The Economy and Affiliate Marketing: Should You Worry?
By Kathy Jackson
The U.S. government has finally confirmed what we already knew: the U.S. economy is in a recession. The world economy is in a recession. Homes are being repossessed at an alarming rate. Banks are failing — BIG ones! The Big Three U.S. automakers are in deep financial doo-doo. Is the sky falling on affiliate marketing, too?
How does this brick-and-mortar recession affect business in cyberspace, particularly in the world of affiliate marketing? Well, the world economy is, of course, going to have an adverse effect on the Internet retail market.
If people have less money to spend on nonessential retail merchandise in the "real" world, they have less money to spend on
nonessential retail merchandise being sold on the Internet as well.Affiliate marketers who make their living selling luxury retail
merchandise are only going to suffer. There’s no doubt about it.
But the news isn’t all bad. The sky isn’t falling. First it’s important to get a handle on the REAL facts. With good information, you CAN recession-proof your affiliate marketing business.
The news screams that unemployment could reach 10 percent, and that’s bad; but that also means that 90 percent of the workforce still has a job.
A single-digit portion of homes are being foreclosed upon; but most homeowners are making their mortgage payments. Some banks are in trouble; hardly all banks are in trouble — just the really, really greedy ones — but credit can be difficult to obtain anyway. Isn’t it fortunate that affiliate marketers don’t rely heavily on credit?
It’s always been true that when a recession occurs, some types of businesses and some people suffer greatly, while others not only survive, but thrive.
Affiliate Marketing Is, by Nature, Somewhat Recession Proof!
Here are some facts:
Those who work for manufacturers and merchants out in the brickand-mortar world can be "laid off." But you are your own
employer. You aren’t going to get laid off; you have a job
Those who own small brick-and-mortar business must depend on walk-in traffic. But as an affiliate marketer, the entire world
is your marketplace.
Your customer base is much, much larger than that of the proprietor of a small real-world business.
Out in the "real" world, rents can increase to the point that a business can no longer afford space to conduct business. But
the price of maintaining your affiliate marketing business address isn’t going to increase at all.
Fuel prices could rise high enough to make it impossible for people to drive to and from a job. But affiliate marketing is
done at home.
All of the equipment needed to conduct an affiliate marketing business is a computer, an Internet connection, a telephone
line, and electrical service. That’s it.
With just those four things and the information that you have in your own mind, you have the ability to earn a living.
For affiliate marketers, the sky is NOT falling. However, you must…
Diversify! Diversify! Diversify!
Relying entirely upon retail sales commissions could leave you in an affiliate marketing bind, because retail sales are very
likely going to decrease.
But as retail sales decrease, other sales are going to increase.
People will still spend money online. One thing that people will buy is information. What kinds of information, you ask?
-Information about money management
-Information about making money online
-Information about debt consolidation
-Information about lowering insurance costs
-Information about saving fuel
-Information about starting their own affiliate marketing business
-Information about online education opportunities
Also, businesses that have an Internet presence are still going to be paying for leads. You don’t have to make a sale to get
paid for a lead.
All your website visitor must do is complete an action (fill out a form or an application) on the vendor’s website for you to make a commission.
-Financial institutions pay for leads.
-Insurance companies pay for leads.
And hundreds of other types of businesses pay for leads. Remember this fact: When consumers "cut back" because of a
recession, they cut back on luxury items — not necessities. If your affiliate marketing business sells ONLY such items as
Playstation 3, you need to branch out and include items that people MUST have. Think food, clothing, health care, etc.
Advertise with Recession in Mind
If your advertising is focused on promoting ease of use or convenience of a product, change the focus of the advertising
and promote such advantages as:
-The payment plan offered
-The ironclad guarantee
-The long life expectancy of the product
-The way the product can SAVE money for the customer.
-Quality, quality, quality!
-Quality coupled with a low price
-Free shipping
-Overall value of the product
When consumers tighten the financial purse strings, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to purchase anything at all. It means that the selling points that will convince them to buy have changed.
The fact is that most people today check online before they make a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store. So, as an affiliate marketer, you get first crack at the customer. Take full advantage of that first opportunity. Hit the selling points that the customer is looking for now BECAUSE of the recession.
Continue to Advertise
The "advertising pays" admonishment of old is still viable today, even in the slowing economy…actually, ESPECIALLY in the
slowing economy!
There’s not much doubt that you are going to be tempted to cut your advertising budget to the bone. That’s a mistake that many
businesses, both online and off, make when the economy takes a downturn.
The marketing budget is usually one of the first things to be reduced when businesses begin searching for ways to cut expenses. But according to research, a marketing budget is directly proportional to a business’s gross revenue.
Basically, what all of the research tells us is that if you cut your advertising budget, you are automatically reducing your gross sales figures.
