Affiliate marketing, in a nut shell, is when an site that sells a product pays a site that draws a customer to the product seller’s site. The two entities here are the advertiser (has product to sell), and the publisher (drives traffic). An enormous trend these days, is recommendation-based affiliate marketing. Essentially, when a publisher promotes a product or service by writing an article about it and referring it. This natural-looking marketing seems to work wonders with consumers looking for product reviews.

Watches are a bit different than most products, because writing a review on them is very difficult. First, most people don’t really care about the quality or craftsmanship of a watch, it is the price, then the look that matters. Second, after talking about the actual features and construction of the watch, the matter of taste is highly personal. There have been watches people love, and I just cannot seem to appreciate (Rolex Datejust for example, it is the fluting on the bezel I hate).

However, I think there is a huge potential market for watch affiliate marketing. It takes a keen reviewer to really focus on the little details and aspects of the design that take a nice watch to classic watch. Furthermore, many of the less expensive watch makers seem to make awkward hybrid copies of more expensive designs. Even though it is basically impossible to copyright the look of a watch, instead of virtual copies, “designer” watch makers take bits and pieces from popular designs, often resulting in ugly Frankenwatches. Why do they do this? Probably the same reason they make formula movies.

What a keen affiliate marketer could do, is sift through the vast array of well-done, and handsome watches offered by the volume makers (Fossil, Invicta, etc…) to point out the ones which are well done. This can be instrumental in selling more product, and getting the word out about wearable, yet very budget conscious watches. I would like to see an upsurge in watch-based affiliate marketing soon.