What Neil & Eric Think About Affiliate Marketing | Ep. #466

In Episode #466, Eric and Neil discuss what they think about affiliate marketing. Tune in to learn the pros and cons of affiliate marketing and why both Eric and Neil LOVE it.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • [00:27] – Today’s topic: What Neil & Eric Think About Affiliate Marketing
  • [00:35] – In general, Eric thinks that you are at a disadvantage if you start with affiliate marketing early
    • [00:40] – You’re collecting a percentage of the sales, so you need to perform up to 5x times better than the advertisers
    • [00:53] – Having a service or building a product is better/easier
  • [01:11] – Neil loves affiliate marketing
    • [01:28] – Neil would love affiliate people to work for him
    • [01:38] – They figure out ways to make things happen
  • [01:45] – Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to learn about the market
  • [02:12] – Eric loves affiliate marketers, but thinks of the long-term
  • [02:25] – Check out affiliate marketer conferences and network
  • [02:53] – Going to black hat SEO sites will let you know what people are up to
  • 03:20 – Marketing School is giving away 90-day FREE trial to Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool
  • [03:38] – That’s it for today’s episode!

3 Key Points:

  1. Getting into affiliate marketing will push you to perform better than the advertisers.
  2. Affiliate marketers figure out ways to make things happen and are always learning.
  3. Learning black hat SEO and doing it the white hat way can make you a better affiliate marketer.

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The post What Neil & Eric Think About Affiliate Marketing | Ep. #466 appeared first on Marketing School Podcast.

Full Transcript of The Episode

Announcer: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the gile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.

Neil Patel: I'm Neil Patel.

Eric Siu: Today, we are going to talk about what Neil and I think about affiliate marketing. I was actually just telling Neil about this a little earlier, but I do think that if you're in affiliate marketing, it's a great place to start, but, in general, you are disadvantaged, because think about it this way. With affiliate marketing, you're collecting a percentage of sales, so that might mean you need to perform two, three, four, five times better as an advertiser to make good money doing it. In my opinion, you're probably better off having a service, building a product, and going from there because your margins are going to be higher and it's going to be easier for you, too. With affiliate marketing, you competing with all these other affiliate marketers. They might be doing dirty stuff. Sometimes, you have to resort to shady stuff, too, to get ahead. I just don't think it's fun. I just don't like what it is in terms of long-term.

Neil Patel: I love affiliate marketing, and the reason I love it is because the people who are doing it, they have to learn. The ones who are succeeding, they have to learn how to be scrappy and creative marketers. Sure, a lot of them do unethical stuff, and I'm not saying you should do that, but what I mean when I say I love affiliate marketing is I love recruiting affiliates to work for me because if someone's that creative and scrappy, if I give them a real legitimate business, sure, some things may be harder, but they're not going to give up and they're going to try to figure out ways to make things happen even when the odds are going against you.

Eric Siu: I think it's also, I think when you think about marketing, I think affiliate marketing is probably one of the best ways to learn because you are forced to learn, for most people, most good affiliate marketers I know, they understand the disciplines around paid advertising, SEO, email marketing, copyrighting and things like that. You become a really well-rounded marketer. I'm just thinking for the long-term as an affiliate marketer, I don't think your prospects are as great as somebody that has their own service or their own products because, well, like I mentioned earlier, your margins are going to be higher and you're building a more sustainable business and things like that.
Don't get me wrong. I love affiliate marketers. I just think if you're tying to do it for the long-term, you got to keep moving up the ladder, you got to keep evolving. Start with affiliate marketing first. You're going to have a really good foundation, and then expand from there.

Neil Patel: Last, but not least, go to all the affiliate marketing conferences. People are talking about the new strategies that they're using. Whether you're into affiliate marketing or not, it doesn't matter. You'll learn a ton of new digital marketing tactics just by attending these events. There's Affiliate Summit. There's Affiliate World. They have different ones, like Affiliate World Asia, Affiliate World Europe, etc.

Eric Siu: You can start with the forums, too. I remember when I first started doing Internet marketing, I went to WickedFire all the time. It's like a Black Hattish forum or a Gray Hat you can say, and then you can also check out the Black Hat SEO site, just to see what people are talking about. Doesn't necessarily mean you have to try it, but learn. Get an idea of what these people are doing. Neil and I talked about Black Hat in the past. If you can think about doing Black Hat stuff in a White Hat way, guess what? You're going to be much stronger than those Black Hat tactics and strategies. I think there's a lot to learn from affiliate marketers. I've been to Affiliate Summit a couple times. Neil has, too. Really smart people there. Lots to learn, and stuff that you usually wouldn't see in other marketing conferences.
That's it for today, but before we go, we have a 90-day free trial of Crazy Egg to give to you. It's worth up to $3,000, and it's available to each and every one of you. No credit card required, so it should be a no-brainer. If you want to get access, just go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway, and we will see you tomorrow.

Announcer: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of, and don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.

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