With statements of the highest payouts, larger than life conversion rates, and other claims to fame; it can be difficult as an affiliate, to find merchants that are the real deal. Here’s hoping the following list of tips will help you in your quest to embark upon a long term relationship with your next new merchant.

There is No Escaping Permanent Web Ink. If you’ve found a merchant, and you’re considering adding their products to an existing site or dedicating your next niche site to them, be sure to do a bit of research. If other affiliates have experienced payment issues, communication problems, a high reversal rate or other anomalies, a good old-fashioned Google search should reveal these issues. Beyond searching for the merchant’s name, be sure to type in Merchant Name + Affiliate, Merchant Name + Scam and Merchant Name + Fraud. A large amount of complaints for the merchant, either from other affiliates or directly from consumers, is a red flag.

Make a Test Purchase on the Merchant Site. Observe the order process as both an affiliate and a consumer. Is the site difficult to navigate? Does the merchant place roadblocks in the shopping cart that will affect your conversion rate? Do they offer a discount for joining their newsletter, and does signing up then overwrite your affiliate cookie? Does a live chat function exist on the site, and is the telephone number for contact prominently displayed and encouraged for use?

Do you receive credit for orders placed with chat assistance or by phone? Knowing the answers to these questions will require that you contact the advertiser directly, which leads to the next point.

Can You Locate a Direct Point of Contact for the Affiliate Program? Either on the site itself, a dedicated affiliate support page, or on affiliate forums – are you able to find a name, email address and telephone number for the Affiliate Manager? If you have found questionable issues about the program or the merchant, this is also your opportunity to inquire further. If all you hear are crickets, this could be a warning sign that for questions or issues, you will be on your own, with possible wasted effort spent promoting products, and no results.

It’s my hope that the tips above will save you time and money, but in the end – go with your gut. If there are existing issues with the merchant, a test purchase doesn’t run smoothly, and no one answers your emails, start to Google the competition instead.

Kim Salvino is Senior Account Manager & Affiliate Evangelist for the US arm of buy.at.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 13 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/45332687/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-13
FeedFront issue 13 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2010/12a>

Like all sales professionals, affiliates are primarily motivated by financial incentives. Contests and commission hikes are good examples of strategies that work.

 Affiliates can also be inspired by anything that can help them make more money faster and more easily. With this in mind, here are seven strategies that will energize your affiliates to sell.

 1. Contests: Creating a Buzz

 Contests are one of the most effective ways to get affiliates to sell merchant’s products. The most effective contests use a strong hook and have clear, concise rules.

 Big-bang cash prizes work well as incentives. You can also try running contests that offer more meaningful prizes than cash alone. Anything that provides an added emotional dimension— like trips to exotic locations, exciting events, and cool gadgets and toys— is great for building affiliate ties. You can also try using competitive games and interactive, task-based challenges to enrich the contest experience.

 2. Higher Commissions: Making Your Product Competitive

 If another competitor is offering 60% commission on a given product, and you only pay out at 50%, you’ve got a problem. The best way to make sure your rates will get the attention of affiliates is to match or better your competition’s commission rates.  If increasing commission is not an option, you can ensure that your site converts higher than your competitor and tout that fact to your affiliates.

 3. Commission Scales: Pump It Up

 Commission scales are the financial incentives that a network has in place to spur its affiliates towards achieving greater sales numbers. Examples include bonuses and commission percentage increases, awarded to an affiliate when they reach specific preset milestones.

 For example, when an affiliate reaches X number of unit sales per month, they receive an X percent commission increase on that product.

 4. Payment Frequency: Flexibility Means Profitability

 Flexible payment options are popular with affiliates. For example, offering weekly payments to your top-performing affiliates puts a more readily available cash-flow in their hands, which they can then sink back into their marketing efforts on a more consistent basis.

 5. Compelling Data: Show Them The Money!

 Show your affiliates hard data upfront that quantifies why your product is worth their time and effort; data that proves a selected product will be lucrative for them to promote. High-conversion rates are the most compelling numbers to share, as well as traffic volumes and low refund rates. Providing your affiliates with this data is especially effective when pitching them to sell a product that is new to them.

