Second Task - Affiliate Marketing

So, the second class focuses on Affiliate Marketing.

 According to Webopedia, a channel partner is:

The name used to describe a company that partners with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell the manufacturer's products, services, or technologies- usually through a co-branding relationship. Channel partners may be distributors, vendors, retailers, consultants, systems integrators (SI), technology deployment consultancies, and value-added resellers (VARs) and other organizations.

There are two main categories. Indirect and Direct Channel Partners:

Indirect

In this case, advertising is outsourced to third parties who will more actively carry out marketing tasks, but who also benefit from it.

There are four subcategories:

Lead: This is for large companies who want to expand their market. For example, Amazon, with its Associate programme allows for you to put a link on your site for their products. This is especially important for those who blog about books, who after reviewing one, will also put up a link and hope someone will make a purchase, from which the blogger will benefit

Selling: For companies which are incapable of managing a lot of orders by their own, they will let retailers, online stores e.t.c. handle the product and the product awareness so that they both benefit.

Service/ Support: Companies who do not specialise in a field will outsource work to other companies. Siemens, for example, has firms all over the world, but outsources the translation work it needs to local businesses.

Proxy: Applies mainly to franchises. Entrepreneurs would for example set up a McDonalds where they are sure they have a large target audience, and then bring the larger more publicity, while satisfying their own business needs.


Direct

Instead of having a third party helps customers acquite your product, with this method you would be more active in providing a consumer with what you offer.

Amazon can also be used for this, but instead of putting one of their banners on your site, you would, for example, use their store to sell your product. This means that you would put it up and be responsible for customer awareness. Amazon will handle the finances, but you would have to handle the individual orders.

 AdSense

This is one of the many Google tools to make money on a website. Using a hostsite for a blog, an AdSense generated advertisement can be placed within a website's homepage. These paid for ads usually appear within Google Search itself.

1. Setting up an advertisement is free, but costs will only come in once someone has clicked on the ad, known as Cost Per Click.

2. The Ads will only generate in relation to specific keywords, therefore raising their relevancy

3. Similar too the organic results from the Google Searchbar

4. These are not pop up ads, nor are they flashy or distracting.

5. As Google knows everything, it tries its best to tie ads to interests know of the consumer. Increasing the likelyhood that they will click on the ad.