I participated yesterday in an interesting round table discussion set up by Carmel Ventures, titled "Traffic and Affiliation – tips and tricks".

Things I learned:

1. I don’t know of any tips and tricks when it comes to traffic. Unless community, content, value, ecosystem and a solid partnership model are considered tricks.
2. I dislike the word "traffic".
3. I don’t understand why drug dealers don’t see the light – I believe they will find it much easier to fit in if they just use the right terminology. After all, all they do is funnel leads toward a landing experience that maximizes CTR while ensuring maximum retention.
4. I hope I’ll never need to use some of the "tips and tricks" I did hear about.

Now, having established my moral superiority compared with everyone else, I actually did learn quite a lot.

I also came out with a few "conclusions" – which I am not really sure about…

1. Using Affiliate Networks makes sense only when the lifetime value of a customer is relatively high
2. "Acquiring traffic" through affiliate networks doesn’t make sense for most mass UGC services
3. Freemium is what you do when you’re out of ideas for creating a sustainable business based on "free".

What’s your take on these?

Speaking of Free and Freemium, what’s the point of "Free Trial"? What kind of business insists on turning away its potential customers and leads after a set time period?

I cannot really think of any "Free Trial" product that won’t benefit a lot more from a freemium approach.