Why Affiliate Websites Fail? The Main Reason Revealed

For all those who are planning to start an affiliate website, let me reveal a shocking fact before you start. According to stats, over 90% of affiliate websites fail within the first year. That’s scary, but it shouldn’t stop you from taking action because every failure has a solid reason. So here, as an expert affiliate marketer, I’ll reveal the main reason or maybe reasons behind the failure of 90% of affiliate websites.

A lot of people jump into affiliate marketing with high hopes. But what they see is only their websites crash and burn before making a single sale. Without paying attention to reasons, they simply end up blaming luck and move on. They never bother to think, why does this happen? As an experienced affiliate marketer, I’ve seen countless websites make the same deadly mistakes. Such mistakes could have been easily avoided with the right knowledge.

In this post, I’ll reveal the #1 reason why affiliate websites fail. I’ll also expose other critical mistakes like copy-pasting product descriptions, publishing AI-generated robotic content, and stuffing articles with unnecessary fluff. Such mistakes are deadly and killers of conversions.

After reading this blog post, you’ll know exactly what NOT to do if you want a profitable affiliate website. Let’s dive in.

The #1 Reason Why Affiliate Websites Fail

Before revealing the main reason behind affiliate website failure, why not ask yourself a question?  “What do you want when you land on a website?” Most probably, the single-word answer would be “value.”

It’s a harsh truth that most affiliate websites fail because they don’t provide real value. But what does “value” mean in affiliate marketing? 

It means

• Solving a real problem for your audience 
• Offering better information than competitors 
• Making buying decisions easier for readers

Most affiliate sites don’t do this. Instead, they rewrite generic info already available on thousands of websites or blogs. Being a beginner, they often stuff articles with affiliate links without helping readers. And the biggest mistake they make is over-focusing on SEO tricks instead of user experience.

Real-Life Example: The “Best VPN” Niche Disaster

Let’s take the “Best VPN” niche as an example. 

A few years ago, a friend of mine started a VPN review site. He followed all the “SEO rules”—keyword research, backlinks, and long-form content. 

But after 6 months, he had zero sales. 

Why? 

Because his content was identical to every other VPN review site. 

• Same features list (speed, security, no-logs policy) 
• Same pros and cons copied from the VPN’s official page 
• No personal experience or unique insights

His site was just another clone in a sea of identical reviews. 

Result? Google ignored it, readers bounced, and affiliates made no money. 

The lesson? If your content doesn’t stand out, you’ll fail.

Other Deadly Mistakes That Kill Affiliate Websites

Now that we’ve covered the #1 reason, let’s break down other common (but avoidable) mistakes that destroy affiliate sites. 

1. Copy-Pasting Text from the Source Product Page

This is the most common mistake, and you will observe it on every second affiliate website. In my opinion, it’s just a mistake but a blunder that is a silent killer of most of the affiliate websites.

Many beginners think that when they have to divert the traffic to the product page, then why invest time and money in rewriting product descriptions?  They simply copy the description from the source product page because they think that everything is already covered so why add their own version?

So, they copy-paste the manufacturer’s text, add an affiliate link, and call it a “review.”

As I mentioned earlier, it’s a big mistake. Here’s why:

A. Google Hates Duplicate Content

If you know even the ABC of SEO, you might have a good idea how much Google hates duplicate content. But what do most of the affiliate websites have? Duplicate content.

If your product description matches the original page, Google will:

• Rank the original page higher (not yours)
• Penalize your site for thin/duplicate content

B. Readers Don’t Trust You

For a while, try to imagine that you are searching for “best coffee maker” and you land on a blog that just repeats Amazon’s description. Would you trust any such blog or affiliate website? Obviously, you will bounce to some other website to find authentic information you are looking for, the information which Amazon product page missed somehow. 

Real Case: The Affiliate Who Got Banned by Amazon

You might be surprised to know that not just Google, but Amazon also hates when someone copies their content. There’s a well-known case to warn all the newbies who are copying Amazon product descriptions in their affiliate blogs. 

An affiliate blogger who was getting a good commission from Amazon suddenly got blocked from Amazon. He was kicked out of the Amazon Affiliate Program. It was nothing but frustration for him as his hard work of years had gone. Upon contacting Amazon support, he learned that he had copied paragraphs from the Amazon product page on his blog.

Amazon detected the duplicate content and banned his affiliate account—killing his income overnight. 

Solution?

Always write original descriptions in your own words. Add personal experience (if possible) or at least rephrase the details uniquely. Writing original content for so many products can be a tiring and time-consuming task. And if you are not a good writer, writing original content may eat a lot of money.

Rewriting is a good idea because you can find a lot of online rewriting tools. Modern rewriting tools are equipped with AI algorithms like NLP, LLM and ML. These advanced algorithms empower the rewriting tool to generate a fresh yet unique version of given text. You can get help from a reliable rewriting tool to avoid being banned from Amazon for duplicate content. 

2. Too Lengthy Content (Without Real Substance)

It’s an old myth that long-form content ranks better. That’s somewhat true but not always. If you are writing long content for your affiliate blog just to cover some extra keywords without adding real value, then this long content will be of no use. So, yes, long-form content rank well but only if it’s high-quality. 

