Super Affiliates: 12 Tips to increase productivity & profit

At the A4U Expo in Munich, two Super Affiliates shared some tips on how to increase productivity and profit as an affiliate. Both Francoise Planque and Sri Sharma have a proven track record in affiliate marketing. However, the way they run their online business is in deep contrast with each other. Sri heads for company growth by recruiting talented people for his business whereas Francoise does most of the work by his self. Another interesting fact is that Francoise purely focuses on SEO. He hasn’t built a single PPC campaign ever! Sri on the contrary is more geared towards paid search.

Francoise Planque from Evo-Factory is the perfect example of a successful one man affiliate show. Francoise owns more than 150 affiliate sites in a diverse set of branches. He noted 7 deadly sins that can take down any successful affiliate.

1. Being too greedy
Stop being greedy and thinking about the short term! It’s easier to spend than to save money. Greediness can take your business down in no time. As soon as you start to make some good money from affiliate marketing, think twice about your expenditures. Set your mindset for the long-term and make sure you re-invest in new projects.

2. Sleeping with the competition
Google’s products are great and fantastic. However, are you sure want to use Gmail and Google Analytics? Are you using services from third parties who can have insight in your statistics? Although it seems paranoid to think that Google will ‘steal’ your information, you should still be careful in using third party online services.

3. Bragging about your sites
A big No-No according to Francoise is sharing your affiliate projects or sