Number one tip for affiliate managers?

[simoneaton]

If you could say one thing to all affiliate managers here, what would it be?

[Greg]

I asked this question about 4 months ago and among the answers I received, one very interesting one was this, "help me think of ways to promote your room specifically on my site." This feedback really changed the way I thought about working with affiliates.

So many times a room will just take the network promotions, spin them a little to be unique (banners, landing pages) and then tell affiliates this is what is best/converting. Sometimes that is true and sometimes not. If you have a site that's niche is 'Omaha Tournaments' a $100k Holdem event isn't going to work as well for you. The better AM's are the ones who understand a little about marketing and can look subjectively at a portal and chose a promo that will work best; or even create one.

Great question, I'd love to hear what others think as well!

[Ridge]

Participate on this forum daily. Being active here is something all AM's should want to do, for so many reasons. Look at the right sidebar here at all the rooms and think abut how many AM's actually post here even just once a week.

[Mr-AJ]

Stop annoying affiliates!
Most of the AMs are more like salesmen and if you're not willing to promote them or follow their advice (push them harder for example) they annoy you with mails or instant messengers. That's bad for your brand and this should be one of the most important things.
Some AMs forget that some affiliates are powerful and recommend working with you (or not). I never recommend working with a brand/program that spams or where AMs are that annoying!

[JohnH]

Yea the constant pestering has got to stop. It's like this... let me know about your program, i'll look into it. If I think it's a good program and I get good feedback from your other affiliates, then we will most likely work together. Constant Im's and emails are very annoying. No amount of emails or skype chats from an AM talking about how great their program is is going to convince me to work with them.

[CK]

No amount of emails, phone calls, or skype chats from an AM talking about how great their program is is going to convince me to work with them.

FYP

A side note, I really hate phone calls. Unless I'm expecting it I dont like to talk to AM's over the phone. Just because I didnt answer your email right away doesnt mean that it's an invite to call me and remind me that you sent an email. So if a phone call is warranted, its best to make sure that its at a good time, not when the AM feeels like it. Like you, I am busy as well.

[pokerlover]

Phone calls is really annoying. Especilley when your sitting at work or family..then you dont want to discuss how you can bring more poker or casino players to X-site or hear about, "Please give our site top positions on all your sites".

Aff-managers : bring in speciel promotions for the affiliate. Could be small things that make players sign up, for exsample that the player get a token/ticket to the monthly first deposit freeroll or an tournament.

I like the Reeferpoker community freeroll promotion as exsample : All players signed up trough the affiliates link get ticket to the monthly community freeroll....

[Graham]

Throw crazy parties with really hot girls.

[Unknown Webmaster]

Start actively engineering how affiliates perceive you. When you change how affiliates think about you and what you do for them, you can go from being "the affiliate manager" to being "the totally awesome guy/gal who help people make tons of money, and I really hope I can get to work with".

Wtf do I mean?
Do things that don't fit with peoples perception of what an affiliate manager is "supposed to do".

Imagine that your work is a theater and you are an actor hired to play the role of an affiliate manager. Everybody has a idea of what an affiliate manager has to do, and how they are supposed to act when they interact with you. If you start doing stuff that don't fit the "role" you are playing, you can force affiliates to rethink you role, and in turn their own roles.

How?
If you know that an affiliate would like to get started with split testing, why not go out and hire a consultant to help them run their first test?

If someone writes a lot of content, why not send them a copywriting course?

If you do stuff like that without telling someone up front, it will blow their mind.

[PokerDude]

Respond to your Emails in a timely and effective manner. Read Email thoroughly, and respond to the questions asked.

There is too much ignoring Emails, and too much hasty responding, where questions are not answered appropriately. If Email is the primary correspondence mechanism, then it needs to be treated professionally.