Paul Roberts, owner and editor-in-chief of CGPress.org, shared with us his story about how a successful news website found potential in affiliate marketing. He told us about the struggles encountered at the beginning and how being a publisher is part of the future. You can read his full journey below.
Paul managed to place second and win a really nice prize of $1,000 in Amazon vouchers by promoting iToo Software's products, one of the merchants that participated in Avangate Affiliate Network's winter campaign.
1. How long have you been working in the affiliate marketing industry and what's your main role at CGPress?
I'm the owner and editor-in-chief of CGPress, an independent news website built by and for CG artists, with more than 20 years in the business. We're one of the longest-running CG news organizations in the world. Our news reporting has gained a reputation for credibility, independent coverage and focus on quality journalism.
We're relatively new to affiliate marketing, in fact, only in the last few years have we started to introduce a few relevant affiliate opportunities to our website. Initially in banner advertising, which didn't prove particularly successful, but more recently in articles about sales or promotions, which has proven to be much more successful.
2. What's your biggest affiliate marketing challenge right now, and why?
We've always had a reputation for independent new coverage, so our biggest challenge is to maintain this while adding appropriate affiliate links into the mix. It's very important for us that we balance the perception by readers of using affiliate links balanced with independent journalistic integrity and independence. So far, we have managed this though marketing only those products that are genuinely of interest to our readers, being up-front about when and why affiliate links are used, and placing them only in appropriate articles, i.e. articles about sales or new releases do not cause a perceived conflict of interests, but reviews would be a problem.
3. How did the recent pandemic affect your business?
The pandemic did not affect us that much in terms of readership, but in terms of advertising revenue from traditional banner sales, it went down as fewer companies were willing to spend out on ads. Regarding affiliate sales, fewer readers were converting, but we're already seeing a return to previous levels.
4. Name the most successful affiliate project you've worked on. What do you think made it successful?
It's always the Black Friday sales post, which gathers every conceivable CG-related discount across the industry in one place for the convenience of our readers. We're very strictly related to CG sales though, so while other sites will jam in Amazon links for barely related products, we've fostered a relationship of trust with our readers who expect it to represent a genuinely useful resource of strictly relevant promotions without having to wade through irrelevant add-ons.
5. Can you tell us three digital marketing trends every company should look at and prepare for in the next two years?
As a news provider rather than a digital marketing agency, our focus is different, so our main challenges are losing readers to social media, especially for the kind of bite-size news that we provide, and the continued reduction in banner sales, resulting in our switch to affiliation, which is likely to continue.
6. How do you think our network helps CGPress achieve its goals as an affiliate?
Avangate Affiliate Network has made it really easy for us as a small niche news site to add affiliate marketing into our sales mix. It's very easy to use and of course it helps that several of the major players in our industry already use it. Thanks to Avangate we've been able to generate revenue from our existing content diet beyond traditional display advertising.
7. Any advice for affiliate newcomers who are promoting software and digital goods?
Keep it real, keep it relevant and be upfront. Don't lose your audience's trust.