The term super affiliates is being used all over lately. Some affiliates even use it to their advantage to mind wash some people about their skills or to just brag. Personally super affiliate is a term I don't use. Recently I came back from Chicago and Adtech, then this week I hear news of Jonathan Volk leaving the affiliate industry and Ryan Gray joining Conver2Media!
... super affiliates ...?
Why would big branded 'super affiliates' branch out of affiliate marketing and start an ecommerce site? Ecommerce in itself is hard, you deal with customers and shipping. I did ecommerce back in the day, a pain! Even then an affiliate getting a job?
The reason, growth and diversification!
These guys are expanding out and using their skill sets to make bigger businesses. Ryan Gray personally has several businesses and is expanding quite rapidly. Jonathan Volk is using his marketing skills to help his dad and start a bigger long term business. The idea is diversifying and receiving more profit form other sources from the online world. There is just too much money to be made on the internet.
For example, I started Infinite FB to get a handle of Clickbank marketing, that alone is a post in itself. I had several products in the past but more towards my blog readers and list. Infinite FB is me expanding into the info space to get to know info marketers. I also do list building and create other blog sites to diversify my own income.
I am not saying affiliate marketing is bad, it is a great way to make money fast and it teaches you how to monetize traffic better than anyone else. The space is still growing and it is still expanding, there is no stopping to our industry.
Business ventures are made with networking. Ryan joined an amazing network with great team members. Ryan has created a product and online forum as well to help users. Jonathan Volk also got into the info space as well and started helping users in his private forum community.
Sometime in the beginning of this year or end of last, I even stated that I would be expanding myself. I have done more speaking and traveling this year than I did last. I enjoy it and it is a venture I want to keep doing. The opportunity came to me and I want to take advantage of it and grow it. I enjoy speaking and definitely talking to a lot of people.
Ideas and partnership also started in 2009 and into 2010, I sold sites and created new services. I learned how to be an advertiser at one point. I myself is expanding and filling a need in the internet space. Diversification is important for any person, for example you can not rely on just ONE traffic source. You have to diversify and expand to make sure you take advantage of profitable traffic sources out there.
This is the same aspect with the online space, get your feet wet and test and see what works best. Volk decided to go into ecommerce while Ryan is working on new business ventures.
Online marketing is very universal, you can take your knowledge and grow it into other ventures. There are some who are comfortable with what they are doing or they are just so comfortable they are scarred of change. Either way, using your skills to grow is important. I have seen affiliates make new business by simply starting a new network or becoming an advertiser, even creating products.
It is great to see people grow and watch where they started and where they are going to end up. For example, if you have read this blog since the beginning of time, you can see my diversification from blogging to product creation to CPA marketing. You can see the growth from start to finish.
The question really is what are you doing to expand and grow? How are you taking your skills and expanding on them? Are you leveraging yourself to your full potential?
