There are some things that have no place on the Internet.
- Pop-unders
- tricking people to divulge personal information so they can resell it
- text "sucker" to 58008 to get the results of this quiz and receive daily ringtones! (some charges apply)
many more
Affiliate Marketing definitely gets a bad rap, because the easy money permeates the landscape.
Luckily there are some responsible folks with their good karma still in tact who don't have such short sighted views of the WWW.
Affiliate earnings is a lifesaver for all bloggers. Even JC is making his huge paycheck from affiliates. THere are tons of affiliate program in the market. Choosing the right on is the one of the hardest job. Since we are in blogging, we can always sell our hoster's affiliate link. Other than that, maybe domain or paid post networks. I couldn't think of any other option we have.
"The problem with the bottom-up, marketing-first approach is that people simply don’t like to be marketed to. The primary sources of inexpensive traffic, the search engines, don’t like what people don’t like."
I smell exactly what you're stepping in here! But you already knew that, we've talked about it and around it before. Glad you shared it with others here! I just have to chime in with a reply, to say very loudly that I COULD NOT AGREE MORE!
"I prefer to swim with the tide rather than against it."
I'd modify this, by adding just one word...
I prefer to swim with the tide rather than drown against it.
"I couldn't think of any other option we have."
Then try to think of more options! You must train yourself to do exactly that. Once it becomes a habit, it becomes much easier. In blogging, monetizing your work is ALL about knowing your audience and their interests - find ways to serve them. Don't think about dollars for you, make your mind that of a Pleasuremaster (better than Webmaster!) to your readership... aim to fulfill needs, not make dollars.
Example... people reading your blog are there for its content... hosting providers and domain names are Webmaster centric thinking... you're a Pleasuremaster, remember? Pleasuremasters don't give a hoot about hosting and domain whatchamajiggers (unless their readers do)... Pull out your leather Pleasuremaster riding crop and try to gently tickle their sexy little relevancy hot buttons with some playful warm up strikes...
You are so right. Sometimes, in order to make real money with affiliate marketing, you have to hit the hammer on the nail. In my opinion, even though they both go hand in hand, marketing is more important than advertising. This is the real key to success. If you are selling a writing guide, how will you market? You will advertise on writing blogs and writing forums. You would not advertise on a car blog. Good post.
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I get asked a lot about my tips for success and my approach to business, usually specifically related to affiliate marketing. As if I'm qualified to give tips for success, but let's put that aside for now.
There are lots of ways to make money on he Internet, and Affiliate Marketing (or Performance Marketing as some prefer) is of course one of them. Even within Affiliate Marketing, there are lots of ways to make money. That's why I have such a hard time with the term "Affiliate Marketing" when describing what it is that I do every day. Is "affiliate marketing" itself a business? Or is simply way to monetize your business? I think both.
Bottom Up Affiliate Marketing
Many people look at a performance based offer and ask themselves, how can I make money with this? There are people who want this thing, or this service. If I can find those people and get them together with the company who will pay me to do that, I can make money.
I can build a website, I can buy traffic, I can send out emails to a list, I can hold up a sign on the side of the road.
Those approaches are all "marketing". There's nothing wrong with getting paid to get the word out.
Many, many people make a very nice living doing this. I think this is what most people think of when they say they do "Affiliate Marketing".
Top Down Affiliate Marketing
Then there's the top-down approach, which is to find something that people are interested in (and hopefully you are too), and build something that they will not only willingly visit, but stick around, even sign up and come back.
Then, once that goal is achieved, you monetize it.
Now of course not all websites that people use and love lend themselves toward monetizing with affiliate relationships. But, this can be done in a way that has affiliate marketing or performance marketing in mind from the start, and in that sense, this is also "Affiliate Marketing".
My Approach
I prefer to swim with the tide rather than against it.
The problem with the bottom-up, marketing-first approach is that people simply don't like to be marketed to. The primary sources of inexpensive traffic, the search engines, don't like what people don't like.
If you're a marketer, the world is working against you.
That's a tough road and often unrewarding as efforts only work well for a short period of time if at all, because the consumer space (consumers and the services they use) pushes you away. And if there's money to be made, it can be easy for competitors to move in and it is only a matter of time before they do.
Then it's back to the drawing board or on to the next thing. And many times, the easy way to the consumer is to be deceptive, giving the group a black mark, making the consumer space dislike the activity even more. A vicious cycle.
On the other hand, the consumer space loves the top-down, build-something-useful approach. You are creating something they want. Search engines in turn want that stuff in their index. Then they don't mind if you mix in some advertising or marketing to pay the bills.
So while bottom up is generally smaller in scope and faster to implement and see returns, top down has longevity. Top down is much harder to get started on and gain traction. It takes a big idea and executing on it well with typically a larger investment. It isn't easy, but when it works, it works for a long time.