7 Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

You did it! You’re a HubSpot affiliate! You are ready to publish your affiliate links everywhere. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do affiliate marketing.

Before we dive into the big no-no’s of affiliate marketing, let’s first take a look at why some affiliate marketers fail at what they do.

Why do affiliate marketers fail?

Affiliates fail because they don’t realize that affiliate marketing is a business that requires effort, time, and attention. Some affiliate marketers fail because they don’t research their programs’ audience to make sure it matches their own, or they don’t create valuable content, or they don’t use SEO best practices, or they simply don’t promote their content.

Anyone can join an affiliate program, but few will actually give it the attention it needs to be successful at it.

Fear that you might be falling into the oh-so dreaded affiliate marketing trap? It’s okay! We’re here to help you succeed. Let’s dive into 7 of the most common affiliate marketing mistakes — and how to avoid making them.

1. Using your default affiliate link (the “get started” page)

Your default HubSpot affiliate link includes CTAs (calls to action) to HubSpot’s main products. While it provides a good overview of all of HubSpot’s offerings, it is generally bad practice to use it in your content. Your audience is looking for specific products for their business needs and the best way for you to meet these needs is with relevant HubSpot product landing pages.

Make sure to check out our top 14 converting landing pages here and download our exclusive HubSpot affiliate link cheatsheet here.

2. Not including your FTC disclosure

Source: adamenfroy.com

As a HubSpot affiliate, you must remain FTC compliant. This means having a disclosure stating that you will receive commission for any purchase made through your affiliate link. For more information on this, make sure to check out our page on all things FTC here.

3. Being a “low-value” affiliate

Your affiliate links should be used within original content that adds value to your audience. Not doing this can also hurt your search result rankings if you rely on organic traffic. Good affiliates add value, for example, by offering unique product reviews, original ratings, or side-by-side product comparisons.

Examples of “low-value” affiliate content include (but are not limited to):

• Pages on which the product descriptions and reviews are copied directly from HubSpot’s website or another website, without any original content.
• The majority of the site is made for affiliate marketing and contains a limited amount of original, non-affiliate content.
• The website appears to be a cookie-cutter site or template with the same or similar content replicated within the same website, or across multiple domains or even languages.
• A web page with limited content and/or only images with affiliate links.

If you’re not sure if your site adds value, ask yourself the following questions:

• What proportion of my content consists of affiliate links vs just normal content?
• Why would someone want to visit my website first rather than visiting HubSpot’s website directly?
• Are HubSpot’s products relevant to my audience?

4. Using low-quality and/or outdated images

Make sure your images and gifs are all good quality and on par with the latest HubSpot UI update. To make sure you get all the most up-to-date screenshots, check out our exclusive HubSpot product screenshot and gif library for affiliates.

5. Not capitalizing the “S” in “HubSpot”

It’s HubSpot, not “Hubspot”. It may seem silly, but it’s very important that you write the name of the company correctly. You’d be surprised at how many times that doesn’t happen. *Sigh*

6. Not using brand colors/not following brand guidelines

Source: HubSpot Vendor Kit

In a similar vein, it’s just as important that your visual assets match HubSpot’s branding. Take the sprocket, for example. It’s big, it’s orange, and it’s pretty recognizable. Here at HubSpot, we take pride in our logos and trademarks, so we want to make sure all of our affiliates are using them correctly.

You should never modify or adjust the HubSpot wordmark or sprocket logo in any way. You should always refer to our Vendor Kit as well as our promo assets for all our logo marks.

You should also refer to our Trademark Usage Guidelines, and our Content Usage Guidelines for more details.

7. Sharing inaccurate or outdated information about the products or HubSpot as a whole

Last, but certainly not least (apologies for the cliché). A big no-no is to use false or misleading statements on the benefits of using HubSpot (e.g. “Get rich quick with HubSpot”) in an attempt to make more sales. For the most accurate information on HubSpot tools, always refer to the HubSpot website. When in doubt, please shoot us an email at any time.

Now that you know these common affiliate marketing mistakes, take the time to examine this list against your own website and use it to step up your affiliate game.