Q: I have been an affiliate for two years, and after reading your book (Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants), I decided to start a career in affiliate marketing. I just landed a job as an affiliate manager in a top European agency. What are your top recommendations to excel, in terms of performance and industry recognition? Also, five years down the road, what will be my career options?
A: You should be out there and available, as much as possible, to affiliates. I think the best advertisement for you as an affiliate manager is to be out there and helpful.
Also, you should have a presence on industry forums, speak at conferences, maintain a presence on Twitter, and provide your IM, phone, email, etc. to affiliates.
Essentially, you should be available as much as possible to your affiliates.
It’s great that you have the background as an affiliate, so you can share first-hand insight with your affiliates.
As far as your career options in the future, many affiliate managers have moved on to start their own agencies as OPMs (outsourced affiliate program managers).
So, that’s certainly an option for you – it’s what I did years ago after managing affiliate programs for a few companies.