by Guest Columnist Shawn Collins of http://www.affiliatemanager.net.

Online affiliate marketing programs are big revenue drivers for some online merchants, but if the affiliate program is understaffed, merchants may be leaving more on the table than they realize, says Shawn Collins, affiliate program manager for ClubMom.com. “Companies that manage their affiliate program internally would be surprised to see how much more could happen if they would just add one more person to the team,” says Collins. “It’s a Catch-22. The company may be afraid to dedicate the resources because they don’t know what the ROI is going to be, but at the same time, if they never dedicate the resources, they may never know how prosperous their affiliate program could be.”

Collins, who manages the affiliate program for ClubMom, an online membership group that secures deals and bargains targeting mothers, says the inexperienced manager can be just as detrimental to an affiliate program’s success as understaffing. After more than three years in his current post, Collins says he’s been able to identify high-producing affiliates by networking with other managers, attending industry conferences and watching numerous industry message boards. “A mistake I see companies making is

That they will just pluck a kid right out of college and tell him to run the affiliate program,” he says. “If you get someone who doesn’t know what they are doing, or doesn’t put in the time it takes, the program becomes stagnant.”

Companies that retain management of their affiliate program internally should be prepared to ante up for job experience, adds Collins, who says he’s seen some affiliate manager positions in major metropolitan areas listed for $40,000 to $45,000 a year. “You’re not going to get a person who’s been in the industry for even a year to work for that,” he says.

Reprinted From Internet Retailer, Sept. 3, 2003
http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=10114