The Mistakes We’ve Made and What We’ve Learned

Posted by Luke | June 22, 2008 .

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As I sit here working on some new campaigns (and tweaking some old ones), I’ve been thinking a lot about what Nate and I have done wrong so far in our short-lived affiliate marketing careers and what we’ve learned from it. I think all of our mistakes really fit into three tidy little categories:

Rushing Things

There have been a few different campaigns we’ve tired to launch, or products we’ve bought that were a waste of either time or money. I’ll be the first to admit that on more than one (alright, more than I care to mention really) occasion so far I’ve discovered what I thought was going to be a hugely profitable keyword, or a can’t-lose product, landing page, etc. and I’ve hurried to put up a campaign without doing the necessary research and optimizing to ensure the profit of said campaign. When you don’t have a lot of capital to play with (and we don’t) this is a very dangerous habit to fall into and one which will quickly deplete the little profit you’ve managed to scrape together so far.

What we’ve learned from this mistake: be careful and take your time! As they say, measure twice and cut once.

It’s Harder than it Looks

Affiliate marketing is often touted as a way to “get rich quick” and I think we (like a whole lot of other people online) definitely fell for it a bit. Granted, we didn’t buy any $90 eBooks or spend hundreds of dollars on any “automated” cash-pulling schemes or anything but I know I (and I think Nate would say the same) definitely assumed it was going to be easier to turn big profits right out of the gate than it’s proving to be. Granted, affiliate marketing is certainly easier to make money with than some other industries out there, but it’s certainly not a way you can get rich quick (without a whole lot of luck, anyway).

What we’ve learned from this mistake: now I know why they save 9-out-of-10 affiliates fail early in their careers - affiliate marketing ain’t easy. It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy, and a lot of money to make a profit. But, if you stick with it, you will make a profit. To quote A League of Their Own (that’s right, I went there): “Hard? It’s supposed to be hard! If it was easy, everyone would do it!”

Jump!

I contemplated about getting my start in affiliate marketing for months before I finally took the plunge — with Nate’s partnership — and signed up. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it, able to afford it, able to learn what it took to be successful. Frankly, I was scared. While it’s never too late to start, if I had gotten started when I had originally wanted, I’d be that much further ahead of where I am today.

What we’ve learned from this mistake: The truth is, you can read all you want and learn all you want but sooner or later you’ve just got to do it! You’ll be happy you did.