From drafting a list of missteps for a recent post đMy Biggest Mistakes During My First Year of Blogging, my list of blunders got so long that I was able to make a subsection just for affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid. This is definitely a bittersweet win-win as a Content Creator. Embrace those face-palm moments! Theyâll come in handy in due time.
First, what is affiliate marketing? For a more in-depth explanation (and handy recommendations for getting started), I highly recommend Neil Patelâs post Affiliate Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide. Summarized, affiliate marketing is earning a commission from companies or individuals that you have helped sell products or services for. For example, if I bought an item for $100 from your affiliate link and the commission rate was 5%, then the company that I bought that product from would pay you $5 for that sell. Repeat this a few times, and it can generate a nice secondary bit of income.
As simple as this may seem in theory, there are many ways that one can mess up their affiliate marketing strategy and end up wasting time and energy (and money) if done without some guidance. Listed below are some of my affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid. I hope that these tips help guide you toward better marketing decisions.
This blog may have affiliate links. This means that, at no extra cost to you, if you so choose to participate in some of the learning opportunities here, we at Kyrabe Stories may receive a commission as gratitude from the partnering companies. Thank you sincerely for your support and for your desire to learn and grow!
If youâve ever questioned your value at work, youâre not alone.
Thatâs why I created Owning Your Skills â to help you clearly see your strengths and feel confident in your next steps.
Subscribe below, and Iâll send you the free PDF directly to your inbox.
Fortunately, I caught this mistake before any serious legal issues could be brought up. If you clicked on this post, then chances are you are either helping to advertise products or services as a part of your income or you are interested in doing so in the near futureâŚor you just like reading all of my content. For that, awwwww, Iâm flattered.
Anyways, when it comes to affiliate marketing, we must disclose that we will get paid for certain links in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC for short.
On blog posts, we need to add a disclosure, such as the one at the beginning of this post. On social media, we also need a short disclosure such as #Affiliate, #AffiliateLink, #Sponsored, etc. to allow our readers to know that we have been or will be compensated in some way for a product or service that we are promoting. This includes items given to us to review as well.
Trying to sum up the compliance of the FTC would require a multitude of other blog posts. For the sake of keeping this post at a tolerable length, I shall link some of the relevant pages below for you to refer to at your earliest convenience. If you need to ask yourself if a disclosure needs to be added, go ahead and add it. Itâs better to have it there and not need it than vice versa.
đThe FTCâs Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking
đDisclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
You are responsible for keeping track of every site you sign up for as well as where your links are linking back to. If something breaks, it also helps to know who the heck youâre supposed to contact!
When I first began to look into affiliate marketing, I was referred to various sites:
Just to name a few.
Check out Hubspotâs đâ43 of the Best Affiliate Programs That Pay the Highest Commissionâ for a longer list of recommendations.
I made the mistake of spending hours going down pages of company lists and just applying for whatever brands I might be interested in. I got accepted by most of them, yaaaay! However, I had no idea how I would promote their products in a way that would make sense. For example, I applied to about six different brands that created business cards knowing good and well that my behind would just go to either Staples or Office Depot to get mine done. Thatâs right, I shop at both.
I recommend testing out different affiliation platforms to see which you like best, but only apply for the brands that you KNOW that youâre going to advertise immediately. Your dashboard can become cluttered so quickly from brands that youâre not focused on.
My advice would be to focus on 5-10 niche-matching brands that you genuinely trust to become affiliates for. For example, Kyrabe Stories focuses on Personal and Professional Development, along with affordable educational opportunities. Brands such as LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Grammarly, Barnes & Noble, Udemy, Codecademy, and Audible provide affiliate links that are super relevant to most of the material that I post, and I can provide honest personal reviews on these brands and services.Â
Pretty Links is a plugin that allows you to customize the URL to something more appealing to share. For example, have you ever tried to copy the link to a webpage to share with a friend, but when you pasted the link, it looked like someone just lined up all the characters from a whole can of alphabet soup? Yeah, thatâs not pretty at all. With Pretty Links, you can have your website URL redirect to a different website. Just let your viewers know what itâs redirecting to as part of the URL (example listed below).
Now, fair warning: some social media sites, such as Faceboo,k will not allow you to create ads with the use of Pretty Links. To prevent you from having to post a URL with 50 random characters attached, you will need to see if the affiliate platform has a function to customize the slug of the companyâs URL to your brandâs name.
