Whether you’re a publisher, content creator, influencer, or writer, we’ve all made mistakes. When you first start with marketing or advertising, you’re bound to mess up somewhere. These errors often have an impact on the income we have worked so hard to accumulate. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of common monetization mistakes publishers make.

When you’re working online, there are thousands of things grabbing at your attention. From users, to social media notifications, to affiliate policies and terms. Bouncing between all of the requirements of freelancing can take up all of your focus. It’s no wonder publishers make mistakes.

Every publisher aims for perfection when creating a new piece of content. Yet, it’s this desire that causes monetization mistakes.

Though it’s not always the case, those who strive too hard for perfection wear themselves out. Ever heard of “burnout” when it comes to work? It’s the leading cause of online mistakes.

While you can’t avoid every failure, you can still try your hardest! Keep an eye out for the following website monetization mistakes every publisher should avoid.

Common Mistakes All Publishers Make

While you might be an expert in affiliate marketing, you’re not immune to making mistakes! You could be making a mistake without even realizing it.

Most mistakes go completely under people’s radars. The consequences of the error are only felt at the end of the month.

From overloading your viewers with ads to making ads that get no attention, take a look at the following website monetization mistakes that publishers make.

You’ll quickly realize why these mistakes should be avoided at all costs!

Misunderstanding the Target Audience

The quickest way to lose an audience is by offending or misunderstanding them. These two usually go together.

It’s human nature to feel defensive when someone doesn’t pay enough attention to you. Even if you are in contact with them, you can still feel unheard.

That’s the feeling your viewers have when you ignore their requests and can’t figure out their needs.

Your audience is your ticket to earning an income every month. If your viewers are unhappy, you’ll earn much less than if they were actually satisfied!

The root of this issue stems from the belief that making money is more important than helping people.

As an affiliate marketer, you’re providing recommendations to curious viewers. Whether it’s products or contents. If you only focus on making money, you won’t make any. It’s the irony of working online.

But if you’re honest with your viewers and provide the best resources you can, karma will work in your favor.

Here are some tips you can keep in mind when interacting with your target audience:

  • Gain your viewers’ trust;
  • Show your emotional side;
  • Be honest about all products and content;
  • Respond to all comments;
  • Ask viewers what they want;
  • Listen to the feedback you receive.

 
When your viewers tell you what they want or what you should change, listen to them. Even if you have to sort through hundreds of negative comments, respond to all of them. The more you interact with your viewers, the more they rely on you.

Low-Quality Content

A website is viewed as low-quality when it displays certain characteristics. When it comes to written content, the most common signs of low quality include:

  • Improper grammar;
  • Explicit or incorrect language use;
  • Vague, nonsensical, or confusing content;
  • False or dishonest marketing;
  • Manipulation or coercion;
  • Lack of content.

 
If your content is too complex or confusing, no one will read it. If no one reads it, they can’t get to the point of clicking on your affiliate links! It doesn’t matter if you worked hard on your content; if it doesn’t make you money, then it’s useless.

Affiliate ads are also judged harshly when it comes to online websites. Signs of low-quality ads include:

  • Low resolution images or illustrations;
  • Unreadable text;
  • Improper grammar and language;
  • Broken links;
  • Affiliate ads that take users to the wrong page;
  • Ads that cover your content.

 
Some of these issues might not come from the publishers’ side, but their income will be affected.

If you have any issues with the ads your advertiser provides, make sure to contact them about it. If it stays the same, you may have to look for better advertisers.

Your website’s content is completely under your control. Unless you work with others, you can easily avoid all content mistakes yourself.

A choice between a good advertiser and a sketchy one is the difference between making money or not!

Ad Overkill

Have you ever gone onto a website, and every time you click, another ad pops up? It’s not even worth getting to the content when you have to deal with a million ads. As a publisher, make sure to watch out for the following mistakes.

These things annoy viewers the most when landing on a new website:

  • Pop-ups on every click;
  • Ads that won’t close;
  • Ads covering content;
  • Ads with loud or shocking audio;
  • Explicit or illegal ads.

 
Not only do excess ads chase away potential customers, they also slow your website down. If your homepage has to load a hundred ads before you can view it, most viewers will just leave.

If users have to scroll through twenty ads in between paragraphs, they won’t waste their time.

Always remember that there are other websites offering the same thing as you, for free and with fewer ads. You have to make your website stand out above the rest.

Give your users a reason to choose your website over others. It’s your job to ensure that viewers have a smooth experience on your website.

If you can remove anything that makes your viewers uncomfortable, why shouldn’t you do it? The more comfortable they are, the more you will earn.

Ads that Don’t Stand Out

A common mistake is overloading users with ads, as we just discussed. But most of the time, this mistake goes hand in hand with another one. That mistake is to run boring and generic ads. Who wants to see an ad they’ve seen too many times already?

Who’s going to even notice an ad that doesn’t stand out above the others?

If you really want to create ads that jump out and yell, “Click me! Click me!” then try some of these tips:

  • Use your competitors’ ads as inspiration;
  • Always show how users can benefit;
  • Catchy headlines, slogans, and one-liners;
  • Include enough calls-to-action;
  • Remove any risks.

