November 2009

7 Reasons I am Thankful to be an Affiliate

by Joe Sousa on November 25, 2009

in Affiliate Stuff

It is always easy to write a blog post complaining about something, pointing out a problem, spouting off on nebulous ideas, and stuff like that but since tomorrow is Thanksgiving I decided to sit back and think of some of the reasons I am thankful to be in the industry I am in so I decided to to a cheesy “This is why I am thankful for…” type post. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for being thankful and appreciating every blessing we receive. But for the most part it always can come across a bit disingenuous. Hopefully this post won’t come across that way and I hope you believe me when I say I am truly thankful for these 7 things (plus many, many more).

7.  Only have to justify a project to myself – I talk to friends in the corporate world and they almost always have to check with their bosses when they want to do something or if they have an idea they need approval from a bunch of different people, need to get the funding, and jump through a bunch of other loopholes before they can get going. If I get an idea for a project and I do my research and think it will work I only need to convince myself.  And sometimes I can have a site up, running, and making money in just a few hours. If I had to wait weeks for approval I would lose interest.

6.  There is no “right” way – Obviously there are some overall moral and ethical principles that apply but there isn’t necessarily a “right” way to be an affiliate. I just look at my list of friends in this industry and I can see dozens of different people that all do it “right” but none of their business models or processes look the same. People always are asking me “how can I make money online?” and it is a very tough question to answer since there are so many ways to do it the “right” way.  And that sort of creativity and all those options make this an exciting industry for me.

5.  Free Schedule – I really don’t like being on other people’s schedules. I like doing things when I want to do them and one of the biggest reasons I am thankful to be in this industry is I have as open of a schedule as I want. If I want to sleep until noon I have that option. If I want to work at 2 in the morning I can do that. If I need to take a long lunch I have that freedom. If a friend needs me to give them a hand moving or something like that I can just take off and do it. Generally speaking I have no real deadlines and nothing that ever really “needs” to be done (although there is always an endless supply of stuff I can do). Gotta love the freedom.

4.  Unlimited Potential – Well, it isn’t technically “unlimited” but the celing is extremely high. For the most part I am only limited by how hard I want to work. Unfortunatly I usually don’t like working too hard and the bottom line can suffer but it is nice knowing that the money is always out there and the harder I work the more I make. I am not limited by a 40 hr work week or quotas or budgets. The more I want the more I can get and that makes me very thankful.

3.  I get to work with my family – As you many or many not know I am partners in my company with my dad and brother. We all have different projects we work on and different stuff we do but most of the time I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else. Of course we have disagreements and there are some tough times. Many people will tell you to never work with family and in many cases that would be good advice but not in my case.

2.  Flexibility – One of the things I like most about this industry and that makes me very thankful is the flexibility. There are so many niches out there I can work with, so many different merchants, and so many different methods of promoting those merchants. This job never really gets boring. If I want to spend a day writing blog posts I can do that. If I want to build a datafeed site I can do that. If I want to spend a few hours doing some PPC stuff I can do that. And stuff like that really helps my short attention span.

1.  The People – If I had to pick my favorite thing about this industry and the one that makes me the most thankful it is the people. For the most part I only see my friends in this industry 2 or 3 times a year. But when I do see them it is like we have been neighbors for years. We can sit and talk, go out and have a great time, talk business, talk life, go golfing, or whatever. Of course there are some dorks in this business like anywhere else but without taking time to sit and list everyone I can probably think of 50 or so people in this industry I would consider friends. How many other industries can you say that about? If you aren’t a jerk or an idiot this is one of the most friendly and helpful groups of people I have ever been around. Whether it is other affiliates, affiliate managers, people from the networks, or other industry people they are all awesome people to be around.

I am not gonna list all of them here because if they are reading this they probably know who they are. But to all my friends out there in the affiliate industry:  THANK YOU!!!

So what makes you thankful about this business? Why do you like it so much? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Affiliate Managers who Get It

by Joe Sousa on November 5, 2009

in Affiliate Stuff

Over the years I have worked with dozens, maybe even hundreds of affiliate managers and they range from awesome to terrible. Some of them get it and some of them are totally missing the mark with their efforts.

