Income/affiliate websites have gone through a series of iterations to keep pace with the rapidly evolving “web”.
What used to be a simple “content” website must now include branding elements to ensure people can attribute your underlying value with a SOCIAL following.
In fact, “SOCIAL” has really been a game changer when it comes to the internet. It’s no longer worth being an anonymous avatar hiding behind a nondescript username: you really need the skin in-game; which essentially means using your own name/face to promote the ideas you present with your sites. The relationships obtained through this approach is where the value lies.
Obviously using your own name opens you up to competition…but the trick now is to make sure people have MORE reasons to use your content/services than anyone else’s. This comes from posting TRULY sublime stuff or focusing on creating as BRILLIANT a service as humanly possible. The last (service) is where “price comparison” affiliate sites come into play.
Affiliate Marketing = 110% Give, 1% Receive
To fully appreciate how this works, you need to understand that in order to “make” money, there are TWO things you need:
- Listening – a group of people who actively participate in an activity (HINT: MOST people will gladly “try” something new if it inspires them)
- Product – something said that people would be willing to BUY (HINT: NEVER worry about the product. The product will “sell” only if it is good)
The way “affiliate” marketing works is where you will “recommend” a product to an audience and if any of them buy it, you will receive a share of the profits.
The problem with affiliate marketing is that it has spawned a large number of “skim” marketers; who don’t really “do” anything other than promote the next FAD product (diet pills/live chat/gambling/betting etc) and go out of their way to get people to sign up.
The problem with this is that while it “works”, it is NOT sustainable in the long run, and leaves many people HATED the hyperbolic tactics used to trick them into buying things they don’t need.
The KEY to creating sustainable/profitable “affiliate” marketing income is to focus on GIVING up front. Yes, it’s clichéd and many would say relatively ineffective, but it does have ONE underlying benefit: it builds an audience. This audience (and the depth of their relationship) is where the growth of an online “business” really comes from.
The level at which you can provide insights, solutions, or underlying benefits to a particular audience is how much they will reward you with revenue. The only way to do this is to forget about yourself and identify a “service” through which you can determine the
Affiliate Price Comparison Sites
The most important thing to consider regarding how “affiliate” sites work is that there are pretty much 3 types of sites you can create (each varying in difficulty):
- content sites (pure content sites focused on providing specific articles to solve problems from people who may be searching through Google, etc.)
- community sites (blogs etc. generally focused on providing lifestyle focused solutions // content, connectivity etc.)
- product sites (in focus any about product review, product discussion, or product dissection/industry news)
Now the key to all of this is that the effectiveness of each of the above is generally measured by how deep your relationship with the reader/buyer becomes. This is the secret ingredient where “SOCIAL” comes in.
In terms of why this is important, it’s vital to appreciate that if you’re looking to start making money online, one of the EASIEST ways to do it is to deal with products that are *ALREADY* selling. This used to be done by creating “review” websites and trying to rank them on Google.
While this worked, the big problem was that 1) the sites themselves were very “THIN” (had no real resonance) 2) they relied on a SINGLE source of traffic (mostly Google).
Without the MASSIVE appeal of Google, most “review” sites would never get any traffic. People used them because they had no choice… but with the “social” web (Trustpilot/Yelp/Twitter/FB/YouTube), most people now have a CHOICE on where to find information about the products they might want. to buy, which means that if you want to “capture” some of this HUGE amount of traffic, you need to offer a compelling reason for people to actually see what you’re producing. This is where “price comparison” affiliate sites come in.
Price comparison sites have been around for a LONG time; If you’ve ever purchased insurance, personal finance, real estate, flights, hotels, or other packages online, you’ve likely used websites that essentially “tailor” product results to the criteria you submit. THIS is (partly) what the price comparison functionality is all about: giving people the opportunity to discern EXACTLY which products, prices and vendors would be best for them.
This functionality is in the crucible of what I’ve been working on, regarding “affiliate” price comparison sites…
Putting VENDORS AND PRODUCTS First
The “new” affiliate price comparison model is actually very simple…
Create a website with a CORE focus on the most STAFF solutions in an industry… and then track their prices from *ALL* vendors
The way it works is very similar to many of the older “affiliate” systems we’ve used in the past (review sites), except the central point of value is that it gives the consumer a full overview of what the “better” products. they are for a particular problem/problem/solution.
You cut out the rumors and speculation (nobody wants to hear your life story, they really only care about themselves), you start cultivating a “following” through social media.
If you don’t provide a service, or are looking to do something to earn money, working with PRODUCT PROMOTION online is one of the most effective things you can do. However, to do this effectively requires MORE than just posting a one-sided “review” about the features of a product that *may* be effective. You should appreciate the *depth* you can imbue into the service. This is what the new “comparison pricing” model does.
The “new” price comparison sites I’ve been working with for the past couple of years are focused on providing a single SERVICE through which users can experience exactly what they want without having to search through a plethora of text to get it. .
It simply provides users with a central “system” through which they can identify the “best” products in a marketplace and view their historical prices across a large number of vendors. These prices can be obtained from native API integrations or simply from “web scraping” (essentially how Google gets all of your data). While this has been done thousands of times before, the problem with *MOST* “comparison” sites is that that’s all they offer.
What we found was that when you combine an effective service, the ability to dig into someone’s wishes and address them, with the ability to compare their requirements with products that actually work, you have a resource that many people end up wanting to use. . If you can combine this with a decent “social” presence, you will be able to trade any “market” with authority and seriousness.
Get in front of the “right” traffic
To sum it up, the BIGGEST problem for people starting a business is lack of footfall/traffic/performance.
While this isn’t a problem for the “smart” ones who build a business step by step over time, it *is* a problem for those with no real direction (they end up jumping from project to project).
The absolute key to making any type of “business” work (both offline and online) is to get in front of the “right” traffic.
To do this, you basically need to turn the problem around and focus on creating “content” that you share on a variety of platforms (Google/Twitter/FB/YouTube, etc.) through which people can come and visit your ” site” for information on additional steps they can take to deal with what you have/know.
The most effective way to do this is to show what you can DO on the “social” web (if you “review” the products, actually go out of your way to videotape the results of how the products work)… after To do that, then you need to create some kind of resource that is so powerful that they will actually want to click and consider what you have to say.
The best way to do this is to create a compelling “resource” through which readers gain access to information they will NEVER get anywhere else. This is done primarily by creating an effective service through which people can identify the products and vendors they want to deal with. If you do this effectively, you will earn income by virtue of anyone buying the products you recommend on your site.
