Affiliate marketing is an advertising model where companies (merchants) pays commissions to third-party publishers (affiliates) who generate leads or sales by featuring the company’s products and services on their websites or blogs.

Affiliate marketing has been a proven business model since 1994, just four years after the origination of the internet. It is one of the only marketing channels and forms of  commerce where no money is exchanged until mutually agreed-upon results are achieved. One can be either a merchant or affiliate with very little, if any, investment.

It is relatively easy to begin. Merchants and Affiliates sign up at reputable affiliate marketing sites such as Commission Junction (CJ), Clickbank, Ratkuten, PeerFly, ShareASale, Wide Markets and Amazon Associates to name some of the top sites. After completing the sign up process, code or text links are provided for the merchant and affiliates to put on their websites identifying any actions that come from their relationship.

Is it worth it? Here are 22 affiliate marketing cold, hard yet amazing facts.

1. 90% of traffic and conversions to affiliate merchants’ programs are driven by 10% of affiliates.
2. Over 80% of brands have affiliate programs.
3. 78% of CMOs admit affiliate marketing is their least mastered area of digital marketing.
4. 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference.
5. 67% of affiliates come from North America (US and Canada).
6. 66%% of affiliate programs fall in into 4 categories: Fashion (23%), Sports and Outdoors (18%), Health & Beauty (14%) and Travel (11%)
7. Nearly 50% of affiliate related traffic originates from a mobile device.
8. 55.5% of affiliates work from home.
9. 48% of affiliates make under $20,000 a year; 20% make $20,000-$50,000 a year; 6% make $50,000-$100,000 a year; 6% make $100,000-$150,000 a year and 3% make $150,000+ a year.
10. 40% of marketers say affiliate marketing is their most desired digital marketing skill.
11. 38% of marketers call affiliate marketing one of their top customer acquisition methods.
12. More than 30% of affiliate-related sales originate from a mobile device.
13. 16.6% annual growth is expected through 2021.
14. 15% to 30% of all online sales are generated by affiliate programs.
15. 10% to 15% conversion rate for pay-per-call affiliate campaigns vs 2% to 3% for online affiliate campaigns.
16. 10% of Amazon’s sales are estimated to come from affiliates.
17. 7.5% of total digital spend for retailers goes to affiliate marketing.
18. $5 billion in revenue was generated last year in the US by affiliate marketing.
19. $5 billion in revenue was generated last year in the US by affiliate marketing.
20. 600 million products are promoted online by affiliate programs.
21. Over 2,000,000 affiliates were on Amazon as early as 2008.
22. 1,000,000+ affiliate accounts are registered on ShareASale.

Do these facts convince you affiliate marketing is worth it? Is your business interested?

Better online reviews are now a key consideration for every organization, brand, doctor, lawyer, contractor, caterer, hotelier, restaurant owner and human resource department. And for good reason:

• 84% of patients use reviews to evaluate physicians
• 81% of females would not visit a restaurant which reports cleanliness issues from a review
• 76% of travelers said they would pay more for a hotel with a higher review score
• 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them more likely to trust a local business
• 60% of job seekers would not apply to a company with a one-star rating
• 5%-9% increase in revenue for every additional star a business gets

The facts show better online review influence our buying decisions and impact revenue for every kind of business. But any business is not above getting a negative review and figuring out how to deal with it. Some even resort to writing their own positive reviews. Do they work? Hardly.

• Over 30% of users assume reviews are fake if there are no negative reviews
• 27% of people trust online reviews only if they believe they are authentic
• 20% of online reviews on Yelp are fake

How does a business get better online review authentically? Jessica Leone, an unapologetic word nerd, bookworm and Florida Gators football fan, let us know in an infographic she created, How to Get More Positive Reviews (and Deal with the Negative).

Here is a brief summary how to get more positive reviews and deal with the negative.

1. HAVE A CLEAR CALL-TO-ACTION ON YOUR SITE: Make it easy for people to see and go to where they can write a review.
2. SAY THANK YOU: A simple thank you page to customers with a request they leave a review goes a long way.
3. SEND A PERSONALIZE TEXT OR EMAIL: Ask if they will leave a review when your business and their experiences are still fresh.
4. SOCIAL MEDIA IS YOUR FRIEND: Use a display plug-in to share social media reviews.
5. FACE-TO-FACE: Asking in person for a review is 7X more effective than asking by email.
6. TALK TO VENDORS: For B2B industries, ask vendors and suppliers. 7 out of 10 people will leave a review if they are asked.
7. CONSIDER AN INCENTIVE: Zappos Rewards Program gives members 100 points toward products for leaving a review.
8. TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Ask consumers to leave a review when they are likely to be at their happiest. American Express found a happy customer will tell 9 other people about their experience.
9. SEND A FOLLOW UP: 20% to 25% of Esty purchases result in a review because they send a follow up email or text.
10. ALWAYS RESPOND: Whether positive or negative, respond to reviews. Harvard Business Review found hotels that respond receive 12% more reviews and their ratings increase.
11. REACH OUT TO A NEGATIVE REVIEWER DIRECTLY: 78% of consumers who receive a response believe the business cares about them.
12. SPREAD POSITIVE REVIEWS: Share and promote reviews on your website and social networks.

