Affiliate marketing changes by leaps and bounds each year, providing new ways for affiliates to generate revenue and rendering old methods obsolete. In 2015, several affiliate marketing trends changed the industry’s dynamic landscape. Here are five of the most significant changes:

1. Increased Focus on Niche Marketing

Gone are the days when affiliates could cast a wide net and promote any product or service that crossed their radar. This trend started several years ago, but it gained prominence in 2015, encouraging marketers to focus on narrow niches to increase traffic, improve search engine rankings, and build audience trust.

Niche markets are small subsets of consumers who have specific interests, hobbies, or goals. For instance, affiliates might focus on a hobby like golf or photography. Alternatively, they could target a demographic (such as teenagers) or a value (such as energy efficiency). Niche marketing benefits all parties because it forces affiliates to create custom content that benefits a smaller group of people who are more likely to make purchases.

2. Expanded Possibilities for Mobile Marketing

In 2015, the mobile possibilities for affiliate marketing expanded even more, with an increasing number of affiliates optimizing their websites for mobile and taking full advantage of push notifications. This mostly boils down to the numbers. According to Internet Retailer, 36 percent of affiliate sales in January 2015 were conducted via mobile.

Affiliates who fail to leverage mobile technology might fall behind their competitors. As more consumers use their smartphones and tablets to shop, businesses rely more heavily on mobile-friendly apps and websites.

3. Improved Applications for Big Data

Affiliate marketers also began applying Big Data statistics to their marketing efforts. As more data becomes available to marketing professionals, the applicants expand exponentially. Affiliates can use Big Data analytics to determine their biggest sources of traffic and their key demographics. They can also compare different tactics and techniques to decide which offer the best performance in practice. In 2016 and beyond, Big Data applications will likely continue to get more sophisticated.

4. Increased Dependence on Attribution

In affiliate marketing, attribution modeling allows businesses to track the “chain” of clicks that ultimately led a buyer to make a purchase. A consumer might click on one affiliate link, click away, then click on the same link from a different source. This results in lost revenue for the first affiliate. It allows advertisers to adjust rates and payment models based on consumer behavior.

5. Unique Affiliate Partnerships

In 2015, unique affiliate partnerships emerged, changing the business model to accommodate new methods of drawing attention to businesses’ products and services. Collaborations between companies and schools, sports teams, and other organizations have changed the affiliate marketing landscape. Additionally, businesses have used affiliate marketing to raise money for charities and non-profits by donating percentages of sales to those causes.

As 2015 fades into the rearview mirror, 2016 will bring even more changes to affiliate marketing. It will also change how affiliate marketers send and receive money. If you want access to a convenient global payment option, sign up for Payoneer today.

According to Remarkety, the United States comes in second to China in the list of top 10 biggest eCommerce markets in the world. The race isn’t even close – eCommerce spending in China beats the U.S.’s numbers by well over $200 billion. But where do the other countries fall on the list?

1. China

With more than $566 billion in eCommerce spending and the rapidly growing popularity of mobile shopping, China tops the list. The nation’s eCommerce giant, Taobao.com, accounts for a large percentage of China’s success in this area, though other eCommerce companies have also entered the scene.

2. United States

Although the U.S. lags far behind China in eCommerce spending, 2014 marked the year when e-sales exceeded $300 billion for the first time, increasing more than 15 percent from the previous year. In 2004, eCommerce transactions amounted to just $72.34 billion in total sales.

3. United Kingdom

In the U.K., eCommerce transactions make up 30 percent of the economy and total $93.89 billion, which constitutes an even larger gap than that between China and the U.S.

4. Japan

The eCommerce industry continues to grow in the Land of the Rising Sun, with 97 percent of Internet users at least occasionally shopping online. Smartphone and PC spending make up nearly all of the device usage for eCommerce transactions, with tablets accounting for only 6 percent of the pie.

5. Germany

Amazon and mail-order and eCommerce company Otto make up half of the nation’s $74.46 billion in eCommerce spending. Most of Germany’s shoppers browse the virtual shelves with their PCs instead of mobile devices.

6. France

In a country where fewer than 70 percent of the population ever uses the Internet, $42.62 billion in eCommerce spending is particularly impressive. A little less than 20 percent of the nation’s online transactions occur on French-owned eCommerce websites.

7. South Korea

Half of all Internet transactions in South Korea take place over smartphones, and the country offers faster Internet speeds than any other country. Its eCommerce spending amounts to $36.76 billion, with most transactions taking place late at night.

8. Canada

The United States’ northern neighbor sees just under $30 billion in eCommerce spending, with nearly 50 percent of transactions taking place on Canadian websites.

