February 23, 2010

I had the good fortune to address the National Confectioners Association (the candy people) this past week in Miami. There were over 500 companies, ranging in size from behemoths like Mars Chocolate and Hersheys, to several hundred family-run organizations heading into their fourth generation of family ownership. In many cases, during conversations, I found myself recommended affiliate marketing. This, of course, made me think of you.

Affiliate marketing, simply, is when someone has an audience and chooses to market products or services that aren't theirs to that market. (Want the Wikipedia definition?) So, for instance, on chrisbrogan.com, I market the WordPress blog theme, Thesis, which I didn't create. Because I have an audience reading my blog who might want to use such a product, I can deliver sales to Chris Pearson, who created the product. Make sense? Chris does the product. I do the marketing. I make some money. Chris makes some money.

Your business could be doing affiliate marketing. The efforts to create a project aren't all that high. You need to build out the mechanics of the program, including how to handle the financial transactions, how to pay the affiliates, how to manage all the ordering and return policies and the like, but this is a business that has been growing over the last decade (in 2009, it was estimated that affiliate marketing was a $13 billion dollar market). So, what would your first steps be?

If you want to attend the best event in the space to learn about affiliate marketing, check out Shawn Collins's and Missy Ward's Affiliate Summit. There, you can see great speeches by the industry leaders, visit several companies who have programs in place, and learn the ins and outs from start to expert.

Want to wing it? You can swing by sites like Commission Junction, or Share-a-Sale, or LinkShare, and browse around their literature to see what it takes to sign up. If you go that route, I recommend searching for an affiliate manager for your program. These skills aren't necessarily part of the starting toolset of most marketers, and it's something you want to get right, so it's worth paying for a few months (at least) of consulting help, or hiring on.

What's to gain? Revenue. Affiliate marketing is a great way to tap other people's audiences and markets to build revenue. It's becoming an important part of many companies' online marketing efforts, from very small businesses to Fortune 100 brands. Maybe your company should give it a shot.

Though you might make a few errors starting off, give it a chance. Affiliate marketing is a way to connect your products and services to audiences that have yet to find their way to you themselves. It's a powerful opportunity.

Have you tried? What were your results? Do you have questions? Let me know how I can help.

Chris Brogan is co-author of the NYT/WSJ bestselling book, Trust Agents. He is president of New Marketing Labs, LLC, and blogs at [chrisbrogan.com]. 

Image courtesty of Flickr, Steven Snodgrass

Join the conversation ( 9 )

• Will Chen 1 year 12 months and 12 days ago

  

  Hi Chris,
  
  Fellow Third Tribe member here. I just wanted to thank you for creating such a wonderful community.

• Matt Brown 1 year 12 months and 12 days ago

  

  When i first was looking for a way to make some extra money at home i got into affiliate marketing. It is not as easy as it makes it out to be and it requires time like an actual job. The affiliate payouts however tend to be small. I passed affiliate marketing and started dealing with bigger companies and products. I recommend anyone looking to make a residual income from home to start with affiliate and get your feet wet a bet. Network marketing is a very lucrative industry. Very informative article!
  
  http://www.my-home-business-growth-marketing.com
  To your success
  
  Matt Brown

• Sam Royer 1 year 12 months and 13 days ago

  

  ClickBank.com is a great resource to host affliiate marketing projects.
  
  http://www.royerseo.com/technology-services/internet-services

• Chris Brogan 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  Hi Joe--
  
  First, you're looking at the affiliate marketing side of the equation, which is good, because that's who gets the work done. You're asking questions that are important to consider, such as cookie duration. However, as this is a rather basic article, I didn't go into the guts of it.
  
  Instead, your questions make for good information for affiliate managers to work out on behalf of the organizations setting up these programs for their sales.
  
  I disagree with your criteria for success, however. I've seen people with a small list make money. It depends on the fit between the audience and the product, and/or how people are getting it done. One's mileage may vary.
  
  Wish you well. : )

• Joe Dager 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  Sorry I hit enter on my laptop before I finished, But Chris before I go on, what do I need to do be a successful affiliate marketer and overcome those negatives I listed above?

• Joe Dager 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  Sounds like an easy way to make money, but is it?
  
  How long does that affiliate cookie last?
  What happen when someone cleans their cookies on the computer?
  What happens to all those links you create when the affiliate resource switches providers?
  What is the minimum payout?
  Ever hear of a non-commissionable sale?
  What is the average clcik-thru rate?
  What is the average % of sales on a click thru?
  How many B2B customers ever make the purchase on the same computer?
  What happens when the affiliate resource offers his own affiliate resource to your customer (Do they honor double-tiered sales?)
  Do you
  
  I make money on affiliate sales and have set up a few clients with them. But presenting to people that it is an easy source of revenue is very misleading. To be successful in affiliate marketing:
  1. You need to have huge list to make money at it or a very unique product that passing that list on to others mean very little.
  2. You need to have a way to renew cookies on a regular basis.

• Joe Dager 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  Sounds like an easy way to make money, but is it?
  
  How long does that affiliate cookie last?
  What happen when someone cleans their cookies on the computer?
  What happens to all those links you create when the affiliate resource switches providers?
  What is the minimum payout?
  Ever hear of a non-commissionable sale?
  What is the average clcik-thru rate?
  What is the average % of sales on a click thru?
  How many B2B customers ever make the purchase on the same computer?
  What happens when the affiliate resource offers his own affiliate resource to your customer (Do they honor double-tiered sales?)
  Do you
  
  I make money on affiliate sales and have set up a few clients with them. But presenting to people that it is an easy source of revenue is very misleading. To be successful in affiliate marketing:
  1. You need to have huge list to make money at it or a very unique product that passing that list on to others mean very little.
  2. You need to have a way to renew cookies on a regular basis.

• Joe Dager 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  Sounds like an easy way to make money, but is it?
  
  How long does that affiliate cookie last?
  What happen when someone cleans their cookies on the computer?
  What happens to all those links you create when the affiliate resource switches providers?
  What is the minimum payout?
  Ever hear of a non-commissionable sale?
  What is the average clcik-thru rate?
  What is the average % of sales on a click thru?
  How many B2B customers ever make the purchase on the same computer?
  What happens when the affiliate resource offers his own affiliate resource to your customer (Do they honor double-tiered sales?)
  Do you
  
  I make money on affiliate sales and have set up a few clients with them. But presenting to people that it is an easy source of revenue is very misleading. To be successful in affiliate marketing:
  1. You need to have huge list to make money at it or a very unique product that passing that list on to others mean very little.
  2. You need to have a way to renew cookies on a regular basis.

• John Coonen 1 year 12 months and 14 days ago

  

  We've had great success with affiliate marketing, especially for our events (like CMS Expo). Minimizes our advertising costs, and at the same time, the expenditure is more like an investment - in people who support what we're doing. So it's a win-win.
  
  Plus, for those folks who support what we do but don't want a financial reward, we offer up an optional donation in their name to Charity Water.
  
  So, it's really a win-win, win.