Is Affiliate Marketing Dead in 2021? My Honest Thoughts
“Is affiliate marketing dead?”
“Is affiliate marketing still worth it?
I’ve always hated these questions, and I’ve been hearing them since 2007.
I hate these questions because they feel like excuses.
It’s kinda like seeing someone half-assing it at the gym. Then seeing them blame their gym equipment for their lack of results.
But now it’s 2021—things have changed over the years.
Beachhead Strategies: 4 Ways You Can Compete With a Smaller Budget
Running a business is like going to war.
Think about how many analogies in business came from the military: price wars, guerrilla marketing, strategic alliances, subordinates, chain of command, and much more.
I started studying military strategy for fun in college. I wish I could tell you some grandiose reason why, but the truth is I wanted to get better at playing StarCraft.
The 3 Types of Emails to Write in an Affiliate Marketing Email Funnel
Affiliate marketing has been relatively simple over the past decade.
You find a great offer, master one traffic source, and you find the right combination of creatives to run. You keep testing until profitability and scale it until the campaign dies.
That’s the theory, but these days, we all know that it’s a lot harder to execute than it sounds.
Stricter rules and regulations have made it harder to do non-compliant strategies. And the vast amount of spy tools almost makes the industry feel like a race to the bottom sometimes.
The Best Tools, Software, and Services in Affiliate Marketing [2019]
Using the right tools and software will help you become more efficient at running affiliate marketing campaigns.
The problem is that it feels like new tools are coming out on a weekly basis – it’s a pain trying to keep up with all of them.
How do you know which tool is worth your money? And if you’re new to the industry, how do you even know which tools you even need?
This is where I come in – I get access to free tools all the time and I love testing them. I’ve made it simple for you by telling you what’s the best.
Newbies, these things don’t really matter in affiliate marketing
One of my friends is an amazing chef.
I think he’d kill it if he were on top of those top chef TV shows.
A few years ago he decided to take a huge leap in his career – he was going to build his first restaurant from scratch.
Most new restaurants fail within a few years, so I told him I’d be here if he needed any advice. I don’t know anything about the restaurant industry, but I’m sure I could give him some marketing advice at least.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Affiliate Marketing [Part 2]
Affiliate marketing is always changing.
I’ve always said that this industry ages like a dog – a year here is like seven years out in the “real world.”
There are going to be new rules, regulations, market innovations, and increasing competition. All that added up means that what’s working now might not be working two years from now.
It’s natural to wonder what’s going to be hot. What’s the next big thing? If you can figure that out, then you can get a head start on everyone else.
How to Do Market Research For Affiliate Marketing Campaigns
“Know your enemy, and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster” – Sun Tzu
I love watching movies about war.
Everyone loves the action and the fighting scenes, right?
I’m kinda weird because I love everything that happens way before that.
I love when they’re sending out spies to learn more about the enemy. It’s fascinating to watch the leaders look at a map and devise a battle strategy.
Simple Optimization: Keep Moving Them Through the Funnel
A few weeks ago, I wrote how I create affiliate marketing angles in systems.
Campaigns can be chaotic and unpredictable. But thinking in systems can help you at least understand the processes more.
Besides angles, I believe that optimization is another area you should focus more when it comes to systemizing.
Profit More with an Angle Generation System
Finding your winning angle/ad could make the difference between a losing campaign and one that helps you escape cubicle nation.
You know what’s more important than a winning ad?
Developing a system that can replicate your results.
Great ads might last a few days or a few weeks. But the more people see your creatives, the lower your click-through rate over time due to banner blindness.
The Offer Payout and the Network EPC Doesn’t Matter
You’re about to launch a new affiliate campaign.
There are a ton of decisions you need to make, with one of the most important ones being which offers to test.
In a perfect world, you’d test every single offer out there. But you can’t do that because you’re limited by your budget and time.
If you’re interested in the car insurance lead gen space, you could have the option of promoting twenty different offers. You can’t test all 20 offers. Not enough time, not enough cash.
You need to be strategic.
