In the course of the past 5-7 days the question that I was asked more often than any other was:
What is the size of affiliate marketing industry?
While there is no one place which answers this one, there are hints and bits of information all around the place, and I’ve decided to gather all the meaningful ones that I could find into one compilation (letting you make your own conclusions).
Here’s the chronological list:
If I have missed a source of data that you know of, please do chime in with it through the “Comments” area below.
Tags: affiliate industry statistics, affiliate marketing statistics
It’s a fact: in the vast majority of affiliate programs only 5% of affiliates (or less!) generate 95% of action. Sounds familiar? It should.
Part of the reason is that very few affiliate managers pay proper attention to the second pillar of affiliate program management — the activation of their affiliates [more about the pillars here]. And the first place to start working on it is the approval email they receive from you upon being accepted into your program. Here’s a brief video on the topic:
You may find the pattern of the approval email described in detail here. Now go check yours! Are you making it easy and exciting for them to activate, or is your approval email bland and non-enticing? You don’t have to answer in public.
Tags: affiliate activation, affiliate approval email, affiliate inactivity, motivate affiliates, stagnant affiliates
Starting from the beginning of this month a “What I Really Do” meme has been going around (spread especially actively via Facebook), reflecting “a range of preconceptions associated with” various fields of “occupation or expertise” — from photographers and graphic designers to directors and entrepreneurs [more here].
So I’ve decided to put one together for affiliates too:
Have I missed anything/anyone?
Every single day I get emails with questions related to affiliate program management. Some folks are looking for a free advice, while others are willing to pay for it. Whichever group you fall into, this post should help, as today I’d like to bring you both free ways to get this advice, and a few paid ones as well:
5 Free Ways:
1. Ask me — If you have a good question (please be concise and to-the-point!) the answer to which will benefit others, as stated earlier, I will happily answer it for you in my blog for free.
2. LinkedIn Group(s) — While many LinkedIn groups are being badly abused by a very specific type of spammers (the folks that mass-post in every single topical group they can find), for affiliate management questions, there is a closed, closely-moderated LinkedIn group — the Affiliate Program Management one. We have over 1,500 affiliate managers aboard, and many of them are happily sharing their advice there.
3. Forums — Nearly every major affiliate marketing forum has an area where you can ask your questions, and some even have affiliate manager-specific sections. ABestWeb has an Affiliate Manager’s section, Affiliate Summit has their Affiliate Q&As section; while for Europe-specific questions there are also a4u forums.
4. Merchant ABCs — A series of videos and podcasts by Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare discuss topics important for affiliate program managers and merchants.
5. My Free Guide — You may also find a free compilation of my answers to various affiliate management-related FAQs here.
3 Paid Ways
6. Books — With a very modest investment, you get answers to your affiliate program management questions from A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing (2007), as well as from my newest Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day (2011). The second book contains only about 20% of what the first one has. So, no they don’t overlap much.
7. Affiliate Management Trainers — A fairly new gig by Sarah Bundy created to fill the need for professional and personalized affiliate management training. They do both training and consulting, and you may learn more about them here.
8. Affiliate Management Days — World’s first affiliate manager-centric conference [more here]. The first one is just around the corner (happening in San Francisco on March 8-9, 2012), and in 2012 we will have two of these — on on the West Coast, and one on the East one.
As always, if I have missed an opportunity that belongs to this list, do chime in with it! The “Comments” are all yours.
Tags: affiliate management, affiliate manager training, affiliate marketing consulting, affiliate marketing education, Affiliate Program Management
It seems like it has been only yesterday that I broke the news of the first-ever affiliate management conference being planned… We’ve gone a long way since that first announcement. The agenda is packed with great educational sessions from 28 speakers, including such affiliate marketing legends as Todd Crawford, Kim Rowley, Sam Harrelson, Karen Garcia, Rebecca Madigan, and Jason Spievak, as well as such digital marketing celebrities as Tim Ash (of SiteTuners), Linda Bustos (of Elastic Path), Joanna Lord (of SEOmoz), and Chris Goward (of WiderFunnel). And the conference is coming up in just 4 weeks! So, if you’re contemplating attending, you want to register soon.
How To Save on Your Pass:
As the registration page indicates, the rate goes up $200 just 3 weeks from now. Remember two steps: (i) register before March 2, and (ii) use my speaker coupon code AMDAYSPEAK which will get you 10% off your registration. This way you’ll save $350 on your pass (as compared to the on-site price).
