The Pros and Cons of Affiliate
Marketing
For those who are still skeptical on affiliate marketing whether it’s still significant and in demand or not, the answer is yes.
It has gone through a lot of changes the past few years, and it has gone through ups and downs. Some methods and some websites are now obsolete, consumed by time.
Essentially, it has evolved. It will continue to evolve and it will continue to be significant. It has proven itself to be a big part of online marketing’s advancement.
Let’s address those doubts that a newbie might still have for affiliate business here.
Affiliate marketing is proven to be beneficial for all sides of all transactions. Here are the pros and cons, for your consideration.
Pros
For The Product Vendor
If you look at affiliate marketing from the product vendor’s point of view, you’d see that affiliate marketing is one fine deal. A vendor doesn’t have to pay any fees upfront for the affiliates to start promoting their product and also, the affiliates are paid based on their performance.
So, a vendor doesn’t have to worry about loss investment because if the affiliate doesn’t perform, the vendor doesn’t have to pay. As mentioned, the affiliate business is commission-based.
And for little risk and almost no expenditure, the affiliates are sent out to promote the product. They work very hard at it, too, for their own benefits.
For The Customer
The customer will get, through an affiliate, a product that they’ve been searching for. Remember, an affiliate will go out of his way to sell a product, so they would usually provide details on a product for the customer’s benefits.
What successful affiliates usually do is they provide a product review on their own website to be read by the customers. Here, all the functions, features, and also weaknesses of the products are addressed. This, of course, makes it easier for the customer to know whether this particular product is for them or not.
Some affiliates also provide bonuses for the customer to purchase through them. These bonuses are not an intrinsic part of an affiliate business but those affiliates who want to make big sales, would do this. And, again, the customers get benefits from this.
For The Affiliate
What the affiliate gains from this business is, as mentioned, extra income for doing something easy. And if it were done right, affiliates would gain a lot more than just ‘extra income’. They could run a profitable business by being an affiliate.
If the affiliate truly is serious about the online business and they dedicate themselves to it, they could learn to maybe one day become product vendors themselves. This is up to them, of course. They could just remain an affiliate and just grow their own reach if they choose to.
Cons
For The Product Vendor
Some affiliates, driven solely by making sales, would use false advertising to sell their products. They would sell the product more than what it actually is or maybe they promise things that the product can’t deliver.
This is something that the vendor doesn’t have full control of especially for products or promotions where a large number of affiliates are involved. They can monitor the advertising habits of the affiliates but not all, unfortunately, as that would require a large amount of energy.
When a customer is not happy with the product that doesn’t deliver what it is falsely promised, they would ask for refunds. Having a lot of refunds will truly hurt the business.
The damage done by false advertising is much more menacing than just giving refunds. The credibility of the vendor will be impaired. Their name will be tainted and they’ll be seen as swindlers.
For The Affiliate
The swindling game can go both ways. If an unfortunate affiliate were to take part in a program with a dishonest vendor, they will suffer losses.
These vendors would usually start an affiliate program and send out affiliates to make promotions and sales. Then, after all is done, they close down their business leaving the affiliates with no commission for all the sales that were made.
It’s hard to identify these dishonest vendors. It would require experience to know them. This business must be done with attentiveness and cautiousness to avoid this kind of vendors.
Conclusion
There are pros and cons in everything. And there will be dishonest people who take advantages of a lucrative and significant business such as the affiliate business.
These are the challenges that we must face (or avoid, in the case of swindlers) to achieve success. Even though it’s a great way to gain extra income, it still is hazardous. But for the potential of this particular business, all the efforts are going to be worth it.