 6. Creative Services: Making Affiliates More Effective

 Offering creative services like product landing page design, micro-sites and other complementary marketing collateral makes your affiliates more efficient and effective. It also makes affiliates feel good. This is a simple customer-service strategy that works by eliminating tasks usually handled directly by the affiliates, in turn giving them more time to sell.

 7. Account Support: 

 When you offer strong account support, your affiliates feel confident that they can meet any challenge. The best programs provide their affiliates with educational and problem-solving resources tailored to the demands of a product’s niche. Account support includes tutorials, training materials, articles, videos, Webinars, and more.

Bobbi Leach is Director of Business Development at RevenueWire (www.revenuewire.com).

Download the entire FeedFront issue 9 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/24376105/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-9
FeedFront issue 9 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article002334

 The rush of Christmas is over, so now would be a good time to see what sold during the holiday season and dedicate a site to that topic. I normally use January as a time to focus on one brand-new site. You can go into your analytics programs and see what people were looking for and make a new niche Web site.

I like to make sites that are not just sites that sell products in the fourth quarter. Too many marketers focus on making a site just for Christmas. You should focus on a site that sells year around. It is also a good time to make that hobby site that you’ve wanted to make for a long time… you know that labor of love that you’ve always wanted to make.

Try to think of things that would sell throughout the year, such as team sports products. Every time you turn on a game all you see is people in the stands with jerseys on from their favorite team. Somebody has to sell them the jerseys it might as well be you. You can also think of all the sports that run the most during the year, my last site was based on NASCAR, since the season practically runs 10 months out of the year.

Kids are playing soccer all seasons, especially in the warm weather states. These kids need new cleats, shorts, balls, etc. You can also look towards your favorite hobby and develop a site around it. Hobbies are all year round also, you don’t take a break from your favorite hobby. Like I’ve said there are many ideas you can get just by looking at your analytics programs.

In addition to your analytics program, you should also look at Google trends, and take a look at the fourth-quarter searches. Odds are using these two tools will enable you to come up with a new site idea.

Some categories that are strong across the calendar year are home renovation, cooking, tools, automotive, and you can break each one of them down into a niche.

For home renovation you might just want to focus on bathrooms. Cooking can be anything from recipes to cooking utensils. Mechanics use tools all year round, and the automotive industry could be broken down in hundreds of ways, from tires to auto insurance.

Speaking of automotive, many people research new cars online before they go into a dealer. They could be doing this research on your site. Automotive manuals are always a big seller for people trying to repair that car.

Affiliate programs exist for almost every niche, and if you can’t find a good one, you can always turn to Google AdSense or some other contextual advertising program.

Vinny O’Hare is the founder of Vincent O’Hare Consulting, (VinnyOHare.com) an Internet marketing service that provides information on how to make money online with affiliate programs and contextual advertising.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 9 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/24376105/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-9
FeedFront issue 9 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article002334

Have you ever wondered what makes an excellent affiliate program manager? What characteristics should one strive to possess to succeed in this capacity?

In the course of over twenty-five years two luminaries of the organizational leadership, James Kouzes and Berry Posner, have been studying the characteristics of admired leaders. One of the methods they used was a survey with an open-ended question: “What values, personal traits, or characteristics do you look for and admire in a leader?”

Several hundred different traits and characteristics were gathered, analyzed, and documented. The striking part was that in the course of decades some of the same characteristics were consistently brought up regardless of the countries and continents where the survey participants lived. These top four characteristics were: (i) honest, (ii) forward-looking, (iii) inspiring, and (iv) competent. As obvious from the table below, these four scored significantly higher than the other ones mentioned:

Top 15 Characteristics of Admired Leaders

Source: Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z (2007). The Leadership Challenge (4th Ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 28-31

What can we learn from the above data?

I believe the top four characteristics to also be the cornerstones of successful affiliate program management. Forward-looking implies a “well-defined orientation toward the future” and vision; inspiring is about enthusiasm, drive and motivation; competent reflects a well of knowledge that never goes dry; but it is honesty that is the greatest and the most valued characteristic.

No matter whether it is a military leader, a president of a country, a CEO of a corporation, or an affiliate program manager, people want to be confident in their leaders; and confidence is always dependent on the leader’s integrity. Most frequently integrity gets challenged when an affiliate program manager commits a mistake. We need to remember that it is okay to commit mistakes. It is how we deal with them that shows who we really are.

