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Servando Silva

The Perks and Pains of being an Affiliate Marketeer

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Last Updated on October 2, 2015 17 Comments

10 mistakes every new affiliate does (or thinks)

This is going to be a quick one. I’ve received a so many emails and questions via Skype that I decided to write this small compilation of mistakes every new affiliate does.

Some of them are repeated even when you’re an intermediate or super affiliate. I can’t really stop it from happening, but when it does, you’ll remember me and come back to my blog for a quick laugh 🙂

After all, the best thing you can do is learn from your mistakes. As long as you rise again it’s just part of the game.

1. Not having enough budget to get started

I’m going to start with this because it’s one of the most asked questions lately. How much do you need to gets started with paid traffic?

This is no SEO game (looking for free traffic)and definitely not a 3 step system to get rich quickly overnight. If you want to master paid traffic you need money to buy it. How much? Well, it depends on several things but most people would recommend at least $1,000.

I think $2,000 to get started and then $1,000 extra per month (for at least 3 months) is ideal. You don’t know if you’re going to find a campaign after your first $500 or after $3,000. Also, keep in mind you need a few things like servers, domains and trackers.

Several people have approached me with $100-200 (e.g. please sir, how can I make $100 by spending $5 on FB Ads?) and I have to tell them the truth. Some people feel ofended when I honestly answer them with the required budget and they get mad at me. I’m not the one who makes the rules!

Which brings me to number 2…

2. Dont want to use a tracker or a VPS

Want to send all your traffic to a cheap $3 per month shared host? Up to you. But then don’t ask why is your CTR so low or why nobody is visiting your offers.

As for the tracker, when you buy traffic and get a few conversions (which is great), but you don’t know which websites, OSes, etc. are the ones converting you’ll have to run that traffic again. Voluum doesn’t have a free trial like before, but Adsbridge has  a decent solution for 30% of the price.

3. Select high payout offers

We’ve all been there. Why promote a $1 email submit offer when I can get $100 per conversion if they sign up and pay with their credit card for a dating subscription? If only I could made 1 conversion I would recover all my money… but that conversion never happens…

4. Not spending enough budget to buy data

Remember that $20 per pin submit offer you tried to promote on Facebook with a $3 daily budget? It didn’t convert and you paused it after 30 clicks and $6 ad spend…

Select low payout offers $1.5 or less to gather data fast, especially if you’re buying RON traffic or traffic from different websites/locations/banners/etc.

5. Same for clicks

Some people buy 1,000 clicks from pop traffic (1,000 isn’t a bad number for banners) and with a CTR of 0.5% they send 5 clicks fro their landing page to the offer. Didn’t convert? the offer is shit and doesn’t work anymore…

Or…

Maybe you need to send more clicks and gather data. 5 clicks is like doing a country-level survey to your mom, your brother, your friend and your dog. NOT ENOUGH DATA.

affiliate marketing meme

6. Jumping from one vertical to another every week

Or jumping from traffic source to another… or even worse, jumping from paid traffic to SEO to MLM to Email Marketing to bankruptcy to 9-5 office again.

Want to master something, stick to it and don’t move until you feel like you’re comfortable with it.

7. Not checking the offer link and tracker setup

This is something I’ve done and I know many friends who have done it before. Give me a re-tweet if you have done of the following:

  1. Pick up an offer, setup tracker, create campaign in traffic source, launch and realize after $50 spend that the offer link didn’t work or the offer was paused already.
  2. Pick up an offer (link works this time), setup tracker, create campaign in traffic source and go to bed just to realize next morning you’ve lost $200 and sent all the traffic from another country/OS/whatever

NOTE: this happens to super affiliates too 🙂

8. Randomly selecting an offer you thought was cool

Some offers look cool and have great landing pages. You think you’re going to bank hard with them but most offers are pretty much shit. Ask your manager for a few recommendations (or a top list by volume) instead.

9. Get depressed and out of the game after a few weeks

Tons of affiliates get out of the game after a few days or weeks. I’d say at least 70-80% leave the game without really trying. Some people tell me this industry doesn’t work and when I ask them how many campaigns they’ve launched their response is:

  1. 1 or 2 campaigns
  2. Spent less than $50 testing less than 5 campaigns

Come on…

10. Reading too much

After reading this article you’ll go to another blog, and then the forum, and then another article until it’s lunch time and you realize you haven’t launched anything yet.

Don’t get me wrong. Learning is great and affiliate marketers are always learning, but you’ve to to put that info aside and make some tests. Otherwise why are you learning?

If you’re a newbie and you want to get started start taking action right now!

Filed Under: Perks and Pains

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Comments

  1. Jose Felix says

    March 8, 2021 at 8:57 am

    Hello Servando, I am just starting 🙂

    I would like to know how many offers you test to get one that you can optimize (-50%)?

