Loyalty – How Much Is Too Much?
Affiliate marketing is just like every other industry: you’ll end up doing business with quite a few people, some will stab you in the back and others will prove to be important allies. But how do you treat allies? Let’s analyze two important relationships:
Your Relationship with Networks
You probably already have a network you enjoy doing business with. They always match the best payout a competitor can offer, your AM is extremely responsive and they even send a lot of gifts your way. Sounds like a great situation, right?
Well, here’s when things get complicated. What if another network has a long-standing offer with a certain advertiser and as a result, receives an incredibly high payout compared to everyone else. What if you want to run that offer and your network is unable to match the payout you’d be getting if you were to push the offer through a competitor?
Your Relationship with Business Partners?
Is there someone who has given you valid reason to trust him/her? Have you partnered up on more than one occasion? If so, both of you should definitely appreciate the business relationship but on the other hand, there will also be tricky situations.
What if both your friend and a deep pocketed investor are “competing” against each other in order to become partners and even more so, what if the deep pocketed investor is able to put considerably more money on the table? What then?
Where Do You Draw the Line?
Loyalty is loyalty, business decisions are business decisions and stabbing people in the back is stabbing people in the back. On the one hand, you should obviously not betray the trust of someone close to you or better yet, don’t betray the trust of others in general.
On the other hand, you need to understand that by making business decisions has nothing to do with not being loyal. If another network is capable of offering a significantly better payout, explain that business is business: that you do work with them whenever you can but in such situations, you just have to say no.
The same principle applies when it comes to business partners. If a certain investor (for example) makes an offer you can’t refuse, talk to your friend and politely explain that you’re doing exactly what you would want him/her to do if he/she was dealing with a similar situation: you’re not saying no to an amazing opportunity. Again, don’t make the confusion between loyalty and making bad business decisions because you think you have to. Don’t stab people in the back, treat others exactly the way you want to be treated or even better but don’t confuse loyalty with something it’s not.
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What If…
Most people are skating on thin ice: on the one hand, they’re banking high 3-4 figs per day but on the other hand, everything can go downhill in a matter of days or even hours. Here are just a few examples:
-the offer itself is shady and you just never know when the advertiser decides to let greed takes over and starts “overlooking” leads or sales like there’s no tomorrow
-the network you’re dealing with is the only one (out of the networks which aren’t private, so out of the networks you have access to) running a certain offer and those folks may also decide to let greed take over at one point or another
-laws which make pushing a certain offer too much of a risk make their appearance: nobody wants to get sued, so it’s only a matter of time until networks and/or advertisers pull the plug
-the only traffic source you’ve managed to make work starts screwing around
Have you ever asked yourself a few “what if” questions? It sounds strange but the vast majority of affiliate marketers would have no idea what to do if they experience problems such as the previously mentioned ones.
What would you do next?
Would you leave everything else aside and spend a few days brainstorming?
How would you put food on the table? Would you rely on savings? How much money have you managed to set aside?
Would you start liquidating some of your assets? Domains? Precious metals?
If so, would you be taking a loss?
What percentage of the money you’ve set aside or the money you’ve secured after liquidating a few assets would you use in order to fund your new project(s)?
Would you just focus on one project or try all sorts of approaches and see what sticks?
Do you have enough time and/or money to fight on more than one front? Or would you be better of limiting yourself to just one project?
Asking yourself some of these questions would definitely not hurt. Being prepared is always something smart. You know what they say, expect the best but prepare for the worst. Maybe you’ll be able to milk your current project/campaign for years to come but what if that will not be the case? Always take as many possible scenarios into consideration as possible because being unprepared is never smart. Never ever. EVER!
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How Fraud Affects YOU
Do you think that everything will be just peachy because you’re 100% legit? Well, it would be great if things were that simple but they just aren’t. If you have a direct relationship with the merchant then yes, only your actions and the quality of your traffic count.
On the other hand though, if you’re working with a network, things stand quite a bit differently. For every person who is 100% legit, there are lots of others who send awful traffic and guess what: you get paid less “thanks to them”!
Why?
Well, think about it for a moment. Your relationship with the network is important, right? Networks judge you and increase payouts based on how well your traffic converts, right? OK, then why would things be different when it comes to the relationship between networks and merchants?
Networks (just like you) are judged based on the quality traffic they send. Merchants are not exactly thrilled about losing money and as a result, they carefully monitor the quality of their traffic. And what do you think they’ll do if/when they figure out that a certain network is sending awful traffic their way? You’ve guessed it:
1) They’ll stop working with the network in question
2) They’ll start “overlooking” leads
3) They’ll lower the payout
What Should Networks Do?
