As your affiliate program starts to pick up steam, you will need to constantly be in touch with the affiliates in your network.

Most of your affiliate program revenue will come from the top 20% of the affiliates in your program. It is imperative that these affiliates know who you are by name and have a working relationship with you. To accomplish this, it is a good idea to call them and introduce yourself. At the same time you can let them know that you are available if they have any questions and that you are willing to give extra incentives if they perform well.

After the initial introduction, it is a good idea to be in contact with the affiliate marketers so that you stay top of mind. You can send different emails ranging from “How are you and how can I help you help me?” to “I’ve got a special offer for you”.

Bottom Line

Out of sight is out of mind. You want to maintain a personal relationship with your affiliates to get maximum ROI from your affiliate program.

Some affiliate publishers only advertise your brand name to drive traffic to their/your site. This is generally traffic that you would get anyway, because if someone if searching for you, they’ll find you. In most cases, it’s best to create clear guidelines for the affiliates to follow that will excluded this.

Think of it in terms of what this affiliate brings to the table, what are they bringing you that you couldn’t get yourself? If they are just doing click arbitrage where they buy the click for x and sell it for and keep all the money in between, then it’s not worth it. If it is an established website with tons of their own traffic and they promote you on their own site, then they bring something that you can’t create on your own.

Bottom Line

Clearly analyze the bottom line of your affiliate network guidelines and clearly communicate and enforce them.

Image Credit: mary hodder