Mistakes, I've Made a Few, but Then Again, Not Too Few To Mention …

Business is an evolutionary process and one thing I've noticed in the 7 years I've been building my own affiliate sites is that pretty much all the affiliates I talk with have been modifying what they do and how they do it. As I've finally (and belatedly) decided to transfer my sole-proprietorship business in to my new Get Visible Ltd it got me thinking of all the mistakes I've made in my affiliate business.

I don't think many, if any of these mistakes are unique to me, but I'd be interested to know if any of you have undergone the same process.

1) Much too much, much too young
I was looking at one of my blogger accounts and realised that I had over 60 blogs listed. Now some of them were to target the launches of new products, but others were set up knowing that I didn't have the time to really work hard on them and make the most of my initial investment. Back in my day when my, then, other-half's family was in Amway I remember one of their mentors talking about the shotgun and riffle approach and how its best to put all your effort behind one project and not divide your energies in to many projects - I wish I remembered that back when I first started in 2002 and even in 2006 when I got into blogging in a big way.

2) I shouldn't have rested on my laurels
Back in 2004 I think it was I had a made for Adsense site that was doing around £20k - £25k a month. I know that's big money. But I naively thought it'd last for ever. I spent much of my time faffing on Messenger and playing golf. Any numpty should have realised that it'll all end in tears. Thankfully when Google kicked it out I still had cookie sales coming through for a long time and those affiliate earnings kept going for a while.

3) I let my personal life affect my business life
Around that sort of time there were loads of personal things going on which meant I got distracted from my business and made some really stupid decisions. I moved to London for a while and did chuff all work for a few months. Money was still coming in and decided that Fosters was my friend and not Google - bad move.

4) It took me too long to find a way of doing things I was comfortable with
I still hate building sites, its the faffing around that does my head in. I'm no designer or developer. But when I was sat in Jules' pad in New York in January 2006 it finally dawned on me that I should started blogging as an affiliate. I've not looked back since.

5) Thought too much of "product" and not "process"
I should have been on the discount codes scene at the beginning. But at that time I was purely focused on products and not the process of people's buying decisions and how to monetise them. I'm not complaining a great deal as products like the Pleo made me a hefty packet a couple of Christmas's ago. Other products such as the GHD4 also contributed nicely.

6)I should have realised my own true worth ages ago
Around the time I was doing really well with those product sites I got bored again and decided to do some sub-contracting. This was a bad mistake. I was earning a fraction of my true worth and didn't allow me enough time to really build on those successes. The up side is that I have built up contacts and now get the buzz of client SEO and earn nicely from it and work with some great people. But that year cost me dearly

7) I should have bitten the bullet earlier and re-invested
I've made some nice profits in the last 7 years but when I first started I was skint, berasic, hard up, had nowt. This lead me to need a financial security blanket, which I suppose I still need. But now I'm reinvesting in my sites. The first stage is having new templates built by my brother for the handful of sites I've decided I'm going to carry on working on. I particularly like the Easter eggs one (still want to get the navigation CSS sorted - and remove the out dated voucher codes) and still yet to have my Activity Gift blog redesigned - but I'm having a lot more functionality built in to it.

8) I didn't think "brand" early enough
Pistol was always on at me about using hyphens in domain names, but my strategy was always of the "hit and run" nature. I wasn't worried about creating brands, just appearing in the SERPS with content that I could monetise. Now after the success of the Easter site with coverage on Radio 2, The Telegraph and Radio Mersyside for a domain with hypens and a .org.uk I wondered what I could make of a domain like my Chocolate Reviews one. And I knew what profits could be made out of it. So now I'm attempting to build a brand on that. Many affiliates have created cracking brands, not least Jason and Jude from Loquax who deserves the respect of every affiliate as well as the Chris' and gang who created Holiday Watchdog.

9)I spent too much time doing things and not enough time thinking about how I can do things better
So I started blogging at the beginning of 2006 in an attempt to make my affiliate business more fun and efficient. But it took me until only recently to realise I could use Picassa to quickly upload and (C) photos as well as saving on bandwidth costs. Also only did I find ShortUrl as a tool for managing, encrypting and tracking affiliate links (thanks to Purple).

10) I spent too much time arguing talking with people when I should have been working
I decided at the start of the year that I'd have to spend much less time on the Affiliates4U Forum for a few months and knuckle down and get some work done. I'm coming back next week. But in the past I used to fight my corner excessively. I may of played a small part in helping improve the industry (Spyware, Brand Bidding, Voucher Codes), but on many occasions my "arguments" really didn't contribute anything, and had no chance of doing so. I still have a strong dislike of people who are arrogant and say they're a "super affiliate" when they quite probably don't deserve the mantel, but at the end of the day; what goes around, comes around.

11) I didn't network enough
You'd be surprised how much networking, especially at the Affiliates4U ones can really help your business! You're able to cut through the online crap and speak to people face to face. At first I was networking like crazy, then I went into a self-imposed lull as I got work done. But now I just pick and choose which events I go to a bit more selectively. Hopefully I'll see you at the A4U Awards? But if you've never been to a regional event, then keep an eye out for them.

So: Mistakes, I've Made a Few, but Then Again, Not Too Few To Mention … but hopefully you'll spot some traits in your own business and put an end to them quickly.

But overall, I understand that failure is a fundamental part of success so don't get disheartened if your affiliate sites aren't going well, plug on, become more efficient, be focused and determined to succeed!