1. You were not competitive. Surely you keep tabs on competitors regarding product development, promotions, etc. Be sure to check their affiliate program out as well. You must be able to meet or beat their offering. Your success will depend upon it.

2. You didn’t ensure the program tracked properly. Have you performed thorough testing? Have you done so after using your chat feature or newsletter signup link? Are cookies intact after you send consumer newsletters? Are there obvious leaks like toll free numbers, site links or (gasp!) AdSense? Are there non-commissionable items? In order to have an accurate view of program performance, you must address instances that cause unaccredited sales.

3. You set unrealistic policies. Be clear and be fair. Place restrictions in your terms of service, and police regularly. Don’t place restrictions that you can’t enforce, such as outranking your brand organically for generic terms.

4. You had unrealistic expectations. If your site isn’t converting well due to your internal efforts, don’t expect affiliates to be the fix. Affiliates send you traffic – it’s your job to convert that traffic to sales/leads. It’s also important to realize that an affiliate program is a marathon, not a sprint. Be in it for the long haul.

5. You didn’t think like an affiliate. Imagine your income depended entirely on information from a third party. That you had to feed, clothe and house yourself and your family based on details offered by an advertiser. Could you do it based on your program setup?

6. You didn’t put someone in charge. Adding affiliate program management to an already over-worked employee is a recipe for disaster. They won’t have the time to communicate effectively, research competitors, work with your network…and your program will suffer without that dedication.

7. You expected the network to do all of the work. The network should do two things right at ALL times – track sales accurately and process affiliate payments. At the end of the day, program success lies with you. A Network Representative does not possess a crystal ball that reveals your conversion rate, promotions or top selling items. Ethical networks will work with you, but YOU still need to be part of the equation.

8. You didn’t communicate. There are a number of affiliate forums, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn and Facebook groups and blogs that share tips and discuss industry updates. If you have questions or need feedback, ASK. Network with affiliates, both joined to your program and not, industry veterans and other affiliate managers to learn best practices.

9. You lacked passion. Do you love what you do? Do you believe in what you sell? Would you buy it/sign up for it/sell it to your Mother? You should. Otherwise, why would anyone else want to do it?

10. You gave up. Don’t just throw in the towel and admit defeat. Every program has an opportunity for improvement. You have to do the work, complete the research and connect with your affiliates.

Kim Salvino is Head of Publishers for the US arm of buy.at.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 15 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/61379014/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-15

FeedFront issue 15 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/09

In these tough economic times, one of the challenges affiliate managers constantly face is ensuring the growth and health of the affiliate programs they manage.

Perhaps the most important thing is making sure their programs are financially prosperous. One of the best ways to do this is by auditing your affiliate program.

There are two very effective strategies that an affiliate manager can utilize to determine if their affiliate programs are growing and competitive in their respective space. These key strategies are competitive analysis and performance audit.

A competitive analysis is a great way to identify any strengths or weaknesses within your affiliate program. This analysis will also dictate what steps to take to grow your program. After completing this analysis, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• What is the current EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) for your program?
• What is your conversion rate and is it on par with your top competitors?
• What is the average order size?
• What creative is available to your affiliates? Is it outdated? Should it be refreshed?
• PPC (pay per click) policy – Is search allowed in the program? If so, who is promoting your program using search and what additional tools do they need?

Often times, upon completion of this exercise, you’ll have a clear and concise strategy for taking the necessary steps to grow your program. Many of these questions will also create solid content for an activation campaign.

I’ve found that these are typically the first questions affiliates ask when I’m pitching a program to them. Having this data available can prove to be invaluable in activation efforts.

Beyond the benefit to affiliates, knowing this information can also be helpful when requesting additional resources from the merchant. This level of analysis indicates your investment in the overall success of the affiliate program.

A performance audit is another way of evaluating the overall success of your program. The first question to ask is “who is in my program that should be performing, but isn’t?”

You can quickly find out by comparing data year over year (or month over month) to determine if any affiliates that used to be top performers are not performing nearly as well or are no longer promoting your program at all. This list of declining performers will become your activation targets.

Review each of these affiliate’s sites to determine if they are promoting your merchant in all relevant categories to maximize exposure to their site visitors. If not, reach out to them and provide them with any updated creative, copy or other offers to increase your placement.

The key to successfully executing these strategies is to create relationships with your affiliates and make them feel like they are part of the solution.

