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Article
Strengths and weaknesses of affiliate marketing
© AffiliateSeeking - This article is not allowed to be re-published but can be linked to.
Affiliate marketing has contributed to the rapid expansion of the web. This is because it allows the value to flow from pages to pages and websites to websites by means of links. Yahoo's success has been a brilliant example of this because it started with just a collection of useful links that people kept coming back.
Because it appears like a greener pasture, many people are enticed to build up their own sites and join the affiliate marketing bandwagon. Over time this trend helped identify the strengths and weaknesses of affiliate marketing as it evolves to become one of the major marketing methods and business ventures implemented on the Internet.
The Bolts
Affiliate marketing's strengths basically can be felt by the merchant websites - as it is very advantageous for them. They can boost their sales online at less expense and augment the chance of business growth by increasing their online publicity. Through their affiliates, they gain visitors which could become the prospective buyers of their products, goods or services that they sell online. Merchants like affiliate marketing because they do not render marketing expenses unless results by means of sales or desired actions are realized - and the fact that web is also an effective publicity and advertising tool.
Merchants deem that it is right to pay for the performance of its affiliates. After all, nothing is to be paid when there is no click-through. Compensation can also be based on the value derived from the visitor and there is no expense on the merchant's side to a visiting user who does not buy anything.
For webmasters, the major advantage of affiliate marketing is that it gives additional avenue for them to earn online. It created another market where they can strive for business and take risks, as well as provide information, entertainment and content services to customers in an effort to gain revenues. This trend accumulatively makes the Web richer and more useful because many webmasters are encouraged to put valuable information and provide qualified leads - contributing to the ever expanding cross-linked Web. Affiliate marketing also does not require any webmaster to have substantial resources to join the bandwagon thus opening opportunities to small sites. It allows them to earn from with their small websites by simply referring the visitors with the products of their merchants.
The information, entertainment, and content services presented by the webmasters in totality have a great positive effect towards the global community. People will find it easy to look for any valuable information such as educational resources, product reviews which aids them make informed decisions, and entertainment. Affiliate marketing has become a classic of the Web.
The Nuts
The major drawback of affiliate marketing is that it made the Web cluttered. Because websites now get paid by adding links that promote merchants' products, webmasters are enticed to put too many links with hopes that users would click it so to increase their revenues. Some web pages even display messy links even if it does not provide a solid content that would be useful to the visiting user. This is an awful scene nowadays because it brings down the Web's professional look. The webmasters should put in mind that every element added on a page is one more thing the user would look at. Links should only be added if it is deemed to be valuable to the user.
Another issue to look at is that some affiliate websites tend to put text or banner links that actually do not correspond to their website's themes. These sites provide leads even though they are not really credible to make recommendations because it is simply out of their site's "context." Some webmasters do this because they believe the basic idea that they will get better pay if they do so - but this is entirely a wrong practice - users would always seek something useful and relevant to your site.
For instance, if you have a website that provides computer hardware reviews, it would be useless for visitors who might be looking online shops if you only provided links to a travel sites. This might be shallow in a thought but seriously this would affect the user's trust to your site. Webmasters should put in mind that user's trust should be the long-term goal of every website because it is what keeps the visitor coming back. If you got paid because the user clicked an ad and bought a wrong product, tendency is they would not be willing to go back to your site and follow your recommendations. Therefore it is much better to have a page having fewer links that points to qualified destinations than provide pages of links that points somewhere else.
Another significant weakness of affiliate marketing is that is not easily scalable unlike other display advertising. The distinction of affiliate marketing and other online advertising has become blurry over years. Also, it is difficult to come up a list of websites offering affiliate programs. This could be useful in making standard referral fees and could help webmasters determine and assess which websites offer the best deals by comparing different programs.
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