One of my favorite quotes about mistakes comes from Dr. Dale E. Turner who said that “the highest form of self-respect” is “to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.”

Admitting mistakes only builds up one’s integrity, and shows an individual as one possessing a strong and solid character.

Another element that is extremely important to remember is that one’s honesty is always tied to values and ethics. Know your principles and stand up for them. This is especially important in an industry as vulnerable to unethical behavior as affiliate marketing.

Geno Prussakov is the Founder of AM Navigator, and author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes.”

Download the entire FeedFront issue 7 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/17376069/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-7
FeedFront issue 7 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/08

It’s been said over and over that the key to success as an affiliate manager is maintaining good relationships with your affiliates.

The foundation of any good relationship is communication, enforcing the need to be available across multiple channels for your affiliates to get in touch with you.

Making yourself available for your affiliates will increase your effectiveness as an affiliate manager, assist you in preventing fraud, and help to create a lasting bond with your affiliates.

People are all different, and so are their preferences in communications. Broad availability is your best bet. Make yourself available across more than one medium. In your communications to your affiliates, make sure they have multiple ways to contact you at their fingertips.

Your e-mail address, phone number, and physical address should append all messages and correspondence you send to the affiliate so they know immediately how to reach you.

When calling and leaving a message, remember to always leave your phone number – never assume they already have it. If affiliates know how to contact you easily, they will be more likely to get a hold of you before making any wrong moves.

This will help you to keep your affiliates on the straight and narrow with immediate feedback on their promotions ideas.

Communication is dynamic, and in this day and age the number of communication venues is increasing exponentially. Try to stay on that trendy wave and add new ways for affiliates to connect with you as the tide changes.

Create accounts across the popular Instant Messenger channels (AIM, Yahoo, MSN) and across the various microblogging ventures like Twitter, Plurk, and Pownce.

This quick way to get someone’s attention is incredibly easy to monitor with the right desktop applications, and provides affiliates with a way to instantly ping you if they need help. That kind of instant access to you will win over their business.

Social Networks are also a great way to connect with people and interact on a level that’s more human than corporate.

Networks like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn allow you to connect with your affiliates and share your interests and other ideas. A secure personal relationship with your affiliates will benefit both parties.

As the affiliate manager, your insight into the affiliates’ hobbies will help you to understand how they run their business, and might just give you some unique ideas that you can pass on to them to help you both grow their promotions of your program.

Their insight into your interests will also allow them to make a personal connection and extend some trust to you when you do make those hair-brained suggestions after learning they collect 1970′s McDonalds Happy Meal toys.

Keeping channels open for your myriad of affiliates to contact you will make you an affiliate manager to be trusted, and reckoned with!

Trisha Lyn Fawver is the Marketing Manager for PsPrint.com.

Download issue 2 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue2.pdf
Articles from issue 2 of FeedFront will also be posted at http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-2/

Below is a listing of personal philosophies that I follow each day in my role as an affiliate manager.

I call them my Ten Affiliate Manager Commandments, because I see them as imperative, in order to do my job effectively and foster the bond between my company and the affiliates that are in my program.

Ponder them and try to incorporate some or all into your affiliate program.

1. Thou shall always be accessible.
Be available through different communication channels, including email, phone, forums and Facebook. If affiliates can’t get a hold of you, chances are they will move on to your competition.

2. Honor thy parent company and thy affiliate partner.
As an affiliate manager, your alliances are to both parties. Ultimately, both the company and affiliates share the same goals: generate revenue, experience growth and achieve a positive ROI.

3. Thou shalt not work with affiliates who steal.
This includes adware, loyaltyware, cookie-stuffers, and PPC violators. It’s your program. Take ownership and clean house. Educate yourself at ABestWeb.com’s Parasiteware forum and AffiliateFairPlay.com.

4. Thou shall adhere to a code of ethics.
If you are, or if you allow affiliates to partake in unethical activity, you are stealing from your company. In this business, reputation is everything. Do the right thing from the beginning and you’ll have nothing to worry about.

