On Monday, September 14th, 2009 I was honoured to be asked to come be a part of a panel at an eWomenNetwork dinner. Besides me, there are two other, wonderfully knowledgeable women presenting: Christina Merkely and Catherine Novak. Below are the notes I took with me and any links I spoke about. I created my outline from questions Kerry Brown -the eWomenNetwork Executive Managing Director for Victoria -sent ahead of time to make sure members’ interests were covered.
Below is only the guideline I used – since panels and networking are fluid beings, no doubt there were many more things discussed, added and even omitted. If that is the case, I will update this post. If you heard something you want to make sure I add, please make a comment so that I make sure your questions are answered ;).
On to the questions:
From your perspective, why is your area of expertise important to the attendees to know?
When you’re running an online business – or any business, it is important to diversify your streams of income. We have all heard the adage “Do one thing and do it well.” This can work great for a while, but what if there is a fundamental shift where all of a sudden your product isn’t desirable any more (think restaurant ashtray suppliers…). A good stool needs at least three legs to stand on, so if you have four, losing one isn’t as detrimental. Either adding affiliate marketing to your strategy, or working with several different affiliate angles/streams as your entire business, can give some extra income and a potential cushion in the natural ebb and flow of business.
1. Jodie: please give me your description of affiliate marketing.
What affiliate marketing boils down to is commission sales through drop-shipping, but the word “commission” has such a negative connotation to it… so that term isn’t really used any more. However, that’s what it is: commission sales. Online it means that a product or service developer wants to make more sales so they start an “Affiliate Program.” People who want to make money find the products and services they wish to sell and market on the developer’s behalf. Any sales the marketer makes, they get to keep a percentage. The beauty is that you can be either a developer or a marketer and make money – you can even be both!
2. Jodie: how does one make money with affiliate marketing?
You make money the old-fashioned way; by making sales. If you’re a developer of a product or service, this means selling your affiliate program to potential affiliates. If you’re an affiliate marketer, this means selling the product or service to customers (this can be website traffic, newsletter subscribers…). It’s not a sit-back-and-wait-for-the-commissions-to-come solution, unless you happen to have a TON of traffic already… even then, it still takes work to figure out wording, placement, timing…
If you’re a developer, you get the benefit of many hand making light work, and getting an “instant” sales force without having to worry about a payroll.
If you’re a marketer, you get the benefit of having ready-made material without the effort of creating it, or having to pre-purchase stock.
3. Jodie: What type of business would affiliates be a valuable marketing strategy for?
Really, just about any business can benefit from an affiliate program. When you think of it, many business already have that policy in place, but know it by another name: referral rewards. How many times have you heard a Realtor or consultant say “If you refer a friend, you get $100!” or something similar? This is the same idea, but in a much more online – and trackable – way.
4. Jodie: What suggestions do you have for the attendees if they wanted to get started with affiliate marketing?
Try things out before you sell them if at all possible. How would you feel if you started selling and recommending a product only to find out that the business was fly-by-night, that the product wasn’t as advertised or broke the moment the box was opened? You should really take the time to learn about what you are selling. That’s what my best affiliate did; he purchased the book first, then with a now educated view of the product, he was able to write about it intelligently and ended up making himself an extra $300 in 24 hours.
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