One of the biggest things that a blogger wants is money. No, I am saying the truth!
A blogger, though he says that he is passionate about blogging, will be thinking of ways to monetize his content.
It’s not a bad thing if you want money in return of all the efforts that you are putting in. But sometimes though you make sufficient efforts, you are unable to generate the expected money.
There are many ways to generate a decent income out of a blog : Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, paid reviews, advertising etc.
The best method to earn money is Affiliate marketing, simply because you earn money based on the efforts that you put in. If you work hard, you get more revenue; less work means less revenue or no revenue.
But sometimes, you take care of everything, like you write a superb review post of the product, you add affiliate banners and links at the most visible places; still you are unable to make sales. (It happens to me too).
I have done everything, as I said above and failed to generate even a single dime.
So where was I wrong?
Why I see Zero Affiliate Commissions?
I am a member of almost every top affiliate platform out there – Clickbank, ClickSure, JVZoo etc.
Most of the products are sold through this platform. Although, being a member of the platform that deals with the best products, I fail to produce some figures in my account.
I am wrong somewhere, at some point I am making mistakes. Where am I going wrong?
I finally found the reason.
The Product Selection was Pathetic
Till date whatever product that I chose, were completely irrelevant to the niche of my blog. My visitors come to my blog to eat something and I serve them completely different dishes.
I did generate 2 sales for a product but that too were from the videos I uploaded on YouTube.
So basically no sales from my blog and thus no affiliate commissions. Seriously pathetic!!!
Writing a Review without actually using the product
The BIGGEST mistake from my side.
You tell me, how can I write a review without actually using the product? I don’t have any answer for this.
I searched for the product on Google and read 2-3 posts that appeared in results and published a review, expecting some huge affiliate commissions.
And the result was a BIG zero.
Placing Links wherever I liked
“This is a good place to put my link, let me put it here. Oh let me put the link more number of times to get more affiliate commissions.”
No don’t put the links here and there, as you feel. I committed this mistake, you must not.
If I give you the link to my posts, you will find at least 5-6 affiliate links plus at least 2 banners in my post. I hoped that by doing this, my readers will buy the product. I was foolish.
I understood afterwards that a single affiliate link at proper place brings many sales compared to tons of links here and there.
You must be able to provide a proper CTA, and a single link can convert more.
What’s Next with Affiliate marketing?
Though I have failed big time in affiliate marketing, I have not left it.
I will continue doing affiliate marketing, now with a proper planning. No more blog posts, no irrelevant products, no link placements : just a better approach.
I will be sharing my new way to do affiliate marketing once I get to see some results, and I am quite sure that I will get the expected results with this method and surely I will end up seeing some good affiliate commissions.
Why did I share my experience with you?
I shared because I wanted to relieve myself from all the frustration of not generating enough bucks.
I wanted someone to scold me for my stupidity. That’s the reason, I shared this post.
So now it’s your turn to scold me, abuse me (don’t do that), criticize me.
I am totally worth it!!!
This is a guest post by Arbaz Khan who is a passionate blogger and blogs at TinyBlogger. He has written some great articles related to unique blogging tips, blogging gameplan and SEO. You can check out his blog to learn more about him.
Image courtesy of Jomphong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
About Arbaz Khan
Hi Arbaz, your experience on that post is very worthy to learn, I’m a part-time blogger and I wanted to monetize my blog (in fact, I did) – for awhile, I couldn’t earn any commission until I fix all mistake I meet. Now I can… my mistake was like yours. thanks for the share, it can help the others
Trung Nguyen recently posted..How to Start a Blog That Makes Money
Hi Trung,
Thanks for your reply.
I too want to monetize my blog and want to become a professional blogger, but I failed in affiliate marketing just because of my silly mistakes. All the newbies commit the same mistake so I decided to share my experience so that others can start and not fail
Arbaz Khan recently posted..Giveaway #1 : Great Chance to Win CashDonator Premium Plugin
I love the attitude, Arbaz – you will master the process, I’m certain.
Make it happen!
Mark recently posted..Comments for 2012-10-29
Thanks Mark for the support.
I will surely work hard to make it happen.
Arbaz Khan recently posted..5 Unique Blogging Tips to Build a Better Blog
I have pretty good results with affiliate marketing, of the products that I am passionate about. People can feel through the text that I really and honestly endorse something. That’ the way it goes with the book that I am promoting about Evernote (read the review here: http://alphaefficiency.com/book-review-evernote-unofficial/ ) .
