I get emailed every day from affiliates asking for link exchanges or asking me to have a look at their site and give them opinions or ask me for sponsorship for a contest at their forum.. does that mean I can delete those since they are spam too? [/quote]
See, you’ve got the whole thing wrong, which is what upsets me to begin with. Maintaining contact with affiliates is your job, that’s why you are reffered to as an “affiliate manager”. Our job is NOT to find new affiliate programs, but find new players. This is the big difference here.
Not trying to be offensive but in my opinion this view is a bit one sided. The nature of what we do must allow some kind of medium for contact. If not by email then how… by phone? I’m sure you’d prefer to receive one email that you can delete than a heap of phone calls.. noone likes phone calls and email is a less intrusive way to contact potential business partners.
There are plenty of media for contacting potential affiliates, your section on this forum, for example, attending an affiliate conference or advertising. This way neither of us are wasting time. Keep in mind that there is a good reason “no soliciting” is the best selling sign in the US… How would you feel if every business in your town stop by every day asking you to check out their new products?!? I bet it would get old pretty soon opening and closing the door…