Why you are not earning from affiliate marketing – Fix This Now

When I first started affiliate marketing, I made a huge mistake that I see so many beginners making today. I was running a website where I wrote about programming, and one of my blog posts—where I shared a fun coding trick—got around 30,000 views.

I thought it was the perfect opportunity to capitalize on that traffic by promoting a book related to coding tricks. I joined an affiliate program that would pay me $1 per book sale. With 30,000 readers, I figured I could make $30,000, right? Lol

Well, that didn’t happen. Even after 30,000 views, no one clicked on the affiliate link. Not a single sale. This was my first harsh lesson in affiliate marketing, and it’s a mistake I want to help you avoid.

The Common Mistake: Promoting Products to the Wrong Audience

So, what went wrong? The big mistake I made—and one that 99% of new affiliate marketers make—is targeting the wrong audience. I wasn’t focusing on people deep enough in the sales funnel. If this sounds confusing, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s break it down with an example.

Traffic ≠ Sales

Imagine you have a blog post about traveling, and it’s super popular with 1 million views. To monetize this traffic, you decide to promote a VPN service, offering a $30 commission for each sale. With 1 million readers, it seems like you’d make a killing, right?

Not so fast. The reality is that if your content doesn’t directly relate to the product you’re promoting, you could earn nothing—even with a million views. The audience reading your travel post may not even know what a VPN is, much less have a need for one.

Understanding the Sales Funnel

This is where the sales funnel comes in. The sales funnel is a marketing concept that helps you understand where your audience is in their buying journey. Let’s break it down:

1. No Knowledge: At the top of the funnel are people who just stumble upon your content. They aren’t looking to buy anything; they might not even understand what you’re selling. In the VPN example, a person reading a travel blog probably doesn’t have “buy VPN” on their mind.
2. Awareness: These are people who know a product like a VPN exists but aren’t ready to buy. For example, readers of my coding blog post knew about coding courses but weren’t ready to purchase one.
3. Interest: People in this stage are interested in solutions but haven’t made a purchase decision. A blog post about “10 Tips for Staying Safe Online” might attract people interested in online security, making them more likely to purchase a VPN.
4. Buying Intent: The holy grail of affiliate marketing—people who are actively looking to buy. They are searching for terms like “best VPNs” and just need a recommendation to complete the purchase.

Why Targeting Matters in Affiliate Marketing

If you’re trying to make money through affiliate marketing, your content needs to target people further down the sales funnel—those with buying intent. Here’s why:

• If you’re promoting a product to a general audience with no intent to buy, like I did with my coding blog, you’ll struggle to make sales—even with tons of traffic.
• On the other hand, if your content addresses a specific problem and offers a product as a solution, you’re much more likely to see conversions.

Let’s return to our VPN example. Instead of writing a travel blog post and slapping a VPN link in there, imagine writing a blog post like, “How to Stay Safe Online While Traveling.” People searching for ways to protect themselves online are much more likely to be interested in purchasing a VPN, and that’s where you start making sales.

The Numbers: How Many Readers Does It Take to Make a Sale?

The unfortunate truth is that even with a targeted audience, conversion rates can still be low. For example, in a well-targeted blog post, you might see only 1 in 1,000 readers making a purchase. So, with 1,000 targeted readers, you might make 10 sales, earning $300 if you’re getting a $30 commission per sale.

But that’s still way better than earning nothing from a million random readers, right?

The Long Game vs. Quick Wins

Here’s another harsh reality: if you want to earn big money simply by promoting brands to a huge audience, you’ll need millions of followers or readers. Big companies pay for brand awareness, even if there are no immediate sales.

If a blog post with millions of readers promotes a VPN service, those readers might not buy right away, but they’ll become familiar with the brand. This familiarity increases the chances of a sale later when they see the product elsewhere.

However, if you’re not a huge influencer or don’t have millions of readers, this strategy won’t work for you. The better approach is to focus on direct sales through targeted content, even if it means grinding for a few years to build an audience that converts.

How to Fix Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy

If you’re starting out and want to see results faster, here’s what you need to do:

1. Stop writing random content. Focus on content that addresses specific problems and targets people with buying intent.
2. Research your audience’s needs. Write blog posts that help people solve problems and offer affiliate products as part of the solution.
3. Target the right stage of the sales funnel. Your content should attract people who are ready to buy, not just those casually browsing.

If you want to dive deeper into how to create targeted content that converts, I highly recommend watching out recent content writing videos Course  that will guide you through the process step by step. You’ll learn how to do proper keyword research,  write blog content on your mobile and do more from mobile without needing a laptop..

This approach may not make you a millionaire overnight, but it’s a solid, sustainable way to build a profitable affiliate marketing business. Good luck guys, join us on Telegram for more updates