Regarding keeping inactive affiliates around: I think Beth Kirsch said it best, a good affiliate manager knows how to identify the affiliates with good potential sitting in their inactive list. I am just suggesting that there might be other reasons why a good affiliate might be in your program and not yet active. I had one Halloween merchandise affiliate manager purge me 2 weeks before Halloween, right as I was creating http://www.halloween-costume-sale.com

I agree with you that merchants and their affiliate managers should have the right to run their programs as they see fit. It's their business. As I said in my recent post on Goyami, I think affiliates and affiliate managers need to spend more time understanding each other's perspectives so that they can create long term win-win partnerships.

Keep up the good work!

Adam

Over the past few weeks I have spent some time talking to some affiliate managers and reading some recent articles which lead me to believe that there is a lack understanding of perspectives between affiliate managers and search arbitrage affiliates,…

I have the same reaction toward this "treat them like a sales force" argument (and why is it an argument, not a best practice?). If things in our business were really moving in a direction toward "virtual salespeople" then why is this an argument? Why do so many continue to remind the world that "THIS is the way you do it!" Marketers should be able to run things "as a sales force" or "as media buy"… or both. No?

I appreciate your comments, it's only with open discussions can everyone fully understand the issues. On the communication side, I think merchants need to consider affiliate more like an inside sales force. If you have a top performer that is driving sales for you and you email their general account where they have over 3,000 unread affiliate communications, than you are risking that your message gets lost in the void.

I guess it really depends how important it is for the AM to get the message across to the specific affiliate they are trying to communicate with.

On the inactive affiliate side, I think we have two definitions. If the affiliate has not engaged at all, they have no impressions and no clicks, what resources are they using? Poor performing affiliates that are running your ads and not generating anything are not inactive, they are active and not performing.

Adam Viener

Editor

Goyami.com

1.

Adam: No, I was suggesting that AMs…

JeffN: I believe it's imprudent for merchants to cater to the whimsical needs of every affiliate. If I'm an active AdWords advertiser and Google chooses to communicate to me via email but I prefer IM – well I'm SOL. Why can't affiliates simply filter their emails to flag their essential merchant communications?

2.

Adam: Maybe I don't fully understand…

JeffN: It's all in how you define inactive. If they're eating up your bandwidth (image hosting, mental energy, whatever) and not performing after x months I consider that a drain on resources; however small it might be.

3.

Adam: Not at all what I said. I simply said…

JeffN: Oops, I misread the bold type. I actually completely agree with your point – if the merchant has done the math and their margins can support affiliate coupons in the first place.

4.

Adam: This is an entire topic in it's own right…

JeffN: Agreed, this is a very complex issue that lately has become an infinite loop. I have read quite extensively both arguments; I know what works best for my organization, but do feel both sides have validity. However, it's all irrelevant when Google & Yahoo say it's forbidden.

By the way Adam, I have read your work. I think you're a very smart guy…my point is that you're actually smarter than the merchants you work for, and they need to wake up.

"Adam-

So let me get this straight too: You expect marketers to…

1. Focus their energies on communicating to you the way you want to receive communication (if it's smoke signals you prefer, then dog gone it they must adapt)."

Adam: No, I was suggesting that AMs understand that some superaffiliates belong to a lot of programs and as such use a different email address when they sign-up so that they can separate out all the newsletters that they get. I market over 200 different programs and I would say that I communicate with the AMs on about 20 of those. I am just providing another perspective to consider.

"2. Keep inactive affiliates around indefinitely – regardless of performance or drain on resources."

Adam: Maybe I don't fully understand how much resources an inactive affiliate takes. Help me understand better.

"3. Provide all sorts of fresh new coupons – regardless of the merchants margins or merchandising schedules."

Adam: Not at all what I said. I simply said PPC affiliates are not going to list a coupon code in their Google ads.

"4. And you want to have free access to bidding on branded terms in search – regardless of the fact merchants spend millions of dollars building those brands?"

Adam: This is an entire topic in it's own right. I don't think affiliates should have the right do it if the merchant doesn't want them to. I do think that some merchants don't look at the full picture on this issue. I would encourage you to read some of my posts on Goyami about this topic, as well as David Lewis' articles here on Revenews.

Thanks,

Adam

Perhaps I/we need to rethink the entire structure of a real honest to goodness Affiliate Program? Perhaps my own commision only experience has clouded my judgement.

As I mentioned in another thread, a REAL compliance officer who does not report to Marketing along side the current Marketing centric role of an AM might create enough healthy "office friction" to enable one or the other party to work on a bonus/quasi incentive basis. This of course assumes that the Boss nee Senior VP who supervises both departments is very experienced and thinks long term.

I could imagine some interesting "drama" around the water cooler.

Joe: Sally, did you look at the site thoroughly?

Sally: sure did

Joe: Guess what geek girl! A Millon pops, active x, drive by installs, and porn appear on all the interior pages! The home page is a ploy because they know you are to lazy to drill deeper.

Terminated!

…have a nice day!

In my opinion; if an AM can't distinguish the big fish lying dormant in their pond then they are not cut out for the job.

JN

I agree with most of what you say but strongly discourage marketers from paying AM's any kind of performance bonus based on hitting goals… simply because doing so invites AM's to pull the trigger on all the wrong affiliates (those who drive sales without regard to cost and/or supporting the branding/user experience).

Wayne:

Remember this?

Jeff Pullen (to advertisers):

"Under the productive publisher program, beginning in March we will require that publishers in our network maintain an active, productive account that is generating results for our advertisers. Publishers who have not generated any commissions in six consecutive calendar months will be assessed a small monthly fee to motivate them to increase their efforts to produce results for their advertisers. Unproductive publisher accounts that do not become productive will be closed."

They have not stuck to guns on this so far as I can tell.

Amen!

Let me see if I understand this. A Network pays money and resources to drive Prospective Affiliates to their site.

Then they fail to review each site when they join. They don't have a clue about what kind of sites have joined. Do they care? Is the AM on salary only as opposed to heaven forbid a draw plus commission!

Then they wait for the numbers to show up on the board. Waiting is not part of my vocabulary.

Please, you have some gems who have joined but you squander the opportunity. Pick up the bloody PHONE and call the quality sites BEFORE they forget about you and or fail to put numbers on the board.

Offer custom advice AFTER you have reviewed the quality site. Ask the Affiliate to tell their like-minded quality site friends about your programs which appear to work for their sites.