Today's thread is on the affiliate business model. Many years ago, I used to be an affiliate marketer. If there is any way to get schooled in marketing, becoming an affiliate marketer is probably the best way.
What is affiliate marketing and why should you care?
Read on >>
NerdWallet - you read their articles on best credit cards. You click on a link to one of those cards. You fill out an application. They get paid for delivering that lead to the cc company.
But the affiliate revenue model applies beyond financial services products.
Wirecutter gets a cut of that transaction.
At a high level, driving traffic to product offers (of any kind) is REALLY HARD. Specifically, it's hard to keep your customer acquisition costs (CAC) low and make enough money off the commission.
For example, if I want to promote Apple Macbooks, I only make a commission on a sale, so I can spend up to a certain limit in ads.
But what if the customer clicks your link to the prod & doesn't buy & later goes to that same product pg on a different computer & then buys?
Historically, if you were also not the last "touch" w/ the customer, you would also not get paid even if the co could see that you had an initial touchpt.
And anyone considering using it for a startup should probably start by being an affiliate marketer for 2 weeks just to learn.
A) You negotiate and have access to unique products. This mitigates competition in customer acquisition channels. You can also discuss higher commission rates.
NerdWallet -- community for the most honest reviews
https://t.co/mCrBT43mOj -- keeps all your finances together
You have to be really patient.
VCs btw don't have patience so likely not VC backable at the earliest stages (which is fine but just know that)
(This likely doesn't apply to anyone starting a startup)
One of my acquaintances is a successful affiliate marketer & runs ads for offers in Spanish & the competition for Spanish ads a few yrs ago was basically zero. So her CAC was cheap.
Even Uber or other cos that have referral codes have marketers racking up free rides / credits -- that's affiliate marketing.
I.e. if you sign up & promote Amazon's products, you will earn a commission of sales:
https://t.co/kDf9PAhhxT
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