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- 09
- Aug
- 2010
5 Steps For Better Affiliate Marketing Relationships
Posted by: Ruck under Affiliates, Motivation
I was catching up on some reading this past weekend. Typically I try to get thru 2 books a week. A thirst for knowledge, a quest for the unknowing, call it what you will, I like to read and I do it alot. However, sometimes I have to break away from the computer and just sit down with a hardcover or paperback and when I say sometimes “I have to break away” that means I have to take an hour out of the time I am given each day to progress in my quest for more knowledge. With that said, I just finished The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. Pretty good book I have to say, I caught myself on page 186 grabbing my notepad after reading that page an putting it in perspective in relation to my business. So bear with me, I want to share something here in which I feel can fuel affiliates and even our managers in their relationships with publishers.
Here we go…
Here are 5 Step For Better Affiliate Marketing Relationships.
1. Enjoyment – Mutual Enjoyment more importantly. If affiliates dont like their manager, and managers dont like their affiliates, communication will cease to exists. For affiliates, it’s ok to chat it up with managers and see what’s a crackin but at the same time, if you are an affiliate who justs shoots the poo on a daily basis and dont work with your AM then it’s a little tough for your AM to enjoy the conversation. AM’s are in place to help affiliates but make money for networks. Sounds harsh, sorry, truth hurts. That’s their goal, that’s what they are trained to do. However, working with AM’s who have been where you are makes talking a lot more enjoyable because they have faced a lot of the problems you may face and are quick to react and respond to you on a level that is easily understandable. Gaging an affiliate’s ability to process information given to them is a tricky thing in this business because we all work from behind computers. Good communication between the two will allow a much more enjoyable environment to work around.
2. Respect – One of the pitfalls between affiliates and their managers is a lack of respect. Affiliates may or may not respect managers because of “industry standards” or “hear-say” on what should be right or wrong within standards. Managers may or may not respect affiliates because they are working with other networks or not working on anything at all. There has got to be a middle ground between the two. Each side has to learn to respect the other’s business positions so that they can forge a relationship built on capitalizing the time they do have to communicate to its fullest potential.
3. Shared Experience – Ahh yes, this might be number 3 on the list but for sure, it’s #1 in my heart! Former Affiliate VS. Hired in to manage? Who do you choose? Would you like someone who talks nice to you and is a big cheerleader or do you want someone who is going to help scale your business? Personally for me, I’m taking experience over speculation every time. People are people and they will choose who they want to work with regardless of what is said here, but in the end I see the same thing over and over. Eventually, they will break, pull their heads out of their asses and figure out that someone scaling their business is a lot more helpful than someone trying to get their business. I personally like to visit the other network booths at tradeshows and start testing people. I will however be honest here and say that the devil in me does like to test people and make them look stupid but I also try to learn from it. I want to know who out there “get’s it” and who out there “doesnt really give a shit”. So far, the results are drastically disappointing. I remember a specific network I was trying to work with at the Vegas summit last January so I pulled up in “Ruck fashion” to start speaking with this manager.
It went a little something like this….
I questioned this manager regarding their history and they let me know they just got their marketing degree. I dont remember which marketing degree because honestly:
- I didnt care
- It was irrevelant
- I was hungry and eyeing the concessions heavily
The tone was all wrong from the beginning. I am assuming that this guy is one of dem good ole boys who has that graduation plaque hanging up in his apartment or at mommie’s house and I’ll be the first one to say, that not only does that not impress me, it probably puts other people off as well. So right from the beginning, as he was 1 upping me. Immediately I recognized the type of person he was. That marketing degree put him on top and at that moment, I decided that I was going to decimate this individual’s confidence but first, I had to indulge him. This guy was about to be eaten alive but first, I wanted him to make sure he had a full belly because the trip he was about to take was going to be an abusive one and I want to make sure he used every weapon in his arsenal to pump himelf up. That way, when I broke him, he would be broken so bad, he would never act like that way again. Now you might be thinking I was being a complete asshole to him but I wasnt. This guy was about to get a lesson they dont teach in college.
Ok so he has a marketing degree, He went to school and has been in school getting this degree for the last half decade. After getting his degree he applied to a bunch of jobs which he didnt really like until he finally settled in at this network to become an Affiliate Manager at 60K a year and some bonus earnings. He was now working for someone else after going thru hell to get his education, spending lots of mommy and daddy’s money on tuition, loans and whatever else people spend that shit on in college. But now he was here, in Vegas working the booth, doing the grind, trying to build business for this company who hired him. He let me know about the few affiliates he had making over $1,000 a day already. It was at this point I couldnt take anymore.
I had to ask…
Ok, but what is your experience?
His response was that since he worked with these affiliates everyday, he was able to see what they were doing and let his other publishers know too so they could start up.
