If you are in the Affiliate Marketing Business and work as an Affiliate or an Advertiser on an Affiliate Network then you have in some way shape or form come in contact with the proverbial Affiliate Manager. They work for the Affiliate Networks and their main goal at the end of the day is to recruit lots and lots of affiliates and then keep constant pressure on these affiliates to run the network offers in hopes of generating revenue for the network. As much they say they care about you and they are looking out for you by giving you the most exclusive offers, their main goal is to make money no different than the Stripper who tells you that you are different than most guys she’s been with and then takes your $200 and walks out the door.
Most Affiliate Managers now are beautiful to be completely honest lots of them look like PlayBoy Models. You walk into Ad-Tech or Affiliate Summit and there is Eye Candy everywhere which is awesome. I don’t think any straight guy would complain. You could make a great argument that from a psychology point of view women are perfect Affiliate Managers in that they could get affiliates to run offers with the false sense of point that they might hook up or something.
Originally way way back when the Affiliate Manager was a person with an actual Online Marketing Background or former affiliate who worked for that Advertiser. Yes I know hard to believe. They would actually give you tips on how to get your campaigns to perform better, they would share new traffic sources with you and offer you constructive feedback on why your Email Creatives aren’t converting. They would even give you tips on How to hit the Inbox when you mailed. They in most cases would not pressure you into running offers and would understand the Do Not Call actually means Don’t Call Me but instead email me.
The real purpose though of an Affiliate Manager is to work with the Affiliate to make them money it isn’t about the Affiliate Network, it isn’t about the constant frantic calls and IM’s about how great your stuff is. It doesn’t matter how hot you or how cool you are if your stuff doesn’t convert and I’m not making money you won’t be hearing from me just as if I am not making you money you won’t return my calls. It’s a sad reality but it goes far beyond building relationships and most networks just don’t understand it’s the Ads, the knowledge behind the Ads, and Pay terms that get Affiliates wanting to work with you.
Affiliate Marketing will never change. Its a constant yet profitable rat race full of fast talkers who have been around the world and back yet still can’t figure proper social etiquette.
