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10 Unbreakable Rules in Affiliate Marketing Part 2
Katrina L

Continuation of Part 1 “10 Unbreakable Rules in Affiliate Marketing”.

In the second part of the article, we will continue the list of important, in our opinion, rules in Affiliate Marketing.

01
Part 1
  1. Do not work with “dead” offers.
  2. A correctly chosen offer is half the battle.
  3. Speed matters.
  4. Only experience matters.
  5. A small budget is not the end.
02
Sixth rule: Calculate your actual income
Of course, it looks very cool when the banner for the case shows: “ROI 200%.” But in reality, it is fundamentally wrong to calculate income based solely on the profitability of a single campaign and on the money invested on the test.
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In which column of expenses should the payment for next monthly subscriptions be attributed:
  • Spy Services
  • Trackers
  • Domains
  • Costs of Freelancers
  • Office rent
  • Salaries or percentages for employees
  • The cost of software, internet, and finally electricity
Articles about profitable cases don’t mention such things, but all this is necessary for a successful campaign, as well as a good creative. The second point in budget planning is the risks that no one expects, but they do happen and require financial costs.  
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For example:
  • The affiliate network won’t pay you the money you earn.
  • The tax office will come and say “Hi, we noticed that your income has increased, share please”.
  • One of your employees will go crazy and smash the office to pieces or delete your server.
It is incorrect to say that you earned $5,000 on one campaign without taking into account the full list of costs and expenses.
03
Seventh rule: Don’t be fooled
Affiliate marketing is a business with money and there will always be people who would want to deceive and make money at your expense. This doesn’t mean that all affiliate networks and advertisers are scammers. It is unlikely that someone opens an affiliate network with the idea of not making payments, they will not get far. Despite this, articles about unpaid fees, or paid, but in a much smaller amount, etc. appear on the Internet with enviable regularity.
If the network or the advertiser does not transfer payments at the specified time and tries to “excuse himself” by the fact that banks are not working, the New Year or there is no Internet connection, stop the campaign, even if you receive a receipt of the transfer; resume work only when the payment is in your account, because where are the guarantees that you are not being deceived?
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Yes, you could have made more
if you hadn’t stopped the campaign, but if you continued to “drive” traffic, relying only on their word of honor, it may turn out that you will lose much more if the payment never comes through.    
Tip: If you are working with a new affiliate program or advertiser, start with small volumes. This does not mean that you will be deceived – it is more about the fact that trust must be earned.
Affiliate marketing training is another way to make money out of someone else’s lack of knowledge. This doesn’t mean at all that all paid forums, courses and programs are sheer swindle, but this option cannot be ruled out. Are there any reviews, do you know someone who has taken this program or course? Do they guarantee a refund? Is there free content and what is the quality of it? Be careful and don’t be fooled.
04
Eighth rule: Maintaining the profitability of the campaign
Spy services are not just for you, as soon as you launch a successful campaign, everyone who isn’t work-shy will know about it. The managers of most networks receive a percentage or even the entire salary based on how much profit they brought, so it is in their best interest to have as many affiliates as possible working on the same offers.  
Launching a successful campaign is difficult; keeping it profitable is even more difficult.
So what can you do to ensure that your campaign generates income, even after it gets copied? Creatives and landing pages are part of a campaign’s success, but they’re very easy to copy, so let’s not focus on them too much.  
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What’s really important:
  • Traffic source: It must be reliable and you must know it inside out.
  • Advertisers and Affiliate Networks: Good relationships with advertisers and affiliate networks give you the opportunity to get exclusive offers or gain information and knowledge to buy better traffic, which will inevitably lead to higher payouts.
  • Technology: You cannot work efficiently without quality tools such as: trackers, spy services, cloaking, bots for bids, farming accounts, etc.
  • Workers: Speed and quantity matter. If you have several people in your team, the process of scaling and working with profitable bundles will be faster and more efficient.
About the benefits of building a team in Affiliate Marketing can be read in our blog.  
05
Ninth rule: Importance of Traffic Source
What sets you apart from the competitors? Let’s take a closer look at one of the important aspects in affiliate marketing – the traffic source.
As mentioned above, copying landing pages and creatives and launching exactly the same ads as yours is not a problem. Therefore, you need to focus on what cannot be copied, and this is where
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Your advantage will be:
  • Understanding how the algorithm of the source works.
  • Your personal contacts and relationships with representatives or owners of the traffic source.
  • Your skills and understanding of the bidding process.
  • Your knowledge and skills to set up a target.
The ability to focus is one of the most important skills of an affiliate marketer. Apply it here, don’t spread yourself thin with many different traffic sources, focus on one or two, and try to study them thoroughly.
06
Tenth rule: Language matters
It is absolutely obvious that different languages are spoken in different countries, but that’s not all. Spanish in Spain and in Latin America are two different Spanish languages, just like English in England and Australia, not as similar as it might seem at first glance. To inspire confidence and increase conversion, the translation of your landing pages and the notifications themselves should not only cover the lead’s “pain”, but also be well written, in a language that is understandable and “close” to a person.
Tip: If you want to be sure, but you do not have a trusted translator, order a translation from two translators and compare them with A / B tests. The numbers will be the best indicator.
Use appropriate slang for the target audience you are selling to. You will be able to increase loyalty to your proposal, showing that you are one of “them” and know what you are talking about. The golden rule of copywriting – write and then make it shorter. Nowadays, everyone is too lazy to read beyond the first two sentences. Therefore, try to make the text as easy to read as possible; not overloaded with complex sentences and terms, Hemingway App or any of its analogs, a great site to check the text for “complexity”.
07
Conclusion
This article contains five affiliate marketing rules: 6. Calculate your actual income. 7. Don’t be fooled. 8. Maintaining the profitability of the campaign. 9. Importance of Traffic Source. 10. Language matters. We cannot predict what will be popular in a year; which traffic source will be most in demand in 5 years, etc. But we can say with confidence that advertising and demand in Affiliate Marketing will not decrease, it will simply change, as it happened before, which is why it is so important to know the basics, follow the industry and constantly learn new things, improving your skills and abilities.