What are the 5 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes?

Cher K. Markov has written a useful piece on her "Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes".

Here's a summary of what she sees as the most common mistakes.

1) Conduct a Basic Research.
She's right in saying that so many new affiliates are drawn to the most sensationally advertised affiliate programmes and don't conduct proper research into how the programme works, what its restrictions are, how much it pays and how "buyable" the product is.

2) Joining Multiple Affiliate Programs.
I disagree to an extent. I would never recommend limiting yourself to just the one. I'd say a good handful of 10 programmes should be enough for any newbie. But at the outset it'll be a case of "trial and error" as you establish which works best for your skills and experiences.

3) Test the Product Before you Promote
This is often not possible for real-life affiliate marketing. But the best sites (in my opinion) are the ones based on products and services an affiliate has indepth knowledge about. So in real-terms this should be done, but for large scale affiliate marketing, slightly impractical.


4) Spending Hundreds of Dollars on eBooks.
This one pee's me off no end! It's my opinion, that virtually everything you need to know can be be gained from sites like Webmasterworld and A4u Forum.If you are going to spend money on any ebooks, I recommend Marketing Sherpa (only only because they've got an affiliate programme) as their content is fantastic and well worth the money!


5) Burning Your Fingers With PPC
Cher is right with this one. Before a new affiliate should delve into ppc they should really learn the ropes building content sites as it's so easy to waste a shed load of cash on promoting the wrong merchants in the wrong way!


Are there any other common mistakes that new (and old) affiliates tend to make?