Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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‘Communication is VERY important. With many programs to promote, it’s not possible to check everyone’s site for current promotions etc.

I love when affiliate managers email me letting me know what is going on with their site/program. It really helps me keep things up to date and get out merchants promotions in a timely manner.’

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‘Personal contact from affiliate managers is critical. High-performing affiliates should be hearing from managers on a regular basis. The most productive affiliates often have worthwhile and creative promotions to suggest.

Also, personal contact helps to keep your program “top of mind.” Remember, most successful affiliates are promoting dozens of programs. We need to be reminded about yours! Almost every time I get a phone call or personal email from an affiliate manager, a specific promotion results from it, with a corresponding spike in sales.’

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‘I feel any contact with a merchant via the affiliate manager warrants a response. This is far too often not the case in my experience.

If you choose to promulgate links via personalized emails, make sure the code has been tested before compelling me to do a whole lot of work inserting them in various categories.

I frequently get “corrected” emails within a couple of hours or the next day, which advise that either tracking code was incorrect, or learn the hard way (from a customer) that the given link returns a 404 error. Makes us both look bad.’

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‘We need to know what is coming, what is going to be hot, before it happens, to give us lead-time to create a good marketing effort.’

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‘We put out a monthly newsletter around the 10th of each month for sales and specials. We would like as early notice as possible of the up coming sales to inform our customers.’

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‘One email monthly or quarterly would be great. Coupon codes or specials mailed in advance of the promo would be nice.’

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‘Affiliate managers need to be more responsive in answering questions and approving customized text/images. I need images to fit into the layout of the newsletter, but on average, having requested approval, 99% of the affiliate managers never respond.

Another quick thought: affiliate managers should remember that even small sites can bring quality traffic and some of those sites may someday become super affiliates. Nurture those relationships.’

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The comments above are excerpts from the AffStat 2004 Report, which includes candid comments from affiliates on a variety of issues.

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