I agree with you on this, to earn from affiliate programs are not an easy task, the most important things are we need a high traffic site to promote or market it, the more traffic you get the more earnings you get. it is a formula that we should not forget.
I am actually surprised sometime by people. Someone will complain that they aren't making money through their affiliate programs, yet they did nothing to try to get more traffic to see what they are marketing. Many people think it's a set it and forget it, which isn't the case if you want to make decent money.
I would learn any new things to improve my affiliate earnings but have no more ideas on this, what is the right way would you recommend everyone?
Well in my opinion there are 2 main things that are important. The first one is not to go spamming, misleading people or other things that can have a negative affect on you, your site/s or your products. Sometime people just go and make all kinds of bad judgment calls and do things that can have a bad affect on your earning potential.
Now as far as the right way, what works for one person might not work for another, depending on many different things. However, there are certain things that are required to earn good money and that have always worked for me.
Here are some of them:
Dedication is a must! - The more dedicated you are to your success, the more potential earnings you will have.
Promote affiliate products or services that you have at least a little knowledge about. If you don't know about a product or service that you are or are wanting to market then do some research on it. This can help you to get insight as to who potential buyers are and where you might be able to find/look for them.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket! - This has a couple of things I mean by this.
First, always try to work with multiple affiliate networks/programs/advertisers. Many times I have seen people who only deal with and market affiliate products and services from one affiliate program or network. It's best to work with multiples so that way if there is a problem you won't potentially lose all your earnings.
Like for example, some people use just AdSense and if they wind up getting a temporary or permanent ban on their account/website/etc., they will loose all their potential earnings. Maybe someone is out trying to cause you problems like click-bombing your AdSense ads to get Google to ban you for "Invalid Activities". Maybe you put up some content that violates AdSense policies, or any number of reasons. Just make sure that you have multiple earning sources so that if something goes wrong with one, you won't loose everything.
No Spamming! - Don't go around to every website/blog/forum/social network/etc. and make cheap attempts to earn money. You can promote your affiliate products or services with all of these but do it in a clean and more respectable manner.
If you go spamming you can gain a bad reputation for your website/blog/account/whatever and people won't be interested in what you are marketing. Many affiliate networks or programs have policies against this anyway and you can get kicked out of their program and maybe even loose any unpaid earnings you still have with them.
Use Social Media and use it wisely (when allowed)! - If you are marketing on Twitter as an example, don't go sending out every single tweet that is just affiliate products or services. Try to throw in some tweets that give value to your followers. Maybe throw in articles or blog posts that are related to products or services that you are marketing.
Gain Respect! - Try to gain the respect of potential customers/clients of your products or services. This can mean many things and there are many ways. As an example, say you are promoting or reselling web hosting services and you are trying to market your/their services on forums that would have potential clients, don't go on the forums just to post your offers. Try to interact with the other members of the forum through posts and threads.
If members of a forum see you around more often than just to post you offers they can get familiar with you and would be more likely to trust you and buy what you are marketing if they are needing that. If members see offers for hosting and they have never seen you around the forum then they are less likely to buy from you or your affiliate advertiser.
Mix it up! - Say that you have a website that has affiliate ads on it then mix up your needed activities for increasing your potential earnings. Don't spend all day building backlinks to you site then do marketing all day the next day. Maybe do an hour or so doing one aspect then the next doing something else that's needed. This also can help break up the monotonous nature that affiliate marketing can be sometimes.
Set Attainable Goals! - Sometimes people have unrealistic goals when they are affiliate marketing/promoting, especially when they first start out. This goes back to my point that many people think affiliate earnings will just come pouring in if you slap together a website or blog and fill it with affiliate ads. Set smaller and more realistic goals and then when you reach that goal, shoot for another goal. Maybe start out not expecting to make a living from affiliate marketing/promoting right away and just look at it being a way to earn extra money for bills, a vacation or whatever else. Set goals that are within reach.
These are just some of the key things that I do and that have worked for me. Some people might have other methods or techniques that work for them and that's great. Sometimes testing out new methods or techniques of affiliate marketing/promoting can lead to making more money.
Hope this helps, cheers.
