Affiliate Marketing and Need for Innovation
Affiliate marketing gets a bad rap from a lot of people who have no idea what this business is about. Many think of us as spammers (not that there are not spammers among us). A lot of others think of affiliate marketing as their way to make millions of dollars from their bed, without having to actually do some work. In reality, affiliate marketing is easy to pick up and hard to master. Making your first $100 or $1000 is not going to be that difficult if you go with the basics. Making a living from selling other people’s products is another story.
In order to build a long term business promoting products online, affiliates need to innovate and continue to do so to stay competitive in this market. Let’s face it. There are plenty of unethical affiliate marketers out there. I am talking about those who will clone everything you have done without hesitation. There is nothing wrong with learning from other people’s strategies and implementing what has worked for them. It’s another thing to create copycat websites to take business away from other affiliates. A lot of people do it. While it’s not illegal per se, it does make it necessary for all affiliates to continue to innovate to set themselves apart from copycat artists.
Almost anything can be cloned in this business. Except your know-how and relationships. You can have the best affiliate website on the market. As soon as you start getting some recognition, a ton of people come out of woodwork with copies of your work. If you take time to invest in your business, build new products, and stay 3 steps ahead of copycat artists, you won’t have much to worry about. However, if you get comfortable, your business will fail over the long run.
Market leaders always have a distinct advantage over others in any market. Those who innovate, find new ways to build their business, and try new ideas and concepts have a better chance of making it than those who just look around to see what others are doing. That does not mean you should not learn from others’ work. But staying original does matter.