Therefore, advertising is the wrong place to cut your expenses. Find another way to cut corners. If customers can’t find you, they can’t buy from you.
Stretch Your Advertising Dollars
You shouldn’t spend less on your advertising through this recession, but you should spend your advertising dollars more wisely. You need to get the most bang for your buck!
Take a long, hard look at your ROI and determine what parts of your advertising are the most effective. Find out what advertising most often converts.
When you determine what advertising strategies are working and which are not, shift your advertising dollars to the most advantageous advertising venues.
You need to go against your first instinct. Rather than cutting your expense, but advertising budget, you need to increase it, if you can. Look at your advertising budget not as an overhead expense, but rather as an investment in your success.
Concentrate effort on boosting the effectiveness of your advertising by doing the following:
-Networking
-Offering customer incentive programs
-Offering customer loyalty programs
Should Affiliate Marketers Worry about a Worldwide Recession?
Well, I’m really good at worrying, so I hate to pass up such a good opportunity. However, I honestly do not think that as affiliate marketers we have a lot to worry about — as long as we make a plan and follow through.
But we DO need a plan.
- We must diversify. We need to represent and promote a variety of products that people NEED, rather than luxury items that they simply want
- We must change our advertising focus to necessity.
-We must keep on advertising
-We must make our advertising dollars stretch as far as they will go.
The Outlook for 2009 and Beyond
A few affiliate marketing storm clouds will gather from time to time — remember the CAN-SPAM Act and how everybody was certain it was the end of affiliate marketing as we knew it?
That turned out okay. CAN-SPAM actually helped affiliate marketers.
I have no doubt that affiliate marketers will face all sorts of "booger bears" in the coming years, but I don’t think that this recession is one of them.
In short, the sky is not falling!
In fact, I believe that this world wide recession can actually become a real BOON to affiliate marketers in 2009 — and maybe even far into the distant future.
About the Author
Kathy Jackson is a Texas rancher and a contributing author for several farm and ranch publications. She is also an experienced freelance writer of email newsletters, review copy, educational materials, and blog posts on a wide variety of topics, including many aspects of online business and affiliate marketing. Internet marketing is one of Kathy’s burning interests. You can read some of Kathy’s articles on the Affiliate . She can be Classroom Blog at http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com contacted via email at jacksokathy@gmail.com
Affiliate Program information Related
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The Economy and Affiliate Marketing: Should You Worry?
The Economy and Affiliate Marketing: Should You Worry?
By Kathy Jackson
The U.S. government has finally confirmed what we already knew: the U.S. economy is in a recession. The world economy is in a recession. Homes are being repossessed at an alarming rate. Banks are failing — BIG ones! The Big Three U.S. automakers are in deep financial doo-doo. Is the sky falling on affiliate marketing, too?
How does this brick-and-mortar recession affect business in cyberspace, particularly in the world of affiliate marketing? Well, the world economy is, of course, going to have an adverse effect on the Internet retail market.
If people have less money to spend on nonessential retail merchandise in the "real" world, they have less money to spend on
nonessential retail merchandise being sold on the Internet as well.Affiliate marketers who make their living selling luxury retail
merchandise are only going to suffer. There’s no doubt about it.
But the news isn’t all bad. The sky isn’t falling. First it’s important to get a handle on the REAL facts. With good information, you CAN recession-proof your affiliate marketing business.
The news screams that unemployment could reach 10 percent, and that’s bad; but that also means that 90 percent of the workforce still has a job.
A single-digit portion of homes are being foreclosed upon; but most homeowners are making their mortgage payments. Some banks are in trouble; hardly all banks are in trouble — just the really, really greedy ones — but credit can be difficult to obtain anyway. Isn’t it fortunate that affiliate marketers don’t rely heavily on credit?
It’s always been true that when a recession occurs, some types of businesses and some people suffer greatly, while others not only survive, but thrive.
Affiliate Marketing Is, by Nature, Somewhat Recession Proof!
Here are some facts:
Those who work for manufacturers and merchants out in the brickand-mortar world can be "laid off." But you are your own
employer. You aren’t going to get laid off; you have a job
Those who own small brick-and-mortar business must depend on walk-in traffic. But as an affiliate marketer, the entire world
is your marketplace.
Your customer base is much, much larger than that of the proprietor of a small real-world business.
Out in the "real" world, rents can increase to the point that a business can no longer afford space to conduct business. But
the price of maintaining your affiliate marketing business address isn’t going to increase at all.
Fuel prices could rise high enough to make it impossible for people to drive to and from a job. But affiliate marketing is
done at home.
All of the equipment needed to conduct an affiliate marketing business is a computer, an Internet connection, a telephone
line, and electrical service. That’s it.