Here is the infographic.

Are these ways useful to you to get better online reviews?

Wikipedia page for a company increases recognition and notability. It adds credibility to any business.

A Wikipedia page is a web page on world’s best known encyclopedia created, edited and updated by volunteers. It contains over 4,500,000 articles in English, but there are many more in 280 languages.

10,000 articles are read each day and 500 million people read it every month. But Wikipedia has no formal editors or formal peer review process. A Wikipedia page is not for every business or organization.

Should your company have a Wikipedia page? Here are 8 Pros and Cons.

PROS

1. INCREASES CUSTOMER CONSIDERATION:  Because Wikipedia is a third-party, public website, information on your Wikipedia page may be more valuable to a potential customer than some of the information on your website.
2. RAISES SEARCH ENGINE PRESENCE AND RANK: A Wikipedia page has high authority and usually a top rank for a brand or business name. A link from Wikipedia to your website is a valuable link.
3. ESTABLISHES OWNERSHIP: If you think someone might create a Wikipedia page about your company that reflect a bias, then don’t let that happen and be the one to create it, first. Although you can’t control what other might say on it, at least it is yours to direct and attempt to keep correct.
4. CONTROLS INFORMATION: Each edit or update of wiki information is recorded in the wiki software. If wrong information is edited, the software can easily revert the changes to the previous version.
5. IS TIMELY: Information is updated online so you don’t have to wait for a particular publisher to update the information.
6. PROVIDES REFERENCES: Wikipedia page contains references for all documents linked to the wiki information. This increases recognition and notability.
7. IS FREE: There are no cost to create a Wikipedia page and no licensing or subscription costs required for installing institutional wiki.
8. HAS FLEXIBILITY: The program has no any predetermined structure, it can be used for a variety of applications.

CONS

1. ANYONE CAN EDITS: Anyone can add and edit Wikipedia entries, so information could be incorrect or deliberately false.
2. LACK OF CONFIDENTIALITY: It is difficult to access user rights. Confidential information can get to the wrong persons since anybody can edit the information in Wikipedia.
3. MONITOR FOR ACCURACY: Because of the first couple of cons, you’re going to have to regularly be examining your Wikipedia page for accuracy.
4. NEGATIVE TESTIMONY: People who had bad experiences may come and talk about the negative sides of your business, and the editing staff is going to take a long, hard look at what’s going on if they see you deleting every bad thing someone else says
5. MAY NOT GET A UNIQUE COMPANY PAGE: An editor may decide that your content would be better if merged into an article on similar businesses, rather than giving you a unique place on the web. This is a risk especially if you are a small business or start-up.
6. NOT ALL ACHIEVEMENTS ARE NOTEWORTHY: A Wikipedia page cannot be promotional. If your company has just achieved a million dollars in sales, that’s not especially noteworthy for Wikipedia. If your company is a medical device that has saved a million lives, that’s a more relevant achievement.
7. CITATIONS MATTER: Generally speaking, topics with multiple independent citations are considered worth having a unique page. Try for a minimum of four. The more you have, the better. The quality of the citations also matters. A small mention in your local newspaper is not a noteworthy citation. Exposure in a major national magazine might be.
8. PAYMENTS MUST BE DISCLOSED: If you paid someone to create a company Wikipedia page, this has to be disclosed.

Is your company considering a Wikipedia page? Do these Pros and Cons help?

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. – Peter Drucker

Based on Peter Drucker’s wisdom, customer loyalty is one of a company’s most important assets. That goes for any company. Even, or especially, Amazon.

How loyal are Amazon’s customers? Here are 30 astonishing facts about Amazon customer loyalty.

