Great subject and particularly of interest to me as my company has been a direct marketer for 40 years. Catalog sales, phone sales, fax, and now affiliate marketing.

I guess in an organization such as mine a true corporate culture shift would have to take place not to mention the technological undertaking.

Is there any data to support such an integration from cost/benefit analysis? I know that is what it would come down to in many organizations to implement such a program.

"I hope this didn't come across as me thinking I came up with the idea, more so just wanted to raise the subject that there is more we could be doing."

Not at all. Kudos to you for raising the issue which ,as others have noted, is a thought provoking and valuable contribution to the industry.

"Maybe we'll see a more drastic deliniation between content publishers and sales force affiliates."

I think you hit the nail on the head! Respectfully, content Publishers are fine but lack "dirt world" experience in direct sales. Not all of them, but a significant number. While I'm sure your comfortable with this "sales force" procedure from a Networks standpoint, I'm woundering if other Networks would be comfortable with the "sales force affiliate" concept? Thinking outloud and putting the potential abuse and or tainting issue aside for a moment, I would guess that someone inside a Network and or the Merchants consulting firm needs dirt world direct sales experience to embrace, launch, audit, and control the sales force concept?

So now we shift to the affiliate. We discussed a few ways in which merchants can empower their affiliates and give them more ways to earn, but can affiliates actually do that. Great question. Maybe that is the evolution of this industry. Maybe we'll see a more drastic deliniation between content publishers and sales force affiliates. The affiliates that can adjust and become part of your affiliate sales force will thrive and grow. Others that can't may be regulated to where they are now?

With a former employer, I had an affiliate attempt to do something a little out of the box more in line with a sales force then a typical affiliate. They wanted to host parties like Tupperware parties or Pampered Cheif parties (I have to admit, being a bit of a cook, I love these Pampered Cheif). They wanted to sell our new line of clothes to thier friends, and have their friends hosts these parties. Now, it really didn't work for this company, but we weren't even able to handle this type of thing. Now imagine if you had a few affiliates that did that sort of thing. You could have your own landing page and sign people up right there at the party. There would be possibly a little more up front overhead, purchasing product, but the merchant could provide catalogs and such. Sorry I was thinking of that example this weekend and thought I would share. Now if only I could get one of my clients to do that, any affiliates interested? I appreciate your input Wayne.

With most merchants, a return means a credit to the affiliate and a lost sale. If the customer buys something else while speaking with the CSR, the affiliate does not get credit for the sale.

If it is the same call, why not credit the partner that drove the sale?

That may be one reason that Publishers have chosen a second revenue source… AdSense.

I do agree affiliate marketing has always had two thoughts-

1) Publishers- who focus on content first

2) Sales People- a true virtual sales force

I think many quality publishers are not truly interested in the CPS model however school of thought 2 is where development could be driven and the iron cage broken. I must think on this and some of Steve's examples. We already seem some innovation in the form of web services e.g. Amazon- which is amazing and with things like AJAX (as Triple Jangro references) opens up really creative uses for not only sites but sales.

The tracking of a link to a sale if you think about a very crude methodology or rut that the industry has been mired in for years now (at least since 1997 when I started and having worked in about every type of capacity).

The core question here might be- can "affiliates" truly be empowered and graduated into the ranks of a REAL sales force that have an array of weapons in their arsenal to even the equasion and make the relationship HEALTHY and not antagonstic as it often seems to be??

Note- again, as a publisher, I consider merchants my affiliates and not the other way around. Also acting in the role of a merchant (at least in my vertical) I see quality publishers as my "merchants by proxy". This is, at least, where I am trying to push it. Still ways to go. Good stimulating discussion.

regards,
Wayne

That is an awesome example. Affiliate marketing can be so much more than just a link and a tracking code. How do you want to find your customer today?

I had one affiliate of a program I managed a while back, print out business cards with a url to a sign up page we created just for them that tracked their affiliate code. They handed out those business cards at local networking functions, small local conferences and their list of current clients. It worked very well.