5 Things I Need as an Affiliate

from Affiliate Programs by Warren

Warren here, one of the guys behind AffiliatePrograms.com.

I've been an affiliate myself for about 6 years now and have been amazed at how things have changed over the years. Nothing can compare with the days of optimizing sites/pages and submitting them by the droves (and don't pretend you didn't) to engines like AltaVista through a rudimentary script...and then watch the top rankings roll in. I surely miss those days, but hey, the competition and growth in the industry has brought a ton of innovation and new ways to make money online (and beyond).

So, I wanted to start off my welcome to you all with something pretty basic, the top 5 things I personally need as an affiliate. Here goes:

1. An affiliate manager who knows what he/she is talking about.
   
   Listen up you online behemoths, don't expect me to send you traffic when you hire dimwits for me to interface with. I'm taking the risk and hoping you cut me a check at the end of the month, and your affiliate manager clearly reflects how well that will pan out.
   
   
2. Prompt payments
   
   One day an affiliate manager asked me what difference it makes whether they pay me on the 5th of the month or the 15th. Guess what? It's called reinvesting in domain names, PPC costs, new site designs, and back-end programming. How am I supposed to build my online real estate if my tenants don't pay me my rent?
   
   
3. Outside-the-box creatives
   
   I don't have a single 468x60 on any of my sites, so why the hell does every program offer a plethora of these creative types? Get creative and start offering your affiliates unique ways to market both online AND offline. Help us market to mobile consumers by investing in your own mobile short code, for example. Utilize AJAX to allow creatives to change on your affiliate's sites on the fly based on user activity. Come on, get with the times.
   
   
4. Geo-targeting & International help
   
   On some of my sites, the international traffic is upwards of 15%. How can I market to this audience effectively without the right marketing tools for these languages and countries? Merchants need to be much more prudent with the tools, creatives, landing pages, and payment options (both consumer and affiliate) offered to their international audience.
   
   
5. Better personal interaction with my peers
   
   Some of the best ideas I've ever implemented within my sites has been through the advice of other affiliates. I don't think the conferences out there do a good enough job of supporting such activity, nor do the affiliate directories and forums. I'm hoping to fix this problem via some new things we're incorporating here and I would LOVE any feedback on where you guys (meaning affiliates, not managers) think the mark can be raised. I really do want this site to be an extension of myself as an affiliate, so comments are welcome. Or, I can just do what I think is right and hope that everyone is pleased with the outcome.