There are many opinions and affiliate gurus willing to tell you where the future of affiliate marketing is heading today…
But is this actually true…
Well here is my take on what I believe to be the future for affiliate marketing and what you need to do to get involved and stay ahead of the pack with your marketing efforts.
But first lets talk about the current services that you need as an affiliate…
The first is very obvious, a website of course and not just a one page website that has a product review which only has a life expectancy of about two months, unless of course you like building website after website, with affiliate marketing you need to build a site that offers value to your customers.
I have preached this continuously and I will continue to do so for as long as I keep writing this affiliate blog… Read Evolving As An Affiliate Marketer
You need to be an authority in your field which helps to build trust as an affiliate marketer and credibility with your site visitors.
How To Get Noticed With Affiliate Marketing And Stay Noticed Online…
Next getting noticed online and I am not talking about pay per click which is only very short term solution to your long term goals, what I am talking about is selectively adding your site to places such as Linkedin, Blogged, FriendFeed, Postrank, Technorati, Twitter and the numerous other social sites available to you on the internet.
These services are all free to use and if you are using a blog then you should be listed at these services. You might find this post useful Understanding Social Networking.
Why You Need Some Form of Link Building Strategy With Affiliate Marketing
Building links to your site whether this is through reciprocal links, article writing or the most effective of all writing quality content and having other blogs link to your content which is the most time efficient and cost effective way to build links to any blog site on the internet.
However if you are not building a quality affiliate marketing site then this will not happen.
OK we have quickly covered some of the basic requirements so what is the future of Affiliate Marketing?
Well in basic terms it is video… But before you think “Its to hard” you need to know what the benefits are for you and your business…
This will end all the myths and misconceptions about making your own videos online… You are going to get what you need to make videos just like the professionals using tools that most of you already have on your computers, yes that’s right no 10,000 dollar cameras or production studios.
Video Marketing GETS MORE Money than ANYTHING Click Here To Find Out Why
The bottom line is this, as the internet evolves and people become more savvy with technology so does there attention span and having plan old text and a few pictures scattered around the page telling them what a great product you have really has become about as effective as banner advertising.
That’s right people are becoming immune and need much more stimulation to be prompted to buy from you. This is where video marketing kicks in, Google™ saw it and now it is happening a lot faster than many thought it would.
What if you could create a video promoting your product or service that will see you in the top search engine rankings right along side some of the biggest authority sites online…
Guess what, it is possible with video.
As you can see this site was listed in Alexa’s hot pages from just one video out of millions of websites online
Andy Jenkins from “Stompernet” who is basically miles ahead of any other marketer online has released a set of videos showing you exactly how to do this and virtually capture any marketplace you want and not in weeks or months but virtually with in days of making your first video.
Sign Up To Be A Video Boss Affiliate!
You will have to submit your email to get a look at the videos but after that, there is no pitch just pure content for you to learn from and add much more value to your affiliate marketing promotions.
Solid affiliate marketing advice. Establishing yourself as an authority is the 1A on any affiliate’s to-do list. Attract prospects so you don’t have to chase them.
.-= Ryan´s last blog ..Super Quick Lesson in SEO =-.
Hi Ryan
Yes, building an authority site not only gives you the credibility you need by making you look like an expert in your feild but also a very strong launching pad for any promotions that you may or may not promote in the future as an affiliate…
I have been messing around with video marketing and not to the extent of Video Boss but just with actual video footage for one of my clients and the results in twelve months have been very impressive where he now ranks in the top 10 on Google™ for many of his keywords and he knocks his competitors further down the list because his You Tube videos are also ranking very well.
So as you can see anyone who decides to make this part of their own marketing plan can dominate their niche and competitors very easily especially if they have taken the time to also build an authoritarian website around their niche.
Totally agree with building authority sites rather than spammy 1-3 page affiliate niche sites. Although some IM coaches still advocate the latter. Offline “Direct Marketing” has been around for decades and still works so anyone suggesting online marketing has no future is nuts. It will simply evolve as technology and consumer desires/demands change.
Hi Jonathon
Yes the days of the mini-sites are now numbered that is for sure. If it is not the search engines considering them light on content and slowly dropping them out of the index then the visitor will and they will leave to find a site with more authority and information.
The only time this mini-sites will continue to be effective is when your are using PPC but even then you have to be careful not to trigger any penalties and sky rocket you costs. You are simply better off focusing your time on building quality and followers online and the rewards will come.
Totally agree. Of course what Google says and does are two different breeds of fish. In the IM niche there are dozens of review sites that rank on page #1 with no content worth reading. In fact many simply headline the product being reviewed and invite the visitor to bookmark the page and return when a full review is posted. I’ve also found websites on page #1 that are either parked or don’t exist at all.
Ironically when I started out my plan was to build robust sites. Then I saw super affiliates teaching the 3-5 page niche sites and wondered if I had been heading in the wrong direction. Now I’m happy that my original idea, when I knew nothing, was obviously a good choice.
Hi JR
Yes what we are seeing online in the Google Serps currently is a far cry from quality.
I too fell into the trap of having a lot of small sites, 52 in fact and for some years they worked very well at producing a solid income for me. Now however things have changed dramatically and i have allowed over thirty sites to expire simply because I could not keep up with the updates, and as we now know Google has just released another algorithm update called “freshness” which means you need to be adding content on a regular basis to your site.
I have already seen a dramatic change in two of my static HTML sites, where a month ago they were in the top 5 results of the Serps for many different keywords and had been there for over three years only to be dropped like a rock into search engine oblivion in the last week. Maybe it is because they had not been updated or changed in that time being three years or maybe not only time will tell.
Times are definitely changing on the internet and if you do not change with them you will be left behind you might want to have a read of this post I did called Evolving As An Affiliate Marketer back in July 2009.