1. 95% of Prime members say they would “definitely” or “probably” renew their memberships.
2. 94% of Survey Monkey’s audience say they’ve heard of Amazon Prime and 70% have used Amazon Prime.
3. 95% of Amazon users always or sometimes read full product descriptions before purchasing.
4. Almost 90% of Amazon customers say they would not consider purchasing a product with less than 3 stars.
5. 85% of Prime shoppers visit Amazon at least once a week or more, that number drops to 56 percent for non-Prime members going to Amazon at least once a week.
6. Nearly 80% of Amazon customers say they trust Amazon’s shipping more than packages shipped by a third-party seller to show Amazon customer loyalty.
7. 75% of people who shop on Amazon use the Amazon search box.
8. 69% of Whole Foods shoppers are Prime members to show Amazon customer loyalty with this acquistion.
9. 65% of Amazon shoppers rank price as the most important factor, above faster shipping, free shipping and better product assortment.
10. 63% of Amazon customers are Prime members to prove Amazon customer loyalty.
11. 60% of Amazon customers say they wouldn’t consider purchasing items with less than a 4 ½ star rating.
12. 59% of shoppers across 27 countries bought items on Amazon.com last year.
13. 54% of people who buy on Amazon always read the full product description.
14. 51% of Amazon customers come to the site to compare prices.
15. 46% of Prime members say they buy on Amazon at least once a week.
16. 44% of Amazon customers say they will always check prices on Amazon before purchasing on another site as a demonstration of their Amazon customer loyalty.
17. 43% of all online sales come from Amazon.
18. 43% say they would pay $10 or more for delivery within an hour while 32% would pay $10 or more for same-day shipping.
19. 33% of Amazon users come to the site ready to buy
20. 31% of Prime members go to amazon.com daily.
21. 30% of Prime members said they ordered products weekly on Amazon in 2016, which grew to 46% in 2017.
22. 24% of Amazon’s North American retail revenues can be attributed to consumers who first tried to buy an item at stores but found their local stores out-of-stock.
23. 22% of Amazon users are now more likely to purchase their groceries via the giant marketplace, because of the Whole Foods acquisition, and 37% will consider it.
24. 7.5% of Seattle’s working age population are Amazon employees.
25. 13% of people who are not Prime member buy from Amazon weekly.
26. 1.6 million packages are shipped every day from Amazon.
27. 45,000 robots roam Amazon’s floors.
28. #8 most reputable firm in U.S. and #18 in the world.
29. Amazon is more valuable than all brick and mortar retailers combined.
30. Amazon Prime offer discounts to everyone on government assistance.

Do these facts convince you of Amazon customer loyalty? Does your business need to improve its customer loyalty?

Employee review sites provide employees the opportunity to rate their job and their company across a variety of measures, usually according according to a scale and/or percentage.

For the most part, employee review sites are used by potential job seekers to find objective, unbiased information about working at a particular company. What is its culture, leadership, chances for advancement, work-life balance and contributions the company is making to something significant.

Roughly 20 highly viewed websites are widely searched by potential employees. The top 5 are:

1. Glassdoor
2. Great Place to Work
3. Indeed
4. Comparably
5. Careerbliss

If you’re looking for a job, you might want to check them out before applying to a company. The majority of job seekers read at least six reviews before forming an opinion of a company.

If you’re the employer, that’s just one fact about employees reviews sites to be aware. Here are 33 more facts about employee review sites not to ignore.

1. 90% of job seekers find the employer perspective useful when learning about jobs and companies.
2. 89% of Glassdoor users are either actively looking for jobs or would consider better opportunities.
3. 84% of employees would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another role with a company that had an excellent corporate reputation. And most in $75-100K salary range would only require a 1-10% salary increase to consider such a move.
4. 84% of companies believe a clearly defined strategy is key to achieving employer branding objectives.
5. 80% of Millennials look for people and culture fit with employers, followed by career potential.
6. 79% are likely to use social media in their job search.
7. 78% of sales professionals said they would accept less money to work at a company selling something compelling.
8. 76% of job applicants want details on what makes the company an attractive place to work.
9. 70% of Millennials say they hear about companies through friends and job boards.
10. 69% of people would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed.
11. 69% is the average CEO approval rating on Glassdoor.
12. 67% of active and passive job seekers say that when they’re evaluating companies and job offers, it is important to them that the company has a diverse workforce.
13. 66% of healthcare professionals are likely to accept less money to work at a company with a great culture.
14. 65% of Millennials said that they are more skeptical of claims made by employers now than they were in 2011.
15. 64% of Millennials would rather make $40K a year at a job they love, than $100K a year at a job they think is boring.
16. 62% of employees agree perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review on employee review sites.
17. 61% of Glassdoor users report that they seek company reviews and ratings on employee review sites before making a decision to apply for a job.
18. 60% of Millennials consider the most attractive perk to be growth opportunities.
19. 57% of Glassdoor visitors are employed either full-time or part-time.
20. 57% of people think their company should be doing more to increase diversity among its workforce.
21. 54% read company reviews on employee review sites from their mobile devices.
22. 51% of employees are considering a new job.
23. 49% of employees would recommend their employer to a friend.
24. 48% of female software engineers are likely to apply to a company a friend recommended.
25. 46% of Glassdoor members are reading reviews when they have just started their job search and have not yet spoken with a company recruiting or hiring manager.
26. 46% of Millennials left their last job due to lack of career growth.
27. 45% of job seekers say they use their mobile device specifically to search for jobs at least once a day.
28. 39% of employees have shared praise or positive comments online about their employer on employee review sites.
29. Only 33% of employers encourage employees to use social media to share news and information about their work or employer.
30. Only 26% of employees agree “my employer listens and responds well to me.”
31. Only 17% of employees highly rate communications from their company’s top leader and senior leadership.
32. On average, each corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes. Of these candidates, four to six will be called for an interview and only one will be offered the job.
33. Employees rank as the most trusted influencers when communicating about their company’s engagement and integrity.

Do you think your company should know the influence of employee review site. Does this convince you of the impact reviews have?