The following is what Patrice Colancecco Milligan of Advanta had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?
I think many affiliate managers, and to some extent affiliates, are not always challenging themselves to think creatively.
We sometimes get wrapped up in our comfort zones and rarely venture out of them. For some, the comfort zone is watching what others do and applying that to our own programs or sites, which is (I guess I should say “usually”) completely fine, and what most affiliate communities are set up to facilitate.
For others, the comfort zone is a bit larger, asking thoughtful questions and looking at different metrics, but yet not going that extra step to think about things in totally new ways or putting new ideas out there.
I’m one of those people stuck in my own comfort zone, and I, like a lot of other people, do that to a large extent out of fear.
I can’t remember the last totally revolutionary idea that has come out of affiliate marketing. (Though I’m sure some of you might have your own measure of “revolutionary.”)
And of course, not everyone is going to think of the next big thing.
I’m more worried about someone asking a good question, thinking of something in a totally new way, and having that voice drowned out in a sea of “that’s not how we do it now, we do it this way, and that’s that.”
Sometimes, we are just not very nice to each other in our cyber universes. The beauty of the internet is that it’s nimble. It is only tangible from the means we use to access it.
Internet marketing should strive to be just as nimble. But the only way we’re going to get there is to allow ourselves and each other the freedom to think creatively.
Sometimes creativity means that we’ll occasionally hear something that we don’t agree with, and yes, some ideas will be bad. But let’s encourage each other to keep on thinking and foster a community that celebrates new ideas.