*I introduce you to a guest post by an affiliate manager/marketing mind who’s ahead of her time…but lets not make a deal over three to four minutes..She’s Eleah “no need for a middle name” Portillo from Adsimilis.com. P.S. maybe “rant” is a harsh word, it’s more like constructive criticism.*

“‎4/4/2011, affiliate marketers reach highest productivity in years. The biggest revenue day of the decade for affiliate networks worldwide.” – The affiliate blogger formerly known as Cakes.

Funny how Wickedfire goes down for a hot minute and all the restless pubs come out of the woodwork. One minute, I’m working on a network announcement. The next, I’m inundated with a swarm of adhd infested affiliates.  It was under such aff attack that it hit me…At the ripe old age of 27,  it is quite possible that I am a decade older than a fair share of affiliates on Wickedfire.

Scary thought…

But with older, comes wiser (fingers crossed). So seeing as I’m essentially an elder here, I’m going to whip up a cup of chamomile tea and bombard you with some life advice you don’t always get staying cooped up in your parent’s basement.

Take gravity for example…let it work in your favor, not against you.

In the same vein, understand the symbiotic relationship between affiliates and advertisers. Let that work WITH you, not against you.

People tend to forget that publishers and advertisers respective success is intrinsically tied to each-other. And yet,  time and again, I see affiliates work against advertisers, rather than with them.

Here is an example of an affiliate biting the hand that feeds them:

A little while back one of my lovely publishers decided to run a dating campaign. He chose an offer that wanted 25+ males from oh let’s say Zanzibar. But since Zanzibar males are hella pricy, he started targeting ONLY 25 and even started blending in 24 and 23 (gasp).  Then he started getting creative with his landing page. Slapped on a sexy emo-ette pouting into the camera (as one does) and alerted visitors that she wanted to meet them. “Naturally,” visitors clicked and even signed up. All REALLY excited to meet Princess Preteen Poutsalot.

Long story short, this pub got the boot, FAST. He received measly pay day in exchange for a ruined relationships and for all his time spent building is “creative” campaign.

….and here is an example of making this relationship work for an affiliate:

Mr. Riches

Another on of my lovely publishers started delivering quality leads to a certain offer. However, he was struggling to get into the green even after a lot of testing. He openly communicated with me and let me know where he stood. I contacted the advertiser and told where my pub was at. The advertiser was happy with the lead quality so they started helping out. They created custom pages from my pub backed with increased payouts…an insanely high payout by the end.

12 months on, this pub was sitting pretty with a cool million from this one campaign.

Mr Green: I like that example!

Now I know a loyal reader of Mr. Green would never send fraud, under-aged, or leads otherwise non-compliant with the campaign restrictions…so we’ll skip that. But sometimes JUST sometimes a pub may be swayed to send something a little borderline.

Mr Green: Yes, I can confirm every one of my readers are little angels frolicking in meadows of dandelions and good quality leads.

Listen up pubrones, the leads have to back out for the advertiser or else they will kick you off. If they don’t make money, you don’t make money. Pure and simple.  Advertisers have different payouts for different age groups for a reason. They ask for a certain age range because they have tested what is the most valuable to them. Moreover, once the advertiser sees all the leads from your subid not converting (because again, the users were looking for skin, not a soulmate for $ 9.99 a month) they will just cap you, pause you or lower your payout to the point of no return.

Sure seems like a waste and time and effort to work on those just to get kicked off the offer. You could churn thru networks, but that’s only a matter of time, and then you burn your relationships with your affiliate managers. Those managers will then be scared to let you run their best offers because you will be known as a publisher with low quality.

On the flip side however, sending the advertiser leads with a legitimate pre-sell will only work in your favor. The advertiser will like your traffic and tell the network. And that my friend, is when the power is in your court. Your network can negotiate a higher payout just for your subid, and your caps can be increased. I’ve seen plenty of advertisers give individual affiliates custom landing pages and payouts more than double the street rate at the network. Not to mention on the network side you will be the go to every time new private deals come in. All in exchange for playing by the rules and having enough pride in your work to send quality.

You see, in the Circle of Affililife, if affiliate’s traffic is not good for the receiving advertisers’ business, it’s not good for your business.

Ads + Smileys de las Adsimilis,

Mrs. PortiLOL

Mr Green: Amen sister!

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