Publishers
Top 5 Mistakes Publishers Should Avoid
Katrina L

The first step towards becoming an affiliate publisher is to develop a platform that generates a consistent amount of traffic. If you’ve already achieved this goal, congratulations! While the rest of the way isn’t “easy”, you’re well on your way to monetizing the traffic on your site. With that said, you’ll need to put in the work, and most of all, avoid pitfalls that can derail all your efforts.

As a leading ad network, Vimmy has developed long-lasting relationships with the best publishers in the world. Thanks to these partnerships and our firsthand experience, we are very familiar with the most common mistakes affiliate publishers make. In this article, we’ll discuss the top 5 pitfalls that affiliate publishers need to avoid and provide tips on how to overcome these obstacles.

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5 Biggest Mistakes Publishers Should Avoid At All Costs
It’s easy to lose patience and simply start running ads once your website is up and running.
However, this strategy leaves you vulnerable to potential pitfalls that can cost a lot of money, forces you to miss great seasonal opportunities, and doesn't leave much room in terms of flexibility. Therefore, you should plan ahead, create a set of goals, and most importantly, familiarize yourself with the situations you have to avoid to increase your chances of success. In our experience, the biggest mistakes that publishers make are:
01
Removing Advertising Tags Too Early
The first mistake that publishers make is adding advertising tags to their sites and then removing them right away because they don’t get results. Unfortunately, most publishers expect tags to produce results hours or even days after they’ve been added. The truth, however, is slightly different.
Although monetization results appear relatively quickly in terms of the stats generated, you need to be patient and allow tags to run for a bit before making any changes. If you start changing ad formats right away you’ll never get results because you won’t produce a consistent user experience, so give your tags a chance to work their magic.
02
Using Too Many Types of Ads on a Single Page Or Website
It’s true that some forms of monetization are compatible, but remember that these tend to be completely different ad formats that blend in with the rest of the user experience. But, you’ll always run into trouble if you overload your website or pages with too many types of ads at the same time.
This produces a collection of issues, like the fact that you’ll have a hard time measuring the real efficacy of each ad format. Not only this, but the cross-exposure to multiple ads can actually scare off users and inhibit the performance of all formats in place. Plus, your website won’t have the right content-to-ads ratio, which will further diminish the UX.
03
Failing to Take Financial Turnaround Time Into Consideration
Many publishers come into the industry looking to make a huge amount of money quickly. While there is no doubt about the revenue potential, becoming a successful publisher and establishing a steady stream of income takes time as well as patience.
The most profitable payout structure is revenue sharing (or revshare) because it keeps generating profits beyond the initial interaction, which gives it an almost limitless potential. Check out our revshare benefits article to learn more about the advantages of this model.
04
Publishing Poor-Quality Content and Other Forms of Audience Neglect
Besides having a site packed with ads, there are many other scenarios that can make users feel like they are being neglected. For example, publishing poor quality content, never updating your site, not obtaining security certificates, failing to create a safe environment, and partnering with less-than-transparent networks.
Instead, you should pay close attention to all of the elements on your site, think about how they affect user experience, and only make adjustments that don’t compromise the user experience.
05
Buying Bot Traffic and Using Other Unethical Tricks
In addition to consumers, you should also aim to establish a good relationship with your ad network. Many publishers buy bot traffic or use similar techniques to bolster the number of visitors on their sites.
The practice above hinders the entire ecosystem because it isn’t sustainable for publishers, advertisers don’t get anything from the traffic they purchase, and consumers don’t get the personalized experience they want. Plus, networks like Vimmy have strict measures in place to detect this type of traffic and prevent fraud, so publishers that buy traffic are usually identified quickly.
06
Bonus: Not Trying the Best Ad Formats
Many beginner publishers opt for uncommon formats because they feel like it gives them an edge. However, there are many established ad formats that, even though they are used by many publishers, still offer the best odds in terms of traffic monetization success.
Some of the top ad formats available today include:
07
Push Notifications
Push notifications have become a standard tool in every publishers’ toolkit, and for good reason. These ads are delivered in the same way as other device notifications, but note that users have to opt-in to receive these alerts.
08
In-Page Push Notification
In-page push notifications (IPP) are similar to traditional push ads listed above. But, these are displayed when the user is on a specific website rather than through the device itself. Therefore, they don’t require an opt-in from the user.
09
Calendar Push Notifications
Calendar push notification ads are relatively new, but they have already proven to be an effective way to connect with different audiences. Simply put, these ads appear as events on consumer calendar apps, so they can deliver marketing content with a custom link without triggering negative emotions in the audience.
10
Ready to Develop a Successful Monetization Machine? Vimmy Is Here to Help
Establishing a steady flow of engaged users is challenging enough, but there are many more obstacles lying ahead for publishers who want to create a predictable monetization machine.     
With the above in mind, you can create partnerships with companies that help guide you on your quest to transform website visitors into revenue.
To learn more about working with Vimmy or our different ad formats, get in touch with us today and we’ll be glad to help.