Tweet

Is affiliate marketing the way forward?

Written by: Greg Pipe

Article Overview: Affiliate marketing is an attractive proposal when it comes to cost effective web based advertising. So how does it work?

Is affiliate marketing the way forward?

Affiliate marketing is fast becoming the ‘must have’ when it comes to a company’s marketing mix. The main reason for this is that unlike the model of PPC where you pay for someone just to visit your website, affiliate marketing works on the basis of PPA or Pay Per Acquisition. Put another way, it means you only pay when you receive a qualified lead, or that lead actually purchases something.

So it’s understandable why this model has become so attractive to businesses, especially in these hard pressed times. A recent report from R.O.EYE found that 46% or merchants consider affiliate marketing to be a cost-effective channel for driving sales, up 2% from last year.

Technology is helping.
As the market has grown it’s also become far more sophisticated with ever more technological developments being produced to help marketers establish and monitor campaigns. For example click-path analysis, which takes a look at how marketing channels used as part of a digital campaign contribute to sales. Although this isn’t exactly a new invention, marketers are keen to attribute budget to the most cost-effective digital channel and these tools are crucial in achieving this.
Telephone tracking is another development, which is being worked on in earnest. Once the kinks can be ironed out, it could really lift affiliate marketing to the next level. The reason being that it provides a way for affiliates to be rewarded even if a consumer switches from the web to a telephone to buy a product, currently they don’t get paid if this happens.

Social Networking
Another area that is being heavily pursued are social networking sites, such as Bebo and MySpace. If a friend visits your profile page, sees a product they like and then goes on to buy it, then you will receive a commission. So it is easy to see how this can be very attractive both for affiliates and companies. Social networks also provide a great way of reaching particular target audiences, as sites such as Bebo tend to attract a young audience, versus Facebook’s older and more affluent membership, so the degree to which the affiliate and marketer can target groups is extremely high.

With all these areas that can be tapped into and developed as a source of business, it’s important to make sure your network of affiliates is monitored carefully so that you are constantly checking on not only the quantity of leads coming through but also the quality. With this ever-developing market, the right knowledge and technology are crucial to getting the most out of it.

Related Articles
  How To Make Good Affiliate Marketing Revenue
  Internet Marketing Business Ideas-Try 2 Tier Affiliate Programs
  An Affiliate Business Offers Valuable Income Opportunities
  Legitimate Affiliate Programs Are Out There
  Why You Should Throw Away Your Affiliate Marketing Website

Article Tags: affiliate marketing, Pay Per Acquisition, PPA



Related Forum Posts
Re: Need help - To start internet marketing does not require money if you start with affiliate marketing. If you don't know anything about affiliate marketing pm me your email address and I will send a free ebook to you on affiliate marketing
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - This is a good topic. Affiliate marketing stands to be the epitome of all business. I think there is not business online or offline that is not thriving on the affiliation. Majority of things we buy or like to buy are direct effort of affiliation. Some of the things you and I bought was done because a friend or neighbour refer us to it. I like affiliate marketing so much because it grows business easily. Every entrepreneur needs affiliate marketing to thrive. What I don't like about affiliate marketing is when the company is not paying well their affiliates. What a good topic.
Re: Need Advice for online Business. - You can start with affiliate marketing. pm me your email address and I will send you two free e-books on affiliate marketing
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - I believe affiliate marketing can be quite lucrative, too. Some companies are paying their affiliates up to 90%, and it's basically all profit if you can advertise by social networking or just using the webtraffic your own site already gets. There is one thing that I would warn about affiliate marketing though. Check them out very carefully before you decide to sink a lot (or any for that matter) of money into them. A lot of the internet companies that are offering affiliate programs are fly by the seat of their pants new companies who just want to get some sales to get their business going. Make sure everything is on the up and up and then go for it if that's the avenue you choose.
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - HI, Fair enough... I also learned this by trying affiliate marketing back in the day. I would hope people reading this atleast change their long term goal though. Instead of building an entire business based off of affiliate marketing hopefully they will understand it is only a building block into a real business. Only something to put on their website like Google Adsense is until they find real advertisers who pay much more. I just hate seeing so many people focussing on the affiliate side. I would much rather hear peopel say "I am going to build a really informative website about "X subject" and just throw up some affiliate banners until I really figure out how to monitize my traffic and turn it into a real internet business." Jeff


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why Small Businesses Don't Survive

Local Marketing: 3 Simple Low-Cost Strategies

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.