trafficmansionHave you ever thought about incorporating affiliate marketing into your digital strategy? You definitely should, especially with today’s APIs (application programming interfaces) fueling the affiliate marketing industry.
According to the research conducted by the Forrester Consulting, affiliate marketplace is showing a steady annual growth and it is expected to hit $6.8 billion by 2020. This should not come to us as a surprise given the fact that this type of marketing nurtures reciprocity in a relationship between advertisers and publishers.
At its core, affiliate marketing is all about relationships. It brings great value to both businesses and entrepreneurs who are trying to sell something and need help with promotion, and affiliates who earn a commission (i.e. a piece of profit) for every sale made. This win-win situation is the reason why more than 80% of advertisers and 84% of publishers (statistics from the mentioned Forrester Consulting report) choose to participate in some kind of affiliate program.
Because of its efficiency, it is used during all stages of the customer journey – from the phase of rising brand awareness to the retention phase. Of course, if the promoted product or service is satisfying, customers will naturally spread the word about it. This means affiliate marketing ultimately helps with generating word of mouth and every good marketer knows nothing can beat the power of recommendation.
So, in a nutshell, affiliate marketing enables sellers to reach their target audiences and hopefully convert new site visitors to customers, while webmasters get a chance to earn additional money from the high traffic they already generate.
Pretty neat, but how do you get started?
The ABC’s of Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are the necessary link between the two parties. Traffic Mansion is our own program and we only have our own offers available for promotion. We are the direct source, not a middle man and that adds value to the relationship. We connect you with the most relevant and best converting websites from the industry that seek promotion. This makes a great opportunity for webmasters operating in online dating or similar domain (e.g. dating or lifestyle blogs), to make significant passive income and monetize their traffic.
As affiliate marketing evolved, it started using live APIs (application programming interfaces) to automate one part of the process. By using APIs functionality, affiliates can now automatically import and display relevant and contextual content which then directs site visitors to the merchant’s site.
But What Are APIs Anyway?
We live in a highly-connected world, however; an average user probably doesn’t give much thought about the way these connections function.
Devices and applications are linked with one another so data communication is enabled. This allows you to enjoy usual online activities, such as shopping, booking a flight, or making reservations – with just a few clicks, directly from your browser. And it’s all thanks to APIs. In today’s digital world, APIs are utilized in various ways:
- They can control access: you can allow certain users to access your assets (i.e. data, software, services, products) by providing them with API key.
- They can be used to leverage existing APIs: many developers use existing applications as the core of their new application’s functionality.
- They can be used to standardize access: no matter what OS or device is being used, the user can enjoy the same access. For example, the process of booking a flight is uniform and completely the same for a user who is making a purchase via tablet and the one using desktop PC.
They are an additional security measure your website needs: API’s “keep an eye” on suspicious traffic and protect your server from breaking down.
To simplify, APIs are the messengers responsible for each request finding its rightful response. Because they enable connectivity between applications, databases, and devices, the digital experiences we’re used to wouldn’t be possible without APIs.
Live APIs Within Affiliate Marketing
Application programming interfaces have been around since the 1960s, but they have not always been used in affiliate marketing programs. In the past, publishers were collecting pieces of content or images from merchants, and then used one part of their website for displaying a snippet of code that’s rendering data feed. This wasn’t the brightest solution, however; as it implied further complications in cases when publishers wanted to integrate dynamic content on their website.
Today, there are at least three great advantages with APIs in affiliate marketing:
- Publishers have access to real-time data and the most relevant merchants.
- Publishers can integrate the content they promote in any way they like (this is enabled through XML or JSON formats).
- There are pre-formatted links (containing the publisher’s ID), so the conversions get tracked and the affiliate gets the earned commission.
However, using API within the affiliate program and enjoying multiple benefits requires that publishers go through registration with the API.
Become the Super Affiliate in Online Dating
Did you know that online dating has become a $3 billion industry just in the USA, with an annual growth tendency? This trend should serve as a pretty strong signal to those who are thinking about becoming affiliates. Online dating is a growing market and there is a lot of competition, meaning sites will be willing to offer great money for webmasters who can help them with generating traffic. Affiliate marketing in online dating is certainly a smart investment.
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