Top 10 Attributes of a Successful Affiliate Manager

Want to know the top 10 characteristics or skills you need to look for when hiring your next (or first) Affiliate Manager?
Before I proceed you need to know affiliate management is about “relationships, relationships, relationships”.  An effective affiliate manager needs to build strong positive relationships in order to recruit and retain the affiliates that are going to help make a difference in your affiliate program.  It’s so important that actually the first 5 points in the list are relationship based.

• Friendly Disposition – In order to really establish a strong relationship with not only fellow team members but affiliates as well, the individual needs to be someone that has a friendly disposition and easy to talk to.
• Polished written and oral skills – In building a strong relationship with any affiliate, or anybody for that matter, the individual must be able to both listen effectively and respond intellectually.
• Able to work within a team environment effectively – The individual has to be a team player and be able to thrive within your corporate environment.
• Punctual response time – Super important. Not responding quickly is telling that affiliate that their time and effort is not important to them and you will lose them.
• Retail or ecommerce experience – The manager needs to be able to read a situation, decide what the issue (or opportunity is) and then develop ideas to move forward.
• Work ethic and organizational skills – Strong work ethic and ability to manage one’s projects wisely is essential when dealing with a vast portfolio of differing affiliates, multiple company projects and other various tasks.
• Strong quantitative skills and analytic skills – The ability to scan over a sheet of numbers and pick underperformers, over performers, anomalies, etc is both a learned and genetic attribute that the individual needs to have in their skill set.
• Comprehensive knowledge of affiliate marketing techniques – It’s imperative the individual is familiar with the phrases and terminology of affiliate marketing and the different techniques used by successful affiliates.
• Hands on experience with various Affiliate Marketing platforms –Yes it’s important to know how to upload banners, accept affiliates, create newsletters etc within any of the major networks but they are built quite similar so please don’t make this a make or break point when hiring an affiliate manager.
• Business or Economics Degree – I’ve seen just as many without a degree excel in time management and business “smarts” as those that have one and vice versa.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article and I hope it helps you to narrow down the next candidate to fill your affiliate marketing needs.

Hope you’re having a great day,

Randy Norton
rnorton@snow-consulting.com

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Card Holder Stone Case for S6 Edge /Edge Plus from Modern Accessory

There’s hardly anything more fun than getting a new phone, right? Unless it’s rounding up all the cool accessories that go with it!

Modern Accessory Has The Accessories You Want!

It’s going to be easy and fun to promote Modern Accessory on your site or blog. They have beautiful leather cases like the one on the right. They also have fun and quirky things, too.

The program is available in ShareASale network and Randy Norton is managing the program.

JOIN TODAY!

• If you have already joined the ShareASale network, simply log in and add ModernAccessory to your existing account
• If you are not in the ShareASale network, you can sign up through the ModernAccessory application

We look forward to partnering with you. Please let us know if you have any questions prior to joining. We are here to help. We look forward to seeing you generate high commission checks.

Contact Affiliate Manager: Randy Norton

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We are happy to announce that Snow Consulting is now managing the LolliCouture Affiliate Program LolliCouture.com. LolliCouture.com is an internet based fashion company that started with the vision of providing the latest fashion, competitive prices, and superb customer service. A top fashion destination for the hottest trends in apparel, footwear, swimwear, costumes, handbags, and fashion accessories! Providing the best price and exceptional customer service!

You’ll find all the program details here.

Tanya Smith is managing the program; feel free to reach out with any of your questions.

JOIN NOW AT SHAREASALE 

• If you have already joined the ShareASale network, simply log in and add LolliCouture to your existing account.
• If you are not in the ShareASale network, you can sign up through the LolliCouture application.

We are happy to announce that Snow Consulting is now managing the ZooShoo Affiliate Program. ZooShoo.com researches the hottest products and unique styles in the industry; they have things you won’t find anywhere else! And then the competitive pricing and “lightning-fast” shipping will have you coming back over and over again!

You’ll find all the program details here.

Randy Norton is managing the program; feel free to reach out with any of your questions.

JOIN NOW AT PEPPERJAM NETWORK  

• Join the ZooShoo program in Pepperjam Network

I work with the coolest people! Recently I had the privilege of chatting with Jed Duffield, the newest member of the Snow Consulting team! I asked him a number of questions so we would better know how he ticks!

Can you briefly describe yourself? Married to Stacey, and I am a new parent to a baby girl(Lexi Lee) and loving it. I love web marketing, SEO and Social Media and value relationships above all. I have 1 Black Lab/Border Collie named Maggie. When I asked if he had any hidden talents, he replied -> Listener and Peacemaker. (Those are pretty good hidden talents, I would say.)

