Do you really know your affiliate manager?

by Joe Sousa on May 7, 2013

in Affiliate Management,Affiliate Stuff,General business stuff

If you are a merchant looking to hire an affiliate manager you have many, many different options to choose from. The fact that you are looking for a qualified affiliate manager is a great first step. Too many merchants think affiliate management is something you can just have an unqualified intern do or pass off to the marketing department and those are the merchants who end up closing their affiliate program after a few months. A quality affiliate manager can show you results and will almost always pay for themselves many times over.

But have you done your research? Do you really know your affiliate manager? There are dozens and dozens of affiliate management firms out there with many different ways of running their businesses. Some are great and I would trust them with my business and give them free reign to run my program however they saw fit but others I wouldn’t trust to take out my trash.

Example: Earlier this week I received an email from an “affiliate management” agency that went to one of my client’s emails. The email contains the name of the agency I am working with so it is no secret they already have good management. I have seen those emails in the past and client poaching is something that benefits nobody. But the interesting thing about the email? They were billing their service as “Gorilla Affiliate Program Management”.

Now, if you have been around this industry for any length of time you know there is only one Internet Marketing Gorilla and that is Greg Hoffman. This company Tiptier is blatently ripping off one of the most experienced, award winning managers in this industry. If a merchant were to do their research on Tiptier they would see that they are just some fraudsters trying to make a quick buck and not bring any value. Why would I want to trust people like that with my affiliate program?

Along with just some general background research here are a few other questions you should ask your potential affiliate management agency before hiring them. You should want to know the answers to these questions and know what your affiliate manager would recommend before you get started. Knowing your affiliate manager and what they think up front will save a lot of headaches down the road:

1. What networks do you prefer to work with and why? What network would be the best fit for us? Different networks have different strengths and weaknesses. For most of them the weaknesses far outweigh the strengths. Some of the networks cater more to toolbars, parasites, adware, and other affiliates who will consistently break your terms of service. Yeah, they can put some numbers on the board for your affiliate program but in most cases they are just stealing sales from other channels. In nearly every case I would recommend you choose an agency who wants to run your program on Shareasale.com.  There are some other options that could fit well with what you do as well and a good affiliate manager will be able to point you in the direction of a quality network.

2. What is your view of coupon sites? It is hard to get around the fact that coupons are very, very prevalent in today’s internet economy. Can you survive without them? Of course. But a properly executed coupon strategy coupled with some select partnerships with some of the coupon sites can drive new customers and new revenue for you.  Find out what sites your affiliate manager likes to work with and which ones they think would be a good fit for you. Check out the sites yourself and see if you agree.

3. What kind of paid search policy would you suggest? If, as a merchant, you are doing your own paid search and seeing good results you wouldn’t necessarily want affiliates running their own paid search campaigns, especially if they want to direct link. But if you aren’t doing your own paid search having an affiliate handle that for you can be a very valuable asset. Since you only pay on a sale it is kind of a no brainer. But there are also questions of trademark bidding, trademark + bidding (merchant.com coupons, merchant discount codes, etc.) which can steal sales away in some cases. There are times where allowing those could be of value but a quality affiliate manager can help you make that distinction.

4. How much communication should I expect? I think this can be an overlooked aspect of the business. Some merchants are looking for daily updates and are looking to work very closely with their affiliate managers and others want a bit more of a hands off approach where they let the manager do their thing and are happy as long as they are making a profit.  If you are someone who wants to be apprised of everything going on with your program find an agency who can accommodate that. If you just want a monthly report and maybe an update or two per month be sure to find a manager who works that way.

There are more questions that could relate more specifically to your business but those are a few of the general ones. Before you hire an affiliate management agency be sure you talk to them and get good answers to these questions. Also talk to more than one agency and find which one best fits with your overall marketing goals.

Quality affiliate management is something that is severely lacking for most merchants. Every day I see new affiliate programs popping up that, even with just a quick glance, I can tell need the help of a professional, experienced affiliate manager. They either haven’t asked these questions or they don’t care about their business.