9. Russia

Instead of credit and debit cards, Russian online shoppers tend to pay with CODs. Online transactions produce about $20 billion in sales, with about 13 percent of the population shopping online.

10. Brazil

As the only South American country on the list, Brazil boasts $18.80 billion in online spending. Nearly 90 percent of transactions take place over a PC rather than a smartphone or tablet, and just under 20 percent of transactions are for fashion-related purchases.

As eCommerce shopping becomes increasingly popular across the globe, this list could easily change. China enjoys a strong lead over the United States as it stands right now, however, and the top two slots are miles ahead of the competition.

Big data is one of the biggest buzzwords in marketing today. It allows marketers to leverage high-quality and diverse data points to drive their decision-making efforts with regard to traffic, affiliates, and other facets of their business’s operations.

According to Forbes, the big data revolution actually extends back to 1944, but it’s become far more relevant to current marketers and entrepreneurs. Whether you’ve used an affiliate program for the last decade or are relatively new to the concept, you can use big data to improve your affiliate sales and drive more conversions for your product or service.

Optimizing Cookie Time Limits

When your affiliate marketers generate a click that goes to your website, they earn a commission on the sale or a flat rate. However, you use cookies to determine how long the consumer has to close the sale. Big data can help you optimize that time limit so your affiliates generate the income they actually earn and you don’t lose money on duplicate commissions.

Let’s say, for example, that a consumer visits an affiliate’s site, clicks on the link, and lands on your website. They read your landing page information, consider the purchase, and decide they want your product.

Depending on the product, they might consider the purchase for five minutes and click the “buy button.” More expensive products and products that have significant competition might generate longer lead times. Consumers might visit consumer reporting websites to compare reviews of your product against those of competitors’ products, for example.

The key to optimizing time limits lies in consumer behavior patterns. Analyzing big data sets might reveal that consumers in your industry spend an average of 15 minutes when making a buying decision. This knowledge allows you to set your cookie time limits based on empirical data rather than a rough guess.

Understanding the Consumer Life Cycle

In every industry, consumers behave differently depending on the product or service offered, the competitive landscape, and other environmental and practical factors. According to Emarsys, a B2C marketing agency and software development firm, the consumer life cycle includes several stages: prospect, initial purchaser, repeat purchaser, premium consumer, and inactive customer.

Knowing the life cycle stages of affiliate traffic customers can help you improve your overall sales. For example, repeat customers might stumble upon your product through an affiliate website, remember your product, and click directly over to your website.

If you’re reaching repeat customers, you don’t need to supply a hard pitch on your landing page or provide them with the bare-bones data about your product. Instead, you want to entice them by reminding them why they liked your product in the first place.

To verify and understand the consumer life cycles of your affiliate sales, you’ll need big data metrics. By processing large amounts of data and investigating the patterns, you can direct the behaviors of your affiliates and better serve your end users.

Learn Which Affiliates Drive the Most Traffic

Many business owners assume that it doesn’t matter where their traffic comes from as long as they are producing sales. However, if you don’t know which affiliates drive the most traffic to your site, you miss a tremendous opportunity to understand your customers’ journeys.

Big data allows you to analyze your customers’ buying patterns from their point-of-entry (the affiliate’s site) to the buy button.

If you do not have the technological infrastructure or capital to leverage big data for your business, you can always rely on research from other sources. Companies like Forrester Research frequently publish big data statistics and conclusions that can help businesses manage their affiliate programs more effectively. However, it’s important to note that web-based big data analytical tools have become far more cost-effective, which makes them accessible even to small businesses.

It’s also a good idea to partner with a reliable financial service.

Sign up for Payoneer to gain access to our powerful online payment solutions.

Affiliate marketing offers several benefits over other monetization strategies. You get to choose what products you promote, which gives you control over your reputation, and you don’t have to invest money to get started. If you want to find success in affiliate marketing, put these tips to work.

Start With Social Media

According to 60-Second Marketer, social media offers a wealth of benefits for affiliate marketing. For one, if you don’t yet have a blog, you can create social media accounts and link to affiliates in your posts without spending a dime. More importantly, you can use your social media channels to drive traffic to your blog. It’s easier to convince someone to follow you on Twitter or friend you on Facebook than to get him or her to subscribe to your blog. Consequently, you’ll find it easier to convert people to your content through social media. This doesn’t mean you should neglect your blog or website. In most cases, you’ll earn more money from affiliate marketing through blogging. However, social media offers a viable jumping-off point for gaining followers and generating income.

