Affiliate marketing: yes or no?

[lfrazer]

Hello,

A colleague recently asked me about affiliate marketing for our clients, and my answer for a few years now has been emphatically "no", because I had not seen it done in positive way. How does everyone weigh in affiliate marketing, and what companies and/or software would you suggest? For example, is http://www.admedia.com/ a reputable source? I see lots of bad reviews on these guys. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc would be extremely valuable.

Thanks in advance!

[Ted_Cullen]

I've been doing affiliate marketing since 2000 - when it really was a good solution for banner space (those things that used to get clicks) from smaller publishers long before a thing called Google came around.

Now, candidly, I see it mostly as a pathway for parasitic marketing - with little to no benefit to you.

Coupon and deal-site Affiliates will bid on your trademarks (even if you prohibit it) - and fight for your own organic SEO.  Now, depending on what you sell, you might like getting a bunch of traffic from someone like retail-me-not, but keep track of how many customers are 'new' versus saw your coupon box and search for a coupon - used it for a discount, and then you paid a commission for that sale...?

For us, we do it - but we try to focus on review sites; odd-sites where you never know where the traffic comes from; and then yes, discount and coupon sites - because we get more new customers than for what we eat on customers (I call it "round-tripping") being on your site, finding a discount code box, and then searching the web for a deal.

[MGKPOOLSERVICE]

Like Martijn Scheijbeler already said, this should not be run by someone with "a lot" of experience managing an affiliate campaign. If done wrong you can cannibalize your own sales, and worse. I would recommend MaxBounty to anyone. They have dedicated management teams for both advertisers, and affiliates.

As an alternative, you could seek out successful affiliates directly, and give them an exclusive offer, a relistic incentive. hint hint mike [at] informlocal.com

The benefit to the advertiser is a win win. They don't have to outlay money for ineffective advertising, and they get new customers. As the advertiser you have to set the ground rules to protect your self, or only deal with an reputable company, or individual affiliate like me.

[Veebs]

Hi Guys,

I have always been super interested in affiliate marketing but never knew where to start in order to head down the rabbit hole. Any suggestions on any good blogs, sites that you recommend that pack some helpful and informative info on the subject?

Thanks in advance!

[rpaiva]

Affiliate marketing is a great way to expand your brand awareness.  There are various sources of publishers that could work perfectly with your brand.  Blog publishers, mobile publishers, charity publishers, coupon publishers, loyalty publishers etc. the list goes on and on.

In my experience my top Affiliate Networks are , Linkshare, pepper jam, Commission junction

[lfrazer]

Thanks for the response Martijn. Do you have any recommendations?

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Affiliate marketing should always be a yes if done properly. I don't have any experience with Admedia but as long as you're on top of your affiliate marketing and working closely with the publishers you both will be happy in the end.