Promoting With Affiliate Marketing – Advantages and Disadvantages
How Can Affiliate Marketing Benefit Your Business?
Low Risk Promotion – As you only pay for results (apart from any network affiliate costs), running an affiliate scheme is a very low risk method of promoting your site and business. If the ads don’t work, you aren’t paying for wasted ad space (though you may put off publishers from using your ads again). If the ads work then it can bring in good sales for comparatively little cost.
Good Exposure – If your adverts work then publishers are going to be encouraged to keep your adverts on their site; not only bringing in sales, but ensuring your company gets good exposure across the publishers’ sites.
Direct Affiliates – Building Relationships – As a direct affiliate scheme involves you working directly with the publisher, it can help you to build a working relationship. It can help you to develop trust with the company which can be utilised for further projects in the future.
Network Affiliate – Wider Promotion – Signing up for a network affiliate will mean that your scheme will be promoted on your behalf to thousands of potential publishers. This means you should get more publisher interest without needing to contact them all directly; though remember you are paying for this service as part of your network costs, and each network promotes differently.
What are the Downsides to Affiliate Marketing?
No Guarantee of Success – No adverts are certain of succeeding, but as you are not directly in control of where your ads are shown; you cannot be certain they will be shown in places that work to visitors who are relevant. However, as you pay on results it won’t cost you too much if they do not work.
Less Choice – Although running an affiliate scheme gives you a wide number of sites to potentially appear on; you have less choice over which will show your ads and where they will show them. A normal advert will appear where you want it and when you want it, but affiliate adverts are at the request of the publisher. If you use a network you will (in most cases) rely on them to talk to the publishers on your behalf.
Direct Affiliate – Time Consuming – As you need to deal with every publisher individually (and if none approach you, you have to go out and source them yourself) running a direct affiliate scheme can be quite time consuming. You also need to create and maintain the advert images (in plenty of sizes) and manage the tracking.
Network Affiliate – Requires Payment – Joining an affiliate comp any is not free! You have to pay for their services; this can be through set fees, or through charging a percentage of the commissions earned by the publisher.
Article Index
- How Can You Take Advantage of Affiliate Marketing?
- Affiliate Marketing - Advantages and Disadvantages
- How to Get Started - Making Money With Affiliate Marketing
- Promoting Your Business With Affiliate Marketing
- Promoting With Affiliate Marketing – Advantages and Disadvantages
- How to Get Started - Promoting With Affiliate Marketing
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