Zibaba blog

As the urge to make money online increases, more people are turning to the world of affiliate marketing.  Affiliates have already been the backbone and business builders for many online services and products, but what will happen as the affiliate space gets increasingly hotter?  Which new channels will arise for affiliate marketers?

Currently, there are a number of ways that affiliates are able to sell ‘other peoples products’ online.  These methods include direct and indirect.  Direct is where traffic is driven directly to 3^rd party sites using cost per click advertising platforms such as Google adwords, Facebook ads and MSN Bing to name just some of the many cost per click platforms.  Indirect is where an affiliate puts in time and effort to create their own presence on the web.  Creating a website with compelling content, displaying banners for partner programs and capturing email addresses for list building in order to communicate directly with potential customers and try to up-sell via ongoing emails.

But now that 15% of all Internet users’ time is spent on Facebook, a new ‘social’ way of affiliate marketing is evolving.  Affiliates are only just beginning to tap into the 600 million people and growing, Facebook community.  Communicating with strangers has become easier and cheaper.  Each of these methods can be utilized to maximum potential to reach a new source of traffic:

• Facebook Ads
• Facebook Pages
• Personal Facebook Profiles

Facebook Ads

Advertising on Facebook is a great way to target ads at Facebook users utilizing profile information such as age, gender, nationality, location, interests etc.  These ads are 110×80 pixel images accompanied with a limited amount of text.  Advertising options are CPM or CPC.  Ads can be redirected outside Facebook, but the best value for money is to redirect inside Facebook, to a Fan page containing instant engagement within user’s the comfort zone of Facebook.

Facebook Pages

Pages are a great way to build a potential client base and the equivalent to list building.  Tabs within pages can be customized and content can be controlled by the page administrator.  As more online storefronts open on Facebook, momentum and sales are growing within the Facebook environment.  The ideal storefront is an integration of the Brand’s fan page.  The most positive aspect of Fan pages is the social interaction.  Based on the users profile options, any like, comment, share or other social actions are listed in the users news feed which appears as an update to all of the user’s Facebook friends.

Personal Facebook Profiles

These account for real people with real lives.  Keeping a professional profile for business, helps to increase reach and trust.  Direct interaction with Facebook friends gives more credibility to promote products, fan pages, stores etc.

But back to the question in hand.  Using all of the above, affiliates now have a reach much wider than ever before.  The future will bring Social Affiliate Networks giving options to promote within the social stratosphere, have access to stats, reports, marketing tools, link creation and automatic fan page creation all within Facebook.

But just how far off is this?  Zibaba (www.zibaba.com) have already begun the implementation of a Social Affiliate Network within Facebook as an addition to its Facebook storefront offering.  Affiliates can sign up either directly through the Social Network Affiliate program or through one of Zibaba’s affiliate network partners.  Affiliates working with Ziababa, receive access to create a FREE storefront and promote a choice of products either item by item or by uploading a data feed.  The benefits for the affiliate include a cheaper and easier way to target and acquire potential customers.

Related articles

• Free Facebook Stores for Affiliate Marketers (zibaba.com)
• Israeli Startup To Lead The Way For Affiliate Marketing On Facebook (zibaba.com)
• What Will We Be Using Facebook For In Five Years? (webpronews.com)