Affiliate marketing - is it for you?
Hey all, we are evaluating the prospect of a full fledged affiliate network on IndiBlogger. An extension of IndiWallet if you will. If you have had some experience of an advantage or disadvantage of using affiliates on your blog, do let us know as it will help us understand if and how you want to use it.
I find Flipkart affiliate gimmicky. I've already PAN card details and before they have to pay off, they reject it for no reason. This results in 20% TDS deduction over 10%. Amazon is a proper affiliate TBH.
Why not just think about having ad network like buysellads rather than affiliate marketing.??
No I never heard of Tyroo. Direct ads for me gets decent revenue. 728x90 for 20k per month, 120x600 12k per month, 300x600 15k per month. I am buying alta pro 263 AT, kamerar SD-1 MK2 and maybe MVH500AH from last month's earning. Next month will be saved for hosting fees and then I'll buy a Samson C01+ 2nd gen scarlett 2i2. Full on youtubing after that.
The direct ad revenue sounds like a very lucrative option where you have control over the finances and you are sure what you are going to get to plan advancements to your blogging career! one reason why we asked this query on the forum was that we werent entirely convinced either of affiliate networks because they pay only when you sell.. but not many people seem to buy directly from blogs. Blogs are used for the purpose of genuine learning and having bloggers sell goods directly when there are a lot of point of sales sites like amazon around seems like the wrong expectations to set for bloggers... Thanks man, you have been of immense help.
@Anoop: Affiliate network works, but not with hobby bloggers. It needs a lot of investment before one can see any tangible results. The real challange is scaling the revenue and that needs professional approach and comes with professional risks as well.
I don't like the kind of affiliate marketing that e-commerce sites offers.
While using amazon and flipkart affiliate programme, I had a feeling of being a poor salesman who cannot sale anything! 
I can't say about others but affiliate marketing is not my cup of coffee!
Ha ha! .. yea i guess we are more positioned towards helping people make decisions than behaving like an ecommerce site to enable people to buy from us! :-)
It's not 20% over 10% . It just depends on ur income tax bracket.. First of all its just 5% TDS. second remaining income % u can pay tax if ur in the 10 or 20 or 30% tax bracket ( based on ur salary)
Flipkart is the most efficient system when compared to Amazon. Amazon discredits 80% of referrals as bought for family/friends/network . Amazon has no referral bonus for any of their top selling mobile phones
even if u happen to refer a one plus 3 for 28,000 rs, u'll be getting 0 only.. Fk has a better % in that aspect
Frankly I dont see any disadvantages in using it in blog. I place a high converting top deals banner and if ppl like that deal, they r gonna buy it.. presence of ads hasn't really turned away traffic in my opinion
Payment : Amazon and FK sends it on 28 and 25 every month sharp (after deducting 10% and 5% TDS respectively) . But only if u cross threshold of 1000. else its carried over
But they credit ur current month purchase 1-2 months later : because items have 30 day refund policy. So they wait out the 30 days and then make the referral purchased as approved post which the 25th of following month u get the payment
Amazon is creating a problem these days in terms of approving a referral purchase. they identify ppl whom i have ordered on behalf before and if they make a purchase themselves to the same address, they identify as "Friends and family" and say no referral is approved for it. FK and Snapdeal is not like that. u can share "direct" product referral links directly thru whatsapp too
Hey Karthik, yea thats a good insight man. The fact that most of these sites dont value the role you played in helping bring them customers is downright wrong on so many levels and the payouts dont seem to get us anywhere. How can they expect bloggers to beef up their services when they dont pay for your work and influence in the content space. From what you guys have been saying, there is a huge gap that affiliate marketers need to bridge if their models are going to be successful with publishers who are bloggers. Just adopting what works for banner adverts on news forums and websites is definitely not the way to go. Thanks for the advice man.
If you observe one more thing, even cashkaro and encashit have told that its going to be 0 cashback for purchases made thru cashkaro in Amazon
Hello,
I am using adsense but it does not help me. Its been more than 6 months and no clicks. Do I need more traffic or what. I have a personal Blog.
Hey, Google AdSense is not an affiliate marketing program. Apart from ad clicks, it also give you money for page impressions.
the way u customize ur ads, blending it with template, visibility and palcements are very important.. but again off topic here :)
Hi Upsana,The income in your adsense is directly proportional to the nuber of visitors to your blog. Adsense is not a automated system. You need to perform consistent efforts to increase your blog visitors.
Yes, adsense goes well with sites that attract immense traffic. U need people to click on the ads. Ad Impressions also count to your earnings.
agar aap adsense se really earn karna chahte ho with organic traffic then aapko keywords research karna hoga... similar to your blog... kuch kuch bloggers aise bhi hai jo 5000 clicks me bhi thik se earn nahi kar paa rahe hai... main bhi uun me se ek thha... phir maine organic traffic par dhyan diya... jis se RPM increase hua...
Hi Upasna,
There is clear funda on google adsense if your targeted content is viewed by users belong to the place where the rate of google adsence is more or value is more, you will get more revenue even with sligh traffic. Hence this is the reason why we in India think of generating more traffic as the value of google adsense here is low when a Indian user see your content.
Thats why there are tricks on this which a blogger have to experiment and utilize the google adwords also.
For Affilite marketing, I signed up with themeforest but again it does not help.
