Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking to various network owners about what they look for in affiliate managers. There’s been a lot of talk about what an affiliate manager should and shouldn’t be able to do. There’s a few different types of affiliate managers as well. If you are an affiliate manager and you’ve come across this thread – you should also check out Adhustler’s Ten Commandmants of Being an Affiliate Manager
1.) The affiliate manager that is/was an affiliate. They know their stuff and they can help you out with campaigns, targeting, anything really. These kind of affiliate managers also tend to be the networks owner, and not really an affiliate manager but they help affiliates nonetheless. Ryan Eagle of EWA, and Jason Akatiff(Smaxor) of Ads4Dough come to mind here.
2.) The affiliate manager that was never an affiliate, but still tries really hard to get you everything you want. They don’t bug you all day about the new hot offers, but they are ready and willing to pull up offer stats and etc for you IF you ask for it. I like these kind of affiliate managers, there when you want them to be, invisible when you don’t need them.
3.) The affiliate manager that just got out of college, or never went to college and has no real business being in this industry at all. They have no idea what is going on and hardly know what you are talking about when you ask them if you can run X offer on Y traffic source. These types of affiliate managers are far too common nowadays, and I tend to avoid them.
This obviously doesn’t describe every affiliate manager, but it gives a good base. The two extreme ends and one more in the middle. Personally I like the affiliate managers(or network owners) that have been in the industry awhile, and they still run their own internal campaigns. Some people think that there’s a trust issue here though – what if they just steal your traffic sources and run it themselves?
Other’s feel that they don’t need anyone at a network to bounce ideas off of, which is great for you, go do your thing. I talk to Ryan a lot about various campaigns and ask for suggestions from him, even if it’s not a campaign that I am running with him at that moment he’s always there to help. Jason Akatiff(Smaxor) is the same way, always glad to help.
Those are the two that I have dealt with the most which is why I name them, I am sure that there are others who help just as much, so don’t think that I am calling anyone else out. I don’t see any sort of trust issues here, because unless you have been around for a really long time, these two and others in this position know a lot and can really help you. I’m not going to even pretend to know near as much as these two guys.
What do you guys look for in an affiliate manager? Someone who runs their own campaigns very successfully? Someone who can’t spell affiliate manager? Or somewhere in between?
I like 1. Please be an aff and have a clue as to what you are doing.
actually i like 3 its seems better