Yesterday night a chief executive of a company which runs an affiliate program on a popular network, sent out a newsletter. Most of his affiliates have probably found it in their inboxes early this morning. One of them forwarded it to me. She’s been in the business for a while, but even she was surprised [...]

Continue reading about “Kickass Newsletter” Encourages Affiliates to Cheat

A month ago, wondering whether the “From” field of affiliate program manager emails matters for affiliates I started a poll asking affiliates to help me figure this one out. The poll closed on Sunday. We’ve had 46 affiliates cast their votes, and here are the results that I see: Affiliates, what do you want merchants [...]

Continue reading about Affiliate Feedback on “From” Field of Program Manager Emails

I have affiliate accounts with a number of affiliate networks through which I both monitor what my competition is doing, and analyze different things. I seldomly check the email account to which these affiliate-geared emails come, but yesterday when I did, I was stunned by how many affiliate program managers do not use their names [...]

Continue reading about Does the From Field Matter When Emailing Affiliates?

While there are multiple ways to define cliché in light of our context here I personally prefer the following one: “A trite expression, often a figure of speech whose effectiveness has been worn out through overuse and excessive familiarity.” [source] I’ve added the emphasis/underlining to the above definition on purpose. Someone said that you never [...]

Continue reading about 10 Clichés Affiliate Managers Should Avoid At All Costs

Geno on September 15th, 2010

No matter what the communication piece (a 140-character-long tweet or a newsletter), or the context (affiliate-oriented, customer- or client-focused, etc), it will benefit from the following 3 Ps. In fact, I believe these 3 elements to be integral components of any effective communication. Let me illustrate each by looking at things in the context of [...]

Continue reading about The 3 P’s of Effective Communication

Earlier this week I have received a newsletter geared at CSN Stores’ affiliates that have generated some traffic for their affiliate program, but no sales. The opening text of the newsletter read: Congratulations! You have been chosen as a CSN Stores Affiliate Program Rising Star. All the members of this group have been able to [...]

Continue reading about While Motivating Affiliates, Care for Little Guy Fostering Pride

Geno on December 7th, 2009

A solid online retailer, voted one of Internet Retailer’s Hot 100 Companies of 2009, visited by over a million of unique visitors every month, has sent out their affiliate newsletter. It was written well, but some of the things could certainly use some improvement. Here’s a screenshot of a part of that newsletter: Good style, [...]

Continue reading about Affiliate Newsletter: Format is Important

Geno on December 3rd, 2009

In my previous posts I have spoken about the structure of the affiliate newsletters, the three Ps to remember at all times, the necessity for clear distinction between customer-oriented vs affiliate-geared promos, the art of getting attention, and other things. Today I would like to address a basic, yet very important question — that of [...]

Continue reading about How Often to Send Affiliate Newsletters

Geno on October 19th, 2009

Not many affiliate networks provide you with such data as an open rate for your outgoing affiliate correspondence (such as approval emails or newsletters), and this is really unfortunate. Commission Junction does provide merchants/advertisers with such important information as a part of the Email Campaigns reporting: Looking at the data for the last five pieces [...]

Continue reading about Most Affiliate Newsletters Never Get Opened

Geno on August 26th, 2009

Some of you may remember my “Back to the Question of Affiliate Newsletters” post made earlier this month where I expressed my gratitude to an affiliate that called my newsletter “personal, intriguing, well written,” and one which she has never received from any other CJ-based merchant. Yesterday this same affiliate has encouraged me again. She [...]

Continue reading about Newsletter Encourages Affiliate to Get Active