Creativity, affiliate networks and affiliates

I'd like to highlight themes from a couple of recent posts published on Revenews; themes that I have written about previously here.

Jef Molander talks about innovation (or the lack of it and the need for it) by affiliates. As affiliate marketing becomes more competitive and complex, the pressure to be more creative and innovative in how affiliates go about with their campaigns is bound to increase. The techniques and channels we use, our communications, the technologies we leverage-- all of these will be put to the test. The challenge for affiliates will not only to be creative, but to be able to unleash that creativity within the constraints that will be set by the affiliate networks and the merchants that they work for.

Talking of affiliates, Jonathan Miller poses this oft-heard question: the future of private affiliate programs vis-a-vis the big affiliate networks. We manage private affiliate programs as well as work with the big networks, and both present their own set of opportunities and challenges. Jon's question is whether the big networks will kill the private affiliate programs. I'd contend that the answer is no. Despite the significant benefits of working with a large network -- mainly in terms of technology and a bigger pool of potential affiliates, let's not discount the cost factor. As affiliate marketing becomes more prevalent and smaller merchants begin to understand the dynamics, I reckon they would be more keen to set up and manage their own affiliate programs instead of being aligned with any networks.

Networks will face challenges from the big search engines and the innovations they bring about, and they will also have to contend with the private programs. Like everybody else, the big networks will also have to work on their value proposition to the other two key stakeholders- the merchants and the affiliates.

Until next time,

Ben Flux

posted by Ben Flux @ 12/04/2005 09:45:00 AM