It’s no secret that an affiliate‘s job is to capture an audience and direct them to purchase promoted products. Essentially, this means that most affiliates use standard practices. The primary variable is the channels that an affiliate uses.
What are the most common affiliate channels?
1. Influencers
Social media influencers are people who have a massive following and direct followers to purchase products. They advertise the products through posts on social media, blogs, and other platforms. In other words, an influencer is a person with the power to influence others into wanting and purchasing something.
An excellent example of an influencer is Kim Kardashian. Throughout her years of stardom, she has gained quite a cult following, which she can now prompt to purchase certain products that she advertises.
2. Bloggers
Bloggers are capable of ranking organically in searches, making them an excellent affiliate. They often sample a product and write a comprehensive review about it. That’s how they advertise products and drive traffic to the merchant’s website.
A good example of a successful blogger is Pat Flynn with his website smartpassiveincome.com. The author himself is a marketing guru. Therefore it is not surprising that he runs a very profitable blog.
3. Microsites
A microsite is a small bundle of webpages that belong to an entity or a brand but which acts separately from that brand’s main website. These days the internet is so oversaturated with content that it’s only natural for us to want concise and focused microdoses content. That’s exactly what microsites do.
An example of a genius microsite is Spotify’s YearInMusic.Spotify.com. It’s an interactive site that creates a recap of all the music you’ve listened to over the year, shows you your top artists, and how many hours you’ve spent listening to music. The content is personalized to every individual user, creating a unique experience for all.
4. Email Lists
It sounds like an outdated form of marketing, but it is still one of the most successful affiliate marketing sources. An entity that sends out content to its massive subscriber database is an excellent way to spread the word about something. The affiliate advertises the merchant’s product by adding a link in the email.
A successful example is the collaboration of Songkick and Spotify. Song kick sends out content to its email list, providing details about upcoming concerts while directing the audience to listen to that artist or band on Spotify.
5. Web Giants
These are big websites whose focus is to create a vast amount of constant traffic. The main aim is to build a massive audience and then promote products by adding banners or widgets on that site. This is a successful method that brings in revenue to both the merchant and the affiliate.
Youtube.com is a great example of that. It’s got over 2 billion users, promoting products and services by short advertisements between videos.
