The Affiliate Divide

Two years ago Affiliate Summit Las Vegas overlapped with an adult webmaster show. I was in the elevator with my very good friend and DMConfidential founder Hagai Yardeny when two guys entered, two guys from the internet marketing world but not one with which I was familiar. They looked like two guys who met a hot girl that said sarcastically "Nice shirt" only for them to take her seriously and express their bromance by only wearing clothing from Affliction. Never before would I have thought a group of people, all of whom had worked in the performance-based internet advertising industry, could have less in common. Whereas we spoke of revenue per thousand, they talked of "one in what." AzoogleAds - they hadn't heard of them. Nor did we of theirs, which was something like Pink Pays.

For years I had known that not all in performance marketing, or as some would say affiliate marketing, were alike, but on that elevator I realized just how far apart we really were. But that's ok, really. Stepping back, it makes sense that adult internet marketing and mainstream internet marketing would differ. While almost everyone I now has joked about should having worked in adult, most don't really want to do it. There's something to be said for being able to tell the broader world what you do and have them respect you for the work that you do instead of just envy the money you appear to have. In other words, it takes a special breed of person, with nothing negative implied, to work in that industry, and the overlap exists but in smaller quantities. Thus, after the incident, I took it for what it was, a sign showing that it makes sense that our skills sets aren't as easily transposeable as I might have assumed.

If I had to categorize the difference between what I felt our version of performance marketing and theirs was, I would say lifestyle development versus business development. The group we met and saw lived large - lots of bling, opposite sex company, cocksure and carefree attitude. They represent to many exactly what people think they want in life - that snapshot of success and wealth that belongs on a work from home landing page. That image would drive plenty of people to wish for such a life, and at some level we understand, but at another level, what we saw in that elevator was an unexpected glimpse into the mainstream world of performance based advertising if we aren't careful. As enticing of a lifestyle as many of them have, their world has become a world unto itself. Given their choice in marketing, they certainly don't care. Theirs is a conscious decision, and that is an important distinction.

This divide between mainstream and adult hasn't changed. What has changed is the mainstream internet community. The world of affiliate advertising and arbitrage based affiliate advertising has always had some fundamental distinctions, but the cultural differences between the two camps are starting to become more and more exaggerated. That's not a problem if everyone involved has, like the adult marketers, chosen to go down a path of industry isolation - one that separates themselves from companies they might wish to deal with on a close level namely all mainstream websites and search engines. Choosing to go down such a path is one thing, but if those in the "mainstream" industry don't want to go down that path, it's a another.

Keep at the pace they have, the mainstream group is going to find themselves there, shunned from a large and potentially helpful group of companies that include traffic sources and funding sources. Where as they tolerate some of the cat and mouse behavior today, the won't. Like the adult side, the mainstream group will find themselves more and more written into terms and conditions of sites (and not in a good way). Again, that's fine if all agree to such a path and understand what such a choice means. So far, the mainstream group hasn't chosen isolation, but they are acting in a way that will lead to it. Ask anyone who has switched over from adult to mainstream, though, and that world of isolation is tough grind, the difference between operating in a third-world country versus a first-world one. If the mainstream performance marketing world wants to continue to being on the path of a first-world one, they aren't doing a great job of it.