Create Your Own Content

Unique content serves as the driving force behind affiliate marketing. You need a way to engage your audience so they feel comfortable buying what you recommend. If you write unique, actionable content, you’ll have an excellent head start in this industry. Affilorama, a well-known affiliate marketing website, recommends starting with catchy headlines. The right headline encourages readers to continue scanning your content, which means a better chance of converting browsers into buyers.

Create the most specific, engaging headlines possible, but make sure they deliver on the promise. For example, the headline “Lose 20 pounds in 10 Minutes” might sound like a great way to lure in buyers, but you can’t possibly provide your readers with the promised solution (and neither can any product or service you recommend through an affiliate).

The content itself should be short and completely unique. Grab your audience’s attention, then tell them what you want them to do. Don’t just copy reviews from other sites or reword the marketing copy from your affiliate’s site. Write your recommendation in your own voice, then issue a call to action, such as “Click here to try out X product.”

To ensure you always offer unique and accurate advice, never promote a product you haven’t used. If you can speak from personal experience, your readers will recognize your authority.

Choose Your Affiliates Carefully

If you try to work with every affiliate brand and network on the Internet, you’ll run out of steam in just a few months and you’ll likely never earn any money. A better solution is to curate a list of brands or networks you trust, then focus on creating exceptional content for those affiliates.

Think about subjects or industries that interest you. Do you spend significant time with a book in your hand? Consider approaching authors and booksellers as potential affiliates. Are you obsessed with fitness? Work with personal trainers and manufacturers of sports equipment.

Create Dedicated Pages

Adding affiliate links to social media and blog posts is a great way to start, but think of other ways to include links. For example, you might create a page on your website called “Products I Love” or “Things I Can’t Live Without.”

Publish photographs of the products on those pages as well as your affiliate links. Keep the lists curated so they reflect only your top recommendations.

It takes time to find success as an affiliate marketer, but the above tips will help you get your business off to a productive start. If you’re ready to earn income as an affiliate marketer, sign up for Payoneer today and accept global payments with ease.

If you don’t have a blog (or if your blog is in its infancy stage), you don’t have to wait months or years to take advantage of affiliate marketing. Social media offers an intuitive, effective solution for affiliate marketing. This is especially true if you already have accounts and followers. But what are the best ways to use social media to your advantage?

1. Keep Building Your Followers

Affiliate marketing works best on social media when you cultivate a large stable of followers. The more people who see your posts, tweets, and other content, the more money you stand to make. To attract more followers:

• Post useful, actionable posts so followers receive something of value.
• Look for people who follow others in your industry, then follow them.
• Avoid overly promotional posts.
• Retweet and repost followers’ contributions to earn goodwill.

If you don’t have many followers yet, you might want to hold off on joining affiliate programs. Wait until you have a large group of friends and followers, then launch a conservative affiliate campaign.

2. Grab Your Followers’ Attention

Use language creatively to ensure your followers listen when you recommend an affiliate. Tell them how you used the product or service to outstanding results or explain why you’re promoting the partner.

Since you only have limited words with which to make your point on social media, call out one or two spectacular features when you post an affiliate link. The more unusual and attractive you make your pitch, the better response you’ll receive.

3. Use Mixed Media

You might include a text link in your social media post, but add a photo, video, or other type of media. For example, Facebook posts with photos get 37 percent more interaction from followers, according to Fast Company.

It’s also interesting to note that you can earn 33 percent more comments on your Facebook posts if you use emoticons. While you don’t want to overload your posts with smiley faces and “thumbs up”, you can sprinkle a few into your affiliate marketing posts to see if they increase engagement.

4. Tag People You Admire

Make a list of ten people who work in your industry and whom you admire. You might appreciate their perspective on their work or enjoy their sense of humor. The reason doesn’t matter – if you like them, others probably do, as well. Follow them on social media, then tag them in a few of your posts. Compliment them on a recent blog post or thank them for their contributions to your industry.

This helps you gain attention from those people’s followers. You’ll increase your social media reach and boost your affiliate marketing results.

5. Use Your Blog and Social Media Interchangeably

You might love social media and use it to generate income, but you don’t own those sites. However, you do own your blog. To ensure you own every aspect of your business, use your blog and your social media accounts interchangeably. Promote your content in all areas to expand your reach.

If your favorite social media site ever goes the way of MySpace, you’ll still have content on your blog and other social media platforms. In other words, plan for every eventuality and spread out your content.

Affiliate marketing offers a convenient solution if you want to monetize your content. To ensure you receive reliable payments for your efforts, sign up for Payoneer and work with some of our partners to help your online business flourish.