It can be tough to find an affiliate manager who can bring value to your program and there are maybe only 8-10 affiliate management agencies I would recommend depending on what you are looking for. If you would like some recommendations please feel free to drop me an email at joe@whatdoesjoethink.com or hit me up on Skype: joesousa73 and I will be happy to get you pointed in the right direction.

 

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Time for a program reboot?

by Joe Sousa on April 18, 2013

in Affiliate Stuff

You have all probably heard by now that GAN (Google Affiliate Network) is closing down. Personally I am happy to see them go. I don’t really think they brought anything to the table for this industry that you couldn’t get elsewhere, I never really used them, and I have never heard anything good about them.

That said I know there are thousands of affiliates and merchants who are affected by this. Affiliates will need to find new merchants to work with, figure out where their GAN merchants are going, and deal with all the hassles of changing links.

Merchants have some tough decisions ahead of them but in many ways this could be a blessing in disguise. For many of them this could be a perfect time for a “program reboot”. Talking to a number of affiliates and other affiliate managers I have heard the same thing: most of the affiliate traffic coming from GAN is toolbars, trademark bidders, and in general “bad” affiliates who don’t bring much in the way of real value.

Once an affiliate program gets caught in the trap of working with some of these sites it is hard to get rid of them. They do produce sales so the numbers can look good and it is hard for some people to look beyond the raw numbers and see what is really happening. But with GAN closing down these merchants can take some time to reexamine what they really hope to accomplish with their affiliate program. Do they just want any sale they can get through their affiliate channel? Are they wanting affiliates who can produce new customers? Are they seeing the affiliate channel as a compliment to their other marketing efforts? Do they want to approve everyone who applies to their program or do they want to limit which affiliates they work with going forward?

This can be a great opportunity for a merchant to wipe the slate clean, examine their affiliate agreements and policies, rethink what they want their affiliate program to accomplish, and rethink who they want to be working with.

GAN merchants: Don’t just jump to the next network without thinking through some of these issues. This is a great opportunity to talk to some experienced affiliate managers, talk to some other merchants, talk to some of your affiliates, and talk to some of the other affiliate networks to see what they would recommend.

My personal recommendations? Work with a network that strives to be free of bad performers. Shareasale.com is my personal recommendation when it comes to that. Also, find an affiliate manager who can help you grow your program by working with affiliates who can actually add sales rather than just poaching them from other sources. Contact me and I can give you a list of people who can do this for you.

If you want to find out more about GAN closing and what you should do now here are a few other blog posts you will find helpful:

What To Do Now that Google Affiliate Network is Closing – Tricia Meyer

Thoughts on the Google Affiliate Network Shutdown – Scott Jangro

Affiliate Migration – Three Immediate Action Items – Carolyn Kmet

Migrating Affiliate Programs from Google – Greg Hoffman

Make An Easy Transition From Google Affiliate Network – Shareasale

How To Move Your Affiliate Program To A New Network – Vinny O’hare and Deb Carney

5 Reasons Google Shut Down Its Affiliate Network – Angel Djambazov

Beware though, vultures are circling. If you are a GAN merchant there is a good chance you have gotten emails from different affiliate managers who just want to move you over to another networks full of toolbars, parasites, and trademark poachers. Take your time to ask around and talk to different affiliate managers to see what they can actually do for you. I would be happy to take a look at your program and make some recommendations. I know and have worked with most of the good affiliate managers in this industry. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and I would be happy to point you in the right direction.

Take this great opportunity to clean up your program.

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Two Great Resources For Affiliates

by Joe Sousa on February 27, 2013

in Affiliate Stuff

It takes quite a bit to get my off my lazy butt and write a blog post nowadays but recently there are two resources that have been released for affiliates, particularly new affiliates, that I thought you might want to read about. These two resources are from some of the more respected and experienced people in this industry.