My Constant Contact affiliate link from the Impact Affiliate Platform:Â Â
constant-contact.ibfwsl.net/KyrabeStories <â the âslugâ is KyrabeStoriesÂ
My Constant Contact Pretty Link from Bluehost:Â
http://kyrabestories.com/ConstantContact <â the âslugâ is ConstantContactÂ
Donât both of these links feel a lot safer to click on than a super-long URL that looks like it just regurgitated alphabet soup? If you have a website host like Bluehost, check your Plugin Editor first to see if Pretty Links is already a part of your plan.
I still want to cry over this one. Thereâs a book called đâStories that Stickâ by Kindra Hall that I highly recommend reading. She explained how pitching a product or service is more effective whenever you can tie a personal story to it. Perfect for Kyrabe Stories, right? So, I gave it a shot.Â
During a Facebook campaign for Constant Contact, an email marketing provider, I told the story of how I was struggling to learn how to blog and my learning curve of crafting newsletters. I thought it was a basic experience, but it worked! I had over a thousand interactions and more shares than I had expected! When I checked the Facebook analytics, I had a huge click-through rate! Yippee! It worked!
Then a few days later, I checked my analytics on the Impact Affiliate page.Â
Nothing.Â
Wait, what now!? Maybe it just takes a bit for the program to update.Â
Nothing.Â
Maybe the site is under maintenance. Yeah, thereâs a notification. Maybe the maintenance is preventing the update.Â
Next day. Nothing.Â
FINALLY, I contacted Impact to figure out what was going on. My Facebook analytics was showing continuous interactions, but my Impact analytics wasnât showing anything from the last few days! When the Impact Support team responded back, they notified me that there wasnât anything reported for my account and to check to see if my tracking code matched what was being used in the promotion.
I checkedâŚand guess what?Â
THEY DIDNâT FREAKINâ MATCH!!!Â
I had tried customizing the URL but forgot to save the darn thing! So ALL of that interaction was null and void for my account! If anyone decided to sign up for Constant Contact from my story, I will NEVER know!! Pardon me while I go whine about this experience again in a dark cornerâŚagggggghhhh!Â
Guess what more and more people are starting to install on their laptops and phonesâŚÂ
Thatâs right: Ad Blockers!
This at first didnât seem like too big of a deal. Then I realized that for the ads that I manually placed into specific spots for direct references like the Book Recommendations and the Services & Tech Recommendations page, these ad images wonât show at all! Theyâre both just pages full of text! I didnât realize this until my fiance, Stevenn, pulled up the pages from his Ad Blocker browser and OMG it was horrific to see the truth!
Noooooooo!
Those blank spaces are where the adâs images were supposed to be! Iâve promoted these pages like crazy but never stopped to consider how the pages look to someone with an Ad Blocker activated! No wonder I didnât get many interactions from the pages!
I discovered, albeit way later than I would have preferred, a way around this dilemma. Simply add an image to where the ad would have been, then add the affiliate link to the image. Yes, this will require a bit more digging around. In some cases, you might need to reach out to the affiliate company and ask if they can provide some of their thumbnails to you. Despite these extra steps, itâs still better than having these voided gaps on your page where a relevant affiliate ad was supposed to be.
Thatâs what Iâll be working on fixing soonâŚ
Have you been making money from affiliate marketing? In your view, what are some other affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid? Iâd love to read your stories in the comments below.
Are you interested in getting started in affiliate marketing? I highly recommend enrolling in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. This is the course I took not too long ago. I wish I had taken the course a lot earlier once I realized the multitude of mistakes that I was still making. It would have saved me a lot of time, energy, and yes money too.
And as always, remember to live and learn from one story at a time.
Take care,
Kyndall Bennett from Kyrabe Stories
If youâre working on career growth, confidence, or professional boundaries, you may find these resources helpful as next steps.
If this post sparked reflection around leadership, responsibility, or redefining what success looks like for you, đ Sheâs Meant to Lead dives deeper into building clarity with your team and confidence within yourself as you grow in your career. Itâs designed for women navigating new roles, making bigger decisions, or learning how to lead without losing themselves in the process.
If your goals involve speaking up more confidently, whether in interviews, meetings, or everyday workplace conversations, đ Sheâs Meant to Speak offers practical guidance on advocating for yourself with clarity and purpose. Itâs especially helpful for professionals who want their voice to match their expertise.
If this topic resonates with identifying your top skills, seeking support, or pursuing better opportunities, đ Sheâs Meant to Negotiate offers actionable strategies for navigating career and financial conversations with confidence. Itâs a strong next step for readers who want to align their goals with what they truly deserve.
