Archives for February 2012

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 6% responded with “Conferences.”

Affiliate marketing conferences are a good place to discover new affiliate programs, as well as reinforcing your existing affiliate relationships.

The key difference at affiliate marketing conferences over the many other places where you can find new affiliate programs is that you get face time with the affiliate managers.

I've found it's a whole lot more effective to make my case for increased commission when joining a new affiliate program in person over email, phone, IM, etc.

The conference networking takes your relationship with a brand, advertiser, affiliate manager, etc. to a higher level.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 3% responded with “Affiliate Manager is on Twitter.”

I am sort of surprised by the low percentage who find affiliate programs this way, but perhaps it's because I'm more apt to follow OPMs, and I see all of their new program announcements on Twitter.

I find it helpful to not only discover affiliate programs on Twitter, because an affiliate manager is proactive there, but also it's a great too to follow affiliate programs you've joined.

The affiliate managers and affiliate programs I follow on Twitter will regularly post information on limited time coupons, special deals, etc., as well as linking to recent blog posts about the affiliate program.

Plus, it's nice to have access to an affiliate manager on Twitter for quick questions about their program(s).

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 7% responded with “Affiliate manager is active on message boards.”

The responsiveness of an affiliate manager is key, and affiliate marketing message boards or forums provide a great opportunity to ask any question to a given affiliate manager.

There are a handful of affiliate marketing forums, and the active presence of affiliate managers at them is a good indicator of how accessible they will be when you need them.

In the example above, you can see how affiliate manager Evan Weber announced that he was re-launching the affiliate program for BaronBob.com, and shortly after his post, there was a response from an affiliate.

And then Evan quickly circled back to the affiliate, and his forum signature includes ways to reach him on Facebook and by email.

That's what I like to see in an affiliate manager for an affiliate program I'm considering promoting.