There are so many affiliate marketing courses or online marketing training programs out there that are absolute garbage. So it is rare when some quality training material comes out and is worth sharing but with either of these two resources I am convinced you can take them and start earning an income from affiliate marketing. Neither of these courses in and of themselves will make you rich but if you take the ideas they are teaching, follow them, make them your own, learn from them, and put the work in you can make a few extra bucks.

Don’t go into these thinking you can quit your job in a month. Set your goals somewhat small to start out. Maybe something like $100 a month to pay my phone bill or $200 a month to cover the electricity or something like that. Once you achieve that goal bump it up to your $500 car payment or your $1500 mortgage payment. It will take a lot of work, a lot of mistakes, and a lot of failure to reach those goals so I would encourage you to give affiliate marketing 6 solid months before you decide if it will work for you or not.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here are these two great resources:

 Affplan.com

Affplan.com is the brainchild of Todd Farmer. What? You haven’t heard of Todd Farmer? Well, back in 1996 Todd founded Kowabunga Marketing Inc. which was one of the first affiliate tracking platforms and he has been in the industry ever since. I can only think of maybe 1 or 2 other people who have been in the industry as long as Todd and there are very, very few with as much experience and knowledge of the industry as a whole. When Todd says something you would do well to listen.

Along with his experience and knowledge Todd is one of the “nice guys” as well. He will take the time to talk to anyone who needs help and really wants to help people succeed in this industry.

And if that isn’t enough Todd brought in Tricia Meyer to drop some knowledge as well. If you can’t learn from these two there is something wrong with you.

Affplan.com is full of great videos, walkthroughs, cheat sheets, tutorials, and much much more. It takes you from the very beginning of the process where you brainstorm niches, domains, do your keyword research, and goes from there. Some of this info may seem a bit simplistic but it is very necessary if you are going to succeed as an affiliate. From there it moves on into how to build your site, how to develop content, and how to develop your overall plan for your site. There are some great checklists and worksheets to help you walk through the whole system.

One of the best parts? It is only $10! Not $10 per month, not $10 per module but $10 for everything. The price will be going up so if you don’t read this in the next day or two you might have to pay more so if you are thinking about it jump in now. Sign up today and take advantage of this great deal. Below is a quick screenshot of the members dashboard.

Extra Money Answer

The second great resource is Extra Money Answer from Shawn Collins. Shawn is one of the founders of the Affiliate Summit conferences which are the largest conferences in the affiliate industry.

Shawn originally put this information out on his website but recently moved it into an ebook available on Kindle. Right now the book is free but the price could go up at any time  the book is only $2.99 which is a great deal so I would encourage you to download it soon.

In this ebook Shawn starts at the beginning with Pick a Topic for Your Site and moves on to chapters about How to Creat Content for YOur Site, Driving Traffic to Your Website, Finding Affiliate Programs, and more. It walks you step by step through the process of going from an idea to a site that will make you $20, $50, or maybe $100 a month.

All in all it is a great resource for someone looking to get started in affiliate marketing and it is also a good refresher for industry veterans.  Download it today and take a look.

Hopefully one or both of these resources will be helpful to you and give you an idea of where to get started. If you need more help please drop me an email and let me know how I can help you. Also if you have used either of these resources leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

 

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Affiliate Summit West 2013 – Another Great Time

by Joe Sousa on January 17, 2013

in Affiliate Summit

I am back from another Affiliate Summit, back to work, and back to recovering from another great trip. I took last year off from Affiliate Summits (my little boy was just two weeks old last January so that is a good enough reason, isn’t it?) but I was glad to be able to go back and connect with old friends and make a few new ones.

There are plenty of other sites recapping Affiliate Summit so I won’t go into too much detail. But I will say that Shawn Collins and Missy Ward continue to make Affiliate Summit a top notch event. There are good things and bad things about every Summit but overall Shawn and Missy have kept Affiliate Summit on the top of the heap when it comes to affiliate conferences.

