Launching without affiliates can be so disappointing.

I’ll never forget what it was like starting out launching my own products and trying to get affiliates onboard. Everyone else had such an easy time of it, it seemed. My friends and people I saw on the forum had others promoting without any problems – dozens of top affiliates clamoring to get their link.

But I launched alone.

I found myself getting tripped up by a lack of self confidence in approaching people but I’m actually glad I didn’t approach them back then – because what I know now means I would have screwed things up even if I contacted them.

It wasn’t until I became a formidable affiliate that I learned what mistakes I was making as a vendor.

If you’re a launch newbie, I can pretty much guarantee that you’re either making these mistakes or you’re going to. It makes the launch process so painful because you put time and energy (and sometimes money) into it and it flops – needlessly.

But if you know how to avoid these mistakes, you might have a big success looming.

It’s always best to learn from the mistakes others have made so you don’t have to go through them.

Mistake #1: You’re Contacting the Wrong People.

A common mistake newbies make in trying to build up an affiliate army is in relying on people they happen to be friends with online. It’s easier to reach out to someone who’s nice to you, but if you look at it from a logical standpoint, you really ought to be approaching people whose list is the perfect match for your product.

If your goal is to feel relaxed, then by all means, make that mistake. But if your goal is monetary success, then not only will your “friend” not make sales if their list isn’t a good fit, but your conversion rate will sink because they’ll be sending traffic that doesn’t turn into sales and good affiliates will then steer clear, thinking your product stinks.

The right way to find affiliates is to get on peoples’ lists in your niche. See what they promote. See where they dominate leaderboards (take a peek at contests) and you’ll know if your product will be something their subscribers are interested in.

Mistake #2: You’re Hitting Them Up Without a Review Copy.

I made this mistake when I was starting out – primarily because I was suspicious of the wrong people (and newbies are hyper suspicious because they’ve been burned before). Affiliates weren’t trying to steal from me – they were trying to help me make money. And asking them to promote blindly was foolish.

So let me save you from doing the same thing. Instead of being stingy or waiting for the affiliate to request a review copy (top affiliates are too busy to bother), try sending it along with your very first communication instead. You’ll see much better results.

This way, the affiliate doesn’t have to respond and investigate who you are – wasting their time – they can simply check out the product on their own time and either make room on their promo schedule for it – or not.

And don’t bug them about it after the fact. There’s nothing I hate more than having some vendor constantly messaging me asking if I’m going to promote once they send the details. Sometimes, it’s even made me not promote.

Mistake #3: You’re Either Asking Too Soon or Dragging Out the Socialization Before a Promo Request.

Most people don’t even realize they’re making this mistake until someone publicly shames them by screenshotting their private conversation and plastering it on Facebook.

What happen is, you’re supposed to socialize to build your affiliate base. Usually, you’ll end up “friending” someone and BOOM – seconds later, you ask for a promo. Bad form! Nobody likes to feel used and spammed with requests.

It’s rude. It’s also annoying to take the opposite approach and drag out a long introduction and phony chit chat for a day before you finally ask for the promotion.

You can avoid this by friending the right people days and weeks if not months before your product is complete. That way, when you DO ask, it’s nicely situated between lots of conversation that’s not business related.

Mistake #4: You’re Focusing on the Wrong Benefit They’ll Receive.

If you ever got shot down when you were trying to recruit an affiliate, then you were probably talking up the wrong benefit. Next time, try seeing what makes that individual affiliate tick and see if you don’t get better results.

Focusing on the wrong thing is a turn off to many affiliates. For example, in first communications, I myself couldn’t care less what commission you’re offering, how many funnel levels there are or what exclusive perk you’re offering me.

What I care about is if your product is going to be something my list will appreciate and benefit from – because that’s how I can dominate leaderboards – by making sure my people are shown products that truly help them. After I know that, then I’ll ensure that commission levels are a good fit, etc.

However, many affiliates won’t even look at your product – their goal is strictly money – so you should talk up the commission potential, the download page bonus spot or whatever other perk you want to offer them.

We’re all different out here – so get on our lists and see what curls our toes and makes us promote. Spy on social networking posts to see what the individual raves about – is it quality of a product or how much bank they made? Then focus on that benefit for that particular affiliate when you contact them.

Mistake #5: You’re Not Being the Right Kind of Responsive.

I’ve saved the best for last. That’s because being too busy for your affiliates after you reach out when they may have questions is a red flag that warns someone not to send their subscribers to you because it might be the same way you’ll treat them.

I’ve had so many people do this. They’ll hit me up about a week before launch. I’ll have questions (because I actually review the product) and they won’t get back to me until the morning of launch. Nope. You missed the boat by then.

However, you can completely avoid rejection due to a busy schedule simply by planning ahead and not working from a place of last minute desperation – or, getting an affiliate manager to help you. Just pick someone good because having the wrong person associated with you can hurt your launch.

If you take time to care about the aspects of affiliate recruitment, you should be proud – because most people ignore it until they flop several times and then seek answers about what went wrong.