Maintaining a good relationship with your affiliate manager

How many of you know what your affiliate manager likes to do in his/her spare time? It might seem like an overkill but this is exactly the kind of friendly relationship you should be aiming for.  Your affiliate manager is there to help you so use their expertise and inside knowledge. I find that too many people simply don’t realize the potential in such a relationship.

First of all you as an affiliate is one of the most valuable assets and affiliate company has. You make them money. Once your leads have checked out you can start thinking about getting a better rate. Affiliate companies need you, so negotiate the price. How do you do that? Via your affiliate manager. Contact him/her and ask for $1.60/lead rather than $1.50. If your lead quality checks out an AM would usually be more than happy to negotiate the prices with you. This is where your relationship plays a crucial part. You are much more likely to succeed with the person who know you and trusts you.

Secondly, most affiliate companies would often have private offers only available to chosen people. How are you suppose to be picked when nobody even knows you? Make yourself know, speak to your AM about your methods of promotion and you may well be invited to participate in the next private offer. Besides, the more the know about your methods, the more they will be able to help you maximise your revenue. Remember, these guys know what converts and how more than anyone.

Finally if you have doubts about your campaign don’t hesitate to speak to your AM first. Keep your emails and conversation history. If something goes wrong you will always be able to refer back to your previous conversation and say:”Look, I spoke to -name- and he/she advised me to do this”. At one point I had a grey hat idea that required some incentive offers even though my affiliate company did not have any suitable campaigns. I actually decided to run my idea past my AM and tell him exactly what I was going to do. A few hours later I was surprised to see him get back to me with a list of offers I could try. Those were none incentive offers that I was allowed to promote in my specific way on one off basis. One of these offers did not convert as well and I was politely asked to stop promoting it. Besides from that minor quirk, a month later I was walking to the bank with a completely legal yet grey hat cheque from my affiliate.

So what I want you to do is next time you log into your affiliate control panel grab your AM’s instant messenger contact details, ad him/her to your contacts and have a friendly conversation about the offers, marketing ideas and life in general. Turn this into a habit and you will thank me one day

PS: That picture at the top represents you contacting your AM on Skype I know… I know…

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Affiliate marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.