What Makes Up A Good Affiliate Manager?
Affiliate managers are one of your most important lifelines inside CPA networks to success. They can literally be the key factor in determining if you succeed and fail with a company and go a long way to helping you be a successful affiliate.
I want to point out a few characteristics that I feel many good managers share and that you should look for in your affiliate mangers. Remember if you get an affiliate manager you don’t like you can always ask to switch to another one 
(but hopefully you won’t have that problem). Here are a few traits/things I think every good affiliate manager should have/do.
Availability – This is one of the most important factors for me. If my manager isn’t available to me, I don’t find them to be effective. I like to talk to my affiliate managers and get to know them. If I know they’re there for me and can rely on them, it goes a long way to my success with a network.
Follow Up – This ties directly in to availability. If I ask my affiliate manager something (assuming their actually available to be asked it), I expect a fast follow up. I don’t want to sit around wasting time waiting for them to answer a question or email me something. A swift response with the information needed is always best.
Honesty – No one likes to be deceived. You want an affiliate manager that gives you information straight with no fluff. If an offer isn’t good, they should tell you and be honest. They should give you the down low on certain offers and try to help you rather than trying to line their networks pockets (trust me, they can help you and still do both).
Payouts – I expect to get the best payouts an affiliate manager can give me, if I ask for a paybump. There should be no reason why you have to settle for lower payouts. A good affiliate manager should work for you to try and get you the best payouts instead of trying to give their networks a bigger margin and hurt you (assuming you actually asked for a pay bump).
Personality – Finally there is the personality. This isn’t essential but for me helps a lot. If I like my affiliate managers, it makes them easy to work with. I am friends with quite a few of my managers and like everyone I work with from various networks. If any of you guys are reading this you guys rock! The point is you shouldn’t dislike your affiliate managers personality, it makes them harder to work with.
What other traits do you feel great affiliate managers should have?
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This is verbatim what I look for. I have to say though now that you have posted this that the Market Leverage staff I have dealt with fills these traits 100% of the time!
Great post!
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Great post….. a good affiliate manager for me is someone who tolerates my endless stream of very dumb sounding questions!!
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Unfortunately the majority of affiliate managers I have dealt with hardly meet any of your criteria. Their biggest problem is not answering emails.
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Yup, thats why if you get one you don’t like, you gotta ask for another and cite the reason. It helps the bad aff managers get better, but makes sure you eventually get a great affiliate manager.
I guess you could be an excellent affiliate manager!
I’ve found the last point especially important. It’s really hard to work with someone when it seems like you’re just talking with a robot on the other side. Often times, I usually try to initiate some personal questions in like “How was your day” just to break the ice a bit.
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The new breed of affiliate marketing companies have taken the relationship between affiliates and their companies to another level creating a Win Win situation for both.
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Great list of traits for an affiliate manager. While I’ve had limited interactions with my affiliate managers, I have to say that my manager through Market Leverage has been every one of the traits you list above.
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Great points, I like them when they are not pushy and understand you have other commitments than to their network. Yet are always ready to help. In addition to the other traits you laid out. Great post
I also consider the personality and response time of a manager. If they come across even somewhat mean in any way, then I won’t use them at all. It’s also nice when they respond back to you fairly quickly.
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Very timely indeed. Not only am I getting more into AM as an affiliate, but I may become a manager with my own program soon as well.
Thanks!
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You earn money .. you become a Big shot and they come to you theirselves…
If you dont there are only few chances that they will even listen to you properly..
I only have experience with ML and CJ, but Market Leverage seem to be much better on a personal level, for instance I have never spoken to anyone at CJ but conversed with a few different people at ML.
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