Affiliate Marketing, a serious business?

[synch]

Hello

First of all I want to say I have learned a lot from this forum. But I have a few questions as a newbie. And excuse my bad English/grammar. I’m from Scandinavia.

I’ve spent the last years running “physical” businesses. They’re now in other hands and I’m thinking of starting an internet business, for a change. By the way, I ran a netshop earlier as a part of the physical business.

After searching the internet and this forum regarding affiliate marketing I notice that the people hanging around only make small amounts of money(or not?), after many months of hard work. The only ones who make a good living seem to be the ones who are selling programs. With a screenshot of the bankaccount as a “proof”... :) Where are average Joe and his big account? There must be someone on this forum??

My other problem is the internet pages that reefer to the products you guys are promoting, as an affiliate marketer. I’m used to visit professional sites made by big companies that give me a good impression. When looking at many of affiliate marketers sites I’m amazed potential customers take it seriously and go ahead buy things/ebooks they recommend on the sites. I’ve watched many sites made by members and the owners of this forum, and it’s the same over and over again.

I’ll give you a few examples;

Text are made in a lot of different colours and sizes like a freakin’ sircus. Text is repeating itself over and over again. It’s a lot of symbols repeating itself like BUY NOW "!!!!!!!”. And if buying for example Affilojetpack people are giving away free bonuses worth up to 9500$ (who believe this statement? It’s a lie and everyone knows it). Regarding Affilojetpack, the seller has allready done the review of his own product. How convenient? And the classic “buy now for 1573$, ops no, only 49$”, puts a smile on my face…. :)
As mentioned I’m just a newbie at IM, but with experience from “physical business”, the ads, articles and promotion done in affiliate marketing seems to have all the “no no” factors I’ve learned in the past. It often looks like a young kid is selling/promoting the products.

Are these sites actually selling anything?

Well, I guess they are, since “everyone” is an affiliate marketer :) So I might give it a try myself. However, I have a problem finding the products I want to promote. I can’t find well known authors who write ebooks about the topics I have some knowledge about myself.

And at last I would like to hear what you say about affiliate marketing towards mobilphones like Iphone etc. Applications on smartphones are getting huge. Anyone with any experience here?

Thanks

[sonitin]

@Synch

You have a point but I think you are missing a lot at same time.

The internet pages that you are referring to are designed that way because that works! I am not sure of your experience with direct response marketing but that is how most of the sales pages are (even back in direct mail days) . Big companies tend to avoid that kind of approach and focus more on branding etc - probably easier to do that on investor's money. Or lets just say that IM has more focus on numbers. Like how many sales per 100 visitors as against brand awareness metrics. I mean Nike really doesn't cares how many people who came to its website bought shoes from Nike.com. Their website is more for branding and awareness. However, if you are running an eshop then it is one of the most important metrics to you and you should focus on increasing the sales. You might want to research some more of it for yourself. I just take it as a different approach.

Regarding product owners vs affiliates, most of the product owners make their money on affiliate sales they make later on to customers. Most info products have 50-75% commission rate and 100% commission isn't unheard of either. So a fair percentage of the bank account you see is actually affiliate marketing. However, I do agree that product owners are in a way better position then affiliates but it takes more money to setup and run a product then an affiliate business.

You see more hype for affiliate business because its easy for anyone to get started and the initial cost is low. Hence, it is easy to convince new people to start with affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing towards physical products is really hot but at same time the competition is way higher e.g. Iphone apps is already way competitive and their are high profile sites that are just affiliates to various iphone apps. Also, the initial revenue from physical product marketing is too low. Amazon pays only between 4-8%.

My 2 cents only...

[twinlady]

Hello

First of all I want to say I have learned a lot from this forum. But I have a few questions as a newbie. And excuse my bad English/grammar. I’m from Scandinavia.

I’ve spent the last years running “physical” businesses. They’re now in other hands and I’m thinking of starting an internet business, for a change. By the way, I ran a netshop earlier as a part of the physical business.

After searching the internet and this forum regarding affiliate marketing I notice that the people hanging around only make small amounts of money(or not?), after many months of hard work. The only ones who make a good living seem to be the ones who are selling programs. With a screenshot of the bankaccount as a “proof”... :) Where are average Joe and his big account? There must be someone on this forum??

My other problem is the internet pages that reefer to the products you guys are promoting, as an affiliate marketer. I’m used to visit professional sites made by big companies that give me a good impression. When looking at many of affiliate marketers sites I’m amazed potential customers take it seriously and go ahead buy things/ebooks they recommend on the sites. I’ve watched many sites made by members and the owners of this forum, and it’s the same over and over again.

I’ll give you a few examples;

Text are made in a lot of different colours and sizes like a freakin’ sircus. Text is repeating itself over and over again. It’s a lot of symbols repeating itself like BUY NOW "!!!!!!!”. And if buying for example Affilojetpack people are giving away free bonuses worth up to 9500$ (who believe this statement? It’s a lie and everyone knows it). Regarding Affilojetpack, the seller has allready done the review of his own product. How convenient? And the classic “buy now for 1573$, ops no, only 49$”, puts a smile on my face…. :)
As mentioned I’m just a newbie at IM, but with experience from “physical business”, the ads, articles and promotion done in affiliate marketing seems to have all the “no no” factors I’ve learned in the past. It often looks like a young kid is selling/promoting the products.

Are these sites actually selling anything?

Well, I guess they are, since “everyone” is an affiliate marketer :) So I might give it a try myself. However, I have a problem finding the products I want to promote. I can’t find well known authors who write ebooks about the topics I have some knowledge about myself.

And at last I would like to hear what you say about affiliate marketing towards mobilphones like Iphone etc. Applications on smartphones are getting huge. Anyone with any experience here?

Thanks

Hi

I have just joined this site and the first piece i read makes a lot of sense to me. my dear i really wonder if these affilliates work at all. I think network marketing has true results because you see the fruits of your job at the end.

If there is anyone out there who has a viable Network Marketing company and wishes to build a huge down line contact Elizabeth on twinejay@gmail.com. I ma looking for the Network with the best Product and the best Compansation Plan, Like L.G.N.. This is the only company that i have see that actually pays back more than 80% to it's distributors unlike most companies which take that much from it"s distributors.

Please help me if you are a member of LGN do contact me immediately.

Elizabeth

[emilsp]

http://www.affilorama.com/blog/why-its- ... -are-smart

This great article deals with some of the questions asked by the OP. As sonitin said, it's the number of sales that matters at the end of the day.