 
It’s okay if you fall slightly behind your competitors. You can always make the situation work to your benefit.

If your competitors have better ads, why not take some notes from them? You’ll see exactly what grabs your target audience’s attention!

What always catches a user’s eye is seeing how they can benefit from the exchange.

For example, when you’re selling products online. Make sure your viewers know exactly what they’d miss out on if they don’t buy it.

Calls-to-action are publisher gold mines. What’s the point in having all these affiliate links if you can’t use them in ads? Whatever your ad is, it should direct users further into the website. Or send them right to your advertisers’ doorsteps.

Always remember that as a publisher and affiliate marketer, your ads are all you’ve got to earn money!

Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

As publishers, most of you reading this have done or are doing affiliate marketing.

If you’re still on the affiliate marketing train, then well done! You deserve a medal for not giving up after the first day. Which happens more often than you’d think.

When you start out, you naturally look to the top affiliate marketers for inspiration. It turns out that they are your competitors and have been promoting for much longer than you have.

That’s when publishers become nervous and start to make mistakes.

If you’re one of these nervous nellies, take a gander at the possible follies you could face in your career:

  • Too many or too few affiliate partners;
  • Working with the wrong niche;
  • Limiting your target audience;
  • Over-promoting advertisers;
  • Becoming a copycat;
  • Using only standard affiliate links (not deeplinks).

 
An easy way to avoid these common monetization mistakes is through Admitad. The Admitad Partner Network is the best way to earn money and keep mistakes to a minimum.

Admitad has a wide range of advertisers for publishers to choose from.

Admitad also has a Store where you can browse through all the available advertisers. Once you’ve gotten the hang of promoting your initial advertiser, you can start marketing for other brands like:

 
Make sure you have enough advertisers to keep you busy. But not so many that you’re overloaded and can’t work!

Admitad allows publishers to efficiently generate their own deeplinks from affiliate partners.

You won’t have to wait around for advertisers who only provide standard links.

Join Partner Network Now!

Cross-Platform Marketing Mistakes

While it’s great to have affiliate links to promote, what happens if you mess up on your accounts? That’s a mistake all publishers make. Yet, it’s the most detrimental mistake you can make.

Once a post is online, it’s on the Internet forever. You can never tell how many people have copied it if you want to take the post down!

That’s why publishers must work hard at all costs to avoid messing up on social media. If you’re doing some of these things, chances are that you’ve already lost out on money:

  • Inconsistent messages or information;
  • Using conflicting sources across your channels;
  • Using too many networks;
  • Lacking in close user relationships.

 
If you promise one thing on a specific network, be prepared to follow through on all your networks. Especially if your content becomes popular.

This stems from using different sources for the same post across your accounts. Keep your sources consistent, and the posts will follow suit.

Another common mistake that publishers make is not monetizing in every way possible.

For example, you’ve joined a platform called ConvertSocial.

ConvertSocial can instantly monetize most social media accounts and messaging apps. Yet not enough people know about it!

Take advantage of this platform now and you can monetize any account, including networks like:

 

Fixing Publisher Mistakes

It doesn’t matter if it’s traffic monetization mistakes or website monetization mistakes. They must all be fixed as soon as possible. If you haven’t damaged your reputation too much by the time you realize your mistake!

You might have accidentally lied about something or provided poor service. It doesn’t matter what you did; it only matters how you try to make up for it. That’s all your audience will see.

There are a few ways to go about fixing a previously made mistake:

  • Cover-ups;
  • Rebranding;
  • Post corrections;
  • Make an apology letter and video.

 
A quick way to fix a publishing mistake is to cover it up with a flood of new content.

That way, people are too focused on your great service to notice your minor accident. If they’re still focusing on a specific thing said in a post, you can always post a correction!

However, you can’t always run away from a mistake. Sometimes it gets so bad that you have to completely rebuild your reputation.

Many people do this through rebranding or “refreshing” their content.

While it’s difficult for most people to do, an apology can go a long way. Especially when you’ve offended online users.

The Internet holds the records of everything since its start in 1983. It definitely knows how to hold a grudge.

If you’ve already signed up for Admitad, they offer a bunch of solutions for publishers.

Whether you’re a content publisher or an affiliate publisher, Admitad has got you covered. Admitad even covers our fellow influencers and content creators!

Conclusion

While there are endless possible mistakes you can make, the only thing that matters is how you deal with them. Take responsibility for whatever has happened. Work towards fixing the issue. Aim to do better in the future, and do it all with grace. It’s difficult to feel bad for someone who’s throwing a tantrum.

Mistakes are part of life and our nature. If we didn’t make mistakes, then there would be something very wrong!

The world is a balance of good and bad. You can’t understand one without the other half to compare it to. If we didn’t make mistakes, we wouldn’t have the joy of growing and winning. The joy of getting better at a skill.

As long as you keep striving for the best you can do, you will earn your own and everyone else’s respect.