The review comes out of a heart, and I am a firm believer that the book creates a lot of value. After you go through it, if you feel as if it’s the product for you, by all means buy it
Aside from me advertising the review, I can say I’ve learned a lot about affiliate marketing from your personal experience. I have no clue how to go about it. I just had one lucky geese egg, that produces me 50-70$ a month, consistently.
The factor that made it happen is the traction of the book, and me ranking really highly for the competitive book, and gave it an honest bad review, and guided people to the book in question.
Aside from that I don’t know how to repeat this process. I have a hunch on what works, but no clear path on how to monetize, systematically.
Best regards.
Bojan – Alpha Efficiency recently posted..Virtual Assistants on Demand! Efficise review
Hi Bojan,
That was the main problem. I was writing a review without using the product. Once you have used the product then you can create a superb review that will make your readers buy the product.
The review you wrote is amazing and that’s the factor that compels your readers to buy the product through your link.
Other than writing a gripping review, it is much important to rank for that particular product in the search engines to gain extra customers.
Thanks for your superb comment mate
Arbaz Khan recently posted..5 Unique Blogging Tips to Build a Better Blog
Hi Arbaz, thanks for sharing your insight on affiliate marketing (the good and the bad).
It’s definitely hard to get excited about a product that you’ve never used. However, (as you pointed out) it’s easy to point out all the benefits when you actually experienced it first hand.
Glen recently posted..Twitter Making Favorite Button Changes To Increase Engagement
Thanks Glen for your comment.
One thing everyone must keep in mind when doing affiliate marketing is that never write a review without using the product personally. If you write a review and if someone who actually has used the product reads it and insults you, that’s not acceptable.
So better stay away from such tactics
The whole idea of endorsing products that I haven’t used is the one reason that I took Adsense off of my blog. I think it is best to consider your endorsement to be valuable, so products that you endorse should actually be helpful.
Kenneth Brown recently posted..The Characteristics of Success and How to Apply Them
Thanks for your comment Kenneth.
You took one great step by removing Adsense from your blog.
Arbaz Khan recently posted..5 Unique Blogging Tips to Build a Better Blog
These are great tips! Now we don’t have to make the same mistakes! It’s true that most bloggers actually use too many affiliate links in their posts. It’s an interesting concept to NOT give the reader this choice a lot in the blog. I’ll have to try this.
Wade recently posted..Web 2.0 Tools To Benefit Your Blog
Hi Arbaz,
I believe almost all bloggers encounter the same mistakes when they first try to monetize from affiliate marketing. The people who probably don’t make these mistakes during their first tries must have had some great mentoring, which must have surely cost them. You can call yourself stupid if this only happened to you. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Just call it a learning process.
Thanks for sharing your experience Arbaaz, this is one of the most common stories among affiliate marketers, in fact even if you promote good and relevant products after using them, don’t expect to get high numbers. It’s better creating a diverse source of income rather than relying on one.
akhilendra recently posted..Affiliate Marketing- Can You Make Money Online?
Hi Arbaz, some great points there, for sharing with us your mistakes you have helped many others to avoid making the same. People don’t trust posts crammed full of banner ads and links, it smells too much like a desperate sell. Where as a proper genuine review can do a lot, but as you found out, review products that you nothing about isn’t easy and if you do not know what it really does or how it works then it will show in your writing.
Great post and thanks for sharing your story.
Regards SI
SI recently posted..Google AdSense or Private Advertising: Which is Best?
Hie!!! i agree that a blog is meant to generate money but there are so many blogs competing for the same number one spot so there is a need for some fresh and original material that people are starving for and that comes to play when you have the perfect product and the best pitch for it. Many bloggers turn into sly salesmen, that just rings a bell in the readers head that alarms a con. There are plenty of people who make money from their blogs and you can be in that group if you have a real motive in all your posts!!!!!
Blogging is a goldmine if you have the right posts, links and titles!!!!!
nerdy88 recently posted..Instant Success Formula
Hi Arbaz,
Thanks for sharing your story with us. This goes closely with my recent post on Deciding What Products To Promote in Affiliate marketing. One of the points I underlined is that you have to test the product to have a better understanding of it.
I’m really excited to read this on your blog too
Enstine Muki recently posted..Afflilate Marketing ~ Deciding What Products To Promote