5. Thou shall pay commissions timely and fairly.
Pay commissions on time, every time. If the payment schedule is interrupted, communicate the issue. Affiliates are not employees, but they should be treated with the same respect employees deserve.

6. Thou shall be a champion for affiliates within the organization.
As an affiliate manager, it is your duty and obligation to advocate for your affiliates within your company. Educate C-levels to understand the value affiliates bring to the table. Hint: It’s more than just revenue.

7. Thou shall communicate effectively.
Affiliate partners must be kept abreast of any changes to the program, including changes to your site, product line and any tools they may be utilizing. Make it a common practice to communicate with them on a regular basis.

8. Thou shall be knowledgeable about the industry.
Learn by participating in forums and reading industry magazines. Attend Affiliate Summit and other gatherings to network and visit affiliate marketing Web sites. Take the initiative to educate yourself about affiliate marketing and Web marketing in general.

9. Thou shalt not remove affiliates for low or no performance.
These affiliates have shown interest. Now it is your job to help get the ball rolling. Reach out, ask if there is anything they need or if they have questions, but never hit the delete button. Doing so kills any possible chance of a relationship in the future.

10. Thou shalt not become idle.
Even the best in the business work hard to maintain that status. The sky is the limit. Rarely do wonderful things happen to those that sit around and wait for them.

Kim Rodgers manages the 4Checks.com affiliate program , which was voted Best Affiliate Program and Most Improved Affiliate Program (ABestWeb, 2007).

Download issue 2 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue2.pdf
Articles from issue 2 of FeedFront will also be posted at http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-2/

Question: What is the future of affiliate marketing?

“I believe affiliate marketing’s future will to some extent mirror the projected online advertising growth worldwide in the coming years, as several publications have predicted. Right now, affiliate marketing is one of the outlets that is (or should be) in most marketing toolkits and I think this will remain true. I do think the expansion in affiliate marketing will come globally, there will be more education in general on what affiliate marketing is and how to do it right, and there will likely be an increased focus on marketing integrity and compliance.”

-Michael Sprouse
Chief Marketing Officer, Epic Advertising

“I think we’ll continue to see smaller affiliate programs as advertisers grow concerned over knowing how affiliates are promoting their brand. Many affiliate managers don’t have the resources or tools they need to police affiliates and may look to reduce the number of sites they allow in their programs in order reduce their risk.”

-Chris Kramer
NETexponent, Co-Founder and Media Director

“True partnerships between smart advertisers and top publishers will form. I can see some situations where top publishers get stock options or significant bonus pay outs if certain performance levels are reached. There is a “next level” of affiliate marketing that we haven’t seen yet. But it will come.”

-Ola Edvardsson
Performancy, Inc., CEO

“Retailers have learned how to be successful doing online marketing through by advertising from Google, Yahoo and MSN. The “What’s Next?” question is going to lead them to affiliate marketing. Once there they will be excited to see a marketplace that is increasing in strength and sophistication allowing another way to grow their brand or their online presence.”

-Durk Price
eAccountable OPM LLC, President

“Video – Entertaining and informational videos either sponsored or displaying ads in rotation. Although blogs will still be important as a destination, people are getting accustomed to watching video through widgets, video hosting sites (like YouTube, Revver, or Magnify), or from their iPods. Making quality video available at your customer’s convenience is the growing trend.

Social Media – Trusted web authorities selling to communities. An affiliate needs to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Ning, or another niche community. They must give great value to that community. Think more you must give to get, and less pitching.

Transparency (current Buzz word) – Honesty is the best policy. Web surfers are getting savvier. Be honest with your advertising and they will more likely join your community.”

-Michael Buechele
1115 Media Group, Founder

Question: What is one new thing an affiliate should know?

“Outsource — hire an affiliate manager! There are so many things an experienced OPM can do for you to boost the effectiveness of your program. I finally offloaded this task after running a CJ program myself for 9 years. My new affiliate manager helped me to restructure the program and fix some blunders that were holding me back. They’ve also increased my competitiveness with new creatives, and forged alliances with super affiliates who are already driving new business to Flowers Fast.”

- Bob Rankin
Flowers Fast!, Owner

“Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick program. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance. That being said, a successful affiliate business can be very profitable, and provide wonderful flexibility.”