Hey Upsana, Thanks for the feedback on themeforest :-)
themeforest aapke blog niche se different hai... wo jyadatar themes and templates deal karta hai... aapka blog shayad lifestyle, motivation, health se related hai... aapke liye best hai ebooks affiliate programs like clickbank, flipkart ebooks section, etc
Hey Anoop, I tried using affiliate networks in past, registered for a bunch of them, but realised that you need to spend a lot of time in that. First of all some of them had ads only in certain format say image of dimension axb which wouldnt really fit in contents or sidebar. Secondly they keep changing the promotions depending on the product they want to push or offer they want to push, sending you emails notifying you about the same, which means I have to spend good amount of time in changing the existing affiliate links in my posts.
I am a Digital Marketer too, and feel that the current affiliate marketing systems are way behind the current times. As a marketer or business owner, I would much prefer to do sponsored contents on blog which are related to the products/services I am promoting. Why not think of creating influencer network rather than affiliate marketing, where a brand or company can post brief about product/services, target audience and bloggers can reach out to the company for the same, and/or company can directly find bloggers fitting certain requirements and contact them for sponsored contents.
Influencer marketing is the way ahead, affiliate marketing is so 00's.
Hi Gayatri, Thanks for the insight. we are exploring multiple options just to try and make advertisements as effective as Influencer marketing. I agree that there is nothing better than getting information out theire via blogs.
The public is not dumb. They know an influencer putting up sponsored posts when they see one hence they avoid reading such writeups. They know product placement when they see one. Even an influential website like youstory which is known to cover startups were covering kids of industrialists who gave "small loans" of lakhs and crores of rupees. it made a bad impression along with another point that startups do this so that it would look good for their investors. Be neutral. Sell ad space. increase the value of the ad space by being credible and gaining lots of traffic. its only then affiliate marketing can become secondary source of potential income.
No SSP. Not reading the rules is not an excuse. Why do you people even bother. Your peers are just going to have a bad impression about you. Besides, do you think it make sense to do SSP in a forum where others will want to know ways to promote their blog?
pls translate in hindi
I had a blog that was focused on affiliate marketing for the US market. I targeted a tech niche and started writing posts. It took a few months to get the first check, but I've got many checks after that. The issue is - to justify the time you spend on affiliate marketing (or even ads) you need to scale up the blog quickly. Even after that, there is no reason why competition (or google search algorithms) won't catch up and reduce the traffic. That's what happened with my blog.
Two lessons:
1. Be frank and put up a disclaimer that a particular link is an affiliate link and you might earn something if the reader goes and buys through that link. (I suggest doing this for sponsored posts too cos readers are ALWAYS more important than companies/e-commerce websites.)
2. If you do reviews, put up both the plus and minus points. The minus points are more important because plus points are available everywhere else on the Internet! It REALLY helps to USE the product before reviewing it. This helps establish authenticity, which attracts more readers the website scales up organically. The obvious issue is, this requires good amount of investment.
I think companies like indiBlogger can help source products for bloggers to review. But that should not come with riders like - "no negative reviews please, no mention of free/sponsored product please", etc. But in my sub-conscious mind, I feel it's better for bloggers to buy and experience a product/service - that way, the blood on one's hands will flow into the posts. That's what readers want :P
Its also important to put plus and minus point because some minus point would not affect a buyers, and some positive points may not be useful to some buyers. Clear display will retain such readers to be regular. Long benefits. Run your website like a shop.
Hey Infinity, The review part of it is something that heavy on logistics but there is no denying its advantage. Thanks for your input.
Destination Infinity, very well said!
This is from Linustechtips. I know they just run youtube but they also run a forum as well. Same philosophy.
That said, people should have at least 200k-500k monthly page views before they can even think of earning from the site-IMO. Of course, there are also expenses for running a site to make quality content.
Nice video. What he says is right - most of us realize this only after a few years of (mismanaged) experience :P
Cool video man. Thanks
Never earned a Rupee from Flipkart Affiliate Marketing. They deactivated my affiliate profile coz I didn't have any hits in the last year
Hey Narasimha, Same here! :-)
Using many affiliate networks. Indian Affiliate network does not give good commission.
Yea the lower commisions is a big issue and a general turn off for bloggers from signing up with affiliates. Thanks for sharing.
I don't have opinion on affiliate marketing as such. But I HATE advertisements on blog. As a user, the advertisements and affiliation mostly feels like to me like you're beating the users/readers with your need to earn. Half the time, I end up hating the site that do not have relevant stuff or have that revolving bar which displays products from Amazon, FK, Ebay etc.
Hey Parichita, yes thats a big turn off especially when its designed poorly I suppose. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for this one Anoop. Was considering the 'affiliate' way too, but I've been told that the revenue is not worth it for most bloggers.
Hey Vibhan, Thanks and I've been told that too.. hence the investigation :-)
I feel, advertising should become more creative. Since IB has a huge database of bloggers, I guess it should be possible to identify a team that can make witty, humorous content that stands out from regular boring advertisements. IB can mimic an advertising agency and sell copywriting through its bloggers - the creative stuff that can go viral on social media, not the conversion-optimized stuff. Think: The Unreal times, Faking News, etc.
The point is, how many people enough pageviews per day/week/month to have either affiliates or ads profitable? I sense that a lot of people here concentrate on marketing content to fellow bloggers, who wouldn't bother to click ads or use affiliates- he/she will rather use theirs instead.
Thanks for bringing it up Anoop, I was invited by the affliate marketing what ever on 1st and 2nd, as usual BlogAdda let me know at the last minute so I did not make it. I would like to know more about it.
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