Tips For Affiliate Networks and Managers

I have seen many bloggers who give tips to Affiliate Marketers on how to make money with affiliate marketing. No one talks about tips for Affiliate Networks though. I have a few tips for affiliate networks which can help them and affiliate marketers like us make more money online.

1. Checking Offers – Many Affiliate Networks, including some of the top ones have no clue on what the offer is. They are not sure whether the offer is a diet pill or a something else like a patch, ebook or a weight loss program. It is very important for an Affiliate Manager to go through the offer and have answers to almost all questions regarding that offer before making it live on the network.

2. Offer Availability – I have seen Affiliate Managers clueless about offers. I remember seeing an offer marked as active on a network and I was pretty sure that this offer has been expired but the link etc. was working. To double check, I asked the affiliate manager whether the offer is still good and she told me no its not. I would have lost money and time running that offer and not gaining anything if I would have not asked about it to the manager. The offer was taken off in an hours time.

3. Pausing/Closing Offers – This has happened a couple of times when I am running a PPC campaign for an offer and bidding as high as $1 per click. At 8 AM in the morning my time (IST), I see an email from the network asking me to stop promoting the offer ASAP. The email was sent to me at 2 AM my time and I obviously did not see it because I was sleeping. I lost a few dollars on that offer but nothing I could do much about it. Its better to inform affiliates at least one day before pausing or stoping an offer.

4. Promo/Discount/Coupon Codes – Every Affiliate Manager needs to ensure that He/She is aware of all the promo codes available for offers. Many times you see the offer page has a field for a discount code but it has not been provided to you. I remember asking an affiliate manager about a promo code and he replied saying “Whats That”. Do you think I am asking him any further questions? Hell NO! There have also been funny incidents when your AM provides you a discount code but the offer page has no place for it. I would give a very bad rating to such managers.

5. Top Offers – Not many networks do this but sending an email every morning with list of top offers does help. Lot of people tend to forget about an affiliate network and it helps when they see an email which also helps them to decide on what to work on next. Also, informing and educating affiliates on new offers can really help and motivates the person to run that offer.

6. Hidden/Permission Needed Offers – This really annoys me a LOT! Few affiliate networks have offers that are hidden or need someone’s permission before you can go ahead and start running it. The worst thing is that you get denied for running that offer. Till date I am not sure what is the criteria. The criteria might be history with the network and how much you have made but Isn’t there a first time always? If you keep all you offers hidden and keep denying your new affiliates then do you think He/She is coming back to beg? No way! There are loads of other networks where we can go and test a few offers quickly rather than wasting our time begging.

Among all my Affiliate Managers I would say my managers from Neverblue are the best! My AM there right now is Chris who is very calm and cool no matter how many questions I ask him. If you are in to affiliate marketing and not with Neverblue, I would suggest you to sign up with them using my affiliate link and request for Chris as your manager. I am sure that you will start earning a lot more compared to what you are earning now.

Chris – Add $1000 to my account for saying good things about you