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The New I.M. Affiliate Greed: As Seen in Brick/Mortar Biz For Decades

by teaball
5 replies
Neil Shearing made a good catch here on his blog.

A Scary New Trend? | Internet Marketing Strategies and Marketing Tips by Neil Shearing

His video shows something I have wondered about for a long time - when will the big internet marketing houses (Amazon?, maybe an ad network) start to compete against their own sales force, that is, against their affiliates? In this case it is a socialized version of their original site.

This is typical and a constant in brick and mortar marketing/sales world. It rarely is successful long term but usually "seems" like a good idea at the time by the Brick/mortar biz.

It always seems to be a slow version of cutting your own throat.

Keep an eye on this if you drive traffic, if you are a CPA, affiliate, etc. This can take many forms, like for instance, taking your customer, that you send to them, to a better deal and, thus taking them away from you.

The affiliate interest will wane quickly, just like it does offline when a sales rep drops a line of products because the manufacturer undercuts him/her. What the manufacturer thinks is that they can get rid of the sales rep, keep his customers, and do it all in house with higher profits .... Wrong! Find me a case study that proves that in the long term. Car dealers in 2009? NO! LOL

ho hum .... stupid business people never learn .... same as it ever was, and is, and will be.

You can only, "milk your cow and eat it too", one time.

TB
#affiliate #biz #brick or mortar #decades #greed
  • Profile picture of the author Robert Colle
    Hahaha very interesting. I particularly like the conclusion.

    I think that is the problem with many affiliate networks. But most often I think the big names like Amozone knows that very well and will hardly temper with their affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave Rodman
    Banned
    I heard advice that Dan Kennedy gave awhile back and it applies to so many situations, including this one. He said "Your business should never be dependent on any one thing. You, a general manager, a customer, a supplier, or a traffic source".

    Not much you can really do about this, except for try and control as much of the process as possible.
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    • Profile picture of the author teaball
      Robert,
      Amazon is pretty smart with their affiliates. Amazon doesn't pay them much, helps a little, and let's them run with the ball.

      smart! imho. they are the only redwood in their forest.

      TB
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    • Profile picture of the author teaball
      Originally Posted by Dave Rodman View Post

      I heard advice that Dan Kennedy gave awhile back and it applies to so many situations, including this one. He said "Your business should never be dependent on any one thing. You, a general manager, a customer, a supplier, or a traffic source".

      Not much you can really do about this, except for try and control as much of the process as possible.
      when General Motors and Chrysler went under, they took a bunch of small and medium sized bizzes with them.

      what Dan says, and others say, is essentially the mantra of aff. mkting. "multiple streams of income from multiple methods and multiple sectors of the I.M. world.

      A little income from here and a little income from there, and pretty soon you have a sustainable business.

      TB
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      • Profile picture of the author Dave Rodman
        Banned
        Originally Posted by teaball View Post

        when General Motors and Chrysler went under, they took a bunch of small and medium sized bizzes with them.

        what Dan says, and others say, is essentially the mantra of aff. mkting. "multiple streams of income from multiple methods and multiple sectors of the I.M. world.

        A little income from here and a little income from there, and pretty soon you have a sustainable business.

        TB
        Yeah, it's not totally possible to completely reduce risk. My dad used to sell to hardware stores back when there were quite a few distributors and smaller hardware chains. After consolidation, he had only a handful of big customers. It happens and there wasn't much he could do.

        So you have to prepare yourself with a disaster plan. If you lose a big customer, do you have money in teh bank to sustain yourself? Lots of times, all you can do is keep significant funds in the bank until you can turn things around.
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