Without a clear direction, even motivated job seekers can burn months chasing roles that donât…
People stay in jobs they hate because of fear, uncertainty, financial stress, lack of confidence,…
In simple terms, a cover letter that showcases your transferable skills will focus on the…
Image by Waewkidja from freepik.com Itâs no secret that the New Year is a popular…
One of the most powerful things a leader can do is cultivate an environment where…
In the fast-paced world of leadership, it's easy to get caught up in the idea…
View Comments
I've to say you've been really helpful to me. Thank you!
You're welcome, Dexter! Thank you for supporting the blog!
You've been a great help to me. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Bee!
Excellent blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers?
I'm planning to start my own website soon but I'm a little lost on everything.
Would you suggest starting with a free platform
like Wordpress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there
that I'm totally confused .. Any suggestions? Cheers!
I would recommend going with something where you can buy your domain, but definitely price compare first! If you are tight on a budget starting out, I believe Google has a free website builder called Google Domains to help you get started: https://domains.google/get-started/website-design/
Wow, marvelous blog layout! How long have you been blogging
for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is great,
let alone the content!
Off, congratses on this post. This is actually actually outstanding yet that is actually why you consistently crank out my buddy.
Great messages that we can easily sink our teeth into and actually head
to function.
I love this blog post as well as you know you are actually.
Blog writing can be extremely mind-boggling for a whole lot of individuals due to the fact
that there is so a lot involved yet its own like just about anything else.
Excellent share and many thanks for the mention listed here,
wow ... How amazing is actually that.
Off to share this post right now, I desire all those brand-new
blog writers to find that if they don't already
possess a plan 10 they do right now.
Also visit my web page News
To begin with, congratulations on this blog post.
This is actually really excellent however that's why
you always crank out my pal. Great blog posts that our experts can sink our teeth into as well as definitely most likely to
work.
I enjoy this blogging site message and you recognize you are actually.
Blogging could be incredibly difficult for a bunch of folks
since there is so a lot involved yet its like anything else.
Every little thing takes a while and we all possess the same amount of hrs in a time thus placed them
to really good usage. Our team all must begin somewhere and also your plan is
actually excellent.
Fantastic share and thanks for the reference below, wow ...
Just how cool is that.
Off to discuss this blog post currently, I want
all those new writers to view that if they do not presently have a strategy ten they do now.
Review my homepage opioid crisis
I read this piece of writing fully about the
resemblance of hottest and previous technologies, it's amazing
article.
Hola! I've Ć een reading your site for a long tŃmĐľ now and finallŃ got
the bravery to Öo aheaÔ and givď˝ you a shoáĽt out from
Houston Tx! JŐ˝st wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic job!
Also visit my website; jasa pembuatan software erp
For affiliate marketers, electronic mail marketing ought to be a principal focus of your efforts.
Hence, your electronic mail advertising service ought to
be capable to help third-social gathering connections. Pay much lower than different large
email advertising and marketing firms. Why Should Affiliate Marketers Use Email Marketing?
The plugin comes with the feature of full email historical past.
This plugin comes with the option of having unlimited subscribers.
It makes use of emails to construct a list of subscribers.
With HubSpot, you can build lovely, responsive emails to
send to your contact database with the easy-to-use drag and drop editor.
With the drag and drop feature, the plugin is all the better to use.
There are customizable themes with which the plugin can be used.
There are 70 themes to select from. There are 200 skilled templates to select
from. Utilize the email builder to create templates for newsletters and campaigns.
If you are looking to extend your e-mail listings, then this
submit is meant solely for you.
Sending beneath 5,000 emails/month? Tips about Reducing Number of Email Bounces Recommendations on Reducing Variety of Email Bounces Sending beneath
5,000 emails/month? Those who favor using advertisements view the sale of promoting
area on email marketing supplies corresponding to emails or e-newsletters as a solution to generate profit from the email marketing itself.
Those who're firmly towards using advertising in e-mail advertising
feel as though this makes the commercials seem extra like spam and fewer like advertising and marketing supplies or useful information. For instance shoppers
could also be less probably to understand commercials in emails meant for advertising and marketing purposes as a result of they feel
it distracts from the unique merchandise. This center of
the street idea implies the Internet entrepreneurs are usually not firmly for or in opposition to the
idea of placing advertisements on emails distributed fro marketing functions.
The topic of whether or not or not it is acceptable to make use
of advertising in email market is hotly debated with some
Internet marketers being strongly in favor of putting ads in email advertising and marketing
whereas others are strongly against using advertisements in electronic mail marketing.
There are some Internet marketers who are strongly in favor of the usage of advertisements in emails distributed for advertising and marketing functions.