    I have tried (payment of the offer x10) about 10 offers recommended by the affiliate network with direct traffic and my best data is -80%.

    Maybe I have failed to use direct traffic.

    Reply
    • servandosilva says

      March 10, 2021 at 9:02 pm

      Normally from 10 campaigns, I test perhaps 2-3 have potential.

      Reply
  2. Emilio says

    July 12, 2018 at 2:34 am

    Hola Servando, muchas gracias por tu blog, he aprendido mucho de los ~10 artículos tuyos que he leído en la ultima hora jaja.

    Apenas empezare con CPA marketing y tengo un presupuesto de $2500-$5000 USD. Mi problema principal ahorita es decidirme por un traffic source bueno, estaba muy interesado en native pero también me llamo la atención mobile. Que trafico piensas que seria mejor para mi? Dedicare mucho tiempo a el traffic source que elija y no quiero equivocarme.

    Muchas gracias y saludos desde Monterrey 🙂
    Emilio

    Reply
    • servandosilva says

      July 12, 2018 at 12:37 pm

      Hola Emilio.
      Que bueno que te ha servido.
      Tu presupuesto si alcanza para aprender Native aunque un poco limitado. Para tráfico push/pop/Redirect queda bien y para FB también siempre y cuando uses ofertas de bajo pago.

      Saludos desde CDMX.

      Reply
  3. Laurent Malka says

    October 9, 2015 at 2:12 am

    This is what any affiliate program should be sending to its affiliates when they signup! Good wrap up!

    Reply
    • Servando Silva says

      October 9, 2015 at 10:24 am

      What most networks do is tell you: We have thousands of offers and the highest payouts! Try us!
      But yeah, this is based more on experience than a network trying to sell you something. There are some great managers that give you some good tips though.

      Reply
      • Laurent Malka says

        October 10, 2015 at 7:04 am

        They mostly miss that the affiliate’s success is their success and by giving them the right tools and tips (beyond try this great offer) they could get better traffic. The peerfly team does an amazing job at that.

        Reply
  4. Charles Freeman says

    October 4, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    Hi Servando. Great article. I have done many of these mistakes myself. After some of the first tries (there were many stop and starts and jumping around), I dug in and went for broke, money be damned. I broke even for the first time in a relatively short time. It took $500 to do it. Then I started making money finally. Funny thing was it was all on ZeroPark which isn’t super high quality traffic and doesn’t allow for a lot of tweaking. I had to bail to put out some fires on other businesses before I could move to other traffic sources on my successful campaigns. I’m going to hit this up again and hopefully go for broke again. Thanks for the article here and for your private Face group.

    Reply
    • Servando Silva says

      October 4, 2015 at 11:08 pm

      Glad to hear your story. If you’ve done it once, you can do it again. 🙂

      Reply
    • ✠BOLO says

      October 29, 2015 at 11:05 pm

      Hey Charles want to exchange some Affiliate information ? I’m doing mobile display and pop ads , working on a payday still.

      Reply
      • Charles Freeman says

        October 30, 2015 at 11:36 am

        Hi. Thanks for asking. I’ve had to step away to work on a pressing matter. I always seem to get these situations right before a launch lol. I can get back to you later though.

        Reply
        • ✠BOLO says

          October 30, 2015 at 12:14 pm

          Hell I understand. I quit for a week to do some research. I’m working on some Intel with a spy tool. Been at it 11 months ,PoF ,Decisive, Go2mobi ,popads,PopCash. Never tried to mastermind. Malan, Ngo, Silva everyone says it pays off. I’m in Texas. Scottybolo @ Skype TexasBolo@twitter . I’m not quitting any time soon. Thanks for the reply. Give it hell.

          Reply
  5. Reid Yamamoto says

    October 2, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    Haha…nice post Servando. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of all of these at times. I see a lot of newbies making mistakes numbers 9 and 10 lately. Good reminders!

    Reply
    • Servando Silva says

      October 2, 2015 at 3:52 pm

      We all have been guilty of any of these. As long as we don’t give up it shouldn’t be a problem.

      Reply
  6. Arturo Ochoa says

    October 2, 2015 at 11:04 am

    Good and quick tips Servando, I’ve been tempted to change my vertical after 1 month, but I feel you are right, this game is about mastering one thing at the time…

    I’m also from Mexico, I’d really hook up with you on Skype if you have 2 mins… I’ve read your entire blog already!… lol!…

    Saludos

    Reply
    • Servando Silva says

      October 2, 2015 at 3:53 pm

      It’s always nice to meet people in MX. Which are you from?

      Reply
      • Arturo Ochoa says

        October 2, 2015 at 4:25 pm

        Chihuahua, MX!…

        Reply

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