Many marketers have some confusion around whether or not they should be using a publisher to advertise their products. In this article we'll explain exactly how publishers differ from affiliates so that you can make your decision with certainty.
We've already covered several articles on different topics related to affiliate marketing here at MakeUseOf but one thing I haven't touched upon yet is the difference between advertisers and publishers in affiliate marketing. So let's dive right into that topic now.
An affiliate marketer works by promoting other people's products to earn commissions. An advertiser does this directly themselves without having to find any affiliates. To do this though, both parties need to agree to work together.
Advertisers usually pay per click (PPC) while affiliates typically get paid based on sales generated. The reason why these two methods are used rather than just PPC alone is because when working with affiliates, the advertiser doesn't want to lose money if no clicks happen. Therefore, the advertiser needs to know if someone actually clicked through after viewing the ad which requires them paying out commission to each affiliate involved.
Publishers, on the other hand, aren't always looking for new customers. Instead, they might simply want to promote certain content to grow their own audience or increase traffic to their site.
The main distinction between the two is that an advertiser has to rely on third-party services to help drive traffic to their website whereas a publisher only needs to provide relevant information to consumers - even if those consumers don't end up buying anything.
One way to think of publishers is that they're similar to affiliates except instead of driving traffic to another person's product, they are helping to create awareness for businesses online. For example, a web hosting company may hire a few writers to write blog posts about how great their service is. These authors would then use the name of the hosting company within their bio section as well as link back to its homepage.
This wouldn't count as affiliate marketing since the writer isn't getting compensation from anyone else besides the hosting company. But it certainly counts as creating interest in something that could lead to future business.
If the author were then hired by another company offering web design services, he/she could potentially refer clients there too. It also means that the hosting company didn't have to spend any extra cash to boost exposure either.
Another example is a video game developer hiring YouTubers to review games before release. If viewers enjoy watching these videos, they may become interested enough to buy the game once released. A YouTube channel would likely offer links back to the developers' websites where potential buyers can purchase copies of the game.
Again, none of this would qualify as affiliate marketing. However, it shows the power of social media and how it helps to build brand recognition.
What is the difference between publisher and advertiser in affiliate marketing?
In reality, there isn't much difference between the roles of an advertiser and a publisher. Both perform essentially the same tasks. They share similarities such as needing to reach a large number of people quickly and being able to track results. Publishers often take advantage of tools designed specifically for this purpose.
However, there are also key distinctions that separate the jobs of the two. One important factor is that advertisers normally choose to work with specific companies. While publishers can sometimes accept advertising contracts, most prefer to focus solely on providing informative material.
Furthermore, advertisers must decide whether to pay per click (PPC), pay per impression (PPI), or pay per conversion (PPC). Publishers, on the other hand, can opt to receive payment depending on the amount of visitors gained through their site. Most sites charge roughly $1-$2 per visitor in order to cover costs and keep things fair. Affiliates generally receive revenue shares of 40% to 60%.
It gets trickier when considering ads placed by brands themselves versus sponsored content. Some brands will employ bloggers to produce high quality content in exchange for free samples and promotional materials. Others will place ads on blogs owned by their competitors or try to bribe influencers to publish positive reviews of their products.
These tactics are considered unethical and illegal respectively. As far as ethical practices go, many reputable publishers still refuse to run ads for brands unless they come to terms with the publication first.
There are plenty of opportunities available for publishers today thanks to the growth of social networks. Many publishers start off making small amounts of income via Google AdSense, Facebook Ads, Twitter Sponsorships, and Amazon Associates. Once they've built up a following, they'll consider taking on bigger projects including writing ebooks, selling merchandise, running contests, or doing consulting gigs.
As mentioned earlier, the majority of publishers operate under the banner of "content farms". Content farm refers to organizations that generate massive quantities of low-quality content in return for little to nothing. Sites like HubPages, Squidoo, and EzineArticles fall into this category. Unfortunately, there's no real solution to stop these kinds of sites from operating. And although there are rules set forth by major search engines like Google, they can easily violate these rules whenever necessary.
