Education

Marketers with successful affiliate marketing programs know that the affi liate channel is a cost-effective way to drive incremental revenue. But as with any marketing strategy, if you don’t consistently apply best practices to your tactical efforts, you’re likely to have disappointing results. Here are ten things you should focus on to improve the performance of your affi liate marketing program:

Conferences are excellent opportunities for networking, relationship building and business development. As an affi liate, attending a conference requires a signifi cant investment of your time and money so you need to ensure that you maximize your experience and come home feeling rewarded and energized. Here are the fi ve most important things to keep in mind that will help you survive (and thrive!) at your next affi liate marketing event.

Set a Goal

With words entering the lexicon constantly, it's a good idea for performance marketers to study up on some new industry jargon.

Many of today's online marketers have unrelated backgrounds and have learned their profession through on-the-job training and supplemental offerings.

The situation is similar to the first iteration of marketing on the Web in the 1990s. But unlike 10 years ago, there are more ways to learn and get information such as webinars and online courses; enrichment classes such as weekend training, conferences and boot camps; countless websites; and dozens of books and videos.

This past summer, super-affiliate Colin McDougall traveled around British Columbia with his family in his newly purchased travel trailer. From mid-July through Labor Day weekend McDougall worked a grand total of about 10 hours from the road. The rest of the time he spent paddling his kids around in an inflatable kayak, feeding the ducks, building sandcastles on the beach and simply enjoying his free time.