The second issue of FeedFront, Affiliate Summit’s official magazine, is out. I have an article in this issue (page 53) where I discuss the differences between affiliate program management and affiliate leadership (the latter being the way successful affiliate program management works). Here’s an excerpt:
Affiliate manager’s classic roles are those of recruiting, planning, optimizing, organizing, directing and controlling. Affiliate managers – either outsourced or in-house – are perceived by merchants/advertisers as “thinkers”, whereas affiliates/publishers are viewed as “doers”. The problem is that it often stops at that – the impersonal, efficiency-oriented, hardcore management. Such approach and style works in classic teams, but affiliates are as far from being a traditional workforce as any group of people could be. Very few merchants can afford to practice a rational management approach and still run successful affiliate marketing campaigns…
You may download a PDF version of the full magazine here, or sign-up for free at this page. Thank you for the opportunity, Shawn!
The end of the article got somewhat cut off. So I am posting it below:
What are the important personal qualities for an affiliate manager to develop to compliment his/her approach by good leadership? …Kotter recommended addressing it on five levels: (a) heart, (b) mindfulness, (c) communication, (d) courage and (e) character. Management is traditionally prone to the boss-employee emotional distance, while leadership is about emotional connectedness (heart); managers are believed to possess the expert mind, whereas leaders are characterized by an open mind (mindfulness); management is concerned more about talking, whilst leadership believes in improvement through listening (communication); management is about conformity, and leadership is all about nonconformity (courage); manager’s approach epitomizes insight into organization, whereas leaders practice insight intoself (character).
After receiving a “Super Bowl-like spike in traffic and domain registrations”, registering “more than 20,000 .ME names” in the first 24 hours of registration [source] and many more in the days that followed (no wonder why, when NetFirms.com is selling them for 50% more), GoDaddy.com now shows hundreds of .ME domains going to auctions. We have all expected this logical sequence.
None of the domains I lost are up there, and neither is Aweso.me.
Among the funnier least expensive domains currently auctioned I have found GoogleHelp.me (being sold only for $60); while among those priced at $20,000 and higher, I find the following ones to be most amusing (both in their length, and the pricing!): WineMeDineMeSixtyNine.me and WellThatsNewsTo.me ($35,000 each), as well as AndThatsWhyItsGoodToBe.me and HoldMeThrillMeKiss.me (each priced at $25,000).
As many of you know the registration of .ME domains was open to public yesterday. The .ME extension is still an official ccTLD (country code top-level domain) for Montenegro, “the pearl of the Mediterranean … situated in the south of the Adriatic” [source].
For over three hours yesterday afternoon I was fighting for my pearls. Registered over 20 domains, but a few slipped through my fingers, as I’m sure many of you have experienced too. The Institute of Commercial Management in Great Britain has put it better than anyone else by publishing an article with the name “GoDaddy domain registration proves troubleso.ME” [read] today. The three that I especially regret loosing were: humor.me, retire.me, and educate.me. Oh, well… I did pick up a few other “Mediterranean pearls” anyway.
Been educating myself on domain selling today, and found the “Unofficial NamePros Domain Appraisal Guide” [here] to be quite helpful in the process.
I have incorporated their search wijit into my blog yesterday. It was easy to install and customize (you may see it now in the right-hand sidebar under my brief bio), and I’ve actually had a lot of fun playing with it even at the installation level. I put it up late at night, and in the morning I’ve already enjoyed the stats they provide. I am impressed, and extremely pleased.
If you aren’t yet playing with it, do give it a try. Many bloggers, Seth Godin included, are using it now. If you’re running a blog, replacing your default ’search’ function with this thing is, in my opinion, well worth it.
AmberDesire.com, a merchant that specializes in unique amber and silver jewelry, has contracted AM Navigator to manage their affiliate program. This is a beautiful affilite-friendly program that offers:
Commission: 10% on all sales
Return cookies: set at 45 days
Phone tracking support
Parasite-resistant politics
Auto deposit - turned on
Numerous banners, widgets and coupons
Continuous performance cash bonuses
Full product datafeed
Join this program today and in your approval message you will learn how to immediately increase your commision level.
Additionally, we have just launched our Summer 2008 Promo where every affiliate will get a $10 GenoBucks bonus (cash automatically credited to your affiliate account!) with every second sale until the end of the Summer.
It is my pleasure today to bring you the brand-new DownPillows.com affiliate program. Down Pillows specializes in luxury pillows, comforters and feather beds. AM Navigator will be managing their ShareASale-exclusive affiliate marketing campaign.
The program offers 10% commissions on all sales at 180 days cookies. The phone tracking has also been implemented, and we are now working on getting their datafeed up for FTP access. There are over 50 gorgeous creatives already uploaded that you can use right away.
I have debated this with the management of the company, but the decision has been made. Due to the increasing occurences of affiliates (mostly coupon-oriented ones) optimizing their webpages to rank high on key-phrases used to search for HomelivingStyle.com’s discounts and coupons, the company has decided not to work with coupon affiliates. This merchant does not offer affiliate coupons, and does not wish to be misrepresented.
In conjunction with this, the following paragraph has been added to this affiliate program’s Terms & Conditions to come into force on 17 July 2008:
“As of 07/17/2008 we do not work with coupon affiliates. HomelivingStyle.com offers no affiliate coupons, and does not welcome affiliates that optimize their webpages to rank on “[HomelivingStyle trademark] + coupon”, “[HomelivingStyle trademark] + deal”, “[HomelivingStyle trademark] + discount” and similar phrases. Any affiliate that is noticed as either bidding on such key-phrases or optimizing their webpage(s) in such a way will have their commission lowered to 0.001% on all sales.”
This affiliate program still welcomes content and search affiliates, but starting from 17 July all affiliates will have to abide by the above rule.
Among the things that I have mentioned in my last week’s announcement of the Hemorrhoids-Help.com’s affiliate program was the redesign of the merchant’s website. We expected it to be up by mid-July, and it is my pleasure to announce early that the website is already live!
We hope that this will improve both the merchant’s and affiliates’ conversions even further.
Wade Tonkin of ChristianAffiliateMarketers.com interviewed me on the book at the Affiliate Summit 2008 in Las Vegas, and the interview has just been posted at Viddler.com
