Affiliate Marketing…why the stigma?
Recently I read an article that stated soon we will be required to disclose affiliate accounts and links which caused me to ponder why some people are so distrustful of affiliate marketing. In my opinion the skepticism must partially come from not fully understanding what affiliate marketing is in its truest sense.
Is it possible that some people look at affiliate marketing as some type of MLM (multi-level marketing) scheme?
At the core affiliate marketing is simply a type of partnership or referral agreement in which one person rewards the other person, in the form of financial return, for sharing their products and services with others:
- As a business owner with services and products leveraging other people to promote and sell your services and rewarding them with a piece of your financial pie from the sale
- As an affiliate marketer you find and partner with people who you trust and believe in and when you make a sale from promoting or referrals they (the business owner) gives you a portion of the proceeds from the sales
In my opinion you should only partner as an affiliate on products and services you truly believe in and preferably use yourself.
Affiliate marketing is truly a win-win for all parties involved:
- The business owner makes a sale that maybe they would have not made otherwise
- The affiliate earns passive income for their efforts
- The buyer of product/service has what they need or want (and quite became aware of the solution in a way they may not have otherwise)
As far as disclosing your affiliations – in my opinion, if you trust and believe in what you are promoting, why should there be an issue with the disclosure?
What are your thoughts as to why people seem so distrustful of affiliate marketing? What programs are you affiliated with and why?
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I have to be honest, I have been somewhat skeptical of Internet Marketers, that includes Affiliate Marketers. I’m not big on the whole prosperity teaching thing because frankly, nothing comes without alot of hard work.
I do agree that Affiliate Programs are a win-win opportunity, and I do think if you are an ethical business person, disclosure isn’t an insult. I use Amazon Affiliate links on my site, I don’t hide the fact that I use them because I put a note beside the link (Amazon Affilaite Link) in the article.
It’s hard enough to gain trust, avoiding the question of being an affiliate only hurts your opportunity in the future to keep them or anyone as a customer.
In the end, preception is everything. If you act shady or avoid answering direct questions, you’ll find doing business online harder and harder as time goes on.
Great post, thanks.
Owen
Owen Greaves´s last blog ..Two Key Factors To Your Social Media Success
Owen:
Thank you so much for stopping by to comment on my post.
I disclose my affiliate links as well – it’s all part of being “transparent” in my opinion.
As for internet marketers – I agree I was chatting on Skype last night with a friend who does IM. I told him that I think so many of us have been burned by that amazing sales copy on the landing page with promises of riches and we end up throwing away our funds because the product is never what we were lead to believe.
However, with Affiliate Marketing – in many ways I like to think of my affiliate links as “referrals” to companies and services that I trust. For example I would always refer people to billyhost.com — it’s a referral. With affiliates, if I get paid for the referral that’s great – if not – well I still do it because it’s just a great practice.
And as always….you and I will see each other in the Twitterverse!
Thanks, Owen!
Internet marketing does have a certain stigma, but most of it relates to the Internet marketing “get rich with no effort” schemes. Affiliate marketing takes work and effort –
The most successful IMs I know genuinely believe in the product and are honestly care about their customers. Not only will you see more success, you’ll feel better about yourself and so will your customers
Aaron – you are correct….affiliate marketing, like anything else, is based on trust.