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Affiliate Marketing

By Dan Furman

I got asked yet again to promote someone's product here on my website. For doing this, I'd make about 40% of the product's cost. All I had to do was setup a link and that's it - the cash would start rolling in.

Affiliate marketing - the wave of the future?

I dunno - I'm not so sure.

I do know that from a manufacturer / developer point of view, it's great. You get an army of eager salespeople pushing your product. For free, basically (just set your price so the commission doesn't bite into your planned profits.)

But you know, there's something about affiliate marketing from the "affiliate" point of view that bothers me... follow me for a second.

I remember once a friend asked me to attend a meeting to see this new business opportunity. Essentially, people would buy and sell products to/from each other, and make a little commission in the process. Hey, you were going to have to buy toilet paper anyway, why not you and a friend make a small commission off of it?

In other words, I attended an Amway meeting.

And that's what bothers me about this. Listen, I wouldn't mind promoting a product that my particular website audience might be interested in. A product that I actually used and liked. But this affiliate thing is just out of hand - it seems every other website I go to has tons of links to products and/or other websites. It's annoying.

In fact, some are nothing more than "affiliate websites" with no real content save for affiliate links. In short, the website in question has nothing to offer except links to products. Ok, it works for "Amazon dot com". But I expect that when I go there.

I know the internet has been full of commerce for years now, but recently it seems to me that all of a sudden, it has turned into a giant Amway business. Everybody is buying and selling stuff for a small commission. Affiliate marketing has turned into the new "get rich quick."

I don't know if affiliate marketing is ultimately going to turn into something as far as a moneymaker (I doubt it - just like Amway, a scant few will make money, and a million other poor souls have little more than huge cases of toilet paper.)

But I DO know that I don't really like it. If I see a bunch of affiliate and obvious "money making" links on a website, I tend to trust the site less.

Again, this is in an overall sense. I have no problem with someone offering something they found useful, and is targeted to their website's audience. I think that was the intended spirit of affiliates in the beginning. But once the get rich quick brigade came in, it completely ruined it.

Now, here's a quick tip for those of you who do have affiliate links - make sure they open a NEW window. Because the little commission you make isn't worth sending visitors away from your website.

And with that being said, make sure you check back in a few months for the link to buy my book

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