I’m an Affiliate Manager too. Offering products for site owners to review is a great approach – depending on the product. The main product our affiliate program offers is not one that someone can check out in a short period of time and it’s also $299. I can’t send it out for potential affiliate partners to try. Instead, I try to educate them about it as much as possible.

Like Kelly’s AM and Tishia and Angela, I also write e-mails and make phone calls to introduce myself and our affiliate program to site owners. I spend time getting to know about them and their sites first. Because I am also a mom and moms are a great fit for our products, I contact moms a lot. I LOVE reading about other moms who are doing well online and e-mailing them to invite them to check us out. I try to write in my own voice, upbeat and friendly and just talk to them like they are my colleague. Because in a sense, they are. It takes a lot of time to check out each person and then to customize each e-mail but like Tishia says, “it’s worth it”.

I also follow up if I do not hear back, for several reasons. Moms (and others I approach) are busy. E-mail filters are sometimes unreliable. Site owners may be on holiday or have put my e-mail in a “follow up” file but haven’t had a chance (or even forgot) to do so. Also, I do not contact again if I do not hear back from my initial and follow up e-mails.

I never try to contact anyone whose site/blog is not a good fit for the product. Fortunately, our main products are a great fit for nearly every niche.

Reaching potential affiliates is hard. And when you do interest an affiliate, it’s also hard to keep them engaged. Many affiliate marketers represent several programs so they only have so much time for each. I e-mail with hundreds of affiliates on a daily basis trying as hard as I can to help them do the best they possibly can with our program.

Like Angela, I have also made some awesome business relationships by e-mailing people. I think if you just be yourself, have genuine interest in the person you are contacting, stay relevant and try to be helpful, you’ll do alright.

I would love to hear more on this as I am always searching for the best ways to reach potential affiliates. Your thoughts and insights here are really helpful!

Thanks for your thought provoking post, Carrie.

I don’t mind getting emails though but sometimes people are just clueless in what they send.

I posted a little while ago about his and how someone had emailed me with a terrible affiliate offer. He told me it was ‘exclusive’ (yea ok), that he’d pay me $20 for joining (what?), he linked to the product like three times and also gave me a little lesson on what cookies are (ya, I know that too)!

As an affiliate manager I have actually made some amazing relationships by emailing people. One person I emailed for a client didn’t end up being an affiliate but one of my best clients who I still work with after
almost two years.

I also have to add though that I ALWAYS recommend that people go to their network, customers, connections first before ‘cold calling’ with emails. It’s just such a easier task to ask people who already know, like and trust you to promote your products and earn a commish.

Thanks again.

As I’m researching possible affiliates I make notes about their site or if I found something on their site that fits well with one of the Mom’s Talk products so that way I can take the extra time to personalize the email.

I never send the same email to each possible affiliate, it’s always personalized to them and their site.

I’ll be honest. My Affiliate Manager does write emails to introduce herself to mom sites owners – and has followed up to see if they’ve had a chance to take a peek at our affiliate program.

She picks out site owners who have relevant content and who we believe would make a great affiliate. It’s not willy nilly, it’s very pointed and personal.

I don’t mind receiving similar emails from other affiliate programs if it is truly relevant – it’s just an offer of introduction after all.

Where it gets annoying it when the product is out of left field and the AM pesters me about it. You have to imagine that they’re mass mailing and not taking the time to get to know you at all.

It’s nice to see you posting again! I always enjoy reading your articles. Although I have not yet created my website due to both an unfinished writing project and chronic health issues, your articles do two things for me.

One, they are very informative and always sprinkled with a bit of humor. Two, it really helps to read them so I don’t lose sight of what my next goal is and how I want to go about creating my online business!
Thanks!