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casinojack;212184 wrote:Great thread!
At my former employer my biggest affiliates first month with me was a commssion of about 300 bucks. 1 year later, the amount had grown to about $70,000 in one month! You never know what seeds you might plant, what they might gorw into will shock you.
I feel every affiliate gets the same attention, ALL affilaites get my cell number, and many points of contact. Great thread, Looking forward to following it some more.
Very good thread!
I fully agree with you Casinojack.
You never know. A small affiliate can quickly grow to become big actor in the biz within a year.
But we have also to consider the other way around. For example, we have been in the gambling industry for a couple of years, successful and well known in one EU country. One year we decided to enter the international market. Starting in the international market as a new operator is very difficult especially in terms of reliability.I would say that the first partners to give us a chance were mainly small affiliates. So yes for us it’s a matter of fact that we will always consider new affiliates with respect and provide them with all the support they need.
Thanks for the support!
Best
JackThe small new affiliates I have talked to recently have amazing ideas and are very hard workers. They look up to the top affiliates but add their twist. They are looking into new areas that are still untouched and they are doing a great job. I know these guys are going to grow and stay big. This industry if full of very intelligent people! I trust almost everybody!
Some of my observations:
There are a few programs which are closed to new affiliates, or open by invitation only. This is often misunderstood to mean “we only want big affiliates”. Some travel programs are notorious for this – if you don’t have half a million views a month they don’t want you.
On the other hand, one can also understand why they don’t just let everyone join – because then you get those that try to sign up as an aff, become the only player under their account and thus get a 25% rebate on losses. Or those who just sign up and then spam every forum or create banner farms and drive crap traffic to those one-page sites.
What a good affiliate manager will look for is *potential*. Some small affiliate may not be making much, but clearly is putting in the effort and perhaps needs a little guidance here or there before their revenue leaps dramatically.
Satya’s made some very good points in his post – very interesting reading. But I think we need to step back from the classification “big or small”. Superaffiliates can turn you off just as quickly as a small affiliate can – to put all your eggs into a few baskets is nothing but dangerous… as most aff managers in this thread have observed, they try to work with all affiliates equally but at some point they must be able to pick and choose who to pay more attention to in order to help them grow.
In my experience I have seen a large number of new affiliates getting to the middle tier and quite a few becoming big affiliates. Apart from creating great affiliate partners and business for the company, overall this has always been a very satisfying experience.
@Spearmaster 212356 wrote:
What a good affiliate manager will look for is *potential*. Some small affiliate may not be making much, but clearly is putting in the effort and perhaps needs a little guidance here or there before their revenue leaps dramatically.
This is an interesting observation Ted. I guess if the affiliate managers follow the basic thumb rules, opportunity will present itself and they will be able to identify these potential affiliates.
@Spearmaster 212356 wrote:
at some point they must be able to pick and choose who to pay more attention to in order to help them grow.
First of all, I have to agree, this is an excellent thread! I don’t think the smaller affiliates think they are as important as a “VIP” partner, but they absolutely are. I haven’t been an AM for that long (13 months and counting), and in that time, I’ve seen quite a few changes in traffic and big/mid/small affiliate classifications. It is vital to each affiliate plan to acquire and assist affiliates of all sizes, because the market is ALWAYS changing. What’s more, we grow to have a personal connection more often with some of affilates who have needed help or asked for assistance over time, and watching them thrive is a great feeling!
My message to all affiliates out there who think they are too small or insignificant-look at this thread and what EVERY AM has said-you are absolutely valued. Don’t be afraid to ask for something you think “only the big guys would get”, you’d be surprised.
Again, awesome post!
For the AMs out there that value small/ new affiliates highly my question is, how much of that has to do with attitude? I would think you would be much more inclined to work with a new affiliate that put his nose to the grind stone and had a good attitude than some big affiliate that was very negative and who was stagnant.
How much extra value does showing off good attitude bring to the equation?
Finally have taken the time to read through this thread.
Must say it is a interesting topic, especially looking on it from my point of view from a newly started affiliate program.Of course big affiliates are important, they are important for revenues, to get the number on the board. One other thing I think is important with the bigger affiliates are that they act as an advertising space for not just players, but the all so important smaller affiliates as well.
I guess most of the small affiliate out there go and look on the big sites to see which brand they are working with, and they start promoting those brands as well.
Then it might be tricky to rank well on keywords the bigger affiliats have cornered in, but with hard work, good content the traffic and conversion will come.
So as been stated by all AM’s Big affiliates are good to have, but you need to spread your risk and it is always nice to be able to see a smaller affiliate increase his figures month by month.
So small and big ones… welcome to Pafpartners
In answer to Gregger I’d say that a good attitude brings a lot to the equation. At the end of the day some people are always going to be easier/nicer to work with than others. If you’re going to spend a long time with difficult people the day can drag, whereas if you’re working with someone who’s a nice person, and got a great attitude, for me anyway the day goes a lot better.
