There are a lot of news and talks recently about the industry about Facebook and us being labeled as scammers. There are a very few of us that actually scam users. I think the industry goes through curation almost every 2 years. Where the others are catching up to us.
The article that caused some questions is an article about Robert Gryn and our industry. It was very one sided and Zeke Faux does not understand our industry in its full.
The top affiliates—virtually all of them young men—assemble a few times a year to learn the latest schemes and trade tips about gaming the rules set by social networks and search platforms.
Zeke Faux - How Facebook Helps Shady Advertisers Pollute the Internet
First there are many women in the industry that are running affiliate campaigns and they like to compete with us men. We also don't try to game but we try to get knowledge and see what others are running and new strategies that other affiliate might not be doing.
But I want to talk about how our industry always survive because most of the time we try to figure out the why of things. For example we are always ahead of the changes whether be that algorithms, banns, account limitations, etc.
We try to figure out the why did that happen? Why did my ROI drop? Why...
Our industry is a place of gamers I believe we try to gamify this industry and always try to win. Winning can be increasing ROI by another 100% or having unlimited accounts. All in all we try to find a solution to the problem. Basically they keep building the wall higher and higher and we are always building the ladder bigger and bigger while creating a catapult to throw us over.
Also, there are many types of affiliates for example, I spoke about paid vs organic traffic with Jason Rubacky at Affiliate Summit. A lot of affiliates can not afford to pay for traffic, they rather risk time and there is another whole game when it comes to organic traffic.
There are email affiliates that just mail and try to figure out the best way to get open rates high and inbox better. This industry will never die because there are many of us that do not want to interact with clients or customers. Affiliate marketing gives us this median to never interact with anyone besides our affiliate managers.
There are many types of affiliates and the ones that makes the most money are the ones that are very creative. Readily thinking outside of the box, even thinking out fo the ordinary, or just hitting the trouble line. The risk for a high affiliate is high just because we spend money to gain conversions.
While there are affiliates that stick to the guidelines and just make 'ok' money, they do not create too many creative angles and just stick to the standards. These are affiliates as well but they are very different from the CPA style marketing or the direct response marketing we aim for.
Risk, is a high for most affiliates. If it doesn't get us excited we just move on. This is why we are always on the brink of new technology and even create our own tools to make sure we are going to be successful.
When everyone says that affiliate marketing is dead I always argue that it can't it just becomes limited. Companies need sales people and we are the sales conversions for the online world.
Gaming traffic is what it mean, we try to win the game every time.