But the good news is that legitimate publishers can flourish without becoming part of a content farm. When choosing a niche, look for areas that are trending and populated with passionate users willing to discuss whatever subject matter you care about. There's a lot of room to succeed if you stick with publishing helpful resources over time.
Affiliate marketing is definitely one area of internet marketing that continues to evolve. With the rise of social networking platforms, the lines between advertisers and publishers continue blurring. Hopefully this guide gives you a better idea of how the process works so that you feel comfortable jumping right in.
What is advertising
Advertising, when used correctly, is a powerful tool for building traffic and increasing sales of any product or service. It's also one of the most misunderstood components of online business.
The main problem with ads on websites is that many people think that "advertising" means paying money directly to the website owner (the publisher). However, this isn't what "advertising" actually refers to. The word "advertiser," which is synonymous with "publisher," describes someone who advertises something else by placing advertisements elsewhere.
A company that engages in advertising is called a brand-name advertiser.
An individual or organization that places advertisements anywhere other than on its own site is called a nonbrand-name advertiser.
This distinction has important implications for anyone involved in internet marketing because if you're going to use paid links to drive traffic to another web property, you need to know where those links are coming from. If you don't pay attention to the source of these links, you might end up inadvertently driving customers away instead of bringing them into your site.
In order to understand why advertisers aren't necessarily bad guys, let's take a look at the role each player plays in affiliate marketing:
You might have heard the term "publisher" thrown around quite often. But do you know that this word can be used to refer to many different roles within your online business? Or even outside of it?
It's true -- there are actually two distinct meanings for the word "publisher". One meaning refers to someone who owns or operates their own website, blog, podcast, forum, etc., while another one describes the role of an intermediary between a third-party (an advertiser) and potential customers.
So, if we're going by these definitions alone, then which one should you focus on when building out your content strategies? Well, let me tell you something right off the bat... both are important! And I'll explain why later in the article. But first, here are some key points to keep in mind when deciding how to best position yourself with each type of person involved.
The biggest difference between an advertiser and an affiliate is that the former has direct contact with its end users/customers. An advertiser pays money directly into the pocket of a specific individual or company. In return, they receive access to certain products and services. The relationship between them is usually long-term and mutually beneficial.
On the other hand, affiliates don't need any kind of physical connection to their consumers. They just provide links to websites where people can buy things from. There may also be additional requirements such as signing up for a newsletter or subscribing to an email list so that the consumer receives regular updates on new offers and promotions. As such, the relationship between an affiliate and his audience is much shorter than that between an advertiser and theirs.
When referring to publishers, you simply mean those individuals or companies operating platforms that allow others to advertise through them. This includes social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and Google AdWords. These publishers act as middlemen between advertisers and audiences.
They offer various ways for advertisers to reach their target audience including search engine optimization, video ads, display ads, paid posts, etc. When choosing an option, it helps to consider how well matched your brand and product are with their platform. It does not matter whether you're an influencer, blogger, podcaster, entrepreneur, small business owner, or anyone else. All you really need is a good idea and a solid strategy to get started.
As far as advertisers go, they pay money to use the service provided by publishers. Publishers charge fees based on how many times a user clicks on their ad, shares it on social media, converts into sales, etc. Some publishers require that you promote only their own branded merchandise or services. Others welcome everyone regardless of affiliation. You must choose wisely though because once you've invested time and resources into promoting an advertisement, it becomes difficult to reverse course.
For example, if you were to spend $100 on creating a sponsored tweet, but the customer never buys anything after clicking on it, you'd lose your entire investment. On the other hand, if you spent the same amount promoting a product that was already popular among your followers, chances are high that at least some of them would purchase it.
This answer depends entirely on your industry and personal preferences. While most affiliate marketers tend to prefer working with brands rather than individuals, some prefer the opposite approach. If you work mainly with businesses, you likely want to find a way to connect with decision makers instead of average Joe shoppers. So, it makes sense to opt for the latter. However, if you enjoy meeting new people every day and getting to interact with different personalities, then you probably want to stick with the former.
