How affiliate marketing can reduce unemployment

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The issue of high unemployment among Malaysian graduates has been a growing public concern recently. Each year, Malaysian universities, both public or private institutions of higher learning, produce a large number of graduates, but the percentage of them that get jobs is surprisingly low.

The issue has been debated and discussed in many seminars, forums and other platforms by many parties such as academics, government agencies, employment agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and others. It is a great concern as it affects the image of the educational system in Malaysia.

Unemployment refers to the condition of being unemployed or the number of unemployed people in the working population, while an unemployed graduate is defined as a graduate who is unemployed if he or she is looking for work and willing to work at the prevailing wage but is unable to find a job.

Unemployed graduates can be categorized as those who have never worked after graduation and those who have lost their jobs and are seeking re-entry into the labor market. Meanwhile, employability refers to the success or failure of any graduate to get a job within six months after graduating. A graduate’s employability depends on many factors such as academic performance and communication skills. Graduates will have to develop market-oriented skills to meet the challenges as well as the changing needs of employers. There are researchers who blame unemployed graduates for not being prepared to enter the working world.

The general consensus among employers indicates that Malaysian graduates are well trained in their areas of specialization but unfortunately lack soft skills. More employers are searching for graduates who are balanced, with good academic achievements and possessing soft skills such as communication ability, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills and the ability to be flexible. These soft skills (also known as employability skills) are foundation skills that apply across the board, no matter what job the employee is performing.

The general consensus among employers indicates that Malaysian graduates are well trained in their areas of specialization but unfortunately lack soft skills

Every business wants to make profits by getting as many customers as possible and in the process increase sales. There are many ways to drive sales, and one of them that is very convenient and preferable for many entrepreneurs is affiliate marketing. These open up opportunities for unemployed graduates to take on the role of online entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers.

Affiliate marketing is a prospective strategy of internet marketing and e-commerce, which lies in the shift of responsibility for sales to a third party, in particular to clients, who are rewarded commissions after convincing other clients to purchase products offered by a sponsor (company using the e-promotion tools).

The essence of affiliate marketing lies in encouraging participants (so-called affiliates) that are independent of the advertiser (sponsor) to perform commission-based sales activities by means of affiliate networks.

Most sponsor-affiliate relationships are managed through several major networks. The networks provide the technology to enable the management of affiliate activities, to coordinate tracking activities (when an affiliate sends a potential customer to an advertiser’s website) and to support transactions. They also manage the calculation of the commissions and, in most cases, the issuance of the payment(s) to affiliates and the issuance of invoices to affiliates for payments made.

The networks also facilitate the management of application processing (when an affiliate seeks to join an advertiser’s affiliate marketing program) and the process of providing access to ads (e.g.: banners, text links, product data file, etc.) to affiliates, so they can adequately promote the sponsor’s products. These networks are treated as units that, by facilitating the use of affiliate marketing principles, develop the market.

The most common compensation method is the one where the affiliate is only paid commissions for actual sales made. The cost per click method of compensation is not favored by many merchants because there is always the danger of the marketing program not resulting in reasonable sales numbers. An affiliate can also just sit around and earn money for actually doing nothing. Affiliate marketing is sometimes referred to as performance marketing because of the compensation method.

The key to successful affiliate marketing lies in the construction of a win-win relationship between the three parties – the sponsor, the affiliate and the customer. The sponsor realizes the benefit of a purely commissioned sales force and has a marketing cost that is predictable and spent ex-post.  Affiliates have the opportunity to create a revenue stream without investments in infrastructure and know-how. By increasing the effectiveness of online activities, an affiliate focuses exclusively on the optimization of his Internet service (e.g. blog’s Facebook profile, website) in terms of content, structure, navigation, functionality, etc. Clients get reliable information on products from sources other than the sponsor itself.

There are many affiliate groups and affiliate result providers that can offer unemployed graduates with the essential information about the most lucrative products and well-compensating businesses available.

Unemployed graduates can surely taste the excellence of success if they use the proper techniques in affiliate marketing. As online entrepreneurs, they can earn more money as affiliate marketers if they are determined to do the things needed to make it work.

Keep in mind, there is no fast way to success. Affiliate marketing may appear very appealing because of the number of encouraging statements of both the businesses and affiliate marketers who have gained tremendously from it. However, it still includes an excellent pact of effort and determination. Unemployed graduates are also required to be resourceful and elastic.

The sky is always the limit!