The spotlight shines brightly on Tihomir Totev this time. Tihomir is the Marketing & SEO Director at Gufo.it a technology and IT blog from Italy. Gufo.it joined our affiliate network as a publisher during the Winter sale campaign and shortly after they partnered with one of our most popular affiliate programs present in the affiliate contest, Mondly.
Thanks to their good results, Gufo.it won the newcomer prize when the campaign ended and they agreed to share their affiliate success story with us. Read about their struggles in the era of AI and how they overcome it.
1. How long have you been working in the affiliate marketing industry and what's your main role at the moment?
I have been in the world of affiliate marketing for over 10 years. I currently am the Marketing & SEO Director at Gufo.it. My role is to get our articles on the top of Google, monitor the website's performances and manage our relationships with affiliate networks.
2. What's your biggest affiliate marketing challenge right now, and why?
The main difficulty is to be found on the various search engines and social media and reach an ever-wider audience. The competition is growing day by day as there are more and more companies working in this industry.
Furthermore, it is often difficult to establish partnerships with many companies. On the one hand, the big ones turn their attention and budget only to more well-known influencers and sites, on the other hand many companies still fail to understand how advantageous affiliation can be and continue to focus exclusively on CPC advertising etc. Finding long-term partners is not easy at all.
3. Name the most successful affiliate project you've worked on. What do you think made it successful?
Gufo.it is definitely our most successful affiliate project. It is a technology and IT blog that has tens of thousands of monthly users in Italy and is constantly growing thanks to the continuous commitment of our team.
4. Can you tell us three digital marketing trends every company should look at and prepare for in the next two years?
Like it or not, social media is and always will be one of the most important channels in the marketing world. However, we must not forget about many other ways to reach and increase your audience.
One technology that is still underdeveloped but which I am convinced will soon grow exponentially is augmented and virtual reality. The only thing holding these two back is the technology that is not developed enough to make it easy for everyone to access. However, with ever more rapid technological progress, I believe that in a couple of years, or even less, we will see an incredible diffusion of both AR and VR.
5. How do you think our network helps Gufo.it achieve its goals as an affiliate?
Avangate Affiliate Network gives everyone the opportunity to easily monetize their site, acting as an intermediary between publisher and advertiser. As already mentioned, being able to create stable partnerships with companies is very complicated. With your service, on the other hand, a few clicks are enough to immediately start earning and increase revenue from your site / social account.
Not only do you save publishers and content creators tons of time, but you also have a wealth of resources that can give you lots of new ideas to grow.
6. Any advice for affiliate newcomers who are promoting software and digital goods?
The market is difficult and you need to become aware of it right away to avoid disappointment. However, that doesn't mean it's impossible. I also want to remind everyone that to make money, you need to have a large audience. So, first think of being useful to your users, grow your followers and only after you have reached important numbers, try to monetize the site.