3 Comments

A Lesson in Affiliate Marketing

Jun 17, 2007
by

This week I learned a lesson in affiliate marketing.
Sometimes we forget that this business is about relationships. Sure you have to have the metrics analysis, creative design, 24 hours support and all the other things that you need to be a good affiliate manager – but at the heart of it is relationships.
I’ve had a floundering affiliate program that’s been in intensive care since we took it on. The previous managers had focused on getting it up, but nobody was paying attention.
We took it on as we knew that by adding our expertise we could expect it to do better.
A month later and nothing had happened. That’s when I got desperate :-) I phoned up some old buddies who’ve been affiliates since the beginning to time to get some advice. Lo and behold – 2 of them had sites in the same industry! After some light bribery I had two dedicated affiliates and on month later we had a healthy income stream.
Crisis averted.

So what’s the lesson?
1. Don’t forget your affiliates. Keep up to date with all of them and what they’re doing!
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from your affiliates. Someone else’s perspective can work miracles.
3. You need a good system to back up your program, but you need the one-to-one relationships to make it fly!
Ciao, Jon

About Jonathan Miller

I’m the CEO of Forge Media Investments Limited and its Online Marketing subsidiaries including the Forge Outsourced Affiliate Program Management & offerforge.com Affiliate Network.

I’m more talent scout & ambassador than Business Manager. I do strategy, high level planning & client engagement. I love getting my hands on a project, working with clients to figure out what they need then letting my team get on and do it.

I love finding new businesses for us to grow & opportunities for us & our clients to capitalize on.

I’m well known in Performance Marketing circles and judging by the fact that I keep getting invited back, seem to be rather an engaging, or at least a passable speaker.

I live in Johannesburg with my wife, 2 daughters and assorted pets! I travel relentlessly between our markets in the US, UK and South Africa and consequently my kids often refer to me as stranger ;-(

You can find Jonathan on Twitter: @JonathanAtForge .

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing + Analytics + Case Studies
  • http://www.southafrica.to South African

    Jonathan, first time I've been on this site and really awesome to see a South African guru on affiliate marketing. I'm active as an online travel affiliate, and am faced by 3 issues: (1) None of the South African airliners offer online affiliate programs (2) Travelstart, the major supplier, their website seems to often have problems (3) Travelstart, with all their problems, offer a better package than their competitors.

  • http://www.cumbrowski.com Carsten Cumbrowski

    Amen, It's "communications week" I guess. If you read my two last posts you will know what I mean :)

  • http://schaafco.com Brook Schaaf

    The ability to call someone up on the phone – affiliate, network rep, or even a program manager is the fruit of your many years of hard work and good reputation in the industry.

    Of course, even with that, sometimes the "light bribery" is necessary. When it is, it's good to know who to bribe. :)