How much interaction do you need to have with your affiliate managers?

That’s the question many affiliate should be asking yet many ignore the whole concept. Remember that as an affiliate you are in a business relationship with your merchant, and they are there to help you succeed so they succeed as a result. Now here is the thing. A lot of affiliates go days, weeks, and months without interacting with their affiliate managers. As a former affiliate manager, I can tell you now that I paid more attention to the success of the affiliates who looked more engaged. If you take time to set up a time with me to talk about strategies that we both can use to succeed together, you’ve got my attention. I did get a bunch of calls from people who were just interested in a higher commission rate, but overall there were a few affiliates (the very top ones) that truly cared about the relationship. So working closely with your affiliate manager could make a big difference.

Whether you are interested only in more money or just using the poor manager to get some favors done (e.g. customized banners), you should always set the stage before asking for things. You shouldn’t jump the gun and say, “hi there, can I get a higher commission?” That almost never works. But if you come up with a set of strategies (PPC, content, …) that have the potential to generate more sales, you can expect your affiliate manager to be more open to the idea of increasing your commission or doing other favors for you. Remember, you are in a business relationship. You need to nourish it! What have you got to lose?

It’s Nothing Personal!

As a former affiliate manager, I can tell you that most affiliates have no idea how things really work on the advertisers’ side. During my time managing affiliates, I realized that affiliates are far too sensitive to the smallest things. For instance, people would e-mail me asking why I have not answered their previous notes. but the truth of the matter was I had not received their notes because they have sent their notes to our CJ’s email address (we were with LinkShare at the time).

When it comes to dealing with affiliate managers it is essential to manage your relationships properly. Here is how:

• It’s nothing personal: affiliate managers are there to help you reach new heights. It’s not in their interest to have you fail in your endeavors. If you generate more sales for them, they look that much better. So don’t take it personally if something is not to your liking.
• Respect is gold: everyone has an ego, and you can get better results by being respectful with your affiliate manager. Don’t e-mail or call them in an angry tone. That will definitely not work.
• Managing Relationships is a must: just like any relationship, you need to start somewhere with your affiliate manager. You can’t go in there and ask him/her to give you a commission increase if you haven’t proved yourself. I used to get surprised when affiliates called us and asked for commission increase without proving what they can do for us. You’ll get there, but first you need to show what you can do for your manager. Remember, he/she is on your side.
• Know Your Worth: every affiliate is valuable to merchants. But some are more so than others. The 80-20 rule definitely applies here. But it’s surprising how most affiliates think they are in that 20% group that generate 80% of the results. That’s simply not true. I know it pays to be ambitious. But be realistic.
• Don’t be shy: don’t ever be shy to ask more favors or commission increase if you have delivered a couple of good months to your merchant. If you are showing what you can do without a commission increase, your manager will have no problem increasing your commission to see even better results.

Affiliate marketing is serious business. Whatever you do, don’t take anything personally.