Let me preface this by saying that, despite how this post sounds, I’m not anti-affiliate network by any means. By and large I think affiliate networks, and most affiliate managers, play by the ‘rules’ – not that there are any rules, really; we’re all in it to make money, and there definitely is a LOT of money to be made. More on that later.

Part one discussed how affiliates start at the bottom of the food chain. Many people agreed, some disagreed. Apparently NickyCakes (whom I met at ASW, and despite his online personality of being a know-it-all asshole is actually really nice and a cool guy) only works for two hours a day and plays video games, the rest of us that have realized any sort of success work our asses off probably work 10-12 hour days or more. I know I do.

So back on the the networks. Both the advertisers and the networks, like yourself and every other business in the world, are in it to make money and maximize their profits. Here’s how it works. First, the advertisers/merchants decide how little they can pay the networks for promoting their offer. Second, the networks decide whether it’s more profitable to run the offers themselves or open it up to their affiliates. If they open it up to affiliates, they pay them as little as possible to maximize their own profits. Simple concept.

Next, Let’s talk about some of the shadier tactics the networks can/will employ. One bad thing that can happen is that your affiliate manager discusses an offer that is working well as well as your marketing tactics with either a.) another one of their top-affiliates or b.) another affiliate manager, who in turn shares this information with their own affiliates.

Here’s why: Affiliate Networks, and more specifically, affiliate managers, are actually incentivized to create your competition (I think that is a direct quote from Diorex somewhere here on WF). They more money their affiliates make, the more money they make. Of course it is never an affiliate network’s policy to do this, and publicly most affiliate networks would condemn this sort of business – but it happens all the time.

What’s worse – you’re at an even greater risk if you change networks. Let’s say you’re making decent money with a non-exclusive offer on XYZ Network, but XYZ Network refuses to increase your payout. ABC Network comes along and offers you 15% more, so you hop on board. Now that you’ve taken business away from XYZ,do you think your old Affiliate Manger (who is now taking home less each month because of your decision) is going to just shrug her shoulders and say ‘oh well’? Hell no, they are going to replace that income by letting their other top affiliates in on the offer & marketing tactics you used.

“But wait, that’s why you never show the networks your websites, or discuss your marketing tactics, etc.” I know, there are many tactics to strip referrer, cloak referrer, etc. This really is only marginally effective. With a little investigation, you’re whole campaign can be figured out… big deal.

This post is not just a bitch session. The point of this post to try and cleanse your mind about everything you’ve learned about affiliate marketing and understand where you truly stand as an affiliate, so you can approach your business in a different way.

So how do you take yourself out of affiliate bitch-mode and make some cash? What I can say is that every successful affiliate – and really any business in general – is really good at two things: building a long-term marketing strategy, and creatively thinking outside of the box.

This post has been provided by Derrick Shields SEO & affiliate marketer.

Why, little affiliate, are you the bitch? Because you are promoting advertisers offers; the key here is that an advertiser only reaches out to an affiliate network when they have either a.) saturated the market themselves or b.) can no longer scale their marketing campaigns effectively themselves. Taking that even a step further, networks generally only open an offer to the public if they don’t feel it makes sense financially to run it internally or exclusive to their top affiliates.

Look at it this way; When you are looking for offers to run, as you page through various offers on your network of choice, you need to remind yourself that there is a reason that you even have the opportunity to run these offers in a first place (see points A. and B. above). You are not special. They are using you.

In other words, they are letting you run these offers because everyone else is all out of ideas on how to market them; simple as that. You also need to remember that at this point, as an affiliate, you’re the one with capital at risk here. The Network gets paid either way, and the advertiser (depending on if it’s a CPA or CPL offer) most likely also gets paid, either way.

That’s why you’re the bitch. You have money at risk, a lot to lose, and a little to gain. Both the affiliate network and the advertiser have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

With that mindset in place it’s now time to think about how we can get one-up on everyone, including the networks, the advertisers, and your competition.

This post has been provided by Derrick Shields SEO & affiliate marketer.

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