Industry Trends, Legal, International

Online marketing for merchants can be a complex business with many moving parts. One of the best ways to simplify it is to regard it as being built upon a few fundamental building blocks. George Hansen, director of sales and business development with Digital River, recently shared with us some key pointers to establishing and maintaining a successful affiliate channel.

Revenue Performance: Are there any particular macro-level trends that you see happening within online marketing?

Today Facebook announced that it now has over 500 million registered users, an increase of some 100 million in the last five months, and of 400 million in the last two years. Mark Zuckerberg has already told us that it is "almost guaranteed" that the site will eventually reach a billion users, but with no indication of when he thinks that might happen.

The winners in the online marketing space have always been the fast movers. Quick and agile people who see an opportunity and have the motivation and resources to act rapidly. But as we’re seeing in the mobile marketplace right now, new opportunities are being fenced in by the biggest companies who control the platforms. In the evolving world of online advertising, the big beasts are making their presence felt.

Consider three data points:

Will fraud kill affiliate marketing?

It is up to you. You choose.

But here’s a clue: the BP oil spill probably just killed the Louisiana wetlands. I think we should take that as a warning of just what can happen.

The affiliate marketing industry is an ecosystem. It consists of a web of interdependent species: affiliates, merchants, networks, merchant processors, etc. Sometimes they compete, sometimes they are symbiotic. But they all rely on each other for survival.

The recent discussion of the importance of brand to CPA network survival generated a fair amount of feedback. For an industry rooted in performance, where everything is measurable, the idea that product functions and features aren’t all important is a hard one to accept.

But it’s true. Let’s look at exactly why that is.

We’ll use Adam Viener’s post on WiseAff as a starting point.