What is the single worst piece of advice you have seen given to newcomers?
What's one contentious debate that never seems to end?
What's one opinion you held five years ago about affiliate marketing that you've completely changed your mind about?
Those were three of the ten questions we sent to five resources affiliates use daily. The other seven covered what the industry talks about too much and where our contributors think affiliates are getting it wrong.
We heard from:
- OfferVault
- Affiverse Media
- affLIFT
- mThink
- PALAI.media
Several contributors questioned the industry's focus on tools, automation, and producing more content, and discussed the fundamentals that still require experience: understanding traffic, offers, audiences, tracking, and relationships. There was also a recurring interest in what happens beyond the initial conversion. First-party data, email, retention, brand building, and owned audiences all appeared in the responses.
Since this is running on affLIFT, here's a quick look at one of Luke's takes.
Question: Which topic do you think the industry is talking about too much, and what is not discussed enough?
"We are probably talking too much about AI tools and not enough about what people are actually doing with them."
A few lines later, he puts it even more concisely: "Having access to AI is not a strategy."
The contributors don't always agree, which is to be expected when an offer marketplace, a network rankings publisher, a media outlet, a community forum, and an industry news site look at the same business. Side by side, though, their answers make some of the industry's frequent assumptions easier to question, especially around what has gotten easier and what hasn't.
Click here to read the full article.
