'Net Features : networking

Don't Affiliate with Strangers!

Michael Garrity — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:55:00 GMT

Affiliate marketing does not have to be a lonely venture. While it may seem like a solo effort on the surface, there are actually many potential opportunities for affiliate marketers willing to get out there and make some friends.

As a publisher, it can be hugely beneficial to your business if you get out there and network to find other successful affiliates with whom to share knowledge and ideas with (and maybe more). Attending conferences or trade shows, sending emails or instant messages or even using social media to meet new contacts, are all great ways to establish communication with others in the industry and, hopefully, gain valuable insights.

It’s nice to have friends, but you may be wondering just how attending Happy Hour at an affiliate marketing conference can help you in the long run. So, you may be wondering, “Why network?”

The thing is, the ever-growing affiliate marketing industry is becoming more diverse by the day, and often affiliates will specialize in specific areas, such as SEO, PPC, email marketing and others. And since it is improbable that any one affiliate is an expert in all of these areas, making connections with other affiliates or affiliate managers, who have this specialized knowledge, can offer a great way to improve one’s own understanding of a topic, along with adding a resource that he or she can turn to whenever a question or problem arises.

But it’s not all about just meeting other affiliates. Anyone operating in the affiliate marketing field represents a potential goldmine of new and useful information based on their unique experiences, which could aid in significantly improving your own practice. Plus, the more people you know, the more indirect connections you’ll be making thanks to all the people they know, which is a great way to quickly extend your circle, and your potential resources.

Being an expert networker is also a great way to add content to your affiliate site, as well as increase the number of backlinks you accrue. For instance, if you meet affiliates in your niche (or a similar industry) you can ask them to submit a guest post or sit in on a podcast to share their expert advice with your audience, which is beneficial for both of you and can provide links for both sites. This kind of exchange presents a multitude of opportunities. It’s also much easier to ask someone to swap links or share content if you’ve already built a solid relationship with them.

Of course, like any good relationship, an affiliate network partnership relies on give-and-take from both participants. You should also be able to offer up actionable, worldly advice and engage in a dialogue with your contacts. Brainstorming and sharing ideas is the best way to help everyone involved get the most out of your networking efforts.

Career Networking on Facebook

Administrator — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:00:00 GMT

For years LinkedIn was the only game in town when it came to career and professional networking but job board Monster.com just announced its intent to become more social and its using Facebook to get there.

Monster.com is launching a networking platform called BeKnown on Facebook, which will enable FB users to make their professional connections distinct from their personal relationships.

Through the application Facebook users will be able to invite contacts from other social networks to expand their BeKnown network beyond their existing Facebook friends. They will also be able to import their Monster profile to BeKnown and search for jobs from within the app, as well as make recommendations.

Next month, Monster will also launch its social referral program, where BeKnown users will receive cash rewards for referring their professional contacts to particular jobs. According to reports, employers will also be able to claim and manage a profile in BeKnown, which users will then be able to follow, and be alerted to new job opportunities as they become available.

Monster is not the only vendor looking to make a mark in the career networking space on Facebook. BranchOut, another player in the space, has also been generating a lot of attention recently and is definitely one to check out.

Get Productive: Email? Meet Networking.

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:10:00 GMT

While most Web professionals spent their holiday relaxing, there were those that engaged in a little work to get a head start on next week's road to success. If you're one of those "rise early, work late, strike oil" folks like me then spend an hour or two with two solutions to help you get productive.

Read Get Productive: Email? Meet Networking.

This article appeared in Website Magazine's Web Success Weekly Newsletter.