While maintaining relationships with your top performers is important, don’t overlook the “long-tail” affiliates that can also make a difference in growing your affiliate program.

Stephen Robinson is the Director of Affiliate Relations for the affiliate management agency JEBCommerce.com, MyAffiliateCoach.net and NewsForAffiliates.com.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10

When my company takes over the management of an existing affiliate program or launches a new one, we do so using the Structured Diversity Method I have developed. Affiliates are categorized into three distinct classifications: Aggregate Volume, High Potential, and Premium Partners.

Each affiliate within any given classification is equally significant and must be treated with a high level of importance. This ensures that your affiliate partners are able to consistently improve their sales volume and helps your program become a significant portion of your overall online revenue.

Aggregate Volume affiliates comprise the foundation of your program. These affiliates are what most would consider rookies to affiliate marketing. They will likely have many questions and may need to be taught the basics of generating traffic and converting visitors. These affiliates typically generate a few orders each, per month.

Your program should be designed so that you have hundreds of converting affiliates at the foundation level who occasionally generate individual sales, but who, as the Aggregate Volume group, contribute a significant amount of monthly revenue.

High Potential affiliates are important both as a group and individually. This group does not typically make their living entirely from affiliate marketing, but they are generating consistent sales each month. Their commission earnings play a role in both their business and personal budgeting. High Potential affiliates are likely to increase their sales rapidly if they are given the right tools.

Premium Partner affiliates are your top performers. They may or may not be considered an industry Super Affiliate, but regardless are generating a significant amount of your monthly sales. These affiliates should be viewed as a method of “sharpening the tip” of your affiliate program. They have the ability to drive significant amounts of revenue, often in a very short period of time. More importantly, their high performance level is often sustainable over time.

You can build a significant revenue generating program through Aggregate Volume and High Potential affiliates alone, but overall growth will be inconsistent and slow. Likewise, a program built with Premium Partners alone may not be sustainable over time as any number of factors beyond your control could temporarily or permanently affect their sales volume. The loss of even a single Premium Partner in a program consisting only of this group will result in a significant decrease in overall revenue.

In utilizing the Structured Diversity Method for your affiliate program design, you will be able to reach profitability from the sales generated by Aggregate Volume and High Potential affiliates alone.
However, you must attract and recruit affiliates of all three classifications in order to realize the sharp growth curves you are looking for. You must manage your program under the assumption that each partner in each classification wants to earn more with your program and is actively working on improving their business. If you provide the tools and assistance needed, you will find a steady flow of affiliates advancing their performance level and generating more sales in your program.

Matt Enders is the CEO and Founder of mgecom, inc., a leading Outsourced Affiliate Program Management firm.

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

Times are tough. There is no escaping the fact that our industry is not immune to the high unemployment rates and falling consumer spending. It is affecting all of us and merchants may need to adjust their programs due to the changing landscape; sometimes even just to keep them open to affiliates.

As Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only constant is change”. But you shouldn’t make changes without thoughtful, in-depth consideration and accurate information.

Nothing will upset your partners more and reduce the overall performance of a program than affiliates finding an email in their inbox that tells of a dramatic change taking place immediately.

If you find yourself under pressure to change the cookie days (also known as commission duration or return days), overall commission rate, and/or other aspects of your program, here are some guidelines and things to consider:

• Accurate data: When making changes to commission rates, for example, be sure to know the lifetime value of affiliate customers and look at the profitability of each partner before making a decision. Accurate data will guide you in your decisions.

• Proven assumptions: Are your theories supported by data or simply the thoughts of someone outside of the marketing department? Good analysis will often stop bad decisions from being made.

• Testing: Test out your assumptions in your program.

• Top affiliate involvement: Affiliates are your partners. You shouldn’t make any big changes without consulting them first. It may serve only as a forewarning in the end, but bringing them into the process will help them understand any decisions you decide to make. Additionally, many affiliates have been in business longer than the affiliate managers themselves, they may have some ideas that you may not have thought of.

Sometimes there is simply no way to avoid making changes to your program. Following these guidelines can help lessen the pain:

• Involve your affiliates and be able to explain the issues and reasons for your decision
• Have data to back up your position
• Be prepared to offer concessions to ease the impact on your partners
• Provide adequate lead time (60-90 days)
• Send email notices before changes are made and follow up with individual calls to your top-producing affiliates

Accurate data, partner consultation, and adequate lead time will help you and your program maintain trust and the performance that we all need during these tough times.

