GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 17 - September 2011

Can’t we all just get along? The relationship between an affiliate and an affiliate manager can become testy at times. Here are some steps to take before the problem gets out of hand. By Connie Burstin A s in any relationship such as friend- ship or marriage, a business relation- ship evolves based on the way it is han- dled by the two parties. I have observed through the years that the relationship of the affiliate and an affiliate manager in our industry has not always been great. Sure, there are many cases where these two parties get along just fine and if that’s the case, it’s more likely that each side will benefit in many ways. But, unfortunately, for every good relationship between an af- filiate and an affiliate manager, there are probably many more that are not so rosy. So, with the hopes of changing this dy- namic, I would like to share with you some of the reasons for the disdain that sometimes arises. I hope that these ob- servations will help all of us learn how to improve the connection between the affili- ate manager and affiliate so that it can be more friendly, effective and, most impor- tantly, profitable. Make sure the affiliate under- stands the Terms & Conditions Some issues between the affiliate manager and the affiliate begin right at the start during the enrollment process. What hap- pens more often than not is that the affili- ate doesn’t read the terms and conditions before joining the program. During the course of promoting the program, affili- ates learn things that they would not agree with, but missed because they didn’t read the terms and conditions. This is especial- ly true with cost per acquisition programs (CPA) because many affiliates don’t know the exact terms as to what constitutes an acquisition. But this can be avoided if af- filiates simply take the time to read and understand the T&C that are presented to them when they sign up. Communicate changes in the Terms & Conditions Even though many programs state that their Terms and Conditions can be changed at any time, these programs need to treat their affiliates as working partners and clearly communicate any changes and do so in a timely manner. The worst thing that a program can do is to not only dras- tically change its T&Cs, but not tell their affiliates about it. After all, if a program advertises “Commission for Life,” how can that be true if the terms change on players that have already been referred? 50 Can’t we all just get along?

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