The affiliate marketing industry has its own lingo, and for someone just starting out, it can feel a bit overwhelming to catch on. To help guide you into the affiliate marketing community, we’ve created a quick guide of common terms.

General Terms

• Advertiser: A company that sells a product or service, accepts payments, and fulfills orders online. Advertisers (also known as merchants) partner with affiliates to help promote their products and services. The advertiser or merchant pays affiliates for sending traffic to the merchant website.
• Affiliate: A website owner that earns a commission for referring clicks, leads or sales to a merchant
• Affiliate Agreement: When you start a new affiliate relationship, you will receive an affiliate agreement from the merchant. This agreement outlines the rules, expectations, responsibilities and other legalities on both sides of the relationship.
• Affiliate Link: This is the URL link that will be provided to you by your merchant. It is a unique link that will identify you as the affiliate when sending traffic to the merchant’s website. Without this link it won’t be possible to track the traffic and/or the sales generated by your affiliate marketing efforts.
• Affiliate Marketing: Any type of revenue-sharing program in which a publisher receives a commission for generating online actions (such as leads or sales) for an advertiser; also called performance-based marketing, partner marketing, CPA, associate program, or pay-for-performance program.
• Affiliate Network: There are several third-party networks that help merchants manage their affiliate program on their behalf. Affiliate networks are responsible for recruiting appropriate affiliates. They provide the back-end technology for tracking conversions and reporting on performance. They also ensure that affiliate commissions are paid out on time. Affiliate networks are helpful for exposing merchants to a wider network of potential affiliates.
• Affiliate Program: When a merchant offers a program that allows individuals (i.e. affiliates) to refer people to their products and/or services, it is known as an affiliate program. In return for referrals, the affiliate is paid a predetermined commission.  Multiple Tier Affiliate Programs are when affiliates who refer other affiliates earn commission off of those affiliates.

Website Terms

• Above the Fold: This is the section of the website that a viewer can see on their browser without having to scroll down.
• Cookies: In affiliate marketing, cookies are used to assign an ID to the user in order to track the conversion as coming from you, the affiliate. Cookies are valid for a certain period of time, so if the user comes back later to complete a conversion, it will still be attributed to you.
• Cookie Expiration/Retention: Standard cookie lengths are 30–90 days; however, you will find some that are less. If a user makes a purchase within the cookie expiration/ retention period, the conversion will still be attributed to you, the affiliate.
• Direct/ Deep Linking: Allows a publisher to hyperlink directly to a specific product or service webpage on the advertiser’s website, which can cut out the step of going to the publisher’s page/website first. This can help with your search engine ranking.
• Homepage: The “front” main page of a website.
• HTML/ Tracking code:  Refers to the lines of code that an affiliate places on their web page(s) for linking to the merchant’s site. This HTML code contains the unique identifier that identifies the traffic as coming from the Affiliate’s web site.
• Landing Page: A simple one page website, or one page inside of a larger website with s specific target.
• Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Policy: A protocol allowing websites to declare their intended use of information they collect about web browser users. It is designed to give users more control of their personal information when browsing.  P3P also assists with online sales. It lets users decide what specific data they are willing to divulge automatically to the site, such as shipping address and credit card number. If the site requests more data, the browser alerts the user, who can then decide whether to share it or not.

Advertising Terms

• Ad Blocker:  Software based programs that prevent online advertisements from displaying.
• Advertiser ID:  The unique identifying number for an advertiser’s program.
• Click: When a user presses on a computer mouse or trackpad. As in “click save.” This is how advertisers often pay affiliates.
• Click Fraud:  When a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad.
• Click Through Rate (CTR):  The percentage of clicks for the number of advertising impressions displayed
• Conversion: When you refer a user to a merchant site and they successfully complete the desired action (e.g. sign up for the merchant’s website or make a purchase), it is known as a conversion.
• Conversion Rate: Percentage of clicks that result in a commissionable activity (sale or lead).
• CPA (Cost Per Action):  The amount of cost for a conversion such as a sale or lead.
• CPC (Cost Per Click): Cost of an individual click when paying on a per click basis.
• CPM (Cost Per Thousand):  The cost of 1000 banner impressions.
• CPO (Cost Per Order):  Same as CPA but refers specifically to sales.
  Impression: How many times a banner advertisement was displayed or viewed.
• Geo-Targeting:  Selective advertising in which a publisher can choose what geographical areas they want the ad to appear in. For example, if a publisher’s website focuses on snow boots and winter apparel, they may just want a certain ad to appear in places where the temperatures are lower.

