Being A Good Affiliate Manager
Instead of being the usual post with tips for affiliate marketers, I want to write a post directly for affiliate managers. Why? Because indirectly this can make a huge difference for us, the affiliate marketers.
Affiliate managers can play a big role in getting you the right offer, payout, deal, etc. Some affiliate managers are better than others, simple as that. So to all you affiliate managers out there, keep these points in mind and try to apply them to your every day business.
Tip #1 : DO NOT be pushy when trying to recruit an affiliate.
There’s nothing that draws me away from a network more than when they are pushy and annoying about trying to get me to run offers. With some networks I’ve kindly explained that I have a full platter in front of me and have 0 time for any new projects, and that I’ll take a look once some time opens up. I still got e-mails and IMs every week asking me to look at all these new campaigns. Don’t be pushy! I know you’re out there, if I’m going to come to you, constantly bugging me about it will not help.
Tip #2 : Only show the best.
This goes for recruiting new affiliates or with affiliates you already have. I don’t want to see 50 offers that you “think I can do great on”, I’d rather you show me 2 offers that are doing great for affiliates and you really think with my background I can do some volume on. If I’ve told you that I excel in financial offers, showing me 10 ringtone and funcard offers probably isn’t going to entice me too much. This leads me to the next tip…
Tip #3 : Know your affiliates.
Knowing your affiliates is huge. Using the example above, if I’m a huge financial guy, I don’t want to even look at a funcard offer. I want to see the best debt offer you have and what extra creatives you have for me to look at on that offer. Now a lot of affiliates won’t tell you exactly what offers they’re promoting, but most will at least give you a category as to what types of offers they promote (financial, dating, ringtones, weight loss, etc).
Tip #4 : Be reliable.
I have the cell phone # of all my really important affiliate managers and I know that if I have a problem, I can get help as soon as I want. There’s horror stories online if guys who have been trying to get in touch with their affiliate manager for weeks and haven’t gotten a response. Granted some of these guys are probably a little..er..retarded…I’m sure there’s guys out there who have been “looked past”. Try your best not to overlook anybody, you never know what affiliate can be trying to get in touch with you. He could be huge. Respond to your affiliates on AIM, reply to their emails, and if they’re important enough give them your cell.
Tip #5 : Don’t bullshit affiliates.
I hate taking crap from a manager trying to negotiate. If you’re Network A and getting $20.00 on an offer direct, I may talk to Network B who gets the same offer and payout, and they offer me $18.00 without a problem. Don’t tell me the “absolute best” you can do is $16.75. You’ll take a little sacrifice in margin like any other good network until I send a little volume and you get more from the advertiser and get your margins back to normal.
Tip #6 : Be as transparent as possible.
Transparency is KEY in any good affiliate network/affiliate relationship. You tell me exactly what’s going on with you guys, and we’ll make the best accommodations so both parties profit out of it. We’re all here to make money. As long as you’re not taking a 1% margin or something crazy, we’re both going to make money. Transparency is a testament of good faith and builds a good relationship. I’m much more likely to stay with you in the long-term if you’re transparent.
Tip #7 : Keep my information private.
Pretty simple tip, right? Its a shame it doesn’t happen out there. Don’t be freakin greedy and go and give out information about my campaign, or rip it yourself. I’ve had this experience not only with myself, but with other affiliates out there who have talked to me. They’ve seen networks themselves copy the affiliates landing page and method or promotion…that’s pretty damn low.
Tip #8 : Learn your trade and help me.
One of the best things you can do as an affiliate manager is learn affiliate marketing well. You know how everything functions and how to work things on your end, but you should get out there and try to see the affiliates side of everything. You’ll be able to then make suggestions to your affiliates and directly help them make more money. I’ve had some pretty good ideas come from smart affiliate managers, so it definitely helps.
Tip #9 : No affiliate is too small.
I pretty much sucked when I started with affiliate marketing. My manager was Fraser at Azoogle and I was a complete newb. I bugged him day and night asking him questions about affiliate marketing and would IM him and annoy him every time I got a lead…which was about twice a day. I was doing like $30/day for my first month or 2. He stuck with me, helped me, never ignored me, and I went on to now do over 7 figures for him at CX Digital. Think it was worth it for him to put up with my crap for a couple months?
Hopefully a couple of those tips can help you become a better affiliate manager, or just get a different perspective on things.
Wow, so you’ve made millions for the affiliate company AND yourself now!??? That’s pretty awesome Paul.
I hear you on #1, we know you are there just give us time :) … that said, when my time does free up sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I’ll more than likely go to the network that consistently called me, just because I feel bad there is a balance though.
I just hope some managers actually read this :)
How much millions dude? say say say it nows before time runs out or wait before someone hear it! lol
Good stuff Paul. I really like it :)
When are you going to show us the next income checks?
Great tips. As both an affiliate and an affiliate manager, I can relate. Nothing bugs me more than one of my affiliate managers IMing or calling me daily to talk about new offers he has for me. In a way it’s made me take a step back in my own recruiting of affiliates- so now I just concentrate on getting the best offers I can, and let them do the talking for me. Because of that it is hard to get prospective affiliates to join – so all I can really do is try to be as helpful as I can. So far it’s worked pretty well, but I know I am not doing as much sales as some of my other salesy greaseball affiliate managers.
Making over 7 figures is a sweet deal. Good Stuff.
I think the most important one, that I didn’t see in your list is tracking. Still a lot of merchants refuse to install a pixel on their confirmation page. They can make up a million excuses why this is impossible, incompatible or a security risk but they do not give you an alternative. Only a few of them realize that proper tracking will keep you in that campaign for the long run.
Definitely agree with you on number 9. No affiliate is too small. I had an argument with my account manager for a “vehicle cleaning” offer I promoted 3 years ago; they did not want to work with me on the payout even though I drove them about 60+ sales per day, which was huge at that time. Eventually I ended up switching to another offer on another network and when I showed them how much I drove for their competitor they immediately increased my payout by 10%. The other account manager tried to get me back promoting that offer six months later, but I stuck with the guys who gave me that extra 10%.. Loyalty counts for something too.
boy is it monthly or like say 3 months or some shit or yearly? lol come on with some sweet numbers man we love numbers for real! Why not make new headlines with a $1million bucks screenshot? Would worth the try come on! :D
Hard To Find Good Affiliate Managers
Yeah Tip #9 really struck a chord with me. I’m a small-medium affiliate, and often when I do like 3-4 figures a month with smaller networks, they kinda treat me like dirt, and give me mono-syllabic replies like “yeah”, “maybe”, “probably” etc.
Its because of such attitude that I won’t even consider running offers off their network in the near future. Everybody starts somewhere – you never know which of your affiliates you’re managing will be the next ‘uberaffiliate’.
paul, thanks for sharing with us this information
The info is great, thanks for giving out your valuable information!!!
My tip. Answer your emails. Just because I just signed up doesn’t mean I am not going to make you money. I won’t make you money if you don’t reply to me though. I just won’t give a network money that wont help me out. 2 emails, and no reply = bye bye Market Leverage. Oh well it was their loss.
Shudogg Dot Com – Make Money Online Blogging
As a new Affiliate Manager I really appreciate the tips. I have been searching for ways to promote our program with out pissing off people on forums by constantly plugging my program… I agree you are spot on here. Affiliates should be treated like quality customers by their Affiliate Manager, no matter how good their products convert.