Willie Crawford Teaches REAL Internet Marketing  

Why Most Affiliate Marketers Fail Copyright 2009 by Willie Crawford

Many people coming online and deciding to sell affiliate products never sell a single product. The reason is glaringly obvious, and it's not the unfortunate affiliate marketer's fault.

Think about any job that you've ever held in the offline world. What happened? You were hired and told when to report for work.

When you showed up for work you were entered into training. Depending upon the job, you spent weeks, sometimes even months, with a trainer guiding you and looking over your shoulder.

Compare that with your typical affiliate program that the complete newbie can join.

You fill out an affiliate registration form and are handed an affiliate link. With some affiliate programs you are also directed to an affiliate resource center.

With a few of the better affiliate programs, you are also directed to some affiliate training videos. The affiliate training videos are the exception rather than the rule.

Affiliate marketers are basically left to figure out what works all on their own.

It's really not much better for new people coming online who decide to launch their own product.

They come online and read over and over again that you really need you own product. So they decide to create one, perhaps putting it on Clickbank, or a somewhat better option - decide to use the Rapid Action Profits script.

These new product owners understand that they need affiliates, so they put a link to an affiliate signup page somewhere on their site. They often stick this affiliate program signup link in the worse possible place - right on their salespage where it distracts buying customers.

As a side-note, a better place to put your affiliate signup invitation is on your download page, or you can tell your new customers about your affiliate program in a follow-up email. What better person to recruit as an affiliate than a satisfied customer who actually knows your product?

These new product owners sign up affiliates, give them their affiliate links (and a few tools) and then wait for the orders to come flooding in.

When the orders don't come surging in, the new product own wonders what he did wrong, and concludes that affiliate programs really don't work.

The problem in both of the above cases is simply a lack of adequate training for affiliates in what works in promoting affiliate products.

The sad part is that there is lots of information available on what has proven to work for top producing affiliates. I, as a super affiliate, have written over 1300 article on the topic of ecommerce. Many of those articles outline techniques that work flawlessly for me.

For the product owner or affiliate program operator, there are entire affiliate training programs in a box. One that I looked at recently included 52 weekly autoresponder training sessions. It even included video lessons to SHOW the struggling affiliate how to do many things.

Each of the weekly lessons in that "affiliate training program in a box" taught a skill that the aspiring affiliate marketer needs to understand.

If you are an affiliate program owner and wants to check out that "affiliate training program in a box" it's at: http://WillieCrawford.com/TrainYourAffiliates/

Seasoned marketers and copywriters understand that marketing is not guessing. It's testing until you discover what works, and then USING those things proven to work.

Seasoned marketers and copywriters understand that they are often WRONG as far as what they think will work. Only the market decides what will work. That's why they don't experiment, but instead stick with the "tried and true."

If you are a new (or unsuccessful) affiliate marketer, your solution is simple - learn and stick with what's already proven to work.

If you are a product owner with an affiliate program that's NOT producing, your solution is simple - train your affiliates.

When you train your affiliate, they will experience success selling your products, and having finally figured it out, will double their efforts in promoting your products.

Like any other paying job in the world, affiliate marketing does require training. Make sure that you're not overlooking this critical element of the online marketing puzzle!

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Willie Crawford has been teaching internet marketing and ecommerce since 1996. As founder of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle he now teaches his tactics in the membership site at http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com You are invited to join this community of serious marketers today!