Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, an affiliate marketer since 1997, co-founder of Affiliate Summit and author of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.

Q: Why aren’t more of my affiliates active?
A: It’s all about the connection between the affiliate and affiliate manager (see Activating Affiliates video for a visual explanation).
I am assuming you are like too many affiliate managers who think they can run an affiliate program on autopilot, where affiliates are recruited or join your affiliate program [...]

Q: I’m promoting a Real Estate Investing Event and personally know the owners of company running the event. They have a website where people will make payment for the Event and I just wanted to ask you what’s the best way to track the traffic and conversions I generate? I’ll be using both online and [...]

Q: I have been a long time listener, first time caller, LOL. I am the affiliate manager for a publishing company of self-help programs. One of our programs sells well in the parenting niche and my question is about attracting super affiliates. What is the best way to find them and approach them with our [...]

Q: Why would anyone go to an affiliate site when they can just go to the actual company site directly?
A: I’d say the answer there is relatively simple… it’s all about the affiliate site adding value to the equation.
There are plenty of affiliate sites that don’t add any value, and it’s a shame any of [...]

Q: My Web site is multilingual and for people from all over the world. I’d like to use several affiliate networks worldwide. Is it a good idea and what affiliate networks do you suggest for the Europe market, Asia and Australia and for South America ?
A: I would suggest going with a single affiliate network, [...]

Q: What constitutes a healthy composition of an affiliate workforce (i.e. percentage of search affiliates, percentage of email marketers, percentage of Web site publishers)?
A: In my opinion, such a thing does not exist. I think it would be silly to base the affiliate recruitment in your affiliate program on any sort of quotas.
You would [...]

Q: I recently viewed your clip / critique of the Affiliate Millions book by Anthony Borelli. I am about halfway through this book. As you know, the premise of the book is for the affiliate to have the ability to “cut to the chase” so to speak by allowing the customer to link directly to [...]

Q: What would be the single, most important thing for me to be successful in the poker/casino affiliate market?
A: I will have to give you some general advice, because I am not particularly familiar with the gaming affiliate area.
I know it’s a hyper-competitive segment, so you’ll have to be really aggressive.
Also, you need to know [...]

Q: I am a new affiliate manager and am working on recruiting affiliates to my niche. How do I use search to find qualified affiliates of my competition, or even if they are not promoting my competition?
A: There are a handful of software programs, such as Link Capture that purport enabling you to find [...]

Q: One of the many hats that I wear is visual merchandiser in the retail sector. Part of my responsibility to distribute multiple goods to form a display at malls in Vegas and CA. Multiple items from multiple vendors; up to 12 items. How do I get a non-affiliate traditional online manufacturer (i.e acrylic signs) [...]