-Adam Viener
imwave, inc., Chairman & Founder

“With the recent explosion of super affiliate and make money blogs, there is no longer a need for new affiliates to buy into the whole “make money” eBooks scheme. With so many “make money” blogs out there, new affiliates can learn just as much, if not a ton more, by reading affiliate marketing blogs and interacting with the blog owners, then spending their money on eBooks with old recycled information. My advice to you is… don’t buy eBooks, read the blogs and invest in yourself.”

-Zac Johnson
MoneyReign, Inc., President / CEO

“Try to find a niche and also something that really interests you.”

-Nik Mohan
PC Tools Software, Affiliate Manager

“The best tip for any new affiliate is they need to do is study the programs which they want to work with. Test everything out and fully understand what is expected of them as an affiliate and how to stay within the guidelines that are specified from the advertiser.”

-Collin De Ruyck
Feed Flare, Owner

“Two things a new affiliate should know:

If you are going to be building a content site, use a content management system. Whether it’s WordPress, or Movable Type, or Joomla, take some time to learn about content management systems. Using a CMS will save you a lot of time and frustration.

Any link that goes out from your site should be through a redirect. There are multiple reasons for this, and if you don’t know what a redirect is, do a Google search and some reading about why you want to use redirects. But this one tip would have saved me a lot of time and frustration if I had known it getting started.”

-Jonathan Kraft
Strive4impact, LLC, Fun Guy

“There is always a better (private) pay-out level that you likely don’t know about.”

-Ola Edvardsson
Performancy, Inc., CEO

Question: What is one thing a new affiliate manager should know?

“If you treat your top affiliates like business partners, you can accomplish great things together. Being a great affiliate manager is a tough task, it takes a lot of negotiation and education skills to deal with top affiliates and fight internal battles. A good Affiliate Manager is worth their weight in Gold!!!”

-Adam Viener
imwave, inc., Chairman & Founder

“A new affiliate manager should know to not always assume things, but research the facts before drawing a conclusion. This can relate to reports, but also relate to affiliates that may look “shady” in the beginning.”

-Jesse Bouman
1 & 1 Internet Inc., Senior Affiliate Program Manager

“Don’t underestimate how much can be gained by working really closely with some affiliates and truly treating them like partners.”

-Chris Kramer
NETexponent, Co-Founder and Media Director

“An affiliate manager should know the ins and outs of their tracking system so that they do not have to pass their affiliates along to multiple team members.”

-Ian Fernando
IANternet Media LLC, Affiliate Marketer and Blogger

“New affiliate managers should be proactive! Reach out to each publisher and learn more about what each one does online. Find out more info about each publisher and develop a friendly rapport with each of them. This helps break the ice and will open up the lines of communication, which will provide the affiliate with more targeted campaign suggestions, and as a result, more money!”

-Debby Banning
Market Leverage, Digital Media Relations

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

We’ve wrapped up the first issue of FeedFront magazine and we’re sending it to the printer.

Issues will be mailed in June 2008. Here are the articles in the first issue:

• Editors Note: Missy Ward & Shawn Collins
• Five Ways to Evaluate a Merchant’s Landing Page: Dan Murray
• Pros & Cons of Utilizing Multiple Networks: Brian Littleton
• Twitter Grabs Attention: Lisa Picarille
• GTD in Affiliate Marketing with Web 2.0: Sam Harrelson
• Affiliate Marketers Give Back: Missy Ward
• Online Video Advertising: Tim Carter
• Nobody Would Use a Search Engine with Paid Results: Dan Gray
• Building Profitable Customer Relationships by Following These Simple Email Axioms: Tom Kulzer
• Are You the Next Super Affiliate Blogger?: Zac Johnson
• Ad Networks, Vertical Ad Networks, and Affiliate Networks: Peter Figueredo
• Affiliate Manager Compensation: Shawn Collins
• My 3 Favorite Blogs You May Not Visit: Wil Reynolds
• My 3 Favorite Tools You May Not be Using: Wil Reynolds
• Get Off Your Butt and Start Making Videos: Jim Kukral

Visit http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/ for details on getting your free subscription.