So what makes a good affiliate manager?  Here are a few things I think an affiliate manager should do if they want to make their affiliate program successful and help their affiliates succeed:

1.  Be available. I need to be able to contact my AM and get a quick response. If I send them an email (at least during semi-normal work hours) I want a quick response.  Usually when I have a question or need something it is while I am in the process of building a site and if I don’t get a quick response I either lose interest in building the site or I find a different merchant. Even better than that I need to be able to contact them on IM. The good affiliate managers I work with are usually on IM most of the day and I can get an instant response.

2.  Be quick. Once again, I like having a somewhat instant response.  If I need a new datafeed, some new graphics, have a question about something, or whatever I want a quick response. I don’t want to have to wait a day or two to get what I need. It takes a lot for me to actually start building a new site and I don’t want to have to wait once I get started.

3.  Actually help the affilates.  I want affiliate managers who will give me feedback on my sites, give me new ideas how to promote their stuff, and help me increase sales.  A lot of affiliate managers are much more passive on issues like this than others and the ones who aren’t proactive don’t really do much for me.

4.  Affiliate Managers need to have flexibility. Many affiliate managers work for companies who don’t give them the flexibility to do their job well and if an AM is in this situation they need to fight for their affiliates and talk to management and help them see what will help the affilaites. If a company gives the AM the flexibility to be creative in helping their affiliates everyone wins. This could be in the form of affiliate promotions, custom graphics, custom landing pages, increased payouts for affiliates who perform, etc.

5.  Affiliate Managers need to have the answers. Too many affiliate managers just don’t have the answers to some somewhat simple questions about their affiliate programs or what is allowed and what isn’t. They can give a stock, canned answer but I want a real answer that makes sense. A good affiliate manager will know the answers to my questions or at the very least find out the answer and get back to me quickly.

6.  Affiliate Managers need to make sure the program is running properly. This includes stuff like being vigilant to keep parasites out, making sure affiliates who are violating their TOS are booted quickly, make sure links are tracking properly, payments are getting sent, etc. 

7.  Make sure the links you put out there work. If a merchant is on a network they need to be able to make sure their links work with all the tools provided by that network. Example: If a merchant is on Shareasale and I want to go use their custom link builder I don’t want to find out later there is something else I need to add to the code to make it track.

8.  Affiliate Managers need to be nice.  I don’t need to be their friend but the affiliate manager should at least be personable and easy to talk to. Don’t make me feel like I am inconveniencing you when I ask you for something. But many AMs I have worked with in the past I now consider my friends and not just business associates.

I am sure there are many more but those are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

So who meets these criteria?  There is one AM I have only recently started working with that fits all these criteria and many more. Of the affiliate managers I am currently working with he is at the top of the heap even though I have only recently started promoting his program. That person is Matt McWilliams of Legacy Learning Systems. I talked with him a few times over IM before the Shareasale ThinkTank and was impressed but when I actually met him in person and talked to him I realized even more that he has his stuff together and knows how to run an affiliate program.

He is always available to answer questions and does a great job of promoting his program and making it easy for affiliates to succeed. Recently he started his LEGACY week promo offering stuff like increased lifetime commissions, double commissions for some products, and some giveaways. The great thing about promos like this is they are useful for all affiliates, not just affiliates who generate a ton of sales.

Yesterday I decided to build a site http://www.masterballroomdancing.com promoting their ballroom dance course. I build my site and let him see it and he noticed I could use a new banner.  So within 10 minutes he had a new banner for me and I loaded it up on my site. I started sending some traffic to it and within an hour or so I saw my first sale. And wouldn’t you know it?  That sale came from someone clicking that new banner.

So thank you Matt for getting it. Any affiliate looking for a new program to promote should check out the Legacy Learning System program. Any affiliate managers looking for someone to emulate should look to Matt McWilliams.

But that also raises a questions.  What should you do when you have a bad affiliate manager?  Should you just drop their program and look for someone else? Should you talk to their management and let them know how the AM is hurting the program?

What are some other things you look for in an affiliate manager? Who are some other good affiliate managers you work with?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

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