Talk:Affiliate marketing

Multi-level section

Here's why I think the multi-level section should be deleted:

• Clear WP:NPOV concerns. Not a single proper source links affiliate marketing with multi-level marketing. Of the two citations in the article that purport to, the Dacko citation merely claims that they have "overlapping scope" (clear WP:SYNTH to turn this into Affiliate marketing closely overlaps with network marketing). The other (Smith, P.R., 6th edition) says: affiliate marketing extends the reach of a brand's sales potential through a form of multi-level marketing online. The implication that affiliate marketing and multi-level marketing are related is factually incorrect, and was removed in the 7th edition of the same work, affiliate marketing extends the reach of a brand’s sales potential through an expanded network., with the rest of that passage unchanged.
• Total lack of sourcing supporting inclusion, see above.
• After personally reviewing the literature on Google Scholar and SemanticScholar, I can't find a single WP:RS that links affiliate marketing and multi-level marketing together. Many user-submitted blogs in Google search results do, but they're not a valid basis for inclusion.

DFlhb (talk) 20:59, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

The sources link affiliate marketing to MLM, per your quotes. Dacko says they overlap in scope, while the other presents affiliate marketing as a subset of MLM. Admittedly that is an unusual way to frame it, but it does confirm that there is a connection.

Actually, because it may be useful elsewhere in the article, here is the entire paragraph:

Although it does not employ salespeople per se, affiliate marketing extends the reach of a brand's sales potential through a form of multi-level marketing online. Affiliates generate sales on a commission-only basis. Affiliate partners usually have access to specific communities or target markets. The affiliates basically refer visitors to the brand's website, and every time the referred visitors buy the brand the affiliate gets paid a commission. The affiliates use banner ads (usually supplied by the brand), e-mail and PPC ad campaigns.

In general, the existence of many unreliable sources has no bearing on content. For marketing topics specifically, this makes it very hard to find sources, since (as we are both aware) there is a huge glut of garbage and spam for this area. Unfortunately, the over-saturation of MBA programs and similar has caused this spam problem to spill-over into academic sourcing, which makes finding sources even harder. Google scholar and most online search engines need to be handled with some care for this, for a few reasons. For one, it leads to a FUTON bias. For another, it is absolutely not up to us as editors to decide which primary sources are representative and which are not, because that is indeed a form of original research. Most journal articles on specific projects are primary sources. In general, Wikipedia summarizes WP:SECONDARY and WP:TERTIARY sources, such as textbooks.

So again, the problem is not the abundance of bad sources. We cannot sample from obscure sources to try and present our own understanding of how they present this topic. Instead, we have to find reliable, independent sources, which should also be secondary sources. I found a couple of sources which are textbooks published by reputable publishing houses.

Most of the rest of the article lacks sources. As mentioned previously on my talk page, this specific section doesn't really need to be singled-out when the whole article already has a 'sources needed' badge at the top. I don't particularly like the unsourced content, but that shouldn't matter. If I started deleting content based on my own preference, that would be disruptive or WP:POINTed. Grayfell (talk) 21:43, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

References

Semi-protected edit request on 20 January 2023

Affiliate marketing is where you promote another company's product or service. When someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link, you earn a commission. These commissions are usually a percentage of the sale price or a fixed amount. [spam link removed] A khan321321 (talk) 06:11, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

 Not done This is not an edit request. The text above is unsuitable for an encyclopedia, and the link is inappropriate (see the external links guideline). --bonadea contributions talk 06:15, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 31 August 2023

Accounts on social media can be utilized for affiliate marketing as well. You can reach a sizable audience of potential buyers by publishing affiliate links on social media. it should be added in types of affiliates. Makeraryaman (talk) 11:45, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. M.Bitton (talk) 12:03, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

mistake in section 'Performance/affiliate marketing'

section 'Compensation methods > Performance/affiliate marketing' reads:

"In the case of cost per mille/click, the publisher is not concerned about whether a visitor is a member of the audience that the advertiser tries to attract and is able to convert because at this point the publisher has already earned his commission."

Mistake: With 'Cost per click' the publisher IS concerned with ... because at this point they have NOT yet earned their commission.

Suggested correction: remove '/click'. Potentially move that case to next paragraph where it might fit better. BucovinaClubMate (talk) 12:30, 21 March 2024 (UTC)