So I'm still not clear, James. Do you agree, or disagree with my basic premise in my blog posting? :-)

Hey Dave – thanks for the quick commenting. Sorry I wasn’t clear on my stance.

I am assuming that the basic premise of your post is that a real business is built around sustainable differentiators, and because affiliates sell the same products as other affiliates, they don’t have sustainable differentiators and therefore are not a real business. Am tracking correctly?

If so, I would have to disagree with you. While affiliates may sell similar products to other affiliates there are amazing differences between the business that they run. Affiliates can carry a different product mix, promote their partners’ wares through different channels, have wildly different storefronts (web sites) and exposure to the online public.

At InsureMe we have hundreds of affiliates, and let me tell you, their businesses are all very different. Mind you that these are marketing companies, not bricks and mortar manufacturers or stores in a shopping mall. Affiliates succeed by selling through effective marketing, and by nature that marketing happens (mostly) online. If you start thinking of affiliates as marketing companies rather than a business that produces a tangible product, you will start to understand that affiliates do indeed run businesses.

I think a fitting example would be that of your local State Farm insurance agent. They have a storefront, they market their products, they work mainly in a sales capacity, and they are paid a commission for the products that they sell. State Farm agents sell State Farm policies, just like all of the other State Farm agents out there – so product differentiation is not a part of their business model. With this in mind, would you consider a State Farm agent as someone who owns and operates a business? I know I would – as would most people.

One last thing - your assumption that affiliates are stuck using the same creative, banners, graphics is incorrect. Successful affiliates tend to create original creative, banners, and content to fit their needs and their websites. The kind of affiliates that limit themselves to advertisers provided banners, creative, etc. are usually newer and less sophisticated in their marketing efforts. There are a lot of those people out there – but those aren’t the people who make the affiliate world go ‘round.

Alright Dave – hope that helped clarify where I stand and gave you some more prospective on the affiliate world.

Let me know if you have questions!

I HOPE you are not Affiliated with Accurate Ins. Co & especially UNIQUE auto ins. in Chicago, on Knox Ave., they are the biggest scammers, rip-off. NEVER NEVER Pay out or anything.

Hey Kandy - thanks for the comment. To be honest, I can't really tell you who we do and do not work with on the agent side of things. We do make sure that all of the insurance agents we work with are licensed to do business in their state.

I would like to suggest a couple of places for you to look for insurance information that could help you out. First is our ">http://www.insureme.com/content/rsrc/"> insurance resource center and the other is our insurance">http://www.insuremeblog.com/insurance/">insurance blog. Hopefully by following the advice given in those two resources you will be able to find the right insurance company.