Why affiliates are the bitch of the industry: Part 1

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1. I just make sales. And there are many products that pay way over 10% and/or $50-100 or more, some with residuals. One of the things I do has a low end commission of around $700 or so. Think selling actual services people (and businesses) actually use. Not just pushing traffic to cheapass offers.

To me its like Bizarro World when someone automatically thinks CPA or CLickbank when it comes to selling shit.

2. A LOT of products are run primarily through affiliates. A lot of people with the good products and services ( not just products that are made to fit an affiliate model) don't know shit about getting their own traffic or have in-house people or whatever resources they need to effectively scale their shit. They can outsource to people who already know how to get the traffic.

There is also the whole other world out there where effective affiliates are pretty much experts or professionals in a given field or niche. They get results and don't do the 9-5 thing.

Some of the biggest companies in the world use indirect sales agents, who manage to make a pretty good living. I am talking companies that have the money to completely saturate the entire world with marketing dollars. Yet they find that they benefit more from using "affiliates." The affiliates in turn also make a shitload of money if they are successful.

Most internet affiliates are lazy fuckers who want to "get rich on the internet" for doing nothing. People who have some skill and work ethic get shit done just like in the "real" world. And there are plenty of offers for people who want it.

Think About it.
 


Affiliates really are the bitch in the system. But thankfully everyone can lose their job, or their company can go bust. But as said above if someone is going to get screwed in a deal it will be you.

Traps I have seen and things we need to look out for.
1) Websites that leach Pagerank
2) Websites that start so many affs that your Pagerank cant work.
3) AM that dont trust your traffic.
4) AM that copy your traffic
5) Diminishing Payouts
6) Industries that PPC dont make sense and SEO is very difficult.

So when people say they are blowing off college or some real job I am scared for them. Even if they are not.

Lots of the above posts are good and remember that some or all of the above 6 can happen to you and your cash cow site(s).
 
Aim is 100% correct, yet my gut tells me that a play has been put into motion.... will watch for the next post.
 
I agree 100%. However there's some great thing the affiliate model allows you to do.

1. Test a market, seeing what kind interest and return there is before creating your own product.
2. Lets you learn the industry. Want to start a network? Well be an affiliate first and understand what's going on.
3. Helps you build relationships with people in the industry. I don't know how much most of you know but a lot of the networks out there were started by people that were originally Richter's affiliates
4. You have a way of getting some sort of questionable traffic you don't want to be directly connected to I think a perfect example of this is theglobe.com the company that got sued by Myspace. Had they run on a network and let affiliates drive traffic to them that creates sort of a buffer for the affiliate and the advertiser.

That's just a few of the reasons. But in reality if you stick around this game long enough you're going to come out with your own offers and maybe ever start your own network. That's seems to be just how it works. But being an affiliate is a very good low investment way to start.

I've been in this game about 2.5 years now and I'm very thankful for the affiliate model as it's served me well. I'm moving more towards encompassing more aspects of the system like being the advertiser and network. However there's not way I could have done that from the start. Only after a few years and strong understanding of how the whole system works do I think I could make a good run at it.

Ask most affiliates how and incentivized path works, how to get product and deliver product, create subscription based sites, what a ping tree is, and the list goes on. Can you have success without all this knowledge? Of course you can but as with most businesses the more you know the better you chances of success become.

Bottom-line is learn to sell other peoples products and services with success and then come out with your own and you have the hardest part handled. Which will next to guarantee successs. ( as long as you're not a retard that comes out with a lame thing, but even those work some times look at the pet rock, it's all about marketing )
 
I know affiliate programs that pays 100%. There is one that pays 200% on sale price and another 250%. These are ebooks. I am not taking the piss here.
 
SeoReborn said:
I know affiliate programs that pays 100%. There is one that pays 200% on sale price and another 250%. These are ebooks. I am not taking the piss here.
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Blahblahblah ebooks.
Yuck. Those make me feel dirty all over, so I choose not to count them.
You start selling them...then you'll buy them...then before you know it you'll be stumble-exchanging, asking for "review" copies and pissing on yourself all over DP
 
xmcp123 said:
Blahblahblah ebooks.
Yuck. Those make me feel dirty all over, so I choose not to count them.
You start selling them...then you'll buy them...then you'll be stumble-exchanging, asking for "review" copies and pissing on yourself all over DP
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Whats wrong with ebooks!!!??? They sell man!
 
The premise behind this whole post is laziness and whining.

Quit worrying about failing, being a bitch, affiliate marketing dying, etc... Quit reading this shit get off your asses and do something.
 
I like affiliate programs....it just means all I need to do is drive traffic to the converting landing pages without having to give thought to other aspects of actually delivering a product.
 
SeoReborn said:
Whats wrong with ebooks!!!??? They sell man!
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Nothing wrong with them, information product publishing is an industry of its own. I am both an information product publisher and marketer, and none of the products I own or promote have anything to do with the 'make money online' niche. I think it is pretty stupid to label all informaton products as the same thing, or pretend you're not promoting them because it clashes with your ethics, because promoting ebooks sure as hell is not as shady as promoting ringtones, pills or 'cash loans'.

