Affiliate marketing doesn’t work for most people.
95% of affiliate marketers try and fail miserably.
I’ve failed 25,674 times and I still fail…
Every.
Single.
Day.
You know why?
Because failing is part of the road to success.
Just because you don’t make $10,000s on your first try doesn’t mean affiliate marketing doesn’t work.
It just means you have to take the right training, work hard and be consistent.
Imagine going to the gym for a week, looking in the mirror and saying it doesn’t work.
That’d be ridiculous, right?
So don’t do that with affiliate marketing.
Learn to embrace failure.
Why?
Because it’s an opportunity to grow, learn and become a better version of yourself.
You really want to know why affiliate marketing doesn’t work?
Alright, I’m going to tell you.
But it ain’t going to be pretty.
I’m gonna give it to you straight so you can either close this page right now or pour yourself a coffee (or something a little stronger), get yourself comfy and keep reading.
7 Reasons Affiliate Marketing Doesn’t Work For You
1. You Have No Plan Of Attack
You’ll only ever achieve affiliate marketing success when you get a clear strategy.
And I’m not talking about skim-reading some articles or watching a couple of videos on YouTube.
That’s not going to cut it.
To get real results like these, you need a proven roadmap to follow.
You need someone to walk you through exactly how to:
- Find the best affiliate products
- Drive laser-targeted traffic to your offers
- Generate clicks and sales
- Scale up with outsourcing and paid ads
Try the free Commission Academy affiliate marketing course here ➜
It’s gonna give you structured lessons, expert support from super affiliates and weekly live hangouts.
More importantly, it’s gonna give you a track to run on to get from where you are now to where you want to be.
2. You Take Advice From Money Grabbing Morons
Stop with the get-rich-quick crap, seriously.
You know what I’m talking about…
Those affiliate marketing scams that promise you’ll make $24,713 in 24 hours after 4 clicks of a mouse.
Or those so-called done-for-you affiliate marketing systems that guarantee you’ll be sailing on a yacht sipping manhattans by the end of the week if you just pay them $47 first.
I’m not judging you. I fell for the same shit when I was starting out.
One minute you’re watching funny FailArmy videos on YouTube and the next you’re watching an ad from an idiot in a rented private jet telling you to buy his $1,999 course where he’ll reveal some secret backdoor to instant online riches.
So you get sucked in by the hype and hand over your hard-earned cash and what do you know…
25 upsell pages later you finally see the course and realise it’s just the same old outdated crap about buying email solo ads to promote some dodgy Clickbank product that hasn’t worked since dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Then of course you start telling everyone how the whole affiliate marketing thing doesn’t work.
Seriously, stop listening to crooked con artists like this.
The best thing you can do is unsubscribe from their email lists, stop watching their videos and quit looking for so-called shortcuts that don’t exist.
Yes, you can earn passive income with affiliate marketing but only after you invest sweat equity first.
Suck it up buttercup and get to work.
And this leads us very nicely to the next reason affiliate marketing hasn’t worked for you (yet)…
3. You Lack Self-Discipline
This might sound harsh but maybe you don’t have the work ethic to make shit happen.
How do I know?
Because I used to be the same way.
I’d sit around all day dreaming about living a better life and doing nothing about it until I read this quote:
“Your direction, not your intention, determines your destination.”
Andy Stanley
In other words, it’s the action (or lack of action) that determines whether or not you launch a thriving affiliate business.
If you’re serious about making a real go of this then you need to be ready to hustle.
It’s not exciting or glamourous, but self-discipline is what it’s gonna take to make it happen for you.
I’ve had newbies send me messages complaining that they’ve published 10 articles on their 5-day-old blog but they haven’t got any traffic or sales yet.
Seriously? Only 10 articles?!
Great start mate but you gotta keep going!
I’m not saying you have to go full-time if you’re not ready.
Some affiliate marketers only work an hour a week.
The point though is you have to take action over a long enough period of time to get results.
Affiliate marketing takes time:
It takes most beginners 3 to 6 months to bank their first commissions and 12 months to earn $1,000+ a month consistently.
And during that time you shouldn’t wait around. Instead, attack the content, be on the hunt for new keywords and aim for a minimum of 400 posts on your site before worrying about traffic.
4. You’re Suffering From Shiny Object Syndrome
You know you’ve caught the dreaded Shiny Object Syndrome when you’re endlessly jumping from program to program.
You never stay with anything out long enough to see it through because you constantly getting fdistracted by the latest product launches.
The solution to this one is simple:
Pick any affiliate marketing course – could be Commission Academy, Wealthy Affiliate (there’s a ton of great affiliate marketing courses out there) – and commit to sticking with it for at least a year to see if it works.
You’ll learn how to start a blog on any topic or niche you like, write top content that gets ranked on Google and recommend affiliate products.
And who knows?
You could start earning daily commissions.
Just try it out and stick with it. Set yourself a small goal like getting to 1,000 pageviews or $1,000 a month, and gradually make bigger goals for yourself as you go.
5. You’re In The Wrong Niche
If you’ve not got any results so far, it could just be you’re in the wrong niche.
I see a lot of newbies making the newbie mistake of going into a niche because that’s where they think the money is.
But they have zero interest in the topic…
They have no clue what they’re talking about…
Creating content is like trying to get blood out of a stone….
And they end up absolutely hating it 😖
Don’t do that to yourself!
Follow our simple 3-step process for picking the right niche and you’ll enjoy your affiliate marketing journey a hell of a lot more.
And if you’re enjoying it then you’re likely to put more time into it.
And if you’re putting more time into it then you’re far more likely to see results.
And if you’re seeing results then you’re lthen you’ll stop moaning about how affiliate marketing doesn’t work. Just saying 😊
6. You’re Focusing On The Wrong Goals
There’s nothing more demotivating than sitting there hitting refresh on stats and seeing no movement.
But that’s exactly what I did for months on end:
I’d wake up and turn on the laptop to see if I’d made any sales overnight or any changes in Google Analytics
Don’t do it to yourself – fixating on results instead of focusing your energy into building up your business is a massive no-no that’ll get you nowhere fast.
What to do instead?
So instead of saying things like:
“I’m gonna make $30,000 a month by the end of the year!”
Set goals that are within your power to achieve like:
- “I’m going to publish 30 posts over the next 30 days.”
- “I’ll invest 2 hours a day into my affiliate marketing business.”
- “I’ll find 10 new affiliate products to promote.”
That way you’re keeping your eyes on the action steps that are going to help you achieve financial freedom instead of stressing over the things you can’t control.
7. You Can’t Be Bothered Building A Website
You need a website to make decent money with affiliate marketing.
There, I said it.
Trying to do affiliate marketing without a website is like trying to be a hairdresser without scissors, a taxi driver without a car, a cook without a kitchen.
Terrible examples I know, but you get the point.
Unless you happen to have millions of followers on YouTube or TikTok then starting an affiliate marketing website and using content creation to attract droves of free and targeted traffic to your links is the only long term and sustainable way to generate revenue.
I see too many people join a random affiliate program, start spamming links across sites like Facebook and wonder why they’re not making any sales 🤦♂️
Good luck with that!
You’re like the fool who built his house on the sand. You make get lucky and make a sale here or there but you’ll never be building your financial future on a strong and firm foundation.
Ready To Make Affiliate Marketing Work For You?
Cut the excuses, ignore the bullshit and get serious.
Join the Academy now and work through it lesson by lesson, step by step.
We’ll give you the training, tools and support you need to make it happen.
This is your time.
You totally got this.
