Hey! Lets talk affiliate marketing!

[MJ DeMarco]

Obviously, there is some confusion around here about this forum's stance on "affiliate marketing" in regards to its position regarding "Fastlane" concepts.

Foremost, affiliate marketing has played an integral role in my success, and will do so in the future. As I wrote in the other thread, of the $10 million++ I've made over the course of my internet career, affiliate marketing has played a vital role in that growth.

I believe in affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is vital and viable means of generating traffic and/or revenue streams for websites.

Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyofFish.com engages in affiliate marketing and is highly successful at it. He makes $1,000's. However, he is engaged in a top-line business activity - his website: PlentyOfFish.com.

In my own business ventures, I use affiliate marketing to promote my web service - its an integral part of my business as I have 100's of affiliates selling my service.

Again, these kinds of activities are worthwhile to discuss.

However, there seems to be some confusion what kind of affiliate marketing I am lambasting and attempting to prohibit here....

Let me add some clarity:

Affiliate Marketing Topics That Can Be Discussed
1) How to get affiliates for your new website
2) How to create an affiliate program
3) How to join an affiliate network to promote your website/book
4) How to generate revenue from your website using AdSense (and other affiliate programs)

An example of a thread that would be welcomed: "Does anyone here use ClickBank? Does it work? Suck?"

Affiliate Marketing Topics PROHIBITED
1) Look at the program I just joined
2) How do I market this EBook that 20,000 other people are also selling
3) Join my network of affiliate marketers
4) Signatures with links to ANY affiliate marketing program


I think the general term "affiliate marketing" is so broad, that everyone has their own definitions -- some think of Google Adsense while others think EBook promos.

Hope this adds some clarity to the subject and I apologize for the confusion.

 

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[SteveO]

Here's another ignorant (and arrogant) statement from the admin "You're Banned".

No messin' around on this site... There is a real sheriff in town! :icon_super:

 

[FT1]

:thankyousign:
MJ,

Thanks for the clarification. This should definately clear things up concerning this subject.

This deserves a sticky...

Fred

 

[Andrew]

Affiliate marketing is just a way to drive performing traffic to your business. Rather than paying per view, like in TV or print advertising, you pay for a lead or sale. By syndicating the campaign out to high performance affiliates you can rapidly saturate your target audience with your offer (or, if you do something wrong, just lose a lot of money.)

Google & every major internet advertising network are heavily involved in this model, although they use different names than "affiliate marketing."

Google recently added pay per action offers to their Adsense/Adwords advertising network (I believe its still invite only for the advertiser side.) Internet advertising spending is growing rapidly, but so is inventory. The only way to price high quality inventory accurately is by paying for performance.

There is a big segment of the affiliate marketing industry that has a bad name. As MJ mentions, ebooks. There is an entire industry revolving around selling very low quality information products on "online business." You purchase the product, and then it just tells you how to make money just selling that same product. Same shit as multi level marketing and crap on late night infomercials.

While there certainly is a place for advertising & marketing products, horrible quality ebooks that everyone is lying about are not the answer.

Its also worth separating the MLM part. I don't know a lot about MLM, but its my understanding that a huge segment of a member's revenue comes from referring others. Because there is a buy in fee you could make, for example, $500 signing up a new member -- while making a $5 commission for whatever product you are supposed to be selling. Thats easy math, you make the money on the members, not the product.

A legitimate affiliate program will spend thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to recruit top affiliates -- not the other way around. Referral bonuses may be built in, but represent a tiny fraction of an affiliate's earnings. There is actually a reverse incentive here for an affiliate not to tell others about the advertiser he is promoting.

 

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[JesseO]

MJ, if people complain about your rules, just post this picture....