Was out with a guy yesterday and he has just started going FT as an affiliate – He used to be an affiliate manager and he told me I was the first person to agree to meet him since switching to being an affiliate!!! Unbelieveable since he actually has a great concept, some money behind him and I am sure will do well as he is keen as hell to be massive – Just goes to show not all AM’s agree with the opinions in this thread.
He also told me a story about how when he was an AM for the ticketing market he had an affiliate that was doing average numbers but had potential so with some help from his end this guy ended up being his third biggest affiliate making some serious numbers a couple of years later.
In connection with this he made an interesting point that rather than offering astronomincal rev share, lower it slightly and with the money saved use that to invest in more staff that can help develop the small to medium affiliates as that will pay out a lot more in the long term fo the affiliate and op. The op will have a better affiliate and a more realistic % and the affiliate will make a lot more with that kind of support as opposed to that extra % of rev share and no support/help at all.