I totally agree with Smaxors post as well. Being an affiliate is HUGELY beneficial if you plan to sell or run your own products or offers. The more I further myself in affiliate marketing, the better I get at my own businesses where I am the publisher/advertiser.
 
Demon said:
Nothing wrong with them, information product publishing is an industry of its own. I am both an information product publisher and marketer, and none of the products I own or promote have anything to do with the 'make money online' niche. I think it is pretty stupid to label all informaton products as the same thing, or pretend you're not promoting them because it clashes with your ethics, because promoting ebooks sure as hell is not as shady as promoting ringtones, pills or 'cash loans'.

I totally agree with Smaxors post as well. Being an affiliate is HUGELY beneficial if you plan to sell or run your own products or offers. The more I further myself in affiliate marketing, the better I get at my own businesses where I am the publisher/advertiser.
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I agree. I am helping a friend of mine develop an online book with simple projects for a certain kind of class. My friend has 20 years of experience teaching these classes, and this seems like the most economical way for her to share her information and get paid a little for doing it.

E-Books are not the enemy. That's like saying that cars a bad because you can use them to run over people.
 
bitsdawg said:
I agree. I am helping a friend of mine develop an online book with simple projects for a certain kind of class. My friend has 20 years of experience teaching these classes, and this seems like the most economical way for her to share her information and get paid a little for doing it.

E-Books are not the enemy. That's like saying that cars a bad because you can use them to run over people.
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If its legit do CD & DVD's too.
 
Dude, I dunno the rest of the world, but I'll tell you something.

I'm willing to start an affiliate program not because I like to treat ppl like my bitches (I can make an exception with you, if you like) but because, as my small company is evolving and I manage to have a life, I need free time to do other stuff (both go to a business meeting and wash my socks).

I think it is fair to compensate someone giving his a commission for selling my products or services. It is a job, an honest job, if you don't mind my saying so. Why the rant? Can't you sell anything these days?
 
I hope no one is talking shit about my man David D. (or his products). He is is my hero, and an inspiration to all the average frustrated chumps who cant get a date. He is also big information product business, $20 mill a year (or so he claims).
 
Fun fact for you kids..

There are nearly 700. Yes, SEVEN HUNDRED ad networks around now.

I think when WickedFire first got started back in late June of 2006 there were around 250'ish or 300 at most. Now, there are more than 700.

I'm not referring to affiliate programs or advertisers, I'm specifically referring to AD NETWORKS. It seems everyone and his mother these days is making a network, and from all of our tracking of the industry, it's pretty apparent that the only reason most of these networks exist, is to use DT to get "direct offers" in their marketplace, so that they don't have to go through the hassle of signing up here and there, talking to some AM who doesn't know shit, and begging for payout hikes. Instead they are just starting their own networks, getting the same damn offers, for probably a bit more than usual, but not all that much, and if they can, getting a friend or two to promote through their new little spam sweatshop network, or whatever they are using it as a cover for.

I can assure you... Anyone who says "affiliate marketing is dying" doesn't know what they are talking about and deserves a smack in the face for it. The girly Engaged style smack, open palm bitches!
 
Jon said:
Fun fact for you kids..

There are nearly 700. Yes, SEVEN HUNDRED ad networks around now.

I think when WickedFire first got started back in late June of 2006 there were around 250'ish or 300 at most. Now, there are more than 700.

I'm not referring to affiliate programs or advertisers, I'm specifically referring to AD NETWORKS. It seems everyone and his mother these days is making a network, and from all of our tracking of the industry, it's pretty apparent that the only reason most of these networks exist, is to use DT to get "direct offers" in their marketplace, so that they don't have to go through the hassle of signing up here and there, talking to some AM who doesn't know shit, and begging for payout hikes. Instead they are just starting their own networks, getting the same damn offers, for probably a bit more than usual, but not all that much, and if they can, getting a friend or two to promote through their new little spam sweatshop network, or whatever they are using it as a cover for.

I can assure you... Anyone who says "affiliate marketing is dying" doesn't know what they are talking about and deserves a smack in the face for it. The girly Engaged style smack, open palm bitches!
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Lol!

I Agree - Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I consult for a group that does its own products, builds its own list and does quite a bit of publisher work (with the requisite PPC, email and what have you) and I'd say that PPL/PPA stuff really has to be treated differently than PPS stuff.

Either way, though, what's not being said is that while you take the brunt of the risk in promotion spending as a publisher, it's the network and the advertiser that take the brunt of the expense in creation and distribution of the product and the brunt of the legal risk if something should come back on them. Just for example, when the shit hit the fan about promising "free" gift cards, it wasn't the publishers that had to pay out million dollar settlements to the FTC, it was Adteractive and the other big publishers. When MySpace spamming and phishing got way out of hand it was CPA that had to pay the court costs for the actions of the affiliates. There are definitely two sides to this coin and there is no reason that playing both the affiliate and the advertiser role can't be very profitable. If you're using your affiliate work to build a list that you can contact to generate recurring revenue then you're already a step ahead.

The biggest danger from what I can see is in relying entirely on any one revenue stream - wherever it comes from.
 
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