You’ve just signed up for this fantastic new affiliate program. They have great products, free referral websites, training, pre-made ads for you to copy and the best compensation plan on the internet. This is the best affiliate program on the internet! Put a few ads out there and you’re on your way to becoming the next internet millionaire. Right?

Before you break ground on that big mansion on the hill, here are a few mistakes many new affiliate marketers make that you’ll want to avoid.

5. Believing the hype

And yes, I do mean the hype promoted by your own program. Those income projections that every program makes are just that, projections. You can make that much. Will you within your first few months of the program? Probably not. Look at this as a long term investment in your future, not a way to get rich quick. Believe in yourself and your ability to make your dreams come true. But don’t believe the hype.

4. Expecting instant results with little effort

Expect to work your business. And expect to work it daily. If you opened your own neighborhood store, you’d expect to have to go in to work daily, wouldn’t you? You’d expect to have to advertise and get people to come to your store. Well, you just opened your own brand new internet store, what are you going to do to make it work? How are you going to get people to come look at your product?

3. Lack of a plan and specific goals

You’ve probably heard the saying, plan your work and work your plan. You need to have a specific plan and clear, measurable goals. Many people join affiliate programs with the vague goal of wanting to make a lot of money. How much money? How quickly do you want it? (Try to be realistic here, making a million dollars in one month is not realistic.) Okay, you have your clear, specific goal. Now how are you going to get there. Again, think clear, specific steps here.

2. Advertising your affiliate link

Wait a minute, if you don’t advertise your affiliate link, how are you supposed to get sales and downline members? Create your own website that has a link to your affiliate program. Every affiliate for your program gets the same website that you do. You have to be able to make yourself different from everyone else. The way you do that is with your own website.

1. Quitting

You’ve been working your affiliate program for 2, 3, maybe even 4 months now with very little to show for it. You’re getting discouraged and beginning to wonder if this is worth it after all. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and figure out what it is you need to be doing. Learn more. Bug your sponsor and your upline members until they help you out. Don’t quit. No one ever achieved success by quitting. Neither will you.