In general terms, however, both approaches have their pros and cons. For instance, an advertiser typically gets better results since he knows exactly whom he's reaching. He can control everything from the message that goes out, the look of the landing page, the copywriting style, etc. Meanwhile, a publisher gets to decide what to include, exclude, or show less prominently on her site. She also decides whether she wants to send emails or not. This means that she can customize her experience accordingly.
There are also advantages to being affiliated with multiple entities. For starters, you'll always have options available to you no matter what platform you happen to join next. Plus, you can earn commissions from each source without having to start over again.
Lastly, it's worth noting that there are plenty of intermediaries out there who fall somewhere in between the two categories. For example, some bloggers accept sponsored posts and then write reviews about them. Likewise, some websites host banner advertisements and then try to sell related items. Then there are marketplaces like Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Etsy, etc., where sellers set their own prices and negotiate deals with buyers.
If you thought that the above distinction between advertiser and publisher was confusing, wait until you hear us talk about the difference between advertisers and advertising. Advertising involves paying money to put information about your brand or product in front of your audience. Whether you pay per click or impression, this form of advertising relies heavily on data collection.
Advertisers collect metrics about the performance of their campaigns using tools that track traffic, conversions, and ROI, among other factors. Once they understand how effective their efforts are, they adjust their budgets accordingly and repeat the process.
Meanwhile, advertising can take place across several mediums. Sometimes referred to as native advertising, it doesn't involve sending actual messages to viewers. Instead, it uses visual elements, videos, audio features, text overlays, etc. to convey a particular message.
Another common method of advertising involves showing banner ads on websites. It works similarly to traditional print and TV commercials except that banners appear on webpages instead of screens. Banner ads can either be static or dynamic depending on the campaign. Static ones remain in the same spot throughout the whole duration of the campaign whereas dynamic ones move from screen to screen according to pre-set schedules.
Finally, there's retargeting. Retargeting aims to bring back visitors who visited a previous webpage and encourage them to visit again. There are numerous methods of doing this ranging from placing cookies on their computers to using pixels embedded in images.
Keep in mind that although all forms of advertising rely on data collection, there are still significant distinctions between them. For instance, it costs significantly more to run a highly targeted banner ad compared to a generic one. Also, there isn't much value to tracking pixel clicks versus tracking standard keywords and phrases.
Now that you know the basics, you should feel confident enough to pursue whichever path suits you best. Remember, success comes from finding the perfect balance between creativity and pragmatism. After all, the world needs creative thinkers AND practical problem solvers. Which ever side you lean towards, make sure to stay focused on your goals and avoid distractions along the way!
Advertising and publishing. These two words have been used interchangeably by many people over the years, but they are actually quite different things. If you're confused, then this article will help to explain them both so that you can get on with your online business journey.
When most people think "publisher", they think of someone selling their own products or services - ebooks, courses, software etc. However, there's another type of publisher which isn't immediately obvious when thinking about those terms. They sell other peoples' stuff too. In fact, these are sometimes referred to as 'affiliate marketers'.
So if a person sells others' products, how do they manage to keep up with inventory? Well, that's where advertising comes into play. Advertising is essentially just a way to promote somebody else's product without having to pay for it yourself. Advertising companies buy ad space from websites (like Google AdWords) and place ads within those spaces. When visitors click through to those sites, they'll see some kind of ad promoting whatever it was that company wanted to advertise.
So why would anyone want to buy ad space from one of these advertising agencies instead of doing it themselves? For starters, the cost is typically cheaper than buying directly from the website owner. Secondly, the website owners don't need any technical knowledge at all - they simply need to put up the page with the adverts on it. Thirdly, it allows webmasters to focus solely on content creation while still making money from advertising. And finally, advertising provides a good alternative to PPC (pay-per-click), because unlike PPC, it doesn't require lots of traffic to generate revenue.
However, not every site needs to be involved with selling advertisements. Some simply want to earn passive income rather than putting in hours and hours creating new content for the sole purpose of driving traffic to it. That's exactly what happens when you become an advertising publisher. You set up a blog or website which contains articles relating to certain topics, such as weight loss or personal development. Then you write relevant articles and submit them to various places across the internet.