Can you tell me who inspired you? Abraham Lincoln How? As an 8th grader we studied the Civil War in depth and it opened my eyes to the tremendous responsibilities and weight that a single man carried. He preserved the Union and paid the ultimate sacrifice. I was a deeply moved by his steadfastness and the Emancipation Proclamation.
What did you want to be when you grew up? FBI Analyst – this makes sense, as he wanted to make a difference in the world.

Jed is a proud self professed nerd, take a look at his answers.. Gotta love it:)
* Favorite TV show: Game of Thrones Movie? Book? Skeletons on the Zahara
* Currently reading? A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
* Last movie in a theater? Star Wars: The Force Awakens
* Travel wish list: London to explore the history, Greece to lounge, Monaco for the Grand Prix week and Egypt for the Pyramids and Egyptian Museum.
* What are your hobbies? Fantasy Sports, Console and PC Gaming, Golf and Trail Blazer Games

I asked many questions but when I asked this question, What were you doing 15 years ago?

This was Jed’s answer…I was spending a year in Botswana helping to start a School and working with Youth Programs. His response definitely surprised me!

More questions about traveling: Your favorite mode of travel? First Class on Virgin America, Travel wish list? London to explore the history, Greece to lounge, Monaco for the Grand Prix week and Egypt for the Pyramids and Egyptian Museum.

Some work related questions – no surprise to some of his answers!
* When did you start in the internet marketing/ affiliate marketing industry? 2008
* If you asked your friends, spouse or parents to describe what you do could they? My wife could definitely. She’s had to hear about it for the last 8 years.
* How often do you get asked if you do porn after you give anyone the “what I do” spiel? Rarely anymore. I think people are understanding the internet is so much more than that, finally.
* What would be your dream job? Is this a trick question?
* If you were starting over in the industry, what would you do differently? Spent more time early on building connections and relationships in the industry.

It’s been a pleasure discovering what pushes and inspires Jed thus far, but becoming a new Dad would make for a very interesting second interview!

Snow Consulting is proud to announce that Revive Depot has joined the ShareASale Affiliate Network.  Jed Duffield will be managing the program.  Feel free to reach out to him with any questions you may have.

Revive Depot is a new and unique take on second-hand clothing that brings high quality apparel at amazing prices to customers nationally. Revive Depot has three unique ways to shop, whether you’re looking for a single item, picking from a fashion experts prepared ensembles, or selecting a monthly shipment to arrive at your door with a variety of pieces. With clothing for the whole family, keeping each one clothed with tasteful, gently used apparel has never been so easy.

With household name brand products, your audience and readers will find exactly what they are looking at great prices. Revive Depot offers many items at introductory prices and is proud to work with affiliates in both the garment and fashion industries. If you have a great idea on ways to work with Revive Depot please feel free to reach out to our affiliate manager, Jed Duffield and start working with the Revive Depot Affiliate Program today.

Why Partner with ReviveDepot.com?

• 30 Day Cookie Life
• 7% Starting Commission on ALL orders
• Monthly Coupons and Promotions
• Striking Banners and High-Converting Text Links
• Newsletters and Communication

Join ReviveDepot.com at ShareASale:

• If you have already joined the ShareASale network, simply log in and add Revive Depot to your existing account.
• If you are not in the ShareASale network, you can sign up through the Revive Depot Application.

Jed Duffield will be managing the programs, so please feel free to reach out to her with any questions you may have.

At Snow Consulting we always want to make sure we’re doing our part to help affiliates of all levels navigate their way through what the affiliate marketing maze.  All too often because many of us have years of experience in this industry we forget that not everyone knows the little things that we learned in our earlier days.   This goes across all industries though right?  Sometimes we need to go back to our roots to not only refresh our minds but also provide you with great knowledge that you might need in your journey as well.

With that in mind we recently asked our network reps what they think the best tools are.  Interesting to see the tools that each rep noted and also how each approached the question.

Top 3 Affiliate Tools From Pepperjam by Rebecca Baran

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A picture is worth a thousand … sales!  We get it. So we’ve established an exclusive partnership with Curalate, the leading visual commerce platform, enabling publishers to use imagery to better engage their audiences, drive traffic to advertisers, and ultimately create an entirely new commerce source. Publishers can make their Instagram images instantly shoppable with technology powered by Curalate’s Like2Buy. And Curalate’s Reveal Solution enables publishers to link images on their blogs to advertiser product pages. The easy-to-deploy system works for publishers of all sizes.

Here’s a link to their instructional video if you want to view how to use it.

 Maybe it is just us, but do you sometimes find it difficult to reach advertisers with placement opportunities that you have available? We’ve heard it from our Advertisers time and time again that they (1) don’t even have access to them (2) don’t have time to sort through all the media kits and (3) don’t know who to contact or how to go about purchasing. We thought this was a problem that was worth solving! The Pepperjam Placement Marketplace is just that – a market place where publishers can upload paid placements they have available for either purchase or a commission increase. Advertisers can then review and book placements through the interface and contact the publisher with any questions.

