Affiliate Software Change: Frustration for Affiliates
Affiliate managers are going to use the software that gives them the best options possible. So it’s not too unreasonable for them to make software changes from time to time. If you happen to be partnering with CJ or LinkShare affiliates, chances are you won’t have to worry too much about affiliate software changes. But affiliate programs do jump from one network to another from time to time. That all means that affiliates will have to be alert about the links that they are using on their websites and have a way to keep track of them. Affiliate programs do tend to give affiliates enough time to change their links, but that’s not always a given.
I have seen so many affiliates that are all over the place with their approach to adding links to their websites. It’s so easy to just use a service such as bit.ly to add affiliate links to your website. Sure, the tracking is nice. But if there is a change in your affiliate URLs, you are going to have to do a lot of URL updating. Spending time updating URLs all over your campaigns is not the best way to use your time, which is why you should never use a third party service to handle your affiliate links.
Affiliate Management: Ways To Go
Not all affiliate managers are the same. I admit that there are a few that take the time to work with affiliates and genuinely want to help them achieve more from their campaigns. But laziness has become a norm in the affiliate industry. Some affiliate managers don’t respond to affiliates e-mails even when they are not too busy. They just don’t check their e-mails more than once a week. There are others who go further and don’t pay their affiliates on time. You want to know the worst kind? Those who slack off for 20 days a month and then rush things through in the remaining days (often making mistakes along the way).
You can have all the certifications and knowledge in the world. If you don’t take time to improve your performance in your job, then you are not doing yourself or your company a favor. I admit that affiliate program managers are often underpaid. After all, while they do manage affiliates, they are not seen as those who directly contribute to the bottom-line (which is somewhat untrue). Top affiliate managers can actually help companies make more money by engaging affiliates, establishing relationships with them, and partnering up with those who have not taken the time to become an affiliate.
Don’t Let Refunds To Discourage You
New affiliate marketers are always more jumpy and sensitive to everything that happens to their business. I have seen so many affiliates that get discouraged when Google slaps their pages and asks them for more money to keep their pages on the first page. A lot of it is due to people setting unreasonable expectations for themselves and their business. It’s true that there are a lot of people who are making a killing with affiliate products. These folks have mastered the art of Google Adwords and affiliate marketing and have developed a well tuned system that keeps making them money in the most difficult times. Newbie affiliates don’t have that luxury.
One of the biggest steps in running a business is planning. Planning on how you are going to make money. How you are going to promote your business? What tactics you are going to use to make money online? What does it take to break even? These are things that master affiliate marketers take into account. Let’s say you have made a killing in a month. Do go on spending all the revenue you have earned on things before accounting for refunds and other miscellaneous fees. Those who have been in business long do have a sense for refund rates, so they do account for that when preparing their break-even analysis. (more…)
5 Ways To Expand Your Affiliate Business in 2010
The new year is finally here, and yet another cycle begins for us affiliate marketers. If you think about it, affiliate marketers don’t really have off days. We are going to have slow days and weeks depending on the niche we are in, but you can’t take Christmas or the New Year’s day off if those are the days your target shoppers are out there shopping. If you have time to take off, you have time to invest more efforts in your business. Now I am not suggesting that you should never take off or have fun when you are running a business. But affiliate marketing is all about being at the top of your game when your target audience is ready to spend.
The holiday season may be over, and many affiliates are already evaluating and implementing new plans for the new year. Some of the things you can do are obviously niche specific. But there are general things you can do to improve your affiliate business in 2010. Here are 5 ways how:
- Conquer Social Media: social media is here to say. If you haven’t taken time to create a social media presence for your affiliate portal or reach out to your target audience on Twitter and Facebook, the time is now. You don’t want to spam those people, but you want to use the tools available to build a solid relationship with them. The time for reading social media books is over. It’s time to act.
- New Markets: the new year’s day is always my favorite time of the year. It’s usually the day I go over the markets I targeted in the previous year and the niches I want to target in the new year. I am not suggesting that I go about the process in one day. But my New Year’s day is more relaxed and great for brainstorming and identifying a broad set of niches to target in the new year. (more…)
