The Big Question: Why Affiliate Marketing?

[affiliateguru]

Today, we all are talking about affiliate marketing, but, how many of us truly understand what affiliate marketing is and how can we benefit from it? For this you may like to consider the following advantages of affiliate marketing:


1) It is every merchant's wish to have his products reach as many people as possible but, not all the merchants have enough resources available to do so. Thus, for all such merchants, the best option is to have an affiliate program that can provide a platform to promote their products. This way, not only are the affiliates benefited, but the merchants also get free promotion of their products.

2) In relation to the above advantage, the merchants also get to save a lot of their money, which usually needs to be spent on the campaigning and promotion of their products.

3)While choosing an affiliate, the merchant always tries to settle in for one, who has a higher customer viewing and a high ranking. This not only ensures a high traffic diversion to the merchants site but, also provides the merchant with an opportunity to get an edge on his competitors.

4) Moreover, with the use of affiliate marketing programs, the merchants can get an idea about the existing market trends, which helps them in planning the products to be promoted and future marketing strategies.

5)The best part about affiliate marketing is that, it is the customers who come to the merchant's site and the merchant is not required to search for them.

 

[sharycea]

I agree

Just wanted to say that I agree with your post. There are many advantages for the merchant. Hopefully, for the affiliates as well!

 

[PPCguySCOTT]

Hmmmnnnn

Hmmmnnnn??? I agree that affiliate marketing is important and I happen to have made a very good living at it over the past few years, however I think from the business perspective you post requires a little cleaning up.


1) It is every merchant's wish to have his products reach as many people as possible but, not all the merchants have enough resources available to do so. Thus, for all such merchants, the best option is to have an affiliate program that can provide a platform to promote their products. This way, not only are the affiliates benefited, but the merchants also get free promotion of their products.

****Most merchant's wish to have their products reach as many buyers as possible, not necessarily people***
***Additionally the merchants are not getting free promotion of their products unless you are speaking of the branding effect. The merchant is actually able to secure sales of the product at a fixed cost (the affiliate payout) not FREE.***


2) In relation to the above advantage, the merchants also get to save a lot of their money, which usually needs to be spent on the campaigning and promotion of their products.

***Again, the merchants don't necessarily "save" a lot of money, they just get a fixed cost for each sale***

3)While choosing an affiliate, the merchant always tries to settle in for one, who has a higher customer viewing and a high ranking. This not only ensures a high traffic diversion to the merchants site but, also provides the merchant with an opportunity to get an edge on his competitors.

***I think you'll actually find that more merchants now are running their affiliate program through affiliate networks to avoid the cost of administration of such a program, therefore, they don't really know or care who the direct affiliates are, they just hire the network to find affiliates who bring 1 sale or 100 sales a day***


4) Moreover, with the use of affiliate marketing programs, the merchants can get an idea about the existing market trends, which helps them in planning the products to be promoted and future marketing strategies.

***I'll go 50/50 on this one. Half the merchants I deal with whether directly or indirectly have enough trouble even placing a conversion pixel on their sales site, much less interact with the top tier affiliates for future market planning. Some are proactive, but in my experience they are the exception rather than the rule***


5)The best part about affiliate marketing is that, it is the customers who come to the merchant's site and the merchant is not required to search for them.

***The merchant still has to either recruit the network or the direct affiliates and manage the network or the affiliates directly, much the same way they would a real live sales force, just less headache. It is not magic however with no work involved***


My intent with this reply is not to be argumentative, however with a lot of new affiliates in this forum I think if they take your post quite literally, they may make the mistake of approaching a merchant in the wrong manner by presenting themselves as the saviour of the merchants business. Business is still business and affiliates can be an important tool for business owners, but especially when dealing with a brick and mortar company who is promoting retail products via online affiliates, there is a lot of expense and work involved with running your affiliates, again it's just at a fixed cost per unit sold.

Yes, affiliate marketing rocks

 

[Linda Buquet]

Great points all Scott. Thanks for weighing in on all those points
to be sure our newbies get the right info.

 

[sharycea]

I agree

I have no argument with the points that you have raised. I feel that they are all valid points and very helpful as well.

 

[affigold]

good stuff!!

two thumbs up!