Is Affiliate Marketing Another Dotcom Bubble Ready to Burst?

No impending implosion

We may all remember the dotcom era and the effects it had on us when it burst. Something seemingly similar called affiliate marketing has become the latest trend in making easy money on the Internet. Lest you worry that it will implode and end the same way the dotcom era did, I will shed some light on why affiliate marketing is here to stay. Let us start with a direct comparison.

Similarities to the dotcom era

• They both attempt to make money through the Internet
• Almost anyone can get involved
• There is very little overhead
• You can run your business from your basement

Differences from the dotcom era

• Affiliates piggy back on a trusted brand
• Affiliates manage their own website
• Affiliates don’t create a product or service
• Affiliates are versatile and can adapt to changes in the market place
• Affiliates can advertise for as many companies as they wish

An affiliate marketer defined

For those who are not familiar with what an affiliate is, it is a person who makes money through advertisements on their website.

How to choose who to affiliate with

There are several things you should be considering when you choose an affiliation. You should keep in mind the company’s credibility as well as their relevance to your audience. My own recent acquisition might help explain. Lots of the people I know have teenagers that will be driving soon, which inevitably means they are looking for a decent drivers ed program. A friend of mine told me about a new online drivers ed program they were going to have their kid take so I went to their site and saw that they had an affiliate program. The company is called OnlineDrivingUniversity. This company is associated with some reputable companies and they also have a 20% commission structure. I applied to be an affiliate through their site, was accepted later that day and now have a banner on my site.

Best ways to make money from affiliate marketing

If you are interested in making affiliate marketing the main source of your income versus just picking up a few hundred extra dollars a month, then simply placing a banner on your blog is not going to be enough. What you will need to do is create an entire website geared towards marketing the product that you want to sell. You will then want to drive traffic to your site through SEO efforts, PPC efforts and linking strategies.

For example, if I really wanted to make a ton of money from this drivers ed program I would buy a domain and create a website geared towards teen drivers or parents of teen drivers. The next step would be to create content that discusses driving. I would then have to make sure people want to click on the banners I place on my site as well. Finally, I would make sure that I push this site to as many of my friends’ friends as possible.

Protect yourself

There may not be a guarantee to eliminating risk but there are some things you can do to minimize risk. If affiliate marketing has you excited and you want to be among affiliates that make over $10,000 a month (yes it does happen), you’ll want to diversify your efforts. The old cliché “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies. Instead of marketing five different types of driving schools it is best to market one or two driving schools as well as including health and beauty products, travel companies, flowers or gifts and computers; this way if one of these industries takes a hit then I’ll have four other alternatives that can still help me make money.

Why the bubble won’t burst

Hopefully we have learned from history. Because affiliates are another marketing channel versus a competitor, companies encourage its growth and promotion. One problem with the dotcom era was that everyone was trying to compete instead of coordinate and attack instead of be a team, which is why affiliate marketing should stand the test of time.

I rest my case, but what do you think about the affiliate marketing era, dotcom bubble or wave of the future?