What's The Difference Between Success And Failure?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most widely written-about topics on the internet. There's a good reason for that. There are literally millions of affiliate marketers signed up with thousands of merchants and engaged in promoting the merchant products. It makes sense that there's a lot of content and products on offer for affiliate marketers.

However, the reality is that the vast majority of affiliate marketers fail. Read that sentence again! Yes, more than 90% of affiliate marketers don't earn anything - and in some cases they don't even get started, despite having signed up as affiliates. In other words, a very small percentage of affiliate marketers are making the money, and some of them a very large amount of money.

Why is that?

Now, let's be clear here - it is not because they are more intelligent people and it is not because they are lucky people and nor is it because they simply chose the right product(s) to promote. No... the differences between success and failure are very clear and they are all things that anyone can put into effect and turn failure into success.

So why do so many affiliate marketers fail?

• Lack of planning. Benjamin Franklin put it very clearly when he said, "failing to plan is planning to fail". That's so true! Many affiliates have given no thought to how they are going to develop their business. They haven't sat down and worked out the best site concept for their web site, nor have they researched the most profitable topics and then chosen the best affiliate programs to promote.
• They are too dependent on the merchants. You are probably wondering why I'm saying that because all affiliates depend on merchants. That's true - but it' very easy to choose the wrong merchants and even to fail with the right ones. Yes, there are some great affiliate merchants with wonderful products but they don't have the time or willingness to invest in providing their affiliates with the proper training and resources. It's little wonder people fail! Successful affiliates find ways to move outside this dependency and build their business.
• Poor quality web sites. Many affiliates are so pre-occupied with making money that they completely neglect the basic requirements of their web site. Maybe they don't even know how to do it and they certainly can't afford to pay for someone else to do it. Things like the look and feel of you site, the content, the way that the information is structured and organized on the site - these are all important factors in the success equation. On top of that, many affiliates use free web hosting which destroys their credibility from day one.
• Lack of traffic. The idea of building a web site and the visitors will come doesn't work. Your potential visitors are the ones who make the decision about where they will go. Successful affiliates understand that and take all the steps necessary to attract those people.

All of those factors are things that can be learned. It simply requires an investment of your time and persistence.

To draw out the key points...

Successful affiliates are characterized by:

• proper planning and research
• independent use of resources and training
• high quality web sites
• successful traffic generation