Small Business and Affiliate Marketing – an Interview

This was the topic of our discussion with Anita Campbell on her today’s Small Business Trends Radio show. It was a good interview chock-full of information that any small businesses can take, and start using right away. Anita asked over a dozen of great practical questions (I am a huge fan of anything that falls under the category of actionable knowledge; so I really liked that approach). Here’s just one of them (with my reply to it):

(9:02) If I am a business owner of a small business, how do I know if an affiliate program is right for my business?  Which types of businesses are affiliate programs best suited for?

This is a very good and, actually, a very frequently asked question. I’d say you want to ask yourself another question to find the answer the one that you’ve just posed. Do your products (or services) sell online already? Are you having success marketing them through other channels like paid search, organic listings, banner advertising, video… Do they actually sell online? …If the answer is yes, (then) the affiliate marketing is the right way of marketing your product as well. The reason for that is that affiliate marketing is actually not a type of marketing or a kind of marketing. It’s essentially a model that works with any type of online marketing. …if, for example, you’re paying your paid search consultant, or someone who is managing your Google AdWords campaigns, you are paying them on an hourly basis, and maybe partially performance basis. With affiliates it’s just for performance. They will do their paid search, and direct traffic to you — be it through their website or directly, however you spell it out in your program’s Terms of Service — but they will be remunerated just on performance basis. …only when you see those sales, you’ll pay them.

You may listen to the whole 33:25m interview below or on the BlogTalkRadio website here.

I’m always open to giving interviews (print, radio, or video). So, if you are reading this, and have any such proposals, I’d love to hear from you at geno /at/ amnavigator dot com.