aim

The first thing you need to know is that as an affiliate, you are the bitch of the industry. You need to forget everything you've read about how easy the affiliate game is, or how easy it is to make money etc and know this: payouts and pricing structures in the affiliate marketing industry are actually structured to make it extremely difficult to be profitable; as an affiliate the chips are stacked against you from the get-go. Diorex had written about this on his (now defunct) blog some time ago.

Why, little affiliate, are you the bitch? Because you are promoting advertisers offers; the key here is that an advertiser only reaches out to an affiliate network when they have either a.) saturated the market themselves or b.) can no longer scale their marketing campaigns effectively themselves. Taking that even a step further, networks generally only open an offer to the public if they don't feel it makes sense financially to run it internally or exclusive to their top affiliates.

Look at it this way; When you are looking for offers to run, as you page through various offers on your network of choice, you need to remind yourself that there is a reason that you even have the opportunity to run these offers in a first place (see points A. and B. above). You are not special. They are using you.

In other words, they are letting you run these offers because everyone else is all out of ideas on how to market them; simple as that. You also need to remember that at this point, as an affiliate, you're the one with capital at risk here. The Network gets paid either way, and the advertiser (depending on if it's a CPA or CPL offer) most likely also gets paid, either way.

That's why you're the bitch. You have money at risk, a lot to lose, and a little to gain. Both the affiliate network and the advertiser have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

With that mindset in place it's now time to think about how we can get one-up on everyone, including the networks, the advertisers, and your competition. Stay tuned for the next post...

xmcp123

I will definitely agree with (most of) that.
And I'd also point out that it seems like whenever someone gets fucked out of money, it's the affiliate.
The guys selling the product are going to make damn sure they get paid.
The vast majority of the time the network is going to get paid.
The affiliate? We're the ones at risk.
..and we're the ones putting our money on the line in the first place.
Oy.

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barman

Well fuck this. I'm going back to stripping.

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xmcp123

Remember to wash your G-String!

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elime

Very interesting post, I'm looking forward to the next.

Pretty much took the words out of my mouth.

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PinstripeRambo

There's benefits and drawbacks. You've listed the drawbacks which are definitely true. But as an affiliate you're free of the colossal risk of developing your own product and bringing it to market. You pay nothing for R&D, production, distribution, and the thousands of startup costs of a new venture.

For that reason, I still think it is a worthy business, as you can see by the profits of many affiliates here. The business model of selling another company's battle tested product has huge advantages for an affiliate. But the affiliate should eventually use their experience to develop their own products as a long-term business strategy.

popeye

I heard gay prostitution is fairly profitable

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Sticks79

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xmcp123

Most of those are worse. A lot of shit with like 2%-6% payouts on products that cost almost nothing. I remember finding one that paid 10%, and didn't have a single product over $20.
Pardon me while I go shit myself over the excitement of the 4%! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo I can buy a snickers bar.

Granted, there are some that pay out much better. One of my favorite aff programs(even when compared to the networks) pays out 20%. But yeah, ones like that are few and far between.

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Wicked Ice

You mean ClickBank? LOL

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wisejoker

So affiliate marketing is just the training ground for the affiliate to eventually pimp their own products/ebooks/services. But you know, some people mix it up a bit, so they're pimping and taking it in the back at the same time... for best results.

Sticks79

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Wicked Ice

bigger and longer

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_poto_

not always true... scam billing companies like ibill have run off with millions of affiliate program's and paysite owner's cash...

tho, generally it is the affiliates that get the short end of the stick...

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Wicked Ice

just run your own god damn affiliate program.

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nickycakes

Affiliate network employees basically are on call 24/7. Merchants (in most cases) have to spend time shipping, monitoring, customer servicing, or whatever. I do like 2 hours of work a day and then eat cereal in my pajamas and play xbox till my girlfriend gets home with dinner.

Who's the bitch?

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snavr

Promoting your own products/program is definitley where it's at.

I'm putting together about 8 email submit campaigns right now and the thought of it is kind of discouraging, so I'm also putting together my own info package (no, not a "make money online" ebook). It's a serious business tool and I'm selling it for 80 bucks a pop.

It just makes more sense, esp when I see so many offers in the networks that are just white-labels of OTHER offers on the same network.

HarveyJ

No, he means CPA.

