Ask Me Anything My 10 Biggest Affiliate Mistakes --> $20k Lost!

[Honeybadger]

Mistakes are costly
but good for learning
here's a list of things I got wrong
estimated lost commission --> $20,000
& below it
--> how am gonna fix it

Mistakes

1. Not asking for commission increases sooner
2. Not adding & checking tracking IDs to products
3. Not joining new affiliate programs
4. Not optimizing product category & item content/prices
5. Not jumping on new waves & product trends
6. Not outsourcing work to freelancers
7. Not using correct affiliate software
8. Not automating products data feeds
9. Not managing my time effectively
10. Not asking for help & getting answers

Fixes

1. Ask all affiliate program managers for commission increase
2. Scan my site for broken tracking ID links every day
3. Join new programs for my top pages
4. Optimize my top product categories & update all manually added prices every week
5. Check my internal product searches & Google Trends every day
6. Start outsourcing my blog posts & tech work to freelancers
7. Study those free & premium online courses from my affiliate software
8. Move to 100% product data feed automation --> no manual updating unless top seller
9. Use Google Calendar & monday.com to manage my workload
10. Create a Google Sheets document of questions & answers

 

[PureLander]

Ow, that's a huge amount .. hope you'll manage .. keep us posted if these tips to fix it will work for you!

- Samira

 

[Graybeard]

That's more 'opportunities' lost IMO ...

Scan my site for broken tracking ID links every day

What do you mean 'broken' --not working --who's fault is that? You made an error or the program did?
Wordpress is problems sometimes with links in its editor --check the text code for correctness (always).

Move to 100% product data feed automation --> no manual updating unless top 20 bestseller

There are programs for WordPress/Amazon feeds --SaaS subscription.

 

[GeorgeCTV]

Scan my site for broken tracking ID links every day

We do this on our side as well. It's actually in both parties' benefit to make sure tracking links haven't broken

 

[VortexAlpha]

Mistakes are costly
but good for learning
here's a list of things I got wrong
estimated lost commission --> $20,000
& below it
--> how am gonna fix it

Mistakes

1. Not asking for commission increases sooner
2. Not adding & checking tracking IDs to products
3. Not joining new affiliate programs
4. Not optimizing product category & item content/prices
5. Not jumping on new waves & product trends
6. Not outsourcing work to freelancers
7. Not using correct affiliate software
8. Not automating products data feeds
9. Not managing my time effectively
10. Not asking for help & getting answers

Fixes

1. Ask all affiliate program managers for commission increase
2. Scan my site for broken tracking ID links every day
3. Join new programs for my top pages
4. Optimize my top product categories & update all manually added prices every week
5. Check my internal product searches & Google Trends every day
6. Start outsourcing my blog posts & tech work to freelancers
7. Study those free & premium online courses from my affiliate software
8. Move to 100% product data feed automation --> no manual updating unless top seller
9. Use Google Calendar & monday.com to manage my workload
10. Create a Google Sheets document of questions & answers

I think that being able to recognize your own mistakes and missed opportunities is the first essential step for making progress. Unfortunately, this is something that is pretty common to everyone in this business, we all had some issues and weren't always able to make things right from the first attempt. As I read your list, I would say that you recognized all holes that existed in your previous approaches, and the ideas for fixing them could really work and help you quickly overcome existing problems. Just keep going, with this kind of thinking and the effort you are willing to make for your business to grow, success is guaranteed.

 

[Graybeard]

I have lost easily imaginary millions by my overlooking various opportunities --so what?
Shit happens and we usually don't learn that much from it because we fail to understand the real reasons.

My philosophy is it's never 'perfectly' right there is better but there is no best.