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2013 Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Affiliate marketing strategies no 1

Affiliate marketing is a fast-moving industry, and the most successful affiliates are the ones who never stop learning and trying new strategies for their affiliate websites.  The rapid growth of social networking and mobile devices is changing the way that people use the Internet, and this year will see some big opportunities for affiliate marketers who can figure out how to take advantage of that change.  Here’s a quick look at some affiliate marketing strategies which will be big news in 2013.

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1. Cross Channel Marketing

affiliate marketing strategy no 2

Consumer focused, cross-channel marketing is going to really take off over the next couple of years.  Brian Marcus of the eBay Partner Network believes that advertisers will soon start rewarding affiliates for the contributions beyond simply “closing the deal”.

The way affiliate marketing currently works, the person who gets the commission is the person who created the cookie that is present on the user’s machine at the time of purchase.  That person may not be the one who actually persuaded the visitor to make the purchase.  Considering that many people start shopping on their PC at work, browse more products on their tablet PC, and then finish the purchase on their computer at home, this cookie-based system is not effective.  A growing number of affiliate programs are moving towards coupons and other attribution tracking methods which will reward affiliates more effectively.

2. Expanding to Emerging Markets

Emerging markets present some big opportunities for affiliate marketers.  In the context of affiliate marketing, “emerging markets” means any city which is seeing a large increase in broadband or mobile availability, or economic growth.  Australia presents a lot of opportunities for marketers thanks to the growth of the National Broadband Network, while emerging market cities such as Lima, Moscow and Bangalore also offer expansion opportunities for people planning SoLoMo (Social, Local and Mobile) affiliate marketing schemes.

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3. Video Marketing

A growing number of people are consuming video content on their smartphones and tablet PCs, and bite-sized, entertaining viral videos are proving successful as marketing methods.  Most web users are bored with the kind of high-production value videos that big ad agencies produce, so you have a golden opportunity to reach those users if you produce interesting or funny “home videos”.

New social services such as Vine (and the more established, but still not that well-known AudioBoo), could also be good news for affiliates.

4. Location Aware Marketing

The popularity of FourSquare has proven that people are willing to share their location information in order to enjoy discounts.  Web users happily add location information to their tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media interactions.  Take advantage of this and serve up highly targeted, location based information instead of generic ads.  You’ll be amazed at how much more positively people respond to local ads.

5. Big Data and Analytics

Thanks to the power of cloud computing, any can harness “big data”. You don’t have to own a huge server farm or have a team of dedicated programmers.  Even a solo affiliate working out of his spare room can analyse subscribers, social media messages, searches and sales to figure out what people are interested in, what they’re searching for, and what sort of content they are likely to respond well to.  If you want to enjoy continued success in affiliate marketing, you need to take advantage of all of this available information.  Easy analytics has levelled the affiliate marketing playing field, and if you’re not learning as much as you can from it, you will get left behind.

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38 thoughts on “2013 Affiliate Marketing Strategies”

  1. Hi Ben, and welcome to Babanature’s blog 🙂

    Wow – this posts says a lot about affiliate marketing, something that I really don’t have much of an idea about. But do you really feel anyone or everyone can become an affiliate marketer – or they do need to have some special skills.

    Thanks for sharing these affiliate marketing strategies with us. Have a nice day – both of you 🙂

    1. Hi Harleena,

      Thanks!
      I think anyone can become an affiliate marketer. They just need to have passion and a determination to do well.

  2. Excellent article. I have started to build my blog into an authority site by writing content on a regular basis that is useful to my readers. It takes time to reach the kind of authority that converts into dollars. But, by writing excellent content it is just a matter of time. Thanks for sharing your ideas about this point)

  3. Hi Ben,
    I have an affiliate site other than my current blog but getting the time to promote it is also another headache.
    This is indeed a helpful post.

  4. Love the idea of doing home-style videos Ben, I dig it! Super tips overall. Thinking outside the box all together helps you remain ahead of trends, and the home style videos continue to grow in popularity.

    Let your personality out. Be you, and put your own twist on the video, and yep, even a small-time affiliate business can go viral with videos. It is about creativity, energy and of course, networking. Thanks,

    Ryan

    1. Hi Ryan,

      Thanks! I’m glad you liked the ideas.
      Yes – I really feel that staying ahead of the game is the key to success.

  5. Hi Ben,

    Video marketing works more effectively these days. We can see everybody is turned towards it. I see a lot of Google Adsense too displays video ads which proves that it is getting more notice by general traffic.

    Thanks for the info about new video services. Hope they last long. Anyway, youtube too is not much bad yet 🙂

    1. Hi Suresh,

      Video marketing seems to be a very effective tool. Personally I’m a big fan of YouTube, but more platforms can’t be a bad thing!

  6. Ben,
    I love your details on point #1. The cookie based system is no longer effective as people start research/shopping on one machine and seal it on another. I think the coupon idea is closer to something good.

    If someone follows your hostgator affiliate link and finally uses my hostgator coupon ‘EMFASTINCOME’, you are the loser.