With just those four things and the information that you have in your own mind, you have the ability to earn a living.
For affiliate marketers, the sky is NOT falling. However, you must…
Diversify! Diversify! Diversify!
Relying entirely upon retail sales commissions could leave you in an affiliate marketing bind, because retail sales are very
likely going to decrease.
But as retail sales decrease, other sales are going to increase.
People will still spend money online. One thing that people will buy is information. What kinds of information, you ask?
-Information about money management
-Information about making money online
-Information about debt consolidation
-Information about lowering insurance costs
-Information about saving fuel
-Information about starting their own affiliate marketing business
-Information about online education opportunities
Also, businesses that have an Internet presence are still going to be paying for leads. You don’t have to make a sale to get
paid for a lead.
All your website visitor must do is complete an action (fill out a form or an application) on the vendor’s website for you to make a commission.
-Financial institutions pay for leads.
-Insurance companies pay for leads.
And hundreds of other types of businesses pay for leads. Remember this fact: When consumers "cut back" because of a
recession, they cut back on luxury items — not necessities. If your affiliate marketing business sells ONLY such items as
Playstation 3, you need to branch out and include items that people MUST have. Think food, clothing, health care, etc.
Advertise with Recession in Mind
If your advertising is focused on promoting ease of use or convenience of a product, change the focus of the advertising
and promote such advantages as:
-The payment plan offered
-The ironclad guarantee
-The long life expectancy of the product
-The way the product can SAVE money for the customer.
-Quality, quality, quality!
-Quality coupled with a low price
-Free shipping
-Overall value of the product
When consumers tighten the financial purse strings, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to purchase anything at all. It means that the selling points that will convince them to buy have changed.
The fact is that most people today check online before they make a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store. So, as an affiliate marketer, you get first crack at the customer. Take full advantage of that first opportunity. Hit the selling points that the customer is looking for now BECAUSE of the recession.
Continue to Advertise
The "advertising pays" admonishment of old is still viable today, even in the slowing economy…actually, ESPECIALLY in the
slowing economy!
There’s not much doubt that you are going to be tempted to cut your advertising budget to the bone. That’s a mistake that many
businesses, both online and off, make when the economy takes a downturn.
The marketing budget is usually one of the first things to be reduced when businesses begin searching for ways to cut expenses. But according to research, a marketing budget is directly proportional to a business’s gross revenue.
Basically, what all of the research tells us is that if you cut your advertising budget, you are automatically reducing your gross sales figures.
Therefore, advertising is the wrong place to cut your expenses. Find another way to cut corners. If customers can’t find you, they can’t buy from you.
Stretch Your Advertising Dollars
You shouldn’t spend less on your advertising through this recession, but you should spend your advertising dollars more wisely. You need to get the most bang for your buck!
Take a long, hard look at your ROI and determine what parts of your advertising are the most effective. Find out what advertising most often converts.
When you determine what advertising strategies are working and which are not, shift your advertising dollars to the most advantageous advertising venues.
You need to go against your first instinct. Rather than cutting your expense, but advertising budget, you need to increase it, if you can. Look at your advertising budget not as an overhead expense, but rather as an investment in your success.
Concentrate effort on boosting the effectiveness of your advertising by doing the following:
-Networking
-Offering customer incentive programs
-Offering customer loyalty programs
Should Affiliate Marketers Worry about a Worldwide Recession?
Well, I’m really good at worrying, so I hate to pass up such a good opportunity. However, I honestly do not think that as affiliate marketers we have a lot to worry about — as long as we make a plan and follow through.
But we DO need a plan.
- We must diversify. We need to represent and promote a variety of products that people NEED, rather than luxury items that they simply want
- We must change our advertising focus to necessity.
-We must keep on advertising
-We must make our advertising dollars stretch as far as they will go.
The Outlook for 2009 and Beyond
A few affiliate marketing storm clouds will gather from time to time — remember the CAN-SPAM Act and how everybody was certain it was the end of affiliate marketing as we knew it?
That turned out okay. CAN-SPAM actually helped affiliate marketers.
I have no doubt that affiliate marketers will face all sorts of "booger bears" in the coming years, but I don’t think that this recession is one of them.
In short, the sky is not falling!
In fact, I believe that this world wide recession can actually become a real BOON to affiliate marketers in 2009 — and maybe even far into the distant future.
About the Author
Kathy Jackson is a Texas rancher and a contributing author for several farm and ranch publications. She is also an experienced freelance writer of email newsletters, review copy, educational materials, and blog posts on a wide variety of topics, including many aspects of online business and affiliate marketing. Internet marketing is one of Kathy’s burning interests. You can read some of Kathy’s articles on the Affiliate . She can be Classroom Blog at http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com contacted via email at jacksokathy@gmail.com
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