Something Worth Talking About.

Just had lunch with a friend in Boston at Affiliate Summit and we talked about an interesting subject that made me think for a bit.

Being an affiliate marketer is great and there’s a ton of money to be made of course… But at the end of the day, we still live on a day to day and paycheck to paycheck basis. At any point in time, revenue can fade to nothingness and that’s the end of that story…

I’ve been stressing a ton about this to be honest. It sucks. We’re at the bottom, the front lines… So volatile, so easy to lose it all, so little time left. I don’t mean to scare the living shit out of you guys haha… Just something to think about if you want to stabilize in this industry.

There are several options that I see that are all logical steps for an affiliate depending on what he/she wants to achieve.

So where do I go now…

1. Affiliate Network

This is probably one of the most common ways to go. If you’re an affiliate you should be able to run an affiliate network just fine.

Pros:
- You already know how to pull traffic and should already have a system in place so running your own offers in house should not be a problem.

- If you have a good reputation and solid relationships (no not rss readers) with a lot of affiliates, then you’ve already got a good foundation.

- Your margins are way bigger, this also gives you an advantage on the field with other affiliates and of course more profits in general.

Cons:
- Payment terms will be ridiculous. We’re talking net 30, net 45 here… Be ready to float a !shit load! of money.

- In addition to floating money because you don’t get paid by the advertiers… If you have affiliates, be ready to start paying weeklies - even more floating of a shit ton of money.

- You’ll need a good amount of resources, a sales team to start bringing in offers for the best you can get. A design team to make creatives and landing pages. And if you’re bringing in a lot of affiliates you’ll need managers. All this means training.

- Everyone is starting an affiliate network. There’s a billion already out there. It’s hard to break in unless you have something unique to offer and even then it would have to be pretty amazing.

2. Advertising Network

Again, very logical step. You have some big niches as an affiliate? Well find the traffic sources and start making media buys - nothing to lose.

Pros:
- When your network gets fairly big you will be cranking a ton of leads/sales for yourself or for advertisers. Traffic is money and you control it.

- You take the advertiser’s money and pay the publishers with it and then take your cut :).

Cons:
- You need a pretty good media buying team to be making deals as fast as possible and with the best terms. This is going to take a big dedication and a lot of time to get going - 1 url per day (hopefully)?

- Contact info for webmasters is honestly a pain in the ass to find. 80% of it will be obsolete or blocked. Have fun?

3. Expand Your Affiliate Model

You don’t necessarily have to start something new. You can always refine your affiliate model to something more streamlined, more automated, quicker, faster, better, more intelligent etc etc. Whether this is hiring employees or building scripts/programs.

Pros:
- You don’t have to deal with all the other crap the affiliate networks do (mostly payment terms).

- If you plan and restructure to the best of your ability… Hopefully you’ll be able to be cranking out full blown campaigns within a few days (not half assed lazy campaigns). Testing campaigns will be cake and hopefully you’ll find stability with 20-30 solid niches.

- You can start expanding in more ways traffic wise: PPC, SEO, media buying, email marketing.

- You can start expanding your margins by going direct with the advertisers.

Cons:
- It still sucks at the bottom. You have to comply to policies which seem to come every week.

- The margins still suck and it basically niches will go on a downhill slope sooner than later.

- You have to worry about quality or you’ll get cut.

- On top of all this, you have to do the affiliate work with 100% commitment and effort even knowing that the affiliate networks are sitting there banking on you (for the time you’re with the network)… And the advertisers are sipping pina coladas ballllllllllllllering it up thanks to your leads/sales.

4. Be the Advertiser

This is a bigger step. It’ll take quite a bit of networking, business skills to get deals and the “inside” scoop on things. This will require the most finances, a TON of it too. But in the long term, you could be bankrolling Lamborghini’s for fun.

Pros:
- You’ll need connections. Big connections depending on what you want to do. This isn’t a couple months type thing… This is more like 6+ months for 1 product/service.

- Payment terms are ridiculous.

- You likely won’t see any profits until 5+ months after taking your leads.

Cons:
- At the end, you will have so much money you won’t know what the hell to do.

- Don’t be surprised if you receive emails from some higher beings in the legal system ;).

- Customer support anyone? That’ll be like a daily migraine.

- You definitely need an idea. One that is flawless in theory to compensate for what crap might come in the future.

- If you’re just hopping in the same niche, expect some tough competition… They already have a big start on you… You’ll need to be different some how.

Ending thoughts

You can always do a little bit of everything… But imagine how much of a clusterfuck that will be.

At the end of the day what is your goal? For me, I want a big sale… The one that puts millions in the bank so I can retire anytime.  I hate living paycheck to paycheck, the idea just drips insecurity.

So what will it be for you? I’m honestly still trying to figure it out and it always seems like there’s a clock ticking next to me when I think about it.

PS (Thanks Max)

Also consider that if you’re an affiliate… You’re not very sellable. You sell your skills/talent. If youre a network, an advertiser or an advertising network you can easily sell.

Hat tip to my boys Ken, Dan, Cyrus, Max and Dave for some of the ideas in this post.

Until next time…