We are going to get started with some PPC Mom basics today: “Avoid these mistakes, kids!”

Every affliate marketer makes mistakes and often they end up costing you a lot of money. It’s important to learn from your mistakes so you don’t make them again, and so that you can gain insight into where you went wrong. In this section I am going to list the top 5 mistakes that PPC marketers make (I have made many of them myself). My hope is that by being aware of these mistakes you can avoid them and earn yourself a good income in the meantime.

1. Lack of Training - One of the biggest and most costly errors is to try to “go it alone” out there. How can you expect to earn a legitimate salary in excess of $100,000 with ZERO training?  In my opinion, the best investment you will ever make is an investment in your own education. There are several affiliate marketing training forums out there including : AffiliIT, PPC-Coach, and Wealthy Affiliate.  The value provided by these affiliate marketing training programs far exceeds the monthly cost. I am an active member of all three of these programs. You can read my personal review of these three options here.
2. Lack of Focus - Choose one thing and stick with it until you feel ready to move on to the next thing. Many new PPC marketers move from one “hot” thing to another, trying every new product, in every niche, using all kinds of advertising mediums. You know what happens to those people? They lose money and quit.  To avoid this trap, become a member of an affiliate marketing training forum and follow their guidelines each month. I suggest you thoroughly focus on one method at a time until you feel confident in that method. Then you can proceed to the next thing, and the next. This is how you build a solid business online, by building on your skills each and every month. If you lack focus, or get distracted easily, you will struggle to earn a consistent profit.
3. Looking for “easy money” - Affiliate marketing is a job – a real business – that requires consistent inputs of time, effort, and creativity to be successful. If you don’t want to do the work, and just want easy money, then this is not the business for you. However, if you are prepared to take action, learn, test, review, and keep learning and taking action regularly without quitting, then perhaps you have what it takes. This is not “easy money”. But there is a lot of money out there waiting for those of us who are willing to do what it takes. Don’t delay!
4. Not understanding the market - It is so important to understand who you are marketing to and why they would want to click on your ad. People buy things to solve a problem. It’s our job to find out what the problem is, and find a way to solve their problem. Most PPC affiliate marketers get started with email and zip submits because they are easiest to convert. Before you can be successful, you need to understand why someone would enter their email on your website: What’s in it for them? Once you understand your market, you can create a wide range of campaigns to “solve the problems” of your market and make a decent profit for yourself.
5. Avoid the Sharks - This is a big one! You do NOT need most of the PPC tools yet. Many new PPC marketers come in to this industry thinking they need the biggest and newest tools to be a success. That is not the case. Yes – there are some amazing and helpful tools out there to help you do things a little quicker or easier. But you do not NEED these tools or software to earn an income right now. Be very careful what you spend your money on. There are lots of sharks out there trying to convince you that this “next big thing” is a “must have”.  I suggest you focus on earning money now. Once you are bringing in some profits, then you can choose the tools that suit you best.

If you can avoid these 5 mistakes, you’re well on your way to building a solid business online. We’re in this together!

Have a great day! PPC Mom