    1. Hi Enstine,

      Exactly – people have more than one way to connect to the web these days, making cookies a bit more hit and miss than they used to be.

      Coupons do seem to be a much better idea.

  7. Ben,
    Welcome to my mentor’s Blog!
    These are good affiliate strategies. I remember cross marketing while I was studying at the University, this brings good memory :-).
    I am currently developing my sales skills to be better at this.
    Location is definitely the strongest. You can only do this be studying you stats carefully.
    Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Nerdy Nurse!

      The cookie system is certainly not as effective as it once was.

      Maybe we’ll start to see different methods, like I discussed in point 1, later on? 🙂

  8. Hi Ben excellent post i have not much experienced with affiliate marketing once i tried with amazon but not able to earn a penny due to some technical issue hope your post gives some idea to have an another try

    1. Hi Mohideen,

      Thanks very much!

      I’m sorry to hear that. Affiliate marketing can take a lot of work but when it pays off, it pays off well.

      Good luck if you ever try again!

  9. This post has not just expanded my knowledge of affiliate marketing but it has also given me an insight into the affiliate marketing trend of 2013. This is incredibly the best post i have read about affiliate marketing this month so far.

    1. Hi Ambarish,

      The network you join depends on the type of product you wish to sell. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as just going with a particular network and doing anything.

      Affiliates will sometimes go with a product they know, or one that they feel is hitting it off well or will do in the near future.

      There are a lot of different networks out there. Check out a few of them and see what you can find out! 🙂

  10. Hi Ben!

    You really have shared some unique strategies. Content marketing is another thing which is going to change the perspective of online marketing.

    Video marketing is actually a great way to grab more visitors and it all depends on the landing page, whether the person will remain a visitor or turn out into a loyal customer.

    Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Koundeenya,

      Thanks! I’d say content marketing is just as important (if not more) than any aspect of online marketing these days.

      Video marketing is very effective, but I find it’s too often done wrong. We will have to see what happens over the next year 🙂

  11. Hi Ben,

    Now I’m completely new to this subject but have plenty of queries related to the subject in question –

    1. The product should be somewhat relevant to the blog, does this matter?
    2. Where is the market for the product, how to guage this fact?(A blogger buying blogger’s product)
    3. When everyone is selling the same product, how can my message be different so that buyers come to me for the product?
    4. Does placing the ad on the blog serve the purpose?
    I’m bit new to blogging and so looking forward to your answers.

    Thanks for this share, I like the last one, Data analytics is going to play the critical role and we need to understand the basics in order to understand the market.

    Sapna

    1. Hi Sapna,

      I’m not sure I understand your questions.
      When doing affiliate marketing, a site should be set up for you to market a particular product. The links on that site will point to a merchant where the sale would actually be made.

      A blog should be used to help support your affiliate site, keep it active and drive more traffic. With this in mind:

      1) Yes, the blog should be relevant to the product.

      2) You can find out what works well by joining an affiliate network in the niche you want to go into. They’ll have lots of information on what works the best.

      3) To sell more, market better. Make a great website and advertise it, either through paid ads or getting links placed on blogs. More traffic rarely doesn’t make more sales.

      4) Like I said in 3), ads on blogs can help drive more traffic which sells more – making you more money!

      I hope this helps 🙂

  12. Great share Ben and welcome to Babanature’s blog!

    With the way things continue to change and evolve, I have no doubt that things are leading to new areas when it comes to affiliate marketing. Like we know the digital age will continue to get bigger and I know for a fact that my niece and nephew watch a lot of videos on their cell phones.

    I think rewarding your affiliates is a nice touch and when they feel appreciated like that they’ll go that extra mile to promote your products. I can totally see that happening.

    Thanks for sharing these this and strategies with us. Very interesting indeed.

    Hop you have have a really nice day.

    ~Adrienne

    1. Hi Adrienne,

      Thanks very much!
      Definitely – everything is constantly changing and affiliate marketing will have to move with it. Video marketing certainly seems to be a great avenue for people to explore.

  13. Hey Ben.

    Well you have shared such an amazing article. I must say some of the tips are even new to me. Well I not a pro blogger but I like to keep my self updated. I learnt some new things today. Thanks for sharing this article. Keep up the good work.
    would love to hear from you soon 🙂
    Thanks & regards

  14. I know I’ve tried affiliate marketing in the past for stuff that didn’t resonate with me – I’ve quit since then.

    Now I’m still doing it but it’s not my main business model or anything. I think it will keep improving over time and be of use because anyone can recommend something great and the person recommending it should absolutely be rewarded for that.

  15. Hi Ben

    Thanx for sharing this information as I was also trying to do the same thing. For affiliate marketer do we need to take any package or do we need to invest money……..
    But thanx to you……

    1. Hi Mic,

      You’ll certainly need to invest some money to be an affiliate marketer! At the very least, you’d need to get a site with which to direct traffic to the merchant, so you’d be paying for hosting and a domain there – then you’d probably do well by finding a way to advertise that site so you can generate some traffic, which would cost money too.

      Hope that answers your question 🙂

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