In Affiliate Marketing, Expectation Vs. Reality

Whenever something grows in fame and has proven to work, rumors and false expectations start to develop centering it. The same is true of affiliate marketing. You've probably heard or read a lot about affiliate marketing and think you know it so well. The knowledge may have generated different expectations but are they true? Here are 7 expectations versus reality in affiliate marketing.

1. Affiliate marketing is easy

This is one of the most popular assumptions about affiliate marketing. People tend to think that if many people are into it, then it must be a piece of cake. Contrary to expectations, affiliate marketing requires more than pushing links on social media, forums and websites to besuccessful. Although anyone can be an affiliate marketer, not everybody will succeed at it as it can be quite demanding. From researching and selecting a profitable niche to convincing your audience to click the links and follow through with a real purchase, affiliate marketing requires skill, willingness to learn and hard work.

2. Affiliate market is a get-rich-quick scheme

You've probably heard of people who talked about affiliate marketing as though it is a way to achieve overnight success. They expect that when they delve into affiliate marketing, they will instantly begin to make money even when they're asleep. Sorry to break the news to you but affiliate marketing is not a money tap and it won't make you rich all of a sudden. Of course, you can earn a full-time income from it but it will take some time for your hard work to yield that kind of result.

3. More products mean more money

This is another popular expectation that many newbies have about affiliate marketing, so they end up promoting a lot of products at once. Advertising many products might have worked in times past for some people but this isn't the case right now. To succeed in affiliate marketing today, you have to build authority in a niche to persuade your audience to make a purchase through your link. Besides, posting several links on your site puts you at risk of being penalized by Google.

4. Popularity on social media is a decisive factor

Among other expectations, this is one of the most ridiculous, especially since having a lot of fans on social media and promoting products for them to purchase via your link are two different things. Social media might help you sell products in some way but popularity on it doesn't equal affiliate marketing success.

5. Higher commission rate translates to more revenue

When looking through offers, it can be tempting to choose those with high commission rates but this doesn't necessarily mean you will earn more income. For instance, there are products that have high commission rates but they're less likely to be sold often. Examples are software, ebooks, plug-ins etc. Before you decide to promote an offer, pay attention to factors like conversion rates, earning per click, available promotional tools and support among many others.

6. Traffic equals profit

Sure, traffic is important as it increases the likelihood of visitors buying through your link. However, there are a lot of factors that make visitors purchase products and you need to make sure you have everything in place. These include: page loading time, site design, engaging content, call to action, great offer etc. Don't expect to make thousands of dollars simply because you have a substantial amount of traffic as you need to still ensure that the traffic converts to sales.

7. Affiliate marketing is expensive to start

For a business that offers such great prospects, many people expect that it takes serious cash to get started. Nothing could be farther from the truth as you can create your website yourself for free, write your own content or invite guest bloggers and leverage the free courses available online. You can get started without spending so much. Conclusion Now that you know the truth about affiliate marketing, it's about time you made the decision to learn about how to succeed at affiliate marketing and then work till you start seeing the results you desire.