At this point I cut him off…
I basically said “shhh” with a quiet finger over my mouth, and I began to talk. I started off with “I would like to tell you that your tone sucks, even here face to face, I can only imagine what an arrogant prick you are every day in the office”. As for your “experience” and getting your degree in marketing, while you were “studying” I was doing this shit on my own. And if you need a little primer, here’s me back in 2007 spilling guts on stuff I was doing and making money already “on my own” here and here. As far as your affiliates making $1,000 a day, again sir, here’s what is really possible here and here with affiliates making millions. Ohh an one other thing, I dont manage, I own. So that degree got you 60K a year with bonuses with a few of your affiliates making $1,000 a day? Interesting, I dropped out of Juco College, did this on my own, and now where am I? Instead of being a snarky asshole, try to get into the trenches yourself so that those publishers making 1K a day actually have a chance with you and can scale your business. That’s how you get ahead in this business. BY DOING, NOT SPECULATING.
A bit of a rant there…
4. Reciprocity – Another one of my favorites here as well. Affiliates want managers to work their tails off to help them either start their businesses or scale them. Pretty simple right? But what do managers do in return for the hard work that the affiliate is going to do promoting offers? I know for me, I’m constantly looking at myself. What can I do more? Not only as a manager but Co-Owner of a network as well? What do other network owners do? Well, and nothing against them but most of them “oversee operations”. Uhh yea, I get that it but what are they doing for those affiliates sitting at home getting ready to fire up their work ethic and go to work? I dont like doing comparisons but I find myself constantly, blogging, twittering here and here, Facebooking in different places, working contacts on linkedin, attending tradeshows here and here, provide more content in our own forum, and other forums as well here and here. That’s on top of emailing our publishers almost everyday with news, and now broadcasting live Q & A’s along with providing weekly reports on weekly epc’s, new offers, and top offers. Knowing an understanding an affiliates business requires every ounce of energy from us to “reciprocate” with affiliates in every way we can and continue to build even more channels to help them.
5. Trust – A big one here and the door swings both ways. Affiliates have to trust that managers wont take their ideas and strategies or share the information they share with them to other affiliates. Managers on the other hand have to trust that the information they give them will be used in conjunction with the affiliates business and network. Nothing is really “free” in this business. Everyone wants something in one way or another. I dont bust my ass like this so affiliates can take what I share and go work with someone else. Although it happens a lot, the loyalty and trust I have built with so many affiliates is so worth a couple of “selfish” people to do that. It’s just the way this business is. You take the bad with good and you keep on giving. If there is no trust between the two, there really is no business to be done.
There are a ton of other things to consider here but I wanted to share 5 of them I picked up over the weekend and put in perspective. What do you think is another important step in affiliate marketing relationships?
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Another Monday is here and tonight at 8:00 pm CST you can catch up with me on my uStream Channel to ask questions and participate in some performance marketing chatter. The last two broadcasts have gone pretty good so I decided to make this at least a once a week thing. Help’s answer a lot of questions publically and saves me some time throughout the work days. So if you havent joined uStream yet, make sure you sign up for an account so you are a member and can ask questions. See ya at 8:00 pm.
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In case you havent joined the forum or have been away for awhile, I was digging around and found quite a few gems this evening. First off, I will be working on the forum this weekend to include more specifics boards. For instance, in the Social Media Marketing forum, we will have specific boards for sites such as Facebook, Plenty Of Fish and Elitemate. Since C2M attends a lot of Industry Events and Trade Shows, I’m looking to include a lot of interviews with site owners, Media Buy companies and just anyone I can get to tell us a little more about their platform. I of course, will be there in my usual, in your face manner, putting as many people as I can on the spot. WE WANT THE TRUTH! HAhaha…
Anyway…
Some cool (hopefully helpful) stuff I dug up tonight:
- Lead Impact Design Tips For Contextual Pops – (Posted By Ryan)
- Quality Equals Longevity – (Posted By Me)
- Need Alternative Traffic Sources? Check Out This Massive List! (Posted By Steve)
- Utilizing Yahoo Buzz To Gage Trends And Methods To Dominate Them – (Posted By Me)
- Email Submits – Monster Method – (Posted By Me)
- Building Email List Funnels – (Posted By Me)
- Email Marketing Design Guidelines – (Posted By Steve)
- List Of Social Networking Sites – (Posted By Ryan)
- Starting With PPV – (Posted By Me)
- Dating Offers On Social, Competing Dating Sites – (Posted By Me)
We will have quite a bit of new content coming in over the weekend and into next week before we head to the Summit. Expect quite a few interviews being done at the Summit as I will be carrying around the Flip Mini to try and corner some traffic sources and get you the 411 straight from the horse’s mouth. In the meantime, remember that every Monday night at 8:00 pm CST you can catch me on my uStream Channel for live Q&A Video Streaming where I will be taking on your questions.
