GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 40- February 2018

When it comes to an affiliate program, apart from the AMs, I believe it is also very important to treat affiliates as partners. We have seen recently that this is not always the case, with a lot of programs treating affiliates like their employees. I don’t like working with these kind of programs, as my idea of a partnership doesn’t contain ultimatums or any kind of instructions. Both parties should work together, and each party knows what they have to do to make the partnership successful. What’s your preferred method of communication with affiliate man- agers? E-mail and Skype are usually how we communicate throughout the year. And then face to face at the conferences. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? The GPWA is a great place to meet like-minded people and discuss work, check out news in the industry, and ask and answer questions that are work related. I enjoy the forum conversations with other affiliates, and it’s good to see different approaches from people in the industry. The forum has also helped me avoid some mistakes and move in the right direction. What do you like about the indus- try? The industry is constantly evolving, and for me that’s very important because I never get bored. There is always some- thing new or something going on. I also enjoy the conferences a lot – they are very lively, and it’s nice to see familiar faces there. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why? I believe there should be some sort of body to moderate be- tween affiliates and affiliate programs. Every now and then there is some sort of complaint from affiliates about pro- grams changing their T&Cs, not pay- ing, suspending accounts, etc. We have the GPWA and other forums to shout about these, and sometimes the issues get resolved, but I believe it would be beneficial for affiliates to have an official body to investigate any complaints. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES I have met a lot of affiliatemanagers , and the ones that standout forme are the ones that that seeme as apartner , not as an FTDnumber . W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G 62