Well, you do have to take cultural and language barriers into account.
Communicating in a language that is not your native language can often make you appear brusk and impolite, even aggressive, even if all you are doing is trying to get your point across. It can also make you seem uneducated or even stupid when you might be a college graduate and smart as a whip.
This industry is about as culturally diverse as they come, and that can stress communication, create false impressions and sour business relationships.
So a lot of patience is indicated at times, when an affiliate with a different cultural background shows up to clarify a situation he does not understand. Most likely this is the first time you hear from them, and usually they are very disturbed and distrustful.
The thing to do here is to try to avoid stereotyping the person and listen closely to pick out the actual issue because representation is bound to be clumsy. This person may well turn out to be a good business partner and friend.
Gregger;212542 wrote:For the AMs out there that value small/ new affiliates highly my question is, how much of that has to do with attitude? I would think you would be much more inclined to work with a new affiliate that put his nose to the grind stone and had a good attitude than some big affiliate that was very negative and who was stagnant.How much extra value does showing off good attitude bring to the equation?
To answer your question, attitude is important. I think it’s great when a new affiliate emails me for feedback when they get their review up, or for advice on how to improve their traffic, etc. I have a fairly new affiliate who I have been working with for three months now who said “I want to double my traffic every month and come up with some creative ideas for my players”. After creating a custom campaign and working hard, he has more than quadrupled his traffic just from October to November! So yes, attitude and work ethic are HUGE!
Tanya Littlefield
Everest Affiliates
[email protected]That is awesome Tanya. That affiliate will surely go far.
Back in my running days I had a coach that said he would rather train someone with less natural talent but a great work ethic than anyone that was talented but had a poor work ethic. I think its great that affiliate managers recognize that.
Cool story here; back when computers were first making their way into high schools, kids would get a punch code that gave them allocated time to mess around with the computer. One kid figured out he could punch in random letter instead of his number code and it would let him go on for as long as he wanted.
He then started spending a lot of time working with the computer, staying until the school shut down etc and by the time he graduated he had logged thousands of hours. In college he decided to drop out and start his own computer company. His name was William Gates and his company was Microsoft.
Just a testament to what hard work and a good attitude can do for you in life.
Gregger;212573 wrote:That is awesome Tanya. That affiliate will surely go far.Back in my running days I had a coach that said he would rather train someone with less natural talent but a great work ethic than anyone that was talented but had a poor work ethic. I think its great that affiliate managers recognize that.
Cool story here; back when computers were first making their way into high schools, kids would get a punch code that gave them allocated time to mess around with the computer. One kid figured out he could punch in random letter instead of his number code and it would let him go on for as long as he wanted.
He then started spending a lot of time working with the computer, staying until the school shut down etc and by the time he graduated he had logged thousands of hours. In college he decided to drop out and start his own computer company. His name was William Gates and his company was Microsoft.
Just a testament to what hard work and a good attitude can do for you in life.
Awesome story. Now how to do it my own way :devil:
I agree with your coach.
And I have to say that I much prefer working with the new affiliates who are willing to learn and willing to work than those who are not.
The first thing I usually explain to a newbie is that they should not expect to make money in the first year and that if they do this is a bonus. That way they know from the start what they are in for and they know that it is not an easy thing to be at the top of the searches etc. From that point you know whether or not the affiliate is serious or whether they think it will be as easy as clicking their fingers to make fast money. IMO the ones that stick around after you have told them that are more than worthy enough of your time.
I love it when people ask questions. Sometimes questions are asked that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of before. And you can never ask a stupid question.
I think one of the best tips I could give when first emailing a program is that your first email should never come across accusing, especially if you are frustrated that you are not getting the results that you had hoped for. The last thing you want to do if you need help is put the affiliate manager off side at the word go – after all you need their help and believe it or not, manners go a long way. It is far easier to work with someone who is open minded and wants to hear what you have to say.
And address the person by their first name if you know it. I can’t tell you how many people will type in my email address, which has my name in it, and then address me as “to whom it may concern” or “Dear Sir”. That immediately makes me think that you’ve just harvested my email and are sending mass mails to all affiliate managers.
If you’re not sure on the person’s sex or name, you could simply say “Hey there”.Just my 2 cents.
Renee
Renee;212592 wrote:And address the person by their first name if you know it. I can’t tell you how many people will type in my email address, which has my name in it, and then address me as “to whom it may concern” or “Dear Sir”. That immediately makes me think that you’ve just harvested my email and are sending mass mails to all affiliate managers.
If you’re not sure on the person’s sex or name, you could simply say “Hey there”.Renee
So true, whenever I get an e-mail that starts “dear sir” I automatically scan for the words “Nigerian prince”
