The Single Most Overlooked Affiliate Resource is Training!

How Most Affiliate Programs Are Wasting Their Efforts...When They Could Be Building A Sales Force Within The 2-3 Week Affiliate Window of Opportunity

The news from affiliate programs keeps focusing on the tools that we use to track the sales, but there is so little information on the affiliates themselves.

The reason for that, surprisingly, are the affiliate programs themselves. Internet companies are assigning one or two people to manage an entire affiliate program. This person or persons are overwhelmed; they have to learn how to do it, how to sign up affiliates, and how to market.

Meanwhile, they are overwhelmed by answers for frustrating, technical problems, much resulting from lack of knowledge on the part of the affiliate. The poor affiliate program manager spends so much time putting out fires, that they have no time to contact their affiliates.

Within 2-3 weeks, most affiliates completely forget about you. Consider the following to improve the results from your system:

1. Industry estimates range between 20-60% of affiliates every posting an ad for your program. You need to contact everyone quickly and frequently within the 2-3 week window of opportunity.

2. Automate your follow up for the majority of your affiliates.

3. Be sure to answer emails personally as well; combine your standard messages with the personal touch, and again, if you do this right the first two weeks, they should be on autopilot.

4. Training makes your job easier, not harder; one affiliate manager asked me how to get their 4,000 affiliates active, when they hadn't contacted them in 3 months. It is hard to get someone started after 3 months; if they had an automated training system within the first 2-3 weeks, their success rate could only be higher.

5. Take advantage of the free affiliate sales training system from the ActiveMarketplace.

To help your efforts, we've created an automated, ActiveAffiliate sales training program. It works simply:

A. You invite your affiliates to sign up for the training. It is delivered via email, and includes a free report to help them get focused.

B. We teach the techniques that work; this will help your affiliates succeed, and combined with your efforts, can get them focused quickly.

C. If you want to maximize their revenue potential, we can also co-brand or private label your advertising so they know it is from their network.

Our goal is to create a network of ActiveAffiliates, within the many programs on the Internet. We have the tools to keep them Active. Many of the leading affiliate networks are taking advantage of this now. Call me and I'll share who is tapping into this powerful system.

In the meantime, be sure to put some training into your affiliate program. Imagine if a child went to school and was left alone without any teachers?

Leave them alone and they'll go home...you know the rest. Look around; if this is so obvious, how come it isn't rampant?

My guess is that good will isn't exactly the center of most affiliate programs. Seems silly, doesn't it? No where else in business would people ignore their assets, except the Internet...where we are all taught to avoid the customer.

Try being different; interact with your customers...enjoy it. It is ancient as business itself. Treat your affiliates, and customers right, and you'll be in business in a few years...or even in a few months.

You can show your affiliates what works, and spotlight those who are working well. See the following for more information.