This was my first Affiliate Summit as an affiliate manager after going to probably 10 of them as an affiliate. It was definitely a different experience and involved a lot more meetings and actual “work” but I am very glad I was there.

Some highlights:

Friday – If you were there you know. That is all I need to say.

Saturday – Great day golfing with a great group of guys. It was only about 28 degrees when we teed off but it got up over freezing soon after and was very comfortable the rest of the day. Awesome course, awesome group of guys, and I even hit a couple decent shots. The rust was showing though and once again I was the worst golfer of the bunch. But it was still a blast.

Sunday – Shareasale party – Brian Littleton and his crew always put on the party that is the high point of the conference for many people. Once again the Shareasale crew pulled off a great one at Chateau night club in the Paris hotel with a masquerade theme. Upstairs was a bit cold but if you huddled around the heaters it wasn’t bad at all. Adam Reimer won for best costume (he had that award locked up months ago) but it was fun seeing everyone in their masks and costumes. They also had a magician there who was doing some close up tricks where you could be a foot away from the deck of cards and not see what he was doing. Pretty amazing.

On Sunday I also spoke on a panel with Kim Rowley and Jeremy Palmer. We talked about the role of small affiliates in the industry, where they fit, how they can get started, and how they can provide value for their merchants. Here is a link to the slide deck and a quick review of the session from Kelly Clay.

The day started out on a sad note though as my beloved Seahawks gave up a last second field goal to lose. If I was a bit grumpy during the day that is why.

Monday – On Monday most of my time was filled up with meetings. I was able to connect with some affiliates I have only spoken to on the phone or through email so it was nice to be able to sit down face to face and see what they need from me, what more we can do, new ideas they had, and new ways we can grow their sales.

It is always interesting to see all the different business models in this industry, both good and bad. From coupons to blogs to SEO to toolbars to paid search to social there are many different ways to make money in this business. Some of those ways I like more than others though. But that is for another blog post or series of blog posts.

The day finished off with a late night In-n-Out run with Wade Tonkin and a good conversation with him in the hotel bar while scarfing down a Double Double animal style.

Tuesday – This was a day I had been looking forward to for a few weeks. Back when I was first getting started in the SEO/Affiliate industry one of the first people I met was someone destined to be a legend. I met him in Irvine, CA at the first US Pubcon and have been greatly influenced by him ever since. From interacting with him on many different forums to sitting in the bar until the early hours of the morning chatting about everything under the sun this legend has had a great influence on my business over the years. Many others can easily say the same thing.

This man is someone who many people who are new to the industry in the last 5 years might not know but he is a key influencer of many of the people who have been around the affiliate game for a number of years. You might not have been directly influenced by him but you have been influenced by those he has influenced.

A few weeks ago an old friend Pat Grady contacted me and said he had convinced this guy to be in Vegas to receive his Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Legend award. When I heard that news I was very excited since I haven’t seen this guy since the ThinkTank at Pelican Hill. I was really looking forward to seeing him again. Then Pat said I could go on stage to receive the award alongside him, Kellie Stevens, and Rae Hoffman (others he has greatly influenced). I was pretty blown away by this and very honored to do this.

The man is Mike Mackin. You might know him as Mr. Mackin or just Mackin (or maybe some of the other nicks he went by at various forums) but if you know nothing else you can know this: He is a LEGEND in this industry. If you have never been greeted with an extended middle finger or repeatedly called an MFer by him you have an empty hole in your life that will never be filled.

It was awesome to see Mike get some of the credit he deserves for his profound impact on this industry and it was a great honor for me to be a part of it. I was very humbled by the experience and it was a huge highlight of the trip and my time in this business.

Be sure to get registered for Affiliate Summit East 13 in Philadelphia. It is sure to be another great conference you won’t want to miss.

 

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Post Black Friday/Cyber Monday Thoughts

by Joe Sousa on December 1, 2012

in Affiliate Stuff

I have seen many Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays as an affiliate. Actually I have seen ALL the Cyber Mondays since it started in 2005 and I have been an affiliate for much longer than that. But this was my first as an affiliate manager. It was a busy couple weeks getting ready for that important weekend and it has been a crazy week since.

