Publisher-Affiliate Relationships | Getting the Most Out of Them

The Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship can be easily compared to a marriage. Except we skip the dating, hand holding, and butterflies. Whether you join on your own or are directly contacted by a network to partner up, you’re going to be paired with an Affiliate Manager (or in our case an Affiliate Strategist). You can’t always choose your affiliate Rep, but you can count on them to be your ‘eyes and ears’ of the network. Sure, there might be times that personalities clash and tastes in music or sports teams cause a rift in the marriage. Overall, the common bond of internet marketing and common goal of making money will carry you both through such trivial life issues. Well then, how do you get the most out of this Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship?

Sharing is Caring

You’ve probably used Twitter to vent about the Celtics losing to the Lakers in Game 7 and updated your Facebook status to inform your friends that you pre-ordered the new iPhone 4G (jealous?). Not to mention the countless emails, IMs, texts, and phone calls you send and receive each day. It is practically unavoidable to share with the world all of the things you are doing and thinking at any given time. This has to translate into the Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship as well. Many times Reps are stuck assuming certain details of a publisher’s promotions. No good! You know what they say when you assume: “you make an…” well you know 🙂

When an affiliate is transparent about their promotions, there is no guesswork. This enables your affiliate strategist to truly keep you updated on industry trends and changes that can impact your ad campaigns—both positively and negatively. Keep in mind, communication goes both ways! When you openly share information about your promotions with your affiliate strategist, you can guarantee to receive inside knowledge on traffic sources, new verticals and often additional resources and tools which can totally supplement your campaigns.

It doesn’t stop there. Communication isn’t only beneficial at the campaign level, but also in your online business as a whole. Put it out there! What are your long term goals? What is the dollar amount you want to make each month? Expressing where you want to be is the first step to getting there.

Fear of Commitment

“Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion!” This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie Wedding Crashers. Yeah, she was a stage 5 clinger, but Owen Wilson’s character had a goal in mind and wasn’t going to let an excuse get in his way of reaching it. In affiliate marketing, we have to make a commitment to the game and play like a champion!

In the publisher-affiliate strategist relationship, it’s easy to make excuses. Especially, if a campaign test doesn’t go the way we want. It’s crucial to stay focused on solutions! Before you test an offer, make a commitment to put your best foot forward. Do your due diligence to research the vertical or offer before you test. After the test, dive into your stats. Examine every variable, placement, bid, keyword, ad copy…etc. Once you have an estimate of how to make the ad campaign better, reach out to your Affiliate Strategist to formulate a game plan. Your Affiliate Strategist can’t carry you, but they can be the most valuable asset to your online marketing plan/strategy.

Commitment, like communication, goes both ways. The relationship between an affiliate and their account Rep depends on each other bringing something to the table. There is no point in blaming one another, the only focus has to be staying committed to the marriage through sickness and health, for richer or poorer…You get the idea.

So to quickly recap, the key ingredients to getting the most out of the Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship are communication and commitment. Transparent promotions will open the doors and even windows of opportunities. Commitment to the relationship and putting your best foot forward in each promotion will keep each party accountable. Hopefully the honeymoon stage never ends, but as long as both parties have an open line of communication and a commitment to reaching your goals, you will get the most out of your Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship!

Are You Making the Most Out of Your Publisher-Affiliate Strategist Relationship?

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