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Thank you for the details. It seems I've been living under a rock and this is new to me. Just to make sure I understand ... the way this used to work is that y

by throwaway1979 13y ago

Thank you for the details. It seems I've been living under a rock and this is new to me. Just to make sure I understand ... the way this used to work is that you acted as an affiliate for another site (e.g. aff). They would pay you a commission for signups you generate. You then market on sites such as Facebook and get the affiliate fees. As an affiliate, one is sort of a marketing firm for the web site. However, people abuse this setup by misleading clicks/signups. Is this an accurate summary? Edit: Also, how does one learn about these affiliate programs? Word-of-mouth?

icebraining 13y ago
Websites often have a small link on the bottom to their affiliate program; for example the aforementioned site has a link named "Webmasters, Earn Money".
willholloway 13y ago
You are correct! Not all affiliates abuse the system, there were a lot of nice kids I met trying. You are like a digital salesman for any manner of companies and products. The cool thing about it is the scale that is possible. For example, in the one year I ran ads, my ads were displayed over 640 million times around the world. I got so many clicks in Columbia that 20% of the male users in Columbia on Facebook clicked one of my ads. OK. Got to get back to work now!
- mjn 13y ago
  There's a few niches where affiliates provide nontrivial value as well. For example, in travel there are both kinds. A number do take the minimal, often spammy, approach of trying to insert themselves into a sale that was already going to happen so they can capture it. One route is to create content-farm "travel" pages that don't really have much travel information, and exist solely to get an affiliate cookie onto the machine of someone obviously researching travel. But Hipmunk is another example of a site largely supported by travel-affiliate revenue, and they do it by actually providing a significant value-add service.
  - willholloway 13y ago
    Exactly. I built streamjoy.tv as hipmunk for streaming movies. I've been so busy with consulting work though that I haven't finished it.
  - kposehn 13y ago
    > There's a few niches where affiliates provide nontrivial value as well. Very true. I've been speaking at marketing conferences for several years, and one of my core messages to affiliates is "don't build a site or campaign, build a business". If no one would miss your site if it was gone, you're not building value.
  - oostevo 13y ago
    Likewise, many -- if not the vast majority of -- airline mile optimization blogs are basically credit card affiliate machines now. (See pretty much all of boardingarea.com) They provide a useful service for some (here's how to use your frequent flier miles), but the affiliate links in nearly every post are rumored to be worth up to several hundred dollars per credit card signup.
kposehn 13y ago
> Thank you for the details. It seems I've been living under a rock and this is new to me. You haven't been living under a rock. The affiliate marketing industry is hiding under a really big rock :) > Just to make sure I understand ... the way this used to work is that you acted as an affiliate for another site (e.g. aff). They would pay you a commission for signups you generate. You then market on sites such as Facebook and get the affiliate fees. That is a good summary. An example is eHarmony. They paid me $4.25 to fill out a signup form on their site (first name, last name, email, gender, interested-in, location). I created a web site to tell people about them and then sent traffic to the site from various sources (Facebook, Display Ads, Search, etc.) You don't always have to create web sites in between the ad and the advertiser, but often it helps because you can "seal the deal" by convincing them about the product. > As an affiliate, one is sort of a marketing firm for the web site. However, people abuse this setup by misleading clicks/signups. People abuse it through many different ways. The most notorious is Jenny's Diet Blog. An affiliate marketer made a fake blog about "Jenny" and her diet "miracle", espousing the ease of losing weight through acai berry and colon cleaning product free trials. The affiliate was paid ~$40 per signup for each. The abuse is through misleading ads, outright lying on web pages, scammy merchants (they are just as bad) and more. > Is this an accurate summary? You definitely are on the right track. > Edit: Also, how does one learn about these affiliate programs? Word-of-mouth? There are a lot of affiliate networks that host the offers, track performance and handle payouts. They provide ways for affiliates to discover things to promote and also serve as a trusted source of payment.
shreyas056 13y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_lead_generation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_lead_generation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_action

icebraining 13y ago

Websites often have a small link on the bottom to their affiliate program; for example the aforementioned site has a link named "Webmasters, Earn Money".

willholloway 13y ago

You are correct! Not all affiliates abuse the system, there were a lot of nice kids I met trying. You are like a digital salesman for any manner of companies and products. The cool thing about it is the scale that is possible. For example, in the one year I ran ads, my ads were displayed over 640 million times around the world. I got so many clicks in Columbia that 20% of the male users in Columbia on Facebook clicked one of my ads. OK. Got to get back to work now!

mjn 13y ago
There's a few niches where affiliates provide nontrivial value as well. For example, in travel there are both kinds. A number do take the minimal, often spammy, approach of trying to insert themselves into a sale that was already going to happen so they can capture it. One route is to create content-farm "travel" pages that don't really have much travel information, and exist solely to get an affiliate cookie onto the machine of someone obviously researching travel. But Hipmunk is another example of a site largely supported by travel-affiliate revenue, and they do it by actually providing a significant value-add service.
- willholloway 13y ago
  Exactly. I built streamjoy.tv as hipmunk for streaming movies. I've been so busy with consulting work though that I haven't finished it.
- kposehn 13y ago
  > There's a few niches where affiliates provide nontrivial value as well. Very true. I've been speaking at marketing conferences for several years, and one of my core messages to affiliates is "don't build a site or campaign, build a business". If no one would miss your site if it was gone, you're not building value.
- oostevo 13y ago
  Likewise, many -- if not the vast majority of -- airline mile optimization blogs are basically credit card affiliate machines now. (See pretty much all of boardingarea.com) They provide a useful service for some (here's how to use your frequent flier miles), but the affiliate links in nearly every post are rumored to be worth up to several hundred dollars per credit card signup.

kposehn 13y ago

> Thank you for the details. It seems I've been living under a rock and this is new to me. You haven't been living under a rock. The affiliate marketing industry is hiding under a really big rock :) > Just to make sure I understand ... the way this used to work is that you acted as an affiliate for another site (e.g. aff). They would pay you a commission for signups you generate. You then market on sites such as Facebook and get the affiliate fees. That is a good summary. An example is eHarmony. They paid me $4.25 to fill out a signup form on their site (first name, last name, email, gender, interested-in, location). I created a web site to tell people about them and then sent traffic to the site from various sources (Facebook, Display Ads, Search, etc.) You don't always have to create web sites in between the ad and the advertiser, but often it helps because you can "seal the deal" by convincing them about the product. > As an affiliate, one is sort of a marketing firm for the web site. However, people abuse this setup by misleading clicks/signups. People abuse it through many different ways. The most notorious is Jenny's Diet Blog. An affiliate marketer made a fake blog about "Jenny" and her diet "miracle", espousing the ease of losing weight through acai berry and colon cleaning product free trials. The affiliate was paid ~$40 per signup for each. The abuse is through misleading ads, outright lying on web pages, scammy merchants (they are just as bad) and more. > Is this an accurate summary? You definitely are on the right track. > Edit: Also, how does one learn about these affiliate programs? Word-of-mouth? There are a lot of affiliate networks that host the offers, track performance and handle payouts. They provide ways for affiliates to discover things to promote and also serve as a trusted source of payment.

shreyas056 13y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_lead_generation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_lead_generation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_action http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_action