Lead Generation

From COPEAC Blog on the net

Transitioning to Lead Gen

Posted on 10-08-2010

As it is with most industries, what was once popular a few years ago is eventually replaced by the next big trend. The Affiliate Marketing industry is no exception to this cycle. This past winter we all saw the downfall of the ever-popular continuity offers. Since then, the Affiliate Marketing industry seems to have transitioned towards a focus on lead generation, in a sense separating “the men from the boys.”

During the big “Acai days”, there were tons of “publishers” who were just copy cats; anyone with a right click button and some capital jumped on the diet bandwagon, making things more expensive for other publishers. When the FTC and credit card companies started cracking down on continuity guidelines, a lot of the copy cats ran to hide under a rock but the REAL publishers were left standing. Some of these affiliates remain firm with their diet ads, but many are transitioning towards lead generation which has proven to provide higher quality results for both publishers and advertisers. Lead generation proves to be the most efficient business model in receiving legitimate results.

After the LeadsCon show, I believe even more that Performance-based Affiliate Marketing is strongly moving forward. Lead generation offers many new opportunities for publishers to take advantage of in many different niches and verticals. Some of the new verticals proving to be successful lead gen sources for publishers are debt, auto insurance, education, and coupon sites. The best promotion methods vary for different niches; this allows publishers to be creative and unique in their methods of engaging consumers. Innovation will allow the industry to move forward and be the key to success for publishers in the era where quality reigns over quantity.