What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing as basically what its aptly named title suggests – marketing which is done by affiliation. The most basic example of affiliate marketing in action is how you get commission for referring people to something like an accommodation booking platform and they go on to complete a booking having clicked through to that booking platform using your unique affiliate referrer link.
It works in many industries and in fact if any business is partially or wholly operated online, it’s missing out on the marketing potential that comes with making use of an affiliate sales system.
The dark cloud over the affiliate marketing practice
For years and years, and probably a couple of decades now as well, there’s been a dark cloud looming over the practice of affiliate marketing, simply because the affiliate marketing concept has been misused in many scam operations. For instance, if you’ve been duped into buying into a cleverly-worded, cunning “make money online” opportunity which inevitably didn’t go on to work out for you, chances are very high that what you were actually sold was merely some training material which would have supposedly given you an edge in winning at the affiliate marketing game.
The underlying affiliate programme used as the subject of the scheme is likely otherwise in itself free to sign up to, as should be any affiliate programme. So either you were sold training that ultimately doesn’t work or is saturated by the time you try it out, if it ever worked at all, or the products or services you’d be trying to market and sell as an affiliate are utterly useless.
Affiliate marketing itself is not bad. It’s actually a great way to get what could very be infinitely better marketers and salespersons to perhaps sell more of your product or service than you could have ever dreamed. Of course their remuneration is the commission they get on each sale, which is why affiliate marketing seems to have worked so well for digital products such as e-books, software, etc., and digital services like site memberships, etc.
It’s what affiliate marketing has been disguised as which accounts for the persistent dark cloud.
Things have gotten a bit more deceptive lately
Fortunately more people around the world seem to have become wise to it, but there’s a new trend emerging among affiliate marketers, playing out mostly over social media platforms. I mean look, these people would get more affiliate link click-through-s and signups to the new online casino platforms they’re promoting if they were honest and upfront about getting commission, simply because the new players who are to join these sites are incentivised through the likes of sign up bonuses and other promotional offers.
Rather than depending on questionable affiliate marketers, businesses have access to alternative and ethical methods for attracting users. One effective approach is leveraging some of the best referral software, readily available online. By embracing such software, businesses can establish a reliable and transparent referral program that effectively attracts new users, steering clear of dubious affiliate marketing tactics.
It’s important to recognize that affiliate marketing itself is not inherently bad. When conducted ethically and transparently, it can be a mutually beneficial arrangement, rewarding affiliates for their efforts while enabling businesses to reach a broader audience. By doing so, they can rebuild the reputation of affiliate marketing and tap into its true potential, creating a win-win situation for all parties involved. As consumers become increasingly discerning, embracing honesty and integrity will undoubtedly be the key to success in the evolving landscape of digital marketing. It’s important to recognize that affiliate marketing itself is not inherently bad. When conducted ethically and transparently, it can be a mutually beneficial arrangement, rewarding affiliates for their efforts while enabling businesses to reach a broader audience. By doing so, they can rebuild the reputation of affiliate marketing and tap into its true potential, creating a win-win situation for all parties involved. As consumers become increasingly discerning, embracing honesty and integrity will undoubtedly be the key to success in the evolving landscape of digital marketing.
