Is Bullying A New Affiliate Gold Mine?
Posted 16th February 2012 at 01:24 PM by JimLillig
Bullying has always existed. When I went to school (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) social media meant writing notes on the bathroom wall. Today, bullying is taken to a new level on Facebook and through SMS blasts. Kids today live their lives in public and parents are ill equipped to deal with the additional layer of issues that social media sites add to their parenting duties.
Recently, we opened an affiliate program for a service that makes a parent's job easier by alerting them to suspicious/dangerous activity on their kids social media accounts, such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and YouTube. And in my recruitment efforts I have been getting some very strange responses from affiliates who should be in the "right" demographic.
Such as:
"I just do good on my blog, not into making money."
"The service should be free, as a public service."
And my personal favorite "I do not promote resources that ask parents to pay money for something."
These are coming from "Mommy Bloggers". Go figure. I mean they have to support their efforts somehow? Or has the affiliate world gone altruistic on me?
Think about it, parents need help monitoring what their kids do on social media. I know, I have three girls and all of them are on Facebook. My youngest, a junior high student, has been the subject of bullying this last year, both online and off. And, like most kids, she tried to hide this from my wife and I. Using the service we promote, I found out about a number of unsavory conversations she was having (mostly because the service translates over 1000 abbreviations that refer to drugs, sex, violence, alcohol and bullying). And like a good parent, we talked to her about it and got the school administrators and other parents involved. We probably would have been in the dark had this service not existed.
But I digress, the point is, that the safety niche for parents is huge. There are millions of parents out there that have to deal with this, as 1 in 2 adolescents are bullied at some point, either online or off. The thing I find strange is that affiliates have yet to wake up to how easy it is to make a sale when it comes to the safety of their kids. Parents spend money on their kids, and if it keeps their kids safer they are holding up their credit cards and saying "Me next".
So I ask you, is there still any affiliates out there that want to do good and make money? I mean the Mommy Bloggers I have contacted seem uninterested when you mention they can make money from the program. I even go so far as to suggest a few charities I can send their checks directly to if they want, and still not a lot of takers.
Safety is a huge niche, and as Americans age as a society, they are becoming more paranoid about their own safety and the safety of their families. This is why we opened up SafetyNet Media. A network dedicated to just products that keep consumers and their families safe.
But from what I can gather, unless you feel like you have to take a shower after posting up a new **** Berry or Incentivized Gift Card offer, affiliates are just not interested.
What's your take? Do affiliates want to do help their audiences or are they just interested in making a quick buck?
(If you want to learn more about our cyberbullying solution, click here.)
Looking forward to some great comments.
Cheers,
Recently, we opened an affiliate program for a service that makes a parent's job easier by alerting them to suspicious/dangerous activity on their kids social media accounts, such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and YouTube. And in my recruitment efforts I have been getting some very strange responses from affiliates who should be in the "right" demographic.
Such as:
"I just do good on my blog, not into making money."
"The service should be free, as a public service."
And my personal favorite "I do not promote resources that ask parents to pay money for something."
These are coming from "Mommy Bloggers". Go figure. I mean they have to support their efforts somehow? Or has the affiliate world gone altruistic on me?
Think about it, parents need help monitoring what their kids do on social media. I know, I have three girls and all of them are on Facebook. My youngest, a junior high student, has been the subject of bullying this last year, both online and off. And, like most kids, she tried to hide this from my wife and I. Using the service we promote, I found out about a number of unsavory conversations she was having (mostly because the service translates over 1000 abbreviations that refer to drugs, sex, violence, alcohol and bullying). And like a good parent, we talked to her about it and got the school administrators and other parents involved. We probably would have been in the dark had this service not existed.
But I digress, the point is, that the safety niche for parents is huge. There are millions of parents out there that have to deal with this, as 1 in 2 adolescents are bullied at some point, either online or off. The thing I find strange is that affiliates have yet to wake up to how easy it is to make a sale when it comes to the safety of their kids. Parents spend money on their kids, and if it keeps their kids safer they are holding up their credit cards and saying "Me next".
So I ask you, is there still any affiliates out there that want to do good and make money? I mean the Mommy Bloggers I have contacted seem uninterested when you mention they can make money from the program. I even go so far as to suggest a few charities I can send their checks directly to if they want, and still not a lot of takers.
Safety is a huge niche, and as Americans age as a society, they are becoming more paranoid about their own safety and the safety of their families. This is why we opened up SafetyNet Media. A network dedicated to just products that keep consumers and their families safe.
But from what I can gather, unless you feel like you have to take a shower after posting up a new **** Berry or Incentivized Gift Card offer, affiliates are just not interested.
What's your take? Do affiliates want to do help their audiences or are they just interested in making a quick buck?
(If you want to learn more about our cyberbullying solution, click here.)
Looking forward to some great comments.
Cheers,
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