Two affiliates on different sides of the globe (U.S. and Australia) blogged about the same topic during the same week of August 2009. They talked about the things that make the life of an affiliate unnecessarily difficult, and they obviously wanted affiliate program managers to hear them.
I am referring to the “5 Things That Make My Affiliate Life Easier” post by Rae Hoffman, and the “10 Things I Hate About Affiliate Marketing” one by Kirsty McCubbin. Both of these posts are must-reads for every affiliate program manager.
Sam Levenson is known for saying: “You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” I like to re-phrase this utterance with affiliate program management in mind. Affiliate program managers must learn from the mistakes of others precisely because they can end up making them all in their own management, hurting the development of their affiliate program, and their relationship with affiliates, along the way.
Looking through Rae’s and Kirsty’s lists, I’ve boiled their observations down to 7 points, or 7 things that affiliates dislike in affiliate programs. They are:
- Lack of communication or poor/one-way communication
- Lack of detailed reporting
- Lack of linking flexibility
- Poor quality product feeds
- Unexpected/unannounced changes
- Unrealistic/unattainable sales/contest goals
- Affiliate program managers who fail to put themselves into affiliate shoes [more of a summary of the above points]
Are you guilty of any of the above?
Gee, these seem like common sense to me — for affiliate managers and anyone who has customers or clients.
I could see where the affiliate manager and affiliates could differ on #3 and #6, but the rest should go without saying. Is there something about the affiliate marketing industry that makes it harder to have clear communication?
Not sure how “the affiliate manager and affiliates could differ on #3 and #6”, Susan. Could you please elaborate?