Latest Press Coverage:
In case you haven’t seen/read these yet, I’ve recently interviewed two of our San Francisco keynotes: Harvard Unversity’s Ben Edelman (see the full interview on Econsultancy.com) and SiteTuners’ Tim Ash (read the interview on SearchEnginePeople.com). In addition to these, I myself have been interviewed about the conference quite a few times in the course of the past two months (see links to all those interviews here), and I will speak about the conference on this afternoon’s Affiliate Buzz on Webmaster Radio.
Book for Every Attendee:
Last, but not least, we’ve worked out a deal with Wiley, whereby we’ll be able to give every AM Days SF 2012 attendee a copy of my bestselling Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day, which I will happily autograph (for everyone who wishes me to) in person.
It’s gonna be an exciting conference!! We’ll learn from the experience (and case studies) of Google, eBay, BestBuy.com, JCPenney, SEOmoz, and many others. Brands like Amazon, Kohl’s, Zappos and InterContinental have already registered to attend… Have you? If not, but interested, make sure you register by March 2 (see above why).
We also have a number of sponsorship opportunities left. But since the Conference Guide is going to be sent to the printer in just a few days, if you’re interested in sponsoring, contact Paul soon.
I’m really pumped up, and looking forward to seeing you there!
Tags: affiliate management, affiliate marketing conferences, Affiliate Program Management, digital marketing conferences, online marketing conferences
As you may have read elsewhere my recently-published Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day has been nominated for Small Business Book Awards 2012 — in the Marketing category. This is the fourth year that these awards are being run by Small Business Trends. Here’s how they themselves describe the awards:
…Reader’s Choice “Small Business Book Awards” for 2012 … celebrate the best books that small business owners, managers and entrepreneurs should read. [source]
I was thrilled to be nominated for their Small Business Influencer 2011 awards, where even though I didn’t make the final 100 Champions list, I received an Honorable Mention, making the same list with such companies as Apple, AVG, Epson, HP, PRWeb, Yelp.com, and such amazing folks as Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, and Rae Hoffman-Dollan. And now I’m really excited to see my book among the nominations for these prestigious SMB books’ awards. If you believe the book deserves it, I would highly appreciate your support by casting a vote for it here (you may vote once every 24 hours). As far as I’m aware, this is the only affiliate marketing book among the nominated ones.
Tags: affiliate books, affiliate management book, prussakov book, small business awards, small business trends
Between numerous affiliate marketing blogs, podcasts, forums and magazine publications, there certainly is no lack of online affiliate marketing education out there. However, when it comes to structured (or even face-to-face) learning, the real opportunities aren’t that many. Today I’d like to bring you seven that deserve attention.
Whether we talk about foundational learning and training (be it for affiliates/publishers or merchants/advertisers), or more advanced affiliate marketing education, I recommend considering the following seven opportunities:
1. Econsultancy’s Affiliate Marketing Training
Location: UK
Target audience: advertisers and affiliate managers
Instructor: Chris Bishop of 7thingsmedia
Fee: $800
Format: one-day course
Description: this training course which provides “a practical understanding of affiliate marketing, outlining the strategies, techniques and tricks to achieve a successful, well-managed programme”.
2. Affiliate Management Days ← next one on March 8-9 in San Francisco, CA
Location: USA
Target audience: advertisers, affiliate managers, agencies, affiliate networks
Instructors: multiple experts
Fee: $1,495
Format: two-day professional forum
Description: this conference provides a unique opportunity for focused education (on a wide array of affiliate management-related subjects), as well as professional networking.
3. Affilorama’s Affiliate Marketing Training
Location: online
Target audience: affiliates
Instructors: multiple experts
Fees: $200-$500 range
Format: online education, renewable access licences
Description: they offer a 3-product suite which includes three products — Affilorama Premium, AffiloBlueprint and AffiloJetpack — catering to different needs.
4. Affiliate Management Trainers
Location: virtual or in-person
Target audience: advertisers and affiliate managers
Instructors: multiple experts
Fees: start from $300
Format: individualized training
Description: they custom tailor their training programs to address trainee’s individual needs (be it to “teach you the fundamentals” or to “refine your strategy”) to maximize their success in affiliate marketing.
5. James Martell’s SUPER BootCamp
Location: online
Target audience: affiliates
Instructor: James Martell
Fee: $97/month
Format: online education
Description: “unique blend of recorded and live online events with an expanded curriculum, weekly video lessons, expert audio interviews, interactive 24/7 member community, twice a month live Q&A and personal coaching sessions”.
