It seems like almost every part of the global economy is being effected by the recent economic crisis on Wall Street. How have your affiliate marketing strategies been effected? Are you experiencing a big loss in revenue? Do certain niches seem to be doing better in the midst of tough economic times? What do you think the future holds for Affiliate Marketers?
Of course it will effect affiliate marketing too. When people have no money they just not buy! I havent been affected a lot although it might be not because of the crisis. In affiliate marketing you everyday see ups and downs.
Cost per sale offers are going to take a hit during rough economies, but you should realize that cost per lead offers make up a HUGE part of affiliate marketing, and these offers probably won't be affected much, if at all, during a bad economy. In fact, you could argue that the free leads/trials will actually increase during a bad economy since people are looking for free stuff to sign up for. Affiliate marketing does change during a bad economy, but it doesn't get worse across the board. You just have to know what to go after, and that's not too hard to figure out if you just think about the products/services that people go after when they're short on money.
Look at it this way, if you own a get-out-of-debt site, you see an increase in revenue if your running debt or loan offers!!!!!
Depends on what you are doing affiliate marketing for... I have been doing well. People are looking for answers an ways to make money - it's harder to get a job now and investing $50-$150 to figure out some other way to make an income people are doing.
You can see this for yourself if you look at trends in the overall sales of CB and other networks, pay per lead programs I estimate to be approximately the same with some "make money online" offers actually increasing in value while most marketing ebooks will decrease in profitability of sales.
Yes, sales have been down a bit, but not a lot to complain about. Although, I do submit to the "multiple streams of income" theory, I tend to concentrate my efforts on only a few of my most profitable programs. The 5 Pillar Affiliate Program is the one that is remaining very consistent. Hence, I'm expanding my efforts there. If I spread myself too thin, I tend to lose focus on the more important things. Regards, Tony Thomas
I haven't seen a big loss, and most others I know haven't seen a big loss at all either. Plus, it's that time of the year where the real sales start to take off =)
I tell myself on a daily basis to be positive, unfortunately I'm seeing too many changes, happening a little too fast, and I think it spells a rough road ahead for affiliate marketers. The internet is not immune to the troubles in the US and foreign economy, therefore we should start preparing for trends in online businesses just as we have seen them in 'brick 'n mortar'. I'm referring to cut-backs, lower wages (see affiliate commissions), and less accessibility. First let's look at what companies must do to become more profitable in a failing economy. Consumer confidence is way down, so even fewer people will be buying online, therefore less impulse buying. The less impulse buying the less companies will need to rely on affiliates to bring in the long tail consumers. Either a consumer will know what they want and go to the source, or they won't be interested at all. Expect companies to withdraw existing affiliate programs and even more will wait to enter the market place with programs in place. Lowering wages is a great way to pad your profit margin and in our case it means lower commissions. Lowering a commission on a program becomes much easier when it's spread out over thousands of affiliates, instead of just a handful of employees. Expect large cuts in commissions and new offers looking flatter than usual. I've actually lost track of how many programs are actually adjusting their commission rates from MaxBounty, luckily these have yet to effect me personally. One only needs to look at eBay for another example of 'cutting commissions', in regards to their recent hack of affiliates and the reorganization of their ACRU tiers. Lastly, accessibility in regards to the ease of joining an affiliate program. At one time even larger affiliate managers accepted almost anyone into their programs, no matter traffic, or even visitor quality. Now things are getting tighter and bandwidth costs money, the days of sending traffic that doesn't convert to affiliate sites may be over. Expect to not be allowed to sign up unless you have a record of targeted traffic, or existing affiliates should start taking steps to record where and how their traffic is arriving on their site and where they are being sent to the affiliate sites. Finding the fine line in fewer affiliates and higher quality converting traffic will save a company countless dollars on less man power, for managing worthless affiliates(in their eyes) and remove thin affiliate competition from search engines. The moral of this story is to start diversifying now, so if one revenue stream starts failing or making cuts you're not left out to dry. To an extent I'm speaking from experience and to another I'm kicking myself in the ass. Good luck and happy earning.
Yes, everyone is affected by this economy downfall in US and the rest of the world. Shoppers now think twice before they invest in anything, but this does not mean that it is not possible to make money with aff marketing. it is just that now we, affiliates, must increase the quality of our work and instead of selling try to show how a customer would benefit from a product in question.
Yes affiliate sales have felt down, but affiliate marketing is network marketing and depends upon many businesses so it is not as affected as other industries.