"What Business Are You (the IMer) In?"

xiaophil

14 years ago

A trusted advisor.

Thanks
2 replies

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Calamaroo 14 years ago

Originally Posted by xiaophil

A trusted advisor.

How about a broker?
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- 1 reply
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- xiaophil 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Calamaroo
  
  How about a broker?
  
  Sure. A trusted broker.
  
  How do you establish trust?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Calamaroo 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by xiaophil
  
  Sure. A trusted broker.
  
  How do you establish trust?
  
  I see the point you're trying to make about the importance of trust.
  
  Besides being a trusted advisor and a trusted broker, what else? Trusted _____.
  
  I'm really trying to arrive at some possible business models. Granted, trust underlies all of them.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  xiaophil 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Calamaroo
  
  Besides being a trusted advisor and a trusted broker, what else?
  
  Be honest.
  
  Thanks
  
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Matt.Lake 14 years ago

Originally Posted by xiaophil

A trusted advisor.

I wish that were true for all affiliates. Some how I think it's not.
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Sarah Russell

14 years ago

At it's heart, an affiliate marketer is a sales person, so I'd say they're part of the sales/retail industry.

Thanks

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CDarklock

14 years ago

What business are you really in when you have free delivery?

I mean, Domino's might look like they're in the free delivery business, but when you really look closely, it turns out they actually sell pizza.

Connect the dots :rolleyes:

Thanks

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King Shiloh

Banned 14 years ago

Who cares about your title or designation. After all, your title is not equal to your entitlement.

To me, I'm an internet business person, online entrepreneur, blah blah blah... You can even help me to tell me what business I'm in because I have not really thought about it.

Thanks
1 reply

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Calamaroo

14 years ago

Originally Posted by King Shiloh

Who cares about your title or designation. After all, your title is not equal to your entitlement.

To me, I'm an internet business person, online entrepreneur, blah blah blah... You can even help me to tell me what business I'm in because I have not really thought about it.

I'm not talking about titles and designations.

I'm talking about identity as it relates to business intent.

Had the railroads thought of themselves as being in the transportation business rather than in the railroad business, they probably wouldn't have missed out on the automobile and airline travel opportunities. By only defining themselves as being in the railroad business, they got marketing myopia and got blinded to opportunities that were right in front of their faces.

Thanks
2 replies

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CDarklock 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Calamaroo

they probably wouldn't have missed out on the automobile and airline travel opportunities.

However, most train companies quite accurately understood that they are primarily in the FREIGHT business, which is why BNSF continues to make boatloads of cash every year without operating a single commercial auto or airline interest.
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"The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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jbsmith 14 years ago

Affiliate marketing is part of sales - same model as direct sales where you would have sold licensed products through direct mail in the past. Online methods mean you can target better and do it more inexpensively, but it is still the same model and role.

Jeff
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sdentrepreneur

14 years ago

I am in the Internet Education business, there are some sales involved of course. That is what I tell people at business mixers.

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1 reply

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ExRat

14 years ago

Hi,

What business is the Affiliate Marketer in?

Had the railroads thought of themselves as being in the transportation business rather than in the railroad business, they probably wouldn't have missed out on the automobile and airline travel opportunities. By only defining themselves as being in the railroad business, they got marketing myopia and got blinded to opportunities that were right in front of their faces.

Therefore the point of this should be to avoid pigeonholing affiliate marketing under one specific title, but instead to consider the variety of different types of affiliate marketing that there are.

For example, if you're the type of affiliate marketer who would class themselves as a 'click-broker' or 'mass site builder' then you might not get hugely involved with any kind of preselling, sales, advising, reviewing etc. at all. You may never work with a single word of content.

You may also be different if you were strictly a 'bonus wars' affiliate marketer.

The working life/skills of a typical 'blog review' affiliate marketer may be very different to those of a mass article distribution affiliate marketer - who may never even own a domain of their own.

There are many ways to skin a cat - find your ideal, get skinning and then continually refine and improve the process - become an expert.

Thanks
1 reply

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Calamaroo

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ExRat

Hi,

Therefore the point of this should be to avoid pigeonholing affiliate marketing under one specific title, but instead to consider the variety of different types of affiliate marketing that there are.

For example, if you're the type of affiliate marketer who would class themselves as a 'click-broker' or 'mass site builder' then you might not get hugely involved with any kind of preselling, sales, advising, reviewing etc. at all. You may never work with a single word of content.

You may also be different if you were strictly a 'bonus wars' affiliate marketer.

The working life/skills of a typical 'blog review' affiliate marketer may be very different to those of a mass article distribution affiliate marketer - who may never even own a domain of their own.

There are many ways to skin a cat - find your ideal, get skinning and then continually refine and improve the process - become an expert.

This is the kind of response that I was hoping to get from this thread. I was really hoping to get a big picture list of the kinds of affiliate marketers out there - all of the kinds of affiliate marketing business models that all sorts of people were using.

Click Broker
Mass Site Builder
Bonus Wars Affiliate Marketer
Blog Review Affiliate Marketer
Mass Article Distribution Affiliate Marketer

Can you define each of the above? And, "What business am I in" if I were a Click Broker? "What business am I in" if I were a Blog Review Affiliate Marketer? Etc.

What other affiliate marketing business models are out there? What specific ways are there of "skinning a cat"? How, specifically, do they go about making money? and "What business are they in" individually?