AFFILIATE MARKETING: THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AFFILIATE MARKETERS

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

What separates the average affiliates from the elite ones? I’ve seen a lot of guys in the past few years have their one-hits and then disappear from the industry. One thing people don’t talk enough about are the mindsets and daily habits needed to be effective.

I came up with this list from observations between myself and some of my top affiliate friends. I analyzed them to see if I could find some common patterns in their thinking and actions. It was quite difficult to narrow it down to 7, but I think applying all of these will definitely help anyone.

1. They Create Plans

Treat your affiliate marketing like a real business and create some plans. Too many guys are directionless and run around like headless chickens. They are reactive, rather than being proactive.

• Where do you see yourself in 3 years? Are you still doing affiliate marketing or do you want to do something different?
• Look into the future. What will be the upcoming trends in the industry and how can you start adapting to them?
• Think about the next campaigns you launch. By what metrics will you judge if it’s successful or not? When will it be time to end it or pivot?

Failing to plan, is planning to fail

2. They Constantly Network and Learn From Each Other

I’m a veteran in this industry and I’m still learning new things everyday. There’s too much undiscovered knowledge and strategies out there for one person to know everything.

One of my friends is very technical programmer, another is a Mobile Monster, and another one creates / markets his own products. They are specialists and I learn things from them that I would never have discovered by myself. At the same time I will pretty much answer anything they need help on. 

You get out what you put in and you have to bring something to the table. Who wants to help someone that’s always leeching information and never sharing?

I enjoy helping people because I have an “abundance” mindset rather than a “scarcity” one. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

3. They Improve in all Aspects of Life

I noticed a large of successful affiliates are really into self-improvement and have a lot of similar mindsets in this regard. Everyone stays physically active, travels frequently, and they all read a lot.

It really doesn’t make sense to slave away trying to be a millionaire, but you end up obese or you end up without a social life. Work hard but don’t neglect your health, family, social life, knowledge, and aesthetics.

It’s the mindset of self-improvement that leads to business success. In order to grow as an individual it requires you to push, push, and push yourself outside of your comfort zone. When you start doing crazy shit in your life and making progress, you start developing true confidence.

The mentality of continuous growth in your life will manifest itself in your work.

4. They Keep Tabs on the Competition

The industry moves fast.

Sometimes you could be running an offer that’s on beast mode status, but overnight it enters scrub city. Or maybe your competitors made some kind of innovation that gave them a +20% ROI, and now they can afford to increase the bid prices. You have to know what you’re competition’s doing so that you don’t fall behind.

Samsung knows Apple’s next moves
Coke and Pepsi have some “The Departed” stuff going on

Some guys are stuck with their ways and let their competition blow past them.

5. They Know their Numbers

You have to know your numbers so you can make good decisions based off of data.  

Most affiliates don’t even keep track of their daily profits. Know exactly how much you spend and profit off each day, rather than relying on spending / revenue estimates from your CPVlabs.

Where are your expenses going? Stop the money leaks.
If you’re getting a lot of wires each week, are you keeping tabs who’s paying on time?
For your main campaigns, do you know what days of the week or time of the days perform the best. Can you take advantage of this?

6. They Test Relentlessly

Here’s something that separates the average affiliate from the next level affiliates. Two affiliates split test until they are both profitable at $.60 EPC.

The slacker affiliate relaxes or tries out another campaign. Banner blindness kicks in, the offer payout drops, the competition increases the bid prices because their landing pages are better, etc. Within a few weeks the EPC goes from $0.50 to $0.25. “Oh well the campaign died, time to find the next one.”

The baller affiliate is an aggressive person. $.50 EPC is not enough because he knows there’s always room for improvements (and because bad shit ALWAYS happens to a campaign). 100 more ad tests, 5 landing page variations, 5 more ad angles, etc. The same issues such as banner blindness and offer payout decrease kicks in, but he still manages to increase his EPC. Now his EPC is $.65 a few weeks later, while his main competitor dropped out.

7. They Say No…a LOT

My problem is never a lack of good ideas. My problem is I have too many good ones and I don’t have the time, resources, or focus to pursue them all. You can drown in opportunity.

Joe Newbie finally hit $1k profit a day and now he’s starting to get more attention. Affiliate managers want him to start running offers he has no experience in, people want to do business with him, and his girlfriend wants them to celebrate and go on a vacation.

He says yes to everything. After a few weeks, his campaigns died out and he has nothing left. He lost his focus and he lost his momentum. Instead he should’ve have just worked harder to turn that $1k a day into $2k a day. Strike the iron while it’s hot.

A lot of people have a hard time saying no for some reason. Don’t think of it as saying no right now, think of it as saying yes to better opportunities.

If you’re not doing some of the things on this list then pick one and implement it.

– Ngo Out