Purchase Terms

• Cart Abandonment:  When a website visitor leaves an item in an online shopping cart without completing the transaction.
• Charge Back: Sometimes a customer you have referred will make a purchase, then decide to cancel (for example, the product was returned). As the final sale didn’t actually go through, the merchant will deduct the commission from the sale and the affiliate will not receive any payment for it. This is a charge back.
• Commission: The money received by an affiliate in exchange for providing referrals to a merchant’s site is known as commission. This is usually a predefined amount and is based on the desired outcome (i.e. leads, registrations, sales etc.).
• First Click vs Last Click: Say a user clicks on your affiliate link, then goes to the merchant’s website but doesn’t immediately make a purchase. A week later, the user clicks on another affiliate’s link and ends up on the same merchant’s website, but this time she makes a purchase. First click will attribute the sale to the first merchant, while last click says it was the last link the user click on that got the sale.
• Payment Threshold: Many merchants will require affiliates to accrue a certain amount of earnings before they receive pay out of their commission.
• Residual Earnings: Programs that pay affiliates not just for the first sale a shopper form their sites makes, but all additional sales made at the merchant’s site over the life of the customer.
• ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend): Metric used to determine the revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising.
• ROI (Return On Investment): In eCommerce and affiliate marketing, ROI is calculated by evaluating the money earned (or lost) against the money invested (business setup expenses, advertising costs etc.).
• White Label: Some merchants will allow affiliates to sell their products/services under their own brand. The affiliates make no mention of the merchant and visitors usually believe it is the affiliate selling the product/service. This is known as white labeling.

Are we missing any important terms?  Need us to help explain something?  Let us know in the comments below.

I recently posted about an update to the Request A Payment service, which allows professionals and small businesses around the world to receive bank transfers from international companies. You can easily request a payment to any company you are working with and the payer can easily send a payment via credit card or their local bank. These recent updates have greatly improved global commerce by eliminating the obstacles of doing business internationally.

One of the first Payoneer account holders to take advantage of the new  Payment Request service is Rifat, an affiliate marketer and consultant from Bangladesh. Beginning his career as an affiliate marketer, Rifat now spends the majority of his time helping other affiliate marketers set up their own campaigns and earn lifetime commissions on their sales. Rifat runs a successful Facebook group with over 40,000 members where he posts free training videos and tips on how to succeed in affiliate marketing.  You can also check out his personal blog for more tips and tricks.

As an active Payoneer account holder himself, Rifat had some great tips on how to leverage Payoneer’s global payment solutions to work online, get paid, and increase profits.

How did you hear about Payoneer?

I signed up with Payoneer back in 2009 to withdraw funds from oDesk.  Now I’m using the US payment service to run my business and to manage clients in a more prestigious way. I decided on Payoneer as it was the fastest and simplest way to get paid. It allows me to get paid at the lowest rate out there (only 1%) and it is FREE for clients to pay me. Also it allows me to purchase things online using the Payoneer card.

What benefits has the US Payment Request service provided you?

My business image has truly improved.  I can now offer them my US bank details, which is far better and comfortable to my buyers, and for me it’s only 1% fee with no limits.  It’s just the BEST & Cheapest way to get paid from companies and a very enjoyable process for me.

Has it changed or improved your ability to work online?

Yes, it increased my earnings by 9% without doing anything.  The US bank transfer is free for my clients and some clients started paying me the extra 10% which they were been charged to pay me at freelance marketplaces.  Now I am working in a corporate manner, with large companies and they are paying me to my bank account weekly, just as they would with local workers. It brought a lot ease on the business and a complete professionalism. 

What tips can you provide to others looking to work and get paid online?

I’d suggest working with US clients and start taking the “long term business concept” seriously. I see tons of guys continuously searching for new jobs everyday on several online marketplaces, where they already have a job running! To them – Stop looking for new clients and start caring for your current clients to build a long term business relationship. If you start doing this today – you won’t have to search for new jobs everyday as you’ll be able to grow a strong client base who will keep you overloaded with work 24×7.

And about get paid online – I’d honestly suggest using Payoneer’s new “US Payment Request” service. I’ve been using this for a while now, and it is completely amazing! Clients get a strong impression about me when I give them my “Bank of America” bank details (which is actually the Payoneer US Payment Service) and clients can transfer funds for completely free. I have to pay only 1% to receive funds from them. The absolute best part – NO LIMIT on loading! I’m just loving it, and I’d suggest everyone to start using Payoneer USPS – the best way to get paid.

Would you also like to share your experience with our new US Payment Request service, or do you have an interesting story you’d like to share with the Payoneer community? We’d love to hear about it – let us know by sending an e-mail to community@payoneer.com, or post your comment below!