I'll level with you guys, most of what's said in there is pretty much true.
We've maxed out our own ability to scale this any further, for whatever reason (in the case of Affiliation Cash, it's labourhours... I got pulled in because I was always chatting with my AM, so I got to be an AM).
Honestly, I don't do that much of my own affiliate stuff anymore because I'm too busy wiping the sweat off of other people's backs, metaphorically. I get other people to sell my stuff for me, and take the cream off the top... but that in itself is pretty intensive.

For CPA based on sales of an actual product, it's got to do with the amount of time it actually takes to fill out and process orders.
For digital products, it's because there are only so many domains you can own, and only so much SEO you can do for all of those domains, where, before you know it, it's become a 12 hours a day job to keep it all together and stay on top... So I'm told by the man upstairs.

The best you, as an affiliate, can hope for is honesty and trust with the people you're working for.

Wisejoker pretty much hit the nail on the head. Use AM as a training ground for your own shit. If you're sticking with AM, and not making it to the top of the pile (because it kind of really is just a shrunk down MLM system... based on the Trapezoid!), it's either because you're not really meant to be in the game in the first place or just happy (lazy?) enough to coast along.
If coasting works, more power to you, but if money is what's important to you, then you have to strike out and be the one on top, offering something new that no one else has thought of before (hint: it's not an eBook)

The thing is, it doesn't matter where you are on the ladder, it's all bloody hard work if you're doing it right...

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Sticks79

No i dont mean CPA or CLICKBANK read my posts again

Fuck cpa offers and fuck clickbank

As i just said there is a whole other world of affiliate products out there that pay more than 10% on products and it aint fuckin hard to find them

i also realise that health products such as pills and shit have had a bad past for not paying out affiliates ....but thats definately in the past as i have never had a problem being paid properly and i know for a fact im not being shaved.

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_poto_

rolling your own program is one way to go at it...

as others mentioned, directly selling your own products is another way... lots of peeps I know run their own paysites without affiliate programs... really if you can generate enough of your own traffic you don't need an affiliate program...

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JohnCJackson

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.

Drake

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).

Uzzz

I just have one thing to say...

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dogfighter

It's always... ALWAYS... better to be the one paying the commission than the one getting paid.

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MrStitch

Aim is 100% correct, yet my gut tells me that a play has been put into motion.... will watch for the next post.

smaxor

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 )

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SeoReborn

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.

xmcp123

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

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SeoReborn

Whats wrong with ebooks!!!??? They sell man!

I_like_cock

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.

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SeoReborn

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.

Dr_Ngo

David Deangelo for the win.

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Demon

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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bitsdawg

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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Yeah right!!!! What makes you think Im gonna ever click on your links again?!!!
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shithappens

If its legit do CD & DVD's too.

Tedel

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?

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Monkeys-Uncle

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).

Jon

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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Garrett

Lol!

I Agree - Couldn't have said it better myself.

on-on

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.

Dan

People make money with AFF Marketing no doubt- but if you look at it objectively, you are just working to make someone elses business bigger.

(Not a AFF Marketer)

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johnmatrix

Isn't that the case with nearly every job?

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bluebobbo

Couldn't have been said any better.

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aim

Poor Adteractive, how could they ever afford that?

Entrepreneur magazine's Hot 500 Company Rankings - Adteractive Company Information

Dan

No.

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bluebuddha

Sure it is, unless:

1) You have enough money to start your own business, promote and maintain it for a few years and then slowly delegate.

2) The stock market, or you have enough money invested that you're able to live off interest.

3) Go the illegal route (drugs, fraud, scams, etc) to get enough money to start #1 above.

4) You're very lucky.

Out of these 4, excluding 3 and 4 (YMMV), the only option for somebody who doesn't have much money to begin is option 2... which is more stressful than AM, requires more hours of research (at least at first) and you're competing with 100x richer people than you are in the AM game.

The only better way IMO is doing something you enjoy for a living - but then it wouldn't count as a job. If you enjoy AM, you can do it for a living.

If you don't enjoy it, then do as suggested above and start a network, become a consultant, promote your own products, or use the money to get into stock/investments or starting your own business.


Sure, nobody likes making LPs, writing ad copies or promoting leads to dating sites we've never even been to, but what can you be doing instead of AM, that doesn't suck, nor involve a huge investment in either time (phD, MA, etc) or money, that you actually enjoy?

and it's an excellent skill to have, especially if you can take what you know and apply it in real life, face to face.

HarveyJ

You get people to click on you and tell you their email address?? :P

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