Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant
I have written and spoken several times about what affiliates want from affiliate managers and merchants but have never flipped the coin over to see what is on the other side. Thinking about the topic and talking to others, here are some suggestions about how we can all be better affiliates.
Be honest about volume: If you make promises that you know you cannot keep, you will not only burn a bridge but word will eventually get around. Be optimistic in your projections but not unrealistic.
As part of my presentation for Affiliate Summit East 2011, I have prepared an Editorial Calendar (“editorial calender” for those of you with spelling issues) to help bloggers, affiliates, and merchants take advantage of Seasonality in Affiliate Marketing. The calendar is basically a listing of different holidays, events, and seasons that you might want to write about or monetize in some way. While it certainly is not an exhaustive list, it should give you a good start on your planning as well as get your creative juices flowing about other similar events. Understand that some events change dates from year to year and that you need to be looking at least a month in advance to plan for many of the events.
I have been waiting for my copy of It’s All About the Cookies to get here and when it did I got so excited that I grabbed the video camera and made a quick video review. (You know I’m telling the truth because my hair is in a ponytail and my office is a mess). I don’t care because the video isn’t about me, it’s about this awesome cookbook. What makes it so awesome?
First and foremost, the proceeds from the book go to Affiliate Marketers Give Back, which raises money for breast cancer research, treatment, and awareness. If you haven’t been touched in some way by breast cancer, you must not live on this planet.
Last month I blogged about The Ugly Side of Affiliate Marketing and described some major issues that I was having with, among other things, with my Google Adsense Account and the eBay Partner Network. I’m happy to report that all of the problems have been resolved. However, it wasn’t without a lot of help and a lot of lessons learned–lessons that can apply whether you get hit with the nexus tax, unexpectedly dropped by merchants, or even dropped from entire networks.
I took the opportunity to discuss it with my Blogging ABCs co-hosts Deborah Carney and Liz Fogg. Here are some of the things that we talked about in the podcast that I learned from this debacle:
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Everyone knows that I am generally a pretty positive person who tries to find the silver lining to every cloud. Today isn’t one of those days. Today is one of those days where I share my affiliate marketing experiences with everyone in the hope that you don’t end up in the same boat that I am in.
Most weeks go pretty much the same as an affiliate marketer. I’m 48 hours away from heading out on a vacation that has been planned for 18 months. I expected to do some last minute Father’s Day promotions, catch up on a few emails, and schedule a couple of blog posts. Instead, I’m literally fighting not to lose thousands of dollars in revenue a month for my business. Here’s how the last few days have played out.
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