Here are a few observations and thoughts I have had running through my brain about the weekend:

1. Preparedness is crucial – Affiliates should have as much ready to go ahead of time, merchants should have their deals finalized well ahead of time, and affiliate managers need to have as much info to the affiliates as early as possible. But we all know all 3 parties rarely have this done. We were still getting deals from our merchants on Friday morning. Affiliates will still contacting us for information on Thanksgiving and over the weekend. We were still getting information out to affiliates on Monday.

It is so easy to wait until the last minute for all parties involved but getting ready ahead of time makes the busy weekend much easier. Of course some merchants don’t want their deals leaked ahead of time, affiliates can’t promote deals until they are live, and AMs can’t inform affiliates until they get the go-ahead from the merchants. So total preparedness a couple weeks early is nearly impossible.

But there are a few things that will make it easier to be prepared.

  • Have all your templates ready to go – Whether it is an email going out to affiliates, a blog post that needs to go up at midnight on Black Friday, or a “Holiday Deals” page on the merchant side of things have as much ready as you can so you just need to plug and go or hit send or publish when it is time.
  • Plan for the busyness – Does it suck to work the day after Thanksgiving? Of course it does but just like the workers who had to go into Walmart at 8 PM on Thanksgiving or the people who opened their stores at 6 AM on Friday we work in retail. It isn’t brick and mortar retail but it is retail nonetheless. And with our customers and shoppers they are in the checkout line 24 hours a day. If you know you will be working like crazy over the few days leading up to Thanksgiving and BF/CM plan your schedule accordingly.
  • Don’t try to do it all – As an affiliate I would love to have the time to write blog posts on all of the hundreds of thousands of products my merchants sell. As an affiliate I would love to talk to each of my merchants personally and get all the info on their deals and promos. As an affiliate manager I would love to individually contact all of the thousands of affiliates who work with our merchants. But realistically there is no way that will happen. Pick your battles. You can’t do it all so figure out where your greatest ROI will be and focus on that.

2. Is this still “performance marketing”? – As we talked to affiliates about what we can do to help them this holiday shopping season more and more we got a response like “Give us $2,000 for featured placements” or “We can include you in our Black Friday newsletter for $1500″ or something like that. And that is on top of their already generous commissions. As an affiliate I would love to get that kind of money for just putting some links up. It is guaranteed money that I would have to do about 5 minutes of work for. But doesn’t that take the “performance” our of “performance marketing”?

Merchants are already paying a pretty good chunk of their profits on commissions and now they have to pay more just to have the opportunity to pay out MORE commissions? I can understand why the affiliates want this and there is no reason for them not to charge as much as they can (you know… capitalism and free markets and all of that) and I know there are merchants who keep paying those placement fees but most merchants I have dealt with just can’t afford that kind of money without seeing the sales. They are more than happy to pay commissions because those payouts come off of money that is already in their pockets but they don’t like giving it out up front.

3. Smaller merchants have great deals too – Of course you hear about the great sales that Amazon, Wal-mart, Best Buy, etc. have but many small online retailers have deals just as good or better than the big guys. As you are looking for offers to promote, merchants to feature, or deals to buy for yourselves don’t just stick to the big retailers but check out the smaller guys as well. Some of our merchants had some amazing offers over the weekend and many of those are continuing into December. I always get sucked in to buying most of my online purchases at Amazon but I think this year I will give the smaller guys more of a chance.

4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – Well, I guess two baskets (BF and CM). Almost $1.5 billion was spent on Cyber Monday but don’t get fooled into thinking that will be the biggest day of the season for you as an affiliate or merchant. For many of our merchants they saw better sales and more dollars spent on days other than those two big days and I am confident we haven’t seen the biggest days yet for them. As an affiliate there are plenty of shopping days left until Christmas and sales will stay strong for another 3 weeks or so.

