One of the most important things you can do as an Affiliate is communicate with your Affiliate Management team. Get to know the individual that you'll be working with. In my opinion, it's just as important as the relationship between a boss and employee!
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Now granted you are self employeed and your Affiliate Manager isn't your boss, but who signs your Affiliate commission check? Who can provide you the creative ads or make suggestions about their target market and customer demographics?
Now I'm not saying you need to email your Affiliate Manager every day, but it's a good idea when you first sign up for an Affiliate program to shoot a quick email to the Manager. Just say "Hi" and briefly let them know that your lokking forward to working with them.
Then follow up once every 1 or 2 weeks. Let them know how you're doing, if you have any questions or if you're not doing so well, be sure to ask them how you can improve! These guys and gals are there to work for you! If you don't make money - they feel it!
In the long run it WILL lead to higher commissions than the other affiliates and overall better performance for your Affiliate Marketing efforts!
Here's a cool little site that's growing rapidly AffAIMList.com - it's very basic, but it's a great concept!
The idea is to give Affiliate Managers and their Affiliates a place where they can interact with one another. It uses AOL Instant Messenger's "Buddy Groups" and tells you if your Affiliate Manager is online or off.
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You'll need AOL Instant Messenger to use it. If you don't have it already, you can find the link at the bottom of AffAIMList.com
This is a really great idea. It's long overdue in the Affiliate Marketing industry.