Many affiliates make the mistake of writing 3,000+ word articles just for SEO, stuffing them with

• Unnecessary history lessons (“The Evolution of Blenders Since 1920…”) 
• Generic fluff (“Coffee is a popular drink worldwide…”) 
• Repeated points in different words

Believe me, readers hate this.

If your article is long but doesn’t help the reader in finding the answer they are looking for, they’ll simply leave your website. And you will keep longing for the conversion even after writing 3000+ words in your affiliate blog.

Example: The “Best Running Shoes” Article That No One Read

A fitness blogger once published a 5,000-word guide on running shoes. 

It had

• A 1,000-word intro on “The History of Running” 
• Repeated specs for each shoe 
• No real comparison or personal testing

Result? A high bounce rate and zero conversions.

No one has time to read thousands of words just before buying a common product. They just want to know if the product they are buying will actually solve their problem or not. They also want to know if the product is reliable and what people who already bought it say about it.

So, keep your affiliate blog content detailed but skimmable. Use

• Short paragraphs 
• Bullet points 
• Comparison tables 
• Real user/testimonials

If you feel that your blog will become overloaded with the information because the product is too complex, then adding a summary at the top of the product description or review can do wonders. This summarized version will serve as an executive summary. The reader will know about the product in just a few seconds. And if they will be interested, they may read further and most likely convert. That’s what you want.

But again, creating a summary for each product can be an arduous task, especially when you’re not good at writing. Again, AI tools can help you here. AI summarizer can summarize long content without missing any important information in the given content. You can summarize detailed product descriptions and add them just above the detailed version.

AI summarizer has the power of modern AI algorithms to create wonderful summaries of any given text in just a few seconds. It will save not just time but your money and efforts as well.

3. AI-Generated or Robotic Content

I’ve suggested a couple of AI tools as solutions to specific problems. But it doesn’t mean that I’m asking you to use ChatGPT or any such bot to generate content for your affiliate marketing blog.

Many new affiliate marketers are pumping out generic, robotic content generated by AI tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek. Some smart ones are using Jasper or any other specialized tool to perform better.

While AI can help with research, Google is getting smarter at detecting low-effort AI content. And this fact is a warning for you if you are using too much of AI-generated content on your affiliate blogs.

Why AI-Only Content Fails:

• Lacks personality (sounds like a machine wrote it) 
• Often factually wrong (AI hallucinates details) 
• No real expertise (just reworded info)

Real Case: The Affiliate Site That Got Deindexed

In 2023, a popular affiliate site lost 90% of its traffic overnight. 

Why? 

Because Google’s Helpful Content Update flagged it for mass-produced AI content.

The site had hundreds of articles, all written by ChatGPT, with no human touch.

To avoid such mishaps, I would suggest using AI as a helper, not as a writer. But if you have used AI for content generation, don’t post the content as it is. Add your personal insights and edit the content for natural flow. To break the robotic style, you can include real examples. Such examples connect the reader and may result in conversion.

Though you should do it manually, but again, for the bulk task, adding another AI tool is a good idea. To break the robotic flow and robotic tone, AI humanizer is a great tool. Though it’s another AI tool but it is trained to break the patterns commonly found in AI content. It adds a human touch to the content and the content sounds more likely human-written.

How to Fix These Mistakes & Build a Profitable Affiliate Site

Now that you know why most affiliate sites fail, here’s how to avoid these mistakes and succeed:

1. Write for Humans First, Google Second

Whether you have an affiliate blog or a general blog, don’t write for Google but always write for the humans. If you write for Google, you will keep keywords in mind, not the real solution that the reader is looking for. And an unsatisfied reader never converts.

So, solve a real problem for readers and be more helpful than competing articles. You can use a conversational tone (like you’re advising a friend). Such a tone will directly connect with the reader, and it may incite them to click on the CTA.

2. Never Copy-Paste Product Descriptions

Copy-pasting can ban your account and may result in deranking in SERPs. So always rewrite specs in your own words. If you have multiple blogs and multiple products, you can get help from AI rewriters.

Don’t forget to add personal experience (if possible). For better chances of conversion, you can compare products side-by-side. It will let the reader know what benefits they are going to get if they buy that particular product.

3. Keep Content Engaging (Not Just Long)

People don’t have time so don’t write thousands of words without adding valuable information. Try to cut unnecessary fluff and use headings, bullet points, and images so that the description may become skimmable. Focus on helping readers decide. If possible, add a summary at the top so the reader may know what’s in the thousand words without actually reading those thousands of words.

4. Avoid Full AI Dependence

Depending too much on AI tools like ChatGPT may result in the failure of your affiliate website. So, use AI only for research and outlines. If you have generated content using AI tool, always edit it manually for a human touch. You can also humanize with the help of AI humanizer. Furthermore, add real testimonials or case studies to make it look more authentic.

Final Verdict: The Key to Affiliate Success

Affiliate marketing isn’t dead. So, if 90% of affiliate marketers tell you their failure stories, don’t be scared. You must know the fact that affiliate websites with low value fail.

If you want to succeed in affiliate business, provide real value to the users—at least better than the competitors. Don’t even think about posting copy-paste content or purely AI-generated content. Try to help readers decide by giving them clear and actionable content.

Do this, and you’ll be in the top 10% of affiliates who actually make money. 

Plan to start your own affiliate program and manage it with minimum effort?

🚀 Try Tapfiliate free for 14 days!