The Art of communication with affiliate manager.

[Moonlight Cat]

Anybody have advice or may be somebody tell something from they own experience?
Why i ask? Because i don't understand some affiliate managers.
How you communicate with your aff.managers?

For example. I work with one affiliate program with ultra-active affiliate manager.
This manager have many ideas about my site. The try to give me advices, about my marketing strategy, banners e.t.c. All of this ideas for my point of view
are very incompetent. But i am listen, because i think that this is not polite to tell a person that he is incompetent.

[Louis - Income Access]

I personally would not mind if an affiliate told me my ideas were bad. As long as they tell me why.

When I first started in this business, I knew very little about the industry. Affiliates' feedback was incredibly helpful in my learning process.

I would say that as long as your feedback is constructive, there is no problem in telling your affiliate manager why his ideas won't work.

Hope I don't get you in trouble with my advice

[Moonlight Cat]

Affiliates' feedback was incredibly helpful in my learning process.

Louis I am very respect all aff.managers. I replay to all e-mails. I send traffic graphics and .pdf report,
i tell about all my plans. And several days ago i recive letter from this manager

"... Moonlight Cat, we think that you must send to us more players. We give you so many advices and we are waiting more results".

If be honest, my first reaction after this letter - remove all they banners immediately.

[casinobonusguy]

I always consider it a privilege when a manager I am making money with helps me with new ideas.Without my manager advise years ago I never would have tried Swedish ,German ,Japanese ,mobile etc.I would simply reply with a thank you but I am trying things my way and maybe in the future something they suggested will make sense to you.

[clarar]

Hi,

I think the best way to point this is to explain why you disagree on the strategy. As an AM I think I would understand what the affiliate is trying to tell me. I wouldn't mind if someone tells me something like this and I'm sure I would learn from it. AMs can make mistakes also and the best way to learn is receiving some feedback. I totally agree with Louis

[Maria F]

Most affiliate managers have lots of daily tasks top perform and are under pressure, it takes a lot of effort to try to come up with fresh ideas to help affiliates. Sometimes ideas can be great and many times they can be terrible. I would suggest for you to take any good ideas you get and disregard the bad ones. Any professional affiliate manager will take a constructive criticism, learn from it and get better, we are far from perfect

Communication is the key to a great partnership, so don’t be afraid to give feedback.

[Anthony-Coral]

Also wrong to assume that AM's are the 'experts' in every aspect of Affiliate Marketing. Another thread here recently discussed the different backgrounds of some AM's and their varied routed into where they are now and how they got there.

As a younger AM I remember feeling under pressure to know all the answers, as if admitting I was a newbie would be damaging. Now I'm much more comfortable with what I know and also what I don't know. As an AM you are exposed to a HUUUGE number of websites on a daily basis and the conversations you have mean that after a while I think you know a little bit about a lot of things, without necessarily being expert in all or any of them.

If you are able to build a relationship with your AM it can help to find out about their background and experience as a way of evaluating their advice. For example, I could probably give you decent advice on your site layout, navigation and user experience. Any advice I gave you on SEO would not be worth much as it is not my background.

AM's, especially newer ones, are often given large numbers of smaller affiliate accounts to try and activate/optimise/manage. From their point of view they may be looking to get something...anything form those accounts and they may not be too interested in you or the development of a particular site.

If you really feel like you are getting no where with your AM I would say to think about if you do still want to work with that brand. If you do then I would ask if you can be allocated to a diff AM. If they ask why then you can explain the reason and why the advice you have received so far contradicts your instincts or experience. At the very least it should get their attention - Good Luck

[casinobonusguy]

I read other thread and Martyn Beacon is the highest qualified person IMO so I will now address him as Mr.Smarty Pants in all future correspondence

[AE-Martyn]

I read other thread and Martyn Beacon is the highest qualified person IMO so I will now address him as Mr.Smarty Pants in all future correspondence

It was all made up!

[universal4]

I have to agree with Martyn here.

Would any pair of pants really wanna be that close to his butt if they truly were smart?

Rick
Universal4

[AE-Martyn]

Would any pair of pants really wanna be that close to his butt if they truly were smart?

I think you confuse my butt for Hodgeyboys sir.

[TheGooner]

How you communicate with your aff.managers?

If an AM gives me specific information about THEIR program or requests promotion of a special feature then I'll review the info and communicate accordingly.

If an AM gives his/her opinion on wider trends and makes suggestions for wholesale changes, then I'd politely thank them - but point out that the T&C's of the affiliation deal we have with them does not extend to major site customisation.

However ... if they'd like to make a dedicated "monthly media buy" in addition to the rev-share deal ... then I'm ready and willing to discuss terms, prices and what we might be able to do with their special request. ...

(That usually gets them backing off quickly)

[RyanH]

I'm with Maria here, communication works both ways.

Please feel free to tell your AMs exactly what you're thinking. Especially if the suggestions they're making are wide of the mark.

True story - I once gave my girlfriend (now wife) a frankly hideous bracelet for Christmas. She actually told me, nicely, it was hideous when she unwrapped it. Although I was absolutely gutted at the time, she now gets presents she appreciates and I don't waste my time and money on junk.

We genuinely appreciate affiliate feedback as quite often it feels like we're talking to ourselves. Although that could just be me

[wintingo]

I could probably give you decent advice on your site layout, navigation and user experience. Any advice I gave you on SEO would not be worth much as it is not my background.

... Inspiring & really well put.

[Louis - Income Access]

To me, the major area where an affiliate manager should be helping out is in regards to promotional content:
*the USPs of the brand
*branding or overall feel of the brand
*specific promotions, whether permanent or time-sensitive

Affiliate managers can also help out by providing info such as:
*top converting banners or landing pages
*highest earning game or product
*niches where the operator may be more focused internally (example, they may be more interested in slot traffic than poker, and thus willing to pay higher commissions)

[Anthony-Coral]

as quite often it feels like we're talking to ourselves.

Did somebody hear a noise? Sure I heard something

[moranpob]

yeah like other said, just take what you want from their tips use and try whatever you find can work well...
and communication is key, good relationships with the AM is key it can help you a lot!

[Triple7]

Any advice is welcome ofc, but ultra-active aff. managers aren't usually the ones that are very competent. They are just mailing, spamming and pushing to get some banners everywhere.

The competent ones are providing news letters with useful information about things you can use for promotion like banners, articles, etc. or spend their time with their own websites instead of just mailing and bothering webmasters with things like "why don't we have a topposition", "if i make your revenueshare 30% instead of 25% can we be on top everywhere on your sites" "why there's no traffic yet" "i noticed you signed up 2 days ago, but there are still no banners on your website" or some one that was asking me a dozen of times a day when I will upload his banners...

[RacingJim]

Yeh there are some 'over-keen' aff managers who come out with some real gems in terms of how you could increase monetisation when they don't know how you are monetising in the first place.

There are some really nice aff managers though who make very good and helpful suggestions and remind you when offers are coming up for changing or give you a special unique offer etc.

On the negative side, I'd say the worst type of aff managers are those who seem to think that because they have 'manager' in their title that they are somehow your boss and can tell you how things are going to be and get really pushy. I tend to ignore those types, which annoys them, because after all in their mind they are my boss, which is fun for me.

[Triple7]

Yep, the ones who think they're running your site. They're quite irritating usually...