affiliate marketing for a while, more than a decade, to be precise. I wish I had known these things when I started; maybe I would have been more successful. 

But that’s me, not you. Now, you have the chance to write your destiny by learning from my experience and that of other affiliate marketers. 

The experience and affiliate marketing lessons shared with you today are a goldmine if you carefully learn from them and apply the tips and lessons to build your strategy.