Affiliate Marketing Going 'Mainstream' Says VigLink CEO Roup

Interview

"Affiliate marketing has gone much more mainstream," says VigLink CEO Oliver Roup. That's his hope, at the very least, since his 28-person company is built on the commission-based lead gen business model that has been a cornerstone of web marketing.

Roup adds, "[Affiliate marketing] has gone from coupons to content. Though coupon sites were dominating up until a few years ago, what you've seen since that time is mainstream publishers, who deal in real content are starting to delve into the affiliate world." Huffington Post and Wanelo are among the larger media companies using VigLink products today which, he asserts, "proves" that affiliate marketing is less on the fringes than ever.

And with Q4 2012 year-over-year revenue growth of 118% according to Roup, VigLink wants to continue to scale. Bigger sites mean more inventory, which leads to more potential leads and more revenue to affiliate marketers, VigLink publishers – and VigLink itself.

On Product Evolution

"Since the last time we spoke, we have expanded to three products: VigLink Convert, VigLink Insert and VigLink Anywhere. Two years ago, we only had VigLink Convert... That product has continued to grow and includes 30,000 merchants and advertisers who participate. We do billions of page views a month and millions a month in revenue."

On the "Affiliate Marketing" Label

"I think content monetization or native monetization is a more appropriate label. If you check our website, we use the word 'affiliate' sparingly... As part of that transition to the mainstream, people are stepping away from words that have had poor connotations and are moving towards 'content monetization' or 'content-driven commerce' – that's a phrase we use a lot."

On Publisher Quality

"Sites that, in the display world, are considered 'premium,' when you look at it on a conversion basis, we would describe them as poor quality. And then these tail sites that don't get any respect from display convert like mad."