Top 3 Affiliate Marketing Myths
- April 16th, 2007 /
During the launch of siteMighty, we have found ourselves talking about the affiliate marketing industry as much as we are talking about what siteMighty does. Affiliate marketing has a stigma to it in need of debunking. So without further ado, it’s time to change the perception of affiliate marketing:
- MYTH #1 – Affiliate marketing is a zero-sum game. Just like every other web phenomenon there is a tremendous long-tail of opportunity with affiliate marketing. By definition there are only 10 sites on the first page of Google when you search for “credit cards”. And most of them are the behemoths of affiliate marketing. But there are people searching for credit cards using so many other search terms, and there are niche sites that appear for these niche terms. Affiliate marketing is fundamentally about monetizing traffic, and new ways of generating traffic are being created every day. Search marketing has been the big thing to this point, but many successful affiliate marketers are leveraging social media, blogging, online video, and more. There are literally tens of thousands of credit card affiliate sites out there. The sites on the top tier have a lot of traffic and make a lot of money, but there is definitely plenty of opportunity out there. New affiliate marketing sites are expanding the pie, not slicing it up.
- MYTH #2 – Affiliate marketing is spam. This is one of the biggest stigmas of affiliate marketing. People think that it is just someone trying to insert themselves into the clickstream of someone who is looking for something. This may be true in some cases, and there are people who play the PPC arbitrage game, but in my experience, the most successful affiliate marketers add value. SiteMighty-powered credit card sites add value by aggregating credit card offers, providing a platform for editor’s reviews and user reviews, show data about popular cards. We encourage people to blog and write articles as this is the best way to help your users make informed decisions. Here’s a great example of someone who is not using a siteMighty site, but has a credit card blog with great content and really helping inform people. This is our vision of how people will use siteMighty.
- MYTH #3 - Affiliate marketing is the second class citizen of advertising. Advertisers love affiliate marketing because it is so efficient. It’s a very simple equation for advertisers, you pay for performance. An advertiser only pays if the action they are hoping for transpires. It is a pure and efficient proposition for advertisers. That’s why Google is starting to experiment with it through their pay per action Adwords. So, for publishers looking to monetize their sites, there are a lot of advertisers willing to advertise on their site, but they won’t pay CPC or CPM, they will only pay when the publisher drives traffic and a desired action takes place. It’s win-win for both sides when it works.
We’re building siteMighty as a platform to launch great affiliate marketing sites based on the success that we’ve had as affiliate marketers. Basically in the eco-system of commerce on the internet affiliate marketing sites are nice small businesses run by individuals. Affiliate marketing provides a revenue model for small and medium size sites where people can make a living doing something they are interested in. That in essence is what siteMighty is. It’s a publishing platform with a built in revenue model.
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- categories: All, SiteMighty /
Apr 17, 2007 at 4:12 pm
In the example in Myth #2, how are they monetizing this blog? I don’t see any offers, no AdSense, not opt-in to build a list, no affiliate links? Am i missing something here?
Apr 18, 2007 at 2:52 am
Good point. I wonder if they are paid for generating traffic basically? Just briefly overviewed the homepage and didn’t find any ads either.
Jul 02, 2007 at 11:57 am
Myth # 2 example’s website focuses on creating more of a “Consumer Relationship Marketing”. He is Weaving the sale, instead of pitching it. This way his readers are more likely to read other blogs rather than just click the back arrow or go to another website. The readers “consumers” if interested click on a link or ad, an autoresponder message will appear and ask if they would like to be given an address for the link, and if so they need to e-mail the web host. This adds “value”, as soon as another autoresponder shoots an e-mail back to the “consumer”, they feel “guided in the right path, and secure”, then they visit the link.
This also removes any “Cognitive Dissonance”, that may still be present.
Nov 05, 2009 at 8:36 am
Money making gig online is not an easy task. You can ask some of your friends or family who are on the track or you can search online for some resources but just be conscious on any investment.