We realize that one of the most effective affiliate strategies is to utilize deep-links. The Pepperjam Link Generator makes creating a deep-link quick and easy. A browser bookmarklet enables you to create links to any pages on participating retailers’ sites without logging in to the dashboard itself. Once the Pepperjam Link Generator bookmarklet is placed on your browser, simply visit the brand’s desired product or category page, click the bookmarklet and Bam! Affiliate link then and there!  It really couldn’t get any easier.

Top 3 Affiliate Tools From Commission Junction by Sarah Robison

CJ provides Publishers with tools that make promoting simple, efficient and fun!  Here are our top three -Advertisers and Placements and Content, oh my!

The Publisher Dashboard

The CJ Account Manager makes partnerships easy and effective.  Home is where the heart is – Upon signing into the account, the Dashboard gives an immediate view of joined, new, recommended and top 10 Advertisers.  The Recommended Advertisers section is especially helpful because it is based on current performance and successes with other programs to find the best fit for an effective partnership for you.  You also get a quick breakdown of your Performance, Network Stats, any pending Tasks and Messages so you can stay connected and engaged at all times!

Our Advertisers tab is an excellent tool to find and create new, as well as manage existing, relationships.  You can use various types of filters such as Advertiser Category, Language, Currency and others when looking for new partners to find the best fit.  There are over 20 Advertiser Categories along with over 40 sub-categories to choose from and filter.  This tab can also be used to easily search for exciting offers and products from your existing partners.

Within the Advertisers tab, you can also view Advertisers’ profiles.  This is a fantastic way to see which programs you’re interested in promoting.  You can find the Advertiser program details along with commission rates, program policies, cookie durations, descriptions and the Top 5 countries the program has the most success with.

Looking for an easy way to offer, book and receive payment for placements with your Advertisers? 

CJ has made this process extremely simple and efficient with our Placements Marketplace .  You can track upcoming placements and receive payment for all of your placements in the CJ Account Manager!  Simply upload your available opportunities into the Placements Marketplace for all, or exclusive, Advertisers to view.  These placements can then be booked and paid through this Marketplace, eliminating an out-of-network process and extra time needed for completion.  Not to mention, you can gain additional exposure since this is also where Advertisers can easily look for placement opportunities and view media kits and rate cards.  The Placements Marketplace is beneficial for both parties involved!

Passionate about content?  Love blogging? 

Through our Content Certified Network you will receive offers to join newly Certified Advertisers in the same vertical within the CJ Network.  Content Certified Publishers joined to Content Certified Advertisers enjoy the benefits of competitive payouts and the consistent introduction of new partnerships.  The recruitment work is done for you!

Not only does CJ introduce you to new Advertisers and new relationships on an ongoing basis in the Content Certified Program, but we have also created some great tools and solutions to make promoting easy!  Our Deep Link Generator is a fan favorite, especially for Content Publishers.  This is a great and easy way to create and imbed links in your content, sending your customers to the exact product you’re raving about in your blog!

Top 3 Affiliate Tools From ShareASale by Tiffany Tse

Product Discovery Bookmarklet

ShareASale’s Bookmarklet tool is a neat way to create links on the fly, which has proven to be a huge timesaver for Affiliates. By installing this onto the browser through a simple drag and drop, Affiliates are now able to develop trackable product links or deep links straight from the Merchant’s website. The Product Discovery Bookmarklet provides Affiliates with all the essential datafeed information such as product images, along with full customization built in for advanced users.

Product Showcase

The Product Showcase is a dynamic banner that allows Affiliates to quickly highlight specific sub-sets of a retailer’s product based on category or keyword. These can contain products from either a single or multiple Merchants. Additionally, they keep themselves up-to-date and will automatically rotate based on Merchant or keyword. It’s an easy solution for Affiliates looking to advertise relevant brands and products in a fun and visual way!

Make-A-Page

While the Make-A-Page is similar to the Product Showcase, it gives Affiliates way more control over what is featured. Affiliates can essentially build a custom table or a scrollable gallery of specific products based on keyword searches and can choose from a variety of product display options, allowing them to select what information would be most helpful to their audience – i.e. product description, SKU, price, manufacturer, etc. ShareASale provides all the code necessary for Affiliates to copy and paste everything straight to their website – easy peasy!

If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions on what you’ve read feel free to send them over to one of our team here at Snow Consulting by emailing snowteam@snow-consulting.com

Thanks for your time,

Randy Norton
rnorton@snow-consulting.com
Skype: RandyNorton99