While I’ve been in the industry a little over ten years now, I’ve been able to experience the best-of-the-best and the worst-of-the-worst affiliate networks. From companies that don’t pay to companies that pay weekly (even some daily) I’ve seen it all. Today, in somewhat of a rant, I want to talk about what I like to see in a network as an affiliate.

To obtain an affiliate?
- This is one of the hardest things for some networks. How do you convince an affiliate to join your network over the next? Are you offering a prize or a contest? Do you have a rewards program? What separates your network with the others. Below are some of the things I like to see.

* First, the most important thing each network should do is treat every affiliate like they’re a ‘super’ or ‘high volume’ affiliate. I’ve personally known guys go from $5 or less one month to nearly a million the next. Just because an affiliate is not pushing traffic to your network doesn’t mean they don’t have traffic or the potential to drive serious volume.

* Don’t annoy the affiliate to try to get business. Approach them as a friend, make a personal connection. Don’t block your number or call during dinner hour (you seriously would not BELIEVE what some people will do). To get business, the best way is to send email updates. Keep your affiliates in the loop of what’s hot and what’s not, and if something catches their eye, they’re going to contact you. I personally don’t have the entire day to devote to just affiliate marketing (I own other businesses too) so I can’t always respond to an instant message or chat on the phone. Send an email with hot offers, be down to earth, and business will come.

* Take advantage of Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech, and other conferences. This one is big. If you know an affiliate that you want on your network is going to be attending a conference make it a point to speak with them. I cannot tell you how many networks just stand behind the booth and wait for business to come to them. Find out who’s going to be there and personally go up to them. How bad do you want that affiliate’s traffic? If you want business bad enough you can get it. It just depends how hard you work for it.

* Don’t make promises you can’t keep. If you can’t make it for drinks don’t say you will. If you can’t provide a certain offer, don’t say that you can. I can’t tell you how many times my plans have been thrown off because I scheduled to meet up with a network for them to ‘forget’ to call. I’ve also spent HOURS creating landing pages for campaigns only to have the network say they ‘don’t have that offer anymore.’ Ugh?

To keep an affiliate?
- Once you get an affiliate’s business it is essential that you take necessary actions to keep that affiliate. This industry is cut-throat, and at the end of the day, business comes first.

* Customer service must be priority. Many networks use Link Trust to track commissions. While this is OK software, you can only place one pixel per offer. This is the most aggravating thing in the world to me! I seriously will run offers with networks that use Direct Track before Link Trust, just because I like to add/edit/delete my tracking pixels on my own time. I don’t want to email anyone. With that said, if you do use Link Trust, you MUST have an affiliate manager available 24/7/365 to place pixels. There is no substitute, affiliate don’t like to wait.

* Pay on time every time. No matter WHAT you must see that your affiliates are paid (as long as they are in compliance with your TOS) and paid on time. If an affiliate earns commissions you have to pay them. If the advertiser shorts you, that’s the risk you have to take. If there is a bank holiday on the day you send out wires, be sure to notify the affiliate that their payment is going to be early or delayed.

* Don’t focus on one niche. I don’t have to tell anyone that this business changes daily. Campaigns are going to come and go but not affiliates. Bring on multiple offers in multiple niches and keep several backups. If one offer goes down, you better have another one ready to back it up. If not, you are likely to lose that affiliate to another network. Don’t just focus on re-bills and/or lead generation. Have a mixture of all the top campaigns in various niches.

* Maintain open communication. It is always VERY important to keep affiliates in the loop. If you’re going to be re-directing an offer let affiliates know as soon as you can. I personally like to have 12 hours notice, but I realize sometimes that’s impossible. The absolute worst thing you can do though is redirect an offer without notice.

So who do I recommend?
I couldn’t end this post without mentioning some of my favorite affiliate networks. While no network is perfect, in my experience, these are the best!

* Eagle Web Assets

* Convert 2 Media

* Azoogle Ads

* COPEAC

* CX Digital

In conclusion, you can have the best rewards program or the sickest parties in the world, but if the above items aren’t fulfilled it’s likely your going to have a hard time getting or keeping business. I’m not writing this post with any particular affiliate network in mind nor am I ‘calling anyone out’. I’m fairly happy with every network we currently work with and have been very impressed with some of the newer networks that have came on. I felt that this post would be an interesting post to share with other affiliates what we like to see with affiliate networks.