marketing_necessityOne mistake a lot of new affiliate marketers make is that they try to oversell products on their website. It’s a hard concept to master, but your website’s success is not based on how many products you sell nor even how aggressively you sell them.

Your success as an affiliate is determined by your ability to help user’s find the right products.

Next time you’re trying to promote something to a user ask yourself this question:

Does your user really need your product?

Determining Fit

The amazing thing about the world of long-tail marketing is that you literally could sell anything to anyone at anytime.

With that flexibility comes tremendous power. As a blog owner, you can be completely unbiased about which products you promote, and still earn money from your website.

Given that premise, your focus turns to finding the right fit for a given user. Determining fit is, at the end of the day, a far easier sales process than trying to sell something to someone who doesn’t need it.

The Art of Not-Selling

I know it’s tempting to always be selling, all the time. The fact is that there is a ton of data out there that proves this is a terrible sales technique.

When I work with new affiliate marketers, I often feel like I have to constantly beat into them the idea that the primary reason your site exists is NOT to sell. Stop trying so hard, and sales will increase.

This fact is counter-intuitive for many, but it’s something you’ll need to confront in order to take the next step as an affiliate marketer. The reason is because most users don’t want to be sold to, but they do want to eventually buy a product. Your goal as an affiliate is to get them to trust your opinion, so that when they do finally buy a product, they’ll follow your recommendation…and hopefully your affiliate link.

Next time you’re writing a post trying to sell something to a reader, ask yourself this:

If you were in your user’s position, would you buy the product?

Read more on how to develop a writing style that sells.