Its been written about in every Affiliate forum/Magazine, spoken about at almost every conference, and yet it still seems people aren’t listening. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great Affiliate Programs out there that are doing the right things, but for everyone that does it right there are 5 missing the boat. Its not that hard to do.
Common complaints are they don’t have enough man power to fully manage their program. That doesn’t fly with me. I split my roles between managing the poker room and affiliate program, and still make time to handle my responsibilities. Yes I put in long hours, but that’s what it takes. Before I run on a tangent, lets get back to discussing running the overall program.
First, make sure your team understands the ins and outs of our industry. Nothing kills your opportunity to create an Affiliate brand like AM’s running around making a fool of themselves. AM’s should never:
- Send out template emails to affiliates. Take the time to study their sites, and show them that you care enough to review their sites. Affiliates work day and night to create their sites, the least you can do is show them the respect by looking over them
- Never do anything that could possibly be considered spammy. That includes emails, posts on forums, or contacting affiliates via messenger services.
- No matter what an affiliate says in a forum, never ever reveal personal information (yes stats are personal) in a public forum. Resolve the issue in house and then you can ask the person to update the situation. If the affiliate is just looking to pick a fight, or is sending fraud players and wondering where his CPA’s are, other members will see this and call them out for you. The better relationship you create with affiliates, the more they will stand up for you when
something negative appears.
After you have built a solid team, sculpture your Affiliate Program around two things: Your Poker Room/Casino, and your affiliates. Your Affiliate Program should be an extension of your poker room/casino. If you are not having weekly meetings with your Poker Room Manger and Marketing Team to discuss whats going on in the client and promotions, you are doing something wrong. Your Affiliate Program should also be built around the strengths and weaknesses of you client.
Likewise if you are not listening to the needs and wants of your affiliates, you are not utilizing one of the most valuable assets you have. Think about it this way, your Affiliate Team has 1-10 members to brainstorm and sculpt your program. Whereas you have hundreds if not thousands of affiliates who would love to tell you what they would like to see/have. You would be surprised the amazing ideas affiliates come up with.
Throughout the blog, I will go through more of what it takes to run an affiliate program, but I hope you enjoy this brief introduction. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.
