Ask Shawn Collins: Becoming an Outsourced Affiliate Manager

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I am looking at offering my services as an affiliate marketer to small businesses. Where can I look for clients who are looking for people to run their affiliate programs and what would be the average salary expectations for a small business?

Rather than look for clients, I’d suggest making it easier for those potential clients to find you and learn about your Outsourced Program Manager (OPM) services.

It should go without saying, but you’ll need to have a Web site that details the services you provide in affiliate management. When that is done, advertise your services in the pay per click search engines.

Also, submit a free listing to the Affiliate Buyer’s Guide for the Outsourced Program Managers section.

Consider advertising in the various affiliate marketing forums. There are also lots of affiliate marketing blogs where you could promote your services.

Other places to reach clients would be advertising in Revenue magazine and being a sponsor at Affiliate Summit.

If you have relationships with any of the affiliate networks, ask them if they’d be willing to send some business your way. They get advertisers looking for an affiliate manager and you could help out be being a quality place to refer clients.

Lastly, check out the ads being posted online for affiliate managers at places like AffiliateManager.net, Craig’s List, HotJobs, and Monster. Those ads are generally looking for an in-house affiliate manager, but you might just get lucky when pitching your services to these companies.

As far as compensation, it varies widely depending on your experience, relationships, reputation, services, skills, etc.

In general, rates will start as low as $1,500 a month and go higher than $10,000 a month. If you’re looking exclusively as small businesses, you’ll skew towards the lower end.

In addition to a fixed monthly retainer, ask for performance incentives as part of your remuneration.

Get a lawyer to draft an agreement for you to provide to potential clients and always get everything in writing.