Just because the made up shopping holidays are gone doesn’t mean it is time to let up. Many merchants will have deals just as good or better in December. Keep pushing good offers, keep promoting merchants, keep looking for new merchants to promote, keep recruiting affiliates, and keep the sales flowing! And merchants? Make sure your site and tracking work. Bad time for that to go bad.

 

 

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Help Deb and Vinny

by Joe Sousa on October 30, 2012

in Affiliate Stuff

If you know who Deb and Vinny are you know who I am talking about. If not, you can still help.

Deb Carney and Vinny O’hare  are two affiliate industry veterans who have been hit particularly hard by the recent storm. They live right on the water in NY and their house was flooded. Last night Vinny said he went to his house and his refrigerator was floating in his kitchen. They are both safe but their house was under a lot of water. I don’t know too many specifics but it sounds like it was at least 6-8 feet of water.

They got some stuff packed up and moved out (computers, cameras, photos, etc.) but that still leaves a LOT of stuff that got destroyed by the flooding. All in all it really sucks.

But there is one thing I know about the affiliate marketing industry and that is we help each other out. We celebrate weddings and births of children together, we mourn the passing of friends together, and when one of our own is in trouble we step up and help out as evidence by the $80K+ that Affiliate Marketers Give Back raised for breast cancer with their walk a few days back of which Vinny was a part.

Karen Garcia of GTO Management has set up a ChipIn account for all of us to contribute. Or you can just click on the widget below. Deb and Vinny have helped many of us in the industry in the past and here is an easy way to tell them thanks for all they have done. Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: Nov 2nd – Vinny and Deb still have no power, water, heat, or much in the way of food. They will need to replace pretty much everything. They haven’t been able to get out and get food, gas, changes of clothes, or any of those other things we take for granted every day. Donate now to help them out!

UPDATE: As of Nov. 2nd we are up to $6890.59. Keep it up!

If you aren’t aware of what is going on in Broad Channel where Deb and Vinny live check out the following videos and news articles. They are kind of a forgotten neighborhood right now. There has been very little aid there so far. The relief agencies haven’t done much yet so there is a great need. The local firehouse vehicles were destroyed, everything reeks of gas, oil and sewage, and there is little chance of power being restored before Nov 11th.

 

http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2012/44/broadchannel_all_2012_11_01_q.html

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/11/01/every-home-in-broad-channel-queens-affected-by-sandy/

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What makes a good affiliate bonus campaign?

August 31, 2012 Uncategorized

As an affiliate for many years and now as an affiliate manager I have seen both sides of what it takes to have a successful affiliate program. Much of the success come from balancing the needs and wants of the affiliates with the needs and wants of the merchant. We need to give the affiliates [...]

3 comments You know you want to read more →

Really Gonna Miss Affiliate Summit East

August 8, 2012 Affiliate Summit

Well, it is August which means Affiliate Summit East is fast approaching. In just a few days affiliate marketers from around the globe will be descending on New York to enjoy a great few days of fun, learning, networking, and partying. But alas, I won’t be attending this one. I hate missing conferences like this [...]

4 comments You know you want to read more →

Labels in the Affiliate Marketing Industry

May 30, 2012 Affiliate Stuff

Over the past couple weeks there have been a couple different articles about affiliate marketing that wrongly label or categorize affiliates. The first one that comes to mind is Anne Howard’s article (sorry Anne, your linkbait won’t work with me) which you can read about on Revenews. Basically she painted the entire affiliate industry with [...]

0 comments You know you want to read more →

9 Reasons to Attend the Shareasale ThinkTank

May 22, 2012 Affiliate Stuff

Once again the Shareasale ThinkTank was an awesome event. The whole Shareasale crew did a great job putting on another great meeting for affiliates, affiliate managers, and merchants and they continue to set a very high standard for themselves that they continue to meet. Why should you go to ThinkTank? What will be the benefit [...]

5 comments You know you want to read more →

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