The Importance of Affiliate Marketing

June 15th, 2007 | email this | digg it

Leave your comment Posted by Benjamin Cass

Published in Marketing, Making Money Online

In an age where Google Adsense’s CPC (Cost-Per-Click) marketing dominates the average publishers homepage, affiliate marketing is often categorized in the area of “To Try Someday” by most publishers. However, in the wise words of John Chow, “Someday [usually] never comes.” What many publishers (especially beginners) don’t realize is that there is usually much more money in affiliate marketing than CPC.

So what is “Affiliate Marketing”?

Like Google Adsense and their contextual advertising, affiliate marketing is the act of placing affiliate links or banners on your website, while you get paid for every lead or sale. Here is an example. If you are interested in receiving information about a certain college, and you click here and sign up, I would receive money on a lead basis, because I led you to their great service. To receive money on a sales basis, you would have to lead a visitor to a product and eventually a purchase. For example, if I had a post regarding concert or sports tickets, and I led you to buy concert tickets, I would be paid a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount (in this case, 6.6% of the final purchase). Obviously, affiliate marketing works best if the product being advertised matches your site’s content (you have an option to choose which banners/ads to display with most services).

So how is this better than contextual advertising?

Plain and simple. The payout for a successful lead/sale absolutely rocks . Obviously, getting a lead/sale is a little harder to do than having your site visitor click on an advert, but the monetary difference is substantial.

What are some good affiliate marketing programs?

A few of my favorite affiliate marketing companies include: COPEAC, MoreNiche, Commission Junction, or LinkShare . In my honest opinion, COPEAC takes the crown, due to its friendly user-interface and the assignment of personal account managers for each marketer (with their email address, office phone, cell phone, and AIM address!)

Final thoughts….

Affiliate marketing is not for everyone or every website, although it can provide a great secondary/primary source of income for any online money-making guru.

I would love to hear your thoughts about affiliate marketing programs or answer any questions you may have !

If you liked this, PLEASE buy me a [root] beer!

Popularity: 47% [?]

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

6 Responded To This Post

12. Angie said in June 15th, 2007

Affiliate marketing can line your pockets quite well if you choose the right products. I know one common mistake people make it to look at the list of adveritsers on sites like Commission Junction and get way too excited about the payouts for web hosts. But, can you actually drive viable traffic to those advertisers; the kind of traffic that is going to make a purchase?

I have a website that does OK with affiliate marketing, but I use products and advertisers that 100% match my site and its readers. The payout is less per conversion, but the conversations happen daily, so it adds up.

14. Benjamin Cass said in June 15th, 2007

I would definitely have to agree Angie. Like I said, “affiliate marketing works best if the product being advertised matches your site’s content.” This is an extremely crucial part with any type of advertising, which is the downfall for the many publishers who don’t realize this. Thanks for the comment Angie!

18. Nathan said in June 15th, 2007

What type of websites do you find that would be best to use for affiliate marketing? What about using Adwords to advertise affiliate campaigns?

I haven’t heard of COPEAC so I must try it. You seem to like it. I have only been using Clickbank!

19. Benjamin Cass said in June 15th, 2007

Hey Nathan, it’s good to see you on BenjaminCass.Com!

I have placed affiliate marketing ads on many of my sites, ranging from my less popular blogs to proxy sites to a few of my standalone sites. I have found that when my site’s content matches the content of the advertisers adverts, the difference in the paycheck is extreme. I have heard of people using Adwords to advertise affiliate campaigns, and have read of great success rates doing so… however, I will not assert my opinion due to the fact that I have never actually used Adwords to do this .

COPEAC is absolutely great! Their publisher service is outstanding! With registration and acceptance into their program, you are assigned your very own representative, who you can contact at any time… it’s great stuff! I’ve heard mixed views about ClickBank, I wish you the best of luck with it. I’ll be checking back at your site to see how it works out for you!

20. Nathan said in June 15th, 2007

I might try placing affiliate links in my blog and see what happens… I’d be happy if I only got one sale since I’ve never had one before

I just signed up for COPEAC and hopefully i get accepted. I always like having an account manager that I can speak to. It’s annoying having a different person each time you contact support and have to explain the same things each time.

Also I have been sending some Paypal cash to the blogs I like but I’m not sure if it went through :S

Anyway goodluck with the blog and I’ll be on the lookout for your next blogpost

21. Benjamin Cass said in June 15th, 2007

Good luck with those affiliate links! Remember, it’s a lot easier to get a lead rather than a sale, so shoot for getting leads . I hope you get accepted into COPEAC, I know what you mean about switching from different tech supporters

About the paypal donation, thank you so much… you donaters are the reason why I still keep going at my dream ( as well as buying food for college )

I just added a “Donations” page at the top of the homepage, and your personalized thank you note awaits you there, along with a link to your website ! Thank you again!

Go Back To Home Back from College Orientation! | My New DoTyNotes v2.0 System