6. University of San Fancisco’s Certificate in Advanced Affiliate Marketing
Location: online
Target audience: affiliates
Instructors: they rotate, but the full list may be found here
Fee: $2,480.
Format: online education
Description: they start with an introduction and “getting started” type of topics, and go on to/through “knowing your audience, maximizing effects from your efforts, connections and communications, legal and ethical considerations, what the pros know and case studies”.
7. Books
There are a few out there, but the three worth highlighting are (i) Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day, (ii), Strategic Affiliate Marketing, and (iii) The Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing on the Web.
Of course, do also consider forums such as affiliates4u, ABestWeb and Affiliate Summit‘s forum; as well as podcasts and affiliate marketing blogs (see my 2011 list as well as 2012 one). And make sure you steer clear of anything “overnight”, “passive”, “easy”, or “revolutionary”.
Tags: affiliate education, affiliate manager training, affiliate marketing education, affiliate training
Every email sent to an affiliate threatening them with “termination” unless they do something (and here it doesn’t matter what the affiliate manager is asking for — putting up links, traffic referrals, or lead/sale generation) is a big thick nail in the coffin of the affiliate program. Even in traditional management contexts threats are demotivating. How could anyone expect them to work in performance marketing contexts? I just don’t understand it…
Here’s a video from one of my Affiliate Summit presentations where I spoke on the topic:
Speaking in Alexander Hiam’s words, we want to present affiliates “with opportunities to succeed instead of telling them what to do”. Merchants should always remember that affiliates were the ones who have chosen to work with them — to invest their effort, time, and money into the promotion of the merchant’s product/service. And that step of theirs should be valued. It — as well as the very idea of performance-based remuneration! — should also dictate our approach to affiliate motivation.
Tags: affiliate management, Affiliate Program Management, Affiliate Summit, motivate affiliates, motivation, prussakov speaking
How many different online marketing channels are you employing simultaneously? Let me guess… At least three; maybe five or more. If you’re reading my blog, then you, probably have an affiliate program. Besides it, you’re more than likely also engaged in paid search, SEO, social, possibly display and/or remarketing initiatives; maybe mobile, and video… And then add also email on top of these, and you get quite a borscht!
Last month Zoomerang‘s “2012 Marketing Trends Survey” revealed that in the course of 2012 business executives plan to increase their spend on email (60%), social media (55%), search (37%) and mobile (37%). They are also planning on actively integrating email with social media marketing (68%) as well as with mobile (44%) [see full report in PDF here]. I strongly hope that they’re also planning on investing into a robust platform to help them analyze all of these marketing efforts.
25% of digital marketers admit that their greatest challenge is in arriving at a comprehensive understanding of how all of these different online marketing channels effect their customers. I believe that the reason for this is that it is much easier to gather data than to interpret it — especially, if you’re not properly equipped to effectively do the latter…
One of my favorite multi-channel attribution solutions is being provided by a company called Impact Radius. And I was honored to have been asked to participate in their 2012 Marketing Solutions e-booklet, contributing to a page on “finding clarity in data” (see a snapshot of it below). The full booklet is now available for a free download, and you may request it here. It’s a quick (but important) read on a dozen of topics. I recommend it; and not only because I’ve participated in it. It’ll give you other good food for thought (and action) in 2012.
For numerous times over the past few years (including this recent interview to Smart Insights) I have been asked what I think about multi-click attribution — especially, in the affiliate marketing context. I’m not against it as long as (a) you know what you’re doing, and (b) your affiliate program stays competitive.
Tags: attribution modeling, impact radius, multi-click attribution, web analytics
A frequent mistake that leaders, and managers of all kinds (including affiliate program managers), commit is failing to admit mistakes. It is a very destructive path to follow. The main reason being that it compromises your integrity, which is, actually, the most important characteristic for any leader.
Addressing this problem in January 2010 at Affiliate Summit West (Las Vegas, NV), I emphasized:
…it really boils down to the problem of integrity and honesty with your affiliates. Very frequently merchants think that admitting a mistake means admitting that they are a failure. It’s quite the contrary: if you don’t admit a mistake, and don’t address it, that‘s when you are a failure.
Decades of leadership research have proven that the most admired characteristic of any leader is honesty.
Here’s the part of my above-quoted session where I addressed this topic:
Years ago when I first heard the phrase “it’s ain’t weak to be meek” it struck me how true these words are… Very similarly, it takes a lot of courage and strength to stick to the path of honesty and integrity. The weak ones, actually, follow an alternative route.
Tags: affiliate management, Affiliate Program Management, Leadership
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