The beauty of being an advertising publisher is that you don't really need to know anything about SEO (search engine optimisation). The only thing you need to worry about is writing high quality material that appeals to readers. Your job is done once you've written the content and submitted it somewhere.
Now let's take a look at the opposite side of the coin again...
If we were to ask our friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances whether advertising and publishing should always go hand in hand, we'd probably receive mixed responses. On one hand, many people believe that an advertiser has no choice but to employ a publisher to create his advertorials, whereas on the other hand, others feel that publishers should be able to find ways around having to publish ads.
But does that mean that publishers shouldn't be paid for their work? Not necessarily. There is often a grey area here, depending on what sort of relationship exists between the parties concerned. But generally speaking, publishers can choose to either accept payment for placing ads, or they can refuse. If they choose to accept payment however, it's usually agreed upon beforehand that the amount won't affect their ability to create original content for customers.
There are three main reasons why publishers may decide to take payment for advertising:
1. To cover costs associated with running a website or blog. Publishers tend to charge higher prices for their services because they offer valuable information and advice to their clients. So if someone wants to run a successful blog, he/she needs to spend time researching, learning and writing about their subject matter.
2. Because they enjoy sharing their expertise and helping others out. People love reading helpful content, especially when it relates to something that interests them personally. Publishers therefore benefit financially from providing useful resources to their audience.
3. Due to circumstances beyond their control. Sometimes, circumstances prevent a publisher from taking payments for their services. Perhaps they're unable to afford hosting fees, or maybe they aren't getting enough traffic to justify spending even the smallest amount of cash on advertising. Whatever the reason, publishers must continue working hard regardless.
And now that we understand the basics behind each term, let's move onto the next question...
An advertising publisher is someone who creates content specifically for the purposes of generating sales via advertising clicks. It's worth noting that although advertising publishers are primarily interested in earning money, they also provide value to their audiences. Therefore, they deserve to be rewarded monetarily for their efforts.
This brings us to the final topic for today...
It seems strange to say that advertising is different from its actual target market, but this is indeed the case. An advertiser pays for advertising space on a webpage. He sees himself as the customer and views the publisher as the supplier. Conversely, the publisher thinks of herself as the provider of service, whilst the advertiser is merely the buyer.
Although advertising and publishers are similar in that they both serve the goal of bringing buyers together with sellers, they differ significantly in nature. A publisher writes articles for her own sake, whereas an advertiser seeks to drive traffic towards a particular product or service. Furthermore, advertisers are usually looking for long-term relationships with the publisher, whereas publishers prefer to maintain a close relationship with individual customers.
Lastly, we should remember that many businesses use both methods of promotion simultaneously. For example, an automobile manufacturer might hire an agency to produce car reviews, yet at the same time purchase advertising space on several blogs to increase awareness of its brand among potential consumers.
Hopefully, this article helped you to clarify the differences between the worlds of advertising and publishing. We hope you found it informative. Don't forget to share your thoughts below!
Affiliate marketing
A lot of people think that "affiliate" means someone who promotes products or services without having any affiliation at all. On the contrary, affiliate marketing does not mean promoting something without any interest in the product itself.
The best way to promote affiliate links is through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
You must be sure that the site owner has agreed to allow you to use their name/logo when linking to their website (or blog). You should check if there's any restrictions regarding using their logo before doing anything else.
If you do decide to create your own brand, then remember that you need to protect yourself legally against anyone claiming ownership rights to your work.
When creating content - whether articles or videos - try to avoid making personal claims about the service or product which you are advertising. Instead, focus on providing useful information for readers that may benefit from what you offer.
It's important that you keep track of how much traffic each link sends to your website. Make sure that you don't spend too long trying to increase click-throughs because this might lead to a decrease in overall sales.
Make sure that you've got enough resources available for maintaining your website. It wouldn't take long for your web hosting company to ask you to pay extra money if you go overboard with bandwidth usage.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.