Affiliate Marketing – If bullshit was music…

Affiliate Marketing is one of several revenue streams in our business, in fact it was the initial source of revenue that allowed us to get CogentAds off the ground, albeit with challenges, without seed capital.

It comes with the territory that every day I’m bombarded by offers for this or that product, promising amazing income (sometimes stated down to the exact cent) with little or no effort, no HTML skills or previous experience required, and the whole thing runs on autopilot funneling massive amounts of cash into your account while you get to give your old boss the bird, spend precious time with your family, and doing the things you love. You′ve seen this stuff haven′t you?

My opinion is that the vast majority of so called Affiliate Marketing "Gurus" are self proclaimed – in other words they are Gurus because they decide they are. That′s kinda contrary to how people have traditionally become Gurus isn′t it? The problem then becomes this: you have these self proclaimed Affiliate Marketing Gurus who′s primary business model is teaching prospective Affiliate Marketing Guru′s to become Gurus and then go on to do the same, which in turn can only, in my opinion, "White Ant" (Termite) the whole model, leading to the so called Gurus conjuring up all kinds of marketing angles, "secrets", supposed competitive intelligence solutions, and other ways of wrapping up the same old content and selling it to you by pulling all your emotional strings then convincing you that you can′t be successful without it.

So, it′s probably a good idea to get some perspective on the reality of the Affiliate Marketing business. It certainly is a viable business model, however you need to go into it with your eyes open.

I was drawn to the 2009 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report mentioned in a post on Missy Ward′s blog. In this report over four-hundred and fifty affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies. For me there are some particularly enlightening facts that help balance the hype .

• 46% of the Affiliates surveyed make between $0 – $500 gross (before cost) revenue per month.
• 21% of the Affiliates surveyed make between $1000 – $5000 per month.
• 8% of the Affiliates surveyed make between $5000 – $10,000 per month.
• 17% of the affiliates surveyed make $20,000 or more per month.

The smaller segments fall somewhere in between. The figures are sobering in one way, encouraging in another, but most of all realistic. If you combine this with (and some information in the report about traffic sources and their associated cost would have been good) my assumption that the majority of these affiliates are buying their traffic, or at least a significant portion of it, through PPC (Pay per click advertising), probably with a margin of about 30% (on a good day). That gives you something to consider when faced with the next "sounds too good to be true" offer and it′s promises. You can make good money in this business, but it′s not as easy as some people will have you believe.

It′s obviously necessary to educate yourself on how Internet commerce works, there is definitely a set of skills required to be successful. Seek out the real educators, and avoid falling for offers that seem too good to be true (I still get sucked in occasionally in odd moments of weakness or curiosity).

Tagged as: affiliate marketing, affiliates, business, business models, electronic commerce, guru, internet marketing, ion television, majority, marketing, proclaim, self