Social networks and affiliates
Every other day there’s a post somewhere about MySpace, its growth and influence (positive or negative) on society. Like them or hate them, fact is that social networks like MySpace have acquired a certain critical mass which make them influential in many ways; influence is a marketer’s delight.
The growth of the scoial networks in the UK too has been conspicuous. End of 2005 saw iTV acquiring Friends Reunited for about 120 million pounds. Now, latest stats released by Hitwise reveal that “bebo” was the 3rd most popular search term for the 4 week period ending April 29 amongst UK’s Internet surfers; in fact searches for bebo were way higher than that for MySpace.
The size of the user communities of these sites makes them attractive for marketers. The rates for advertising on MySpace are attrocious from what has been written in various quarters; and a site like Bebo uses AdSense to monetize its traffic.
But surely, there has to be a way for affiliate marketers to find a way through this channel? How big of an opportunity is it really for affiliates and how could that be tapped? I have a strong feeling we’ll find out pretty soon 
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