Affiliate Marketing Supplement in NMA - Disappointing
Last week, New Media Age magazine published a pull-out supplement dedicated to Affiliate Marketing. Good news, especially as the author had been on the A4U forum asking for input for the article etc. However, imagine my disappointment when I read the supplement to find it barely even scratched the surface of AM.
Foe example, given that the magazine is aimed at “New Media Professionals” then why was it such a very basic introduction to the world of AM? With sales from UK Affiliate Networks valued at £1.35 bn in 2005 - yes that’s *£1.35 BILLION pounds* then don’t they think that anyone even remotely connected to e-commerce is aware of AM? Even this article that appeared in the September 2004 issue of Internet Works magazine covered pretty much the same ground.
But what really annoyed me is that fact that not one affiliate was quoted in the whole supplement. Not one. Instead the same old names from the same old Affiliate Networks were wheeled out to give the same old speech on why Affiliate Marketing is a “cost effective route to market” etc etc. They even trundled out the good old Apple Store affiliate program as a case study. Yawn.
I mean come on guys, an article on AFFILIATE Marketing without any input from AFFILIATES? Does anybody notice the big gap here?
I’m sorry but in my view the whole article was just an excuse to charge advertisers (i.e. affiliate networks and agencies) double the standard rate card to advertise their services in a supplement that was aimed at their “target audience”. Call me cynical but it was either that or the biggest example I’ve seen of lazy journalism in a long, long time.
What I’m listening to right now: Brian McKnight - “Gemini”
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
April 9th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Hi Kieron!
I agree with your post completely! I picked up my copy of NMA excited by the pull out supplement, first thing I opened up to read - but really, it didn’t add anything new to my basic understanding of affiliate marketing - very disappointing!
Why don’t you write a letter to NMA with your thoughts - it may get published!
Better still - why don’t you write a series of articles and put them together to form a complete affiliate marketing handout!
Natalie (from your favourite web design company elaborations
PS. Loving your blog - keep up the good work!
April 18th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I have never read a good article on affiliate marketing or making money with Adsense in the main stream press (maybe I just don’t read enough).
Most articles are written like that it is so easy to make bucket loads of money on the internet. They also focus on one-hit-wonders like the milliondollar page.