Jamie Birch is the owner of the affiliate management agency JEBCommerce.com, MyAffiliateCoach.net, and NewsForAffiliates.com.

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

Webster’s Dictionary defines autopilot as “a device for automatically steering ships, aircraft, and spacecraft.” Such systems of directing vehicles without assistance from human beings are excellent when used in the contexts that they were created for. Affiliate marketing is not one of them.

However, numerous merchants run their affiliate programs the “autopilot way,” and many are not even aware that they do.

I’ve found this problem to be more common with programs run on affiliate networks. When a merchant starts a program on a network, they often mistake the affiliate network for a self-adaptive autopilot.

Aerospace avionics expert George Siouris defines this type of affiliate program as one that “measures its own performance, compares it to a standard, and adjusts … parameters until its performance meets the standard.”

Similarly, some merchants believe that once an affiliate program is started on an affiliate network, the network will both measure its performance, and ensure that the program keeps developing according to a “standard”.

However, the job of the affiliate network is to provide the merchant with tracking, reporting and payment solutions. The rest is affiliate program management, and most affiliate networks do not have it on the list of services provided by default.

An affiliate program is a marketing campaign. Launching it on a reliable platform (affiliate network, for example) is only half the job. The second half entails active affiliate program management.

The key management elements are (a) recruiting new affiliates, (b) educating and motivating current ones, and (c) policing all affiliates for compliance with your Terms of Service. Yes, you want to make sure your program has a detailed TOS agreement, in which you specify what affiliate behavior is unacceptable, and what consequences such behavior will bring about.

Examples of the most frequently banned affiliate behaviors include trademark bidding, forcing clicks, cookie overwriting, cookie stuffing, and use of downloadable software.

Besides recruiting and policing, the affiliate program manager is also responsible for reviewing new applications, and maintaining a healthy communication channel with the affiliates.

In February 2009, Econsultancy.com published the UK and the US Affiliate Censuses. Among the top reasons for not promoting a merchant, US affiliates pointed to “slow acceptance to program” (17%), and “bad follow-up communication” (10%). Poor communication has also been mentioned by 12% as the reason for dropping affiliate programs.

UK affiliates have also stated that “merchants do not communicate a variety of issues to them,” and whatever communication does exist, “ranges from bad or impersonal contact” to “failure to convey important information.”

US affiliates echoed this observation by underscoring that “merchants do not communicate enough with them,” and when they do, it is performed in a generic, mass-mailing style.

All dangers of the “autopilot approach” are too many to outline here. If you are serious about your online presence, treat your affiliate program as a serious marketing campaign. Otherwise, gaining genuine trust and loyalty of affiliates will be an impossible task.

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 5 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue5.pdf
FeedFront issue 5 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00category/issue-5

The Target.com affiliate program began to explore social media to better serve our publishers. We started by observing the community. Through Twitter, we followed the members of the affiliate community and learned from industry experts. Listening to discussions gave us insight into current events and helped generate ideas to improve our affiliate program.

Once we understood the landscape, we created an account on Twitter for our affiliate program to offer our partners another line of direct communication.

The @AffiliateTarget Twitter account was established in September of 2008 and has 70+ followers and follows 40.

We wanted to ensure our partners knew real people are working on Target’s affiliate program and how to reach us. Twitter is a great way for affiliates to contact us if they have questions, as we can respond quickly using the Direct Message and @Reply features.

Publishers are busy and get a ton of emails, but Twitter can be a convenient alternative that is accessible from a computer or mobile device.

We use Twitter to announce program updates and reach out to publishers, but also to solicit feedback from the community.

Our affiliates are the experts when it comes to their visitors, so we ask about banner creative, video player vendors and even our plan for the holidays.

Twitter is a wonderful way to grow relationships, offer a convenient communication option for our publishers and ensure that affiliates know who to contact if they have questions.

Relationships are the best part of the business — without them we’d just be left with spreadsheets, and that’s not nearly as fun.

Jillian McGary began working on the Target.com Affiliate Program in July 2007. Before going to Target, she spent three years at an advertising agency and two years teaching behavior therapy to children with autism.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 4 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue4.pdf
FeedFront issue 4 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-4/