Is there a problem with affiliate marketing? It could be a problem if it’s not approached in the right manner.

Disclaimer

I’m not an affiliate marketer. I do not have extensive experience to give you an in-depth view of affiliate marketing. This video is purely a discussion about my thoughts on affiliate marketing.

The salesperson in disguise?

My understanding of affiliate marketing: to put it simply, you are a sales person that gets paid a commission after every sale you make. Enough said? Makes sense? This process in itself is not a deceitful one.

A good majority of affiliate marketing now happens throughout social media channels (especially video marketing on You Tube).  It is obvious that social media is social in nature. Others have described it as like attending a party.  The problem begins when someone tries to sell you something while you are trying to have a good time at the party. It doesn’t end well!

That last thing you want is to be sold to. This is simply not the right environment for obvious sales pitches. Therefore, if you want to promote without selling you need to drop the sales pitch. But what about the hidden salesperson?

Honesty and the FTC

In 2009, the FTC imposed a regulation that required all Internet marketers to be upfront when they promote a product for which they would get a commission for. Is this a good move? Definitely! How would you feel if a friend of yours could not stop talking about a product when you later find out that they were paid a commission to promote it to you? Would you feel betrayed? Lied to? Would the circumstance change if they were upfront from the beginning?

Affiliate marketing with video

I want to take this further and talk about video and affiliate marketing.

From what I understand, to become a successful video marketer/internet marketer, you need your audience to perceive you as an honest and genuine person.  You need to know your audience and know how to relate to your audience.

If you are going to put your face on video and promote a product then = you need to believe in it.  Go for quality, not quanity. It’s not fair on your audience if you pitch them stuff all the time. You will be tagged as a salesperson after a quick dollar. If you are going to promote a product, be very selective with your choice. Consider promoting a product that you know well and that you would perhaps promote anyway without being compensated for.

What do you think? Do you agree with my statement? What’s your experience with affiliate marketing? Comments are always welcome

I understand this topic is heartbreaking if you are new to video marketing (I know what it’s like!). Perhaps you’ve just worked up the courage to put your face on camera. You finally uploaded the video only to get appalling results, and you’re ready to throw in the towel.  If you only achieved 10 or 20 views to your video after you put your heart and soul into it, how do you feel? Perhaps you even spent money and hired a team to produce a professional video.

Your video probably rocks

The fact is, your video is more than likely ….. awesome. If it was uploaded to an account that was already established in your niche, then it would rate well. But the issue is, YouTube viewers aren’t finding it, and it’s destroying you. What do you do now?

Patience is key

I think we need to understand that our very first clip is probably not going to get results straight away. We need to be patient and have an understanding that video marketing is not an overnight process. Viral videos can happen, but they can’t be predicted. We need to understand that marketing our video is a much longer process than we originally perceived.

Everyone loves free content

In order to get long term results, we need to create a number of different videos sharing lots of free information. Remember, in today’s world of information marketing, over delivering on free information is in, and selling is out.  Once you produce a few videos, start interacting with the community and get plenty of feedback. That will be a good indication of what content you should cover next.

Grab your handy cam and start recording!

If you have created a lengthy video and paid through the roof for it, don’t be disheartened. Ask your editor to get the footage cut into shorter segments. Have a go for yourself. Get out the handy cam that’s probably gathering dust in the cupboard, have a bit of fun and put together something that’s going to work for you. Remember, the process should be enjoyable. It’s about sharing your passion with your audience.

How successful was your first video? What mistakes have you learnt from? I encourage you to comment and share your thoughts below.

Show notes:

In this video I discuss the idea of calling yourself an expert without having proof to back you up. Now I’m sorry if I’m sounding like I’m a little condescending (I don’t mean to be!). I’ve just been a little bit frustrated with Internet Marketers putting up websites and calling themselves experts without any substantial proof  or results to back them up.

Here are some of the important points:

• Don’t ever call yourself a guru or expert unless you can back yourself up (otherwise you’ll be very transparent).
• Let your audience call you it first, and then you will have quotable sources (and hopefully proven success in your field).
• Don’t get this confused with wanting to be an expert, it’s okay to be one in the making!

What’s your opinion? How long has it taken you to get established and recognised as an expert in your market? What steps did you follow? I’d love for you to share!

Video Show Notes:

I’m learning:

• How the length of your video will impact your video results.
• Why you need to be clear and concise in order to capture your viewer’s limited attention span!
• Why it’s important to cater to people with slower Internet speeds, because they aren’t going to want to wait!
• Why it’s crutical to build a following first before feeding them a long video (my bad!)

Links:

• YouTube Stastics from mediatedcultures.net

Video Show Notes:

During one of my days of creative freedom, I decided to take a drive up to Mount Glourious in Brisbane. Taking with me was my video camera, tripod and a page of notes with a faint idea about creating a video blog about marketing. This is how the following blog was born.

In this video, I discussed:

• The importance of taking time out of your busy schedule to make time for your creative expression.
• How I find video marketing fascinating, now that a much larger population has access to high speed Internet connections (unfortunately that’s no longer me!).
• If we know what steps to take, then we can attract television like audiences to our online videos.
• We can attract a far more targeted audience using the right keywords (long tail keywords).
• My challenge, that being to learn as much as possible and share what I learn.

The challenge now begins. Well, I have a lot of study ahead of me! Please comment, ask questions and help me ensure that I’m on the right track!