5 Reasons Why 95 Percent of Bloggers Make Zero Dollars from Affiliate Marketing

As anyone who's ever done it knows, blogging is damn hard work. Even if you love your topic to death, blogging non-stop about your topic can kill that love in pretty short order. Then there is the real killer aspect of blogging: working (damn hard) for free!

Frustrated by this laborious, profitless scenario, thousands of bloggers are experimenting with a proven method for making money online: affiliate marketing. Some bloggers enjoy affiliate marketing success. The vast majority don't. Here are 5 reasons why not:


1. Evergreen Content (Or, Rather, the Lack Thereof)

Evergreen content is a main pillar of affiliate marketing success. Blogging, on the other hand, is by nature chronological. Posts are dated, time-stamped, and bloggers typically try to stay current following and commenting upon the latest news about their chosen topic.

From an affiliate marketing perspective, this is all wrong. Bloggers whose content is now-focused are like casual runners who put the treadmill on too high of a setting: sooner or later, they're going to run out of gas and end up lying face down on the floor.

Bloggers who build pages that have inherent, lasting value, by contrast, can show up in search results not only today, but for years to come. That spells affiliate marketing success.

2. Inappropriate or Insufficient Blogging Software

We aren't here to recommend any particular blogging platform. But we are here to recommend that any blogger or aspiring blogger should thoroughly investigate how well each particular blogging platform works with affiliate marketing.

Search out bloggers who are making money through affiliate marketing. What software are they using? How? Why? If they're using your software, what are they doing right? Can you copy it?

3. Over-Reliance on Google AdSense

Unless your blog is attracting a ton of traffic, it's very difficult to make the pennies paid by Google AdSense add up to much of anything. Also, over-use of Google AdSense can make your blog look like every other website.

Especially if your blog is not yet well-established, surrendering your originality is the last thing you want to do, and can severely impact your credibility with your audience.


4. Too Busy Blogging to Track Affiliate Marketing Performance

Bloggers will and should be bloggers, but those bloggers who are determined to make money from affiliate marketing must put enough time into the business side of their blog to deserve success. Of course it's hard to find time to do both, but that's life in the fast lane.

Often, inattention to the business side of blogging shows through when affiliate links are not adequately tracked and measured for performance. To the experienced affiliate marketer, ignorance of a basic affiliate marketing metric like conversion rates is unthinkable. For bloggers with their nose to the keyboard, though, such ignorance can be par for the course.

Bloggers who are serious about making money from affiliate marketing need to know their numbers and their words, not merely one or the other.

5. Most Bloggers Don't Give Affiliate Marketing an Honest Try

But probably should.