GUITARIST JOE BONAMASSA USES AFFILIATE ADS TO PUSH RELEASE
Affiliate advertising has been the rage on blogs for years. Place an ad on your site like the Amazon Go Green or Indie Venue Bible ads in the right hand columns on Hypebot and get paid a few dollars when anyone clicks and buys. I've wondered how long it would take affiliate marketing to come to music sales. Fans are asked to post band widgets and banners on their blogs and social networking pages. Why not pay them for doing it?
Fans of blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa can join his affiliate program, attach a unique link to any mention of the artist or a variety of banner ads like the one here and get paid $2 for every click that results in a sale. As a bonus, the fan that sells the most music a $6000 limited edition Gibson guitar.
Any artist or label can easily set up their own affiliate program using...
a service like PayDotCom or Interneka If you just want to sell downloads ClickBank offers a solution. To avoid sharing revenue with a service you can host your own affiliate program with software like AffiliateGuerilla. Do some research. There are dozens of affiliate sales solutions and some will prove better for smaller or larger campaigns.
If I worked for a label whose brand mattered (and they all should) like Ministry Of Sound, Yep Roc, Lost Highway or Fueled By Ramen; I'd create an affiliate widget that rotated new releases. Any major label could do the same with genres like hip pop or metal. And why not include t-shirts and other merchandise in any program?
PS: Does anyone want to set-up a solution specifially geared to indie music? I might be interested in partnering.