Simple: networks should be paranoid! They should do their best in order to identify scammers before they manage to do some real damage. A lot of times, it’s extremely easy to identify a scammer: something as simple as a phone call can be enough. So before you start complaining about how strict one network or another is, think things through from their perspective and from the perspective of the publishers who are currently working with them.
If anything, networks need to become even more selective. It’s not all that hard to identify people who would not add value to a company. Seriously, it’s not. If you want to be a part of one of the top networks, you need to prove that you’ll be able to help them make money but NOT by sending fraudulent traffic their way. They can easily determine if working with you is smart or not by taking a look at one of the sites you own. Ok, maybe you don’t want that. No problem but in that case, you had better have someone who can vouch for you, preferably someone who does a lot of volume with the network in question. Remember: fraud affects YOU and sometimes, even being paranoid helps.
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Pushing Your Own Product?
A lot of people think that pushing your own product is the best way to make serious cash. In theory, it all sounds great: you won’t have to worry about networks running away with the cash or otherwise acting shady, you won’t have to worry about merchants pulling a fast one and the list could go on and on.
But there’s more to being the merchant than meets the eye and, while it’s true that you’re eliminating a lot of problems, it’s just as true that those will quickly be replaced by others. Don’t just think that pushing your own product is a piece of cake because it isn’t. In fact, get ready to work harder than you’ve ever worked before.
Work Harder? Seriously?
As an affiliate marketer, you’ve probably built an image of the “average” merchant in your head: those cheap bastards who always want to screw you over. In some cases it’s true but that doesn’t mean that you should forget about the fact that it’s not all fun and games for them either.
Think about it: all you have to do is push traffic to and offer and get paid. In their case, things are a bit more complicated. They have to deal with customers, they have to answer calls and reply to emails, they have to ship the product, they have to manage their relationship with the networks and so on. Again: there’s more to being the merchant than meets the eye.
Is It Worth It?
Only the merchant has enough data to tell for sure. It all depends on your way of doing business. In most cases, the margins merchants have to work with are not as great as you think. Oh and one more thing: sure, you have to deal with a lot of shady networks and merchants but the merchants themselves have a lot of “obstacles” to overcome: leads which aren’t backing out, fraudulent traffic, networks which have never heard about the term “win-win” and so on.
Is being a merchant worth it? For most people, probably not! There’s a lot of work involved and since most affiliate marketers enjoy their lifestyle and wouldn’t be willing to say no to some/most of the things they currently have time for, they’re better off sticking with what they do best. Lots and lots of freedom: doesn’t sound all that bad, does it? Didn’t think so!
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Focus, Focus, Focus
If you’re a person with an above average IQ, you probably have several amazing ideas each day. On the one hand, it’s a huge advantage but on the other hand, it’s also something that can work against you if you’re not careful.
No matter how successful or well organized you are, a day still won’t have more than 24 hours and your budget will probably never be limitless either. Yes, it’s true that you need to diversify but that doesn’t mean that you should go overboard. Spreading yourself too thin is just as bad as keeping all of your eggs in one basket.
In Case You Forgot: Focus, Focus, Focus
Most people get really excited about a project at the beginning but end up being distracted at one point or another. The brainstorming process is almost always a lot of fun but when you start implementing everything, things tend to get a bit boring. It’s like that for everyone and it’s perfectly understandable.
While it is understandable, that doesn’t mean that you have to start finding excuses. So you have great ideas? Well, what good will it do if they don’t materialize? Writing stuff on a board or on a piece of paper is great and everything but making money would be kinda-sorta nice too, wouldn’t it? If you always jump from one idea to another, you’ll end up with a lot of “concepts” but no money in the bank. So, what’s the solution?
You’ve Guessed It: Focus, Focus, Focus
Keep your eyes on the prize and be sure to set goals. Reaching a goal always gives you a nice little boost, probably more than enough in order to make it to the next one and so on. Don’t forget to reward yourself, keep it fun!
Ok, so focusing is important. But does this mean that you should let ideas with a lot of potential go to waste? Of course not, be ready to always write a great idea down. Be organized, you’ll thank yourself later on. Notepad is your friend, seriously! Why complicate things? Create a folder, call it “ideas” or something and whenever you think that you’ve discovered the best thing since sliced bread, open notepad or an editor of choice for a moment and let your imagination run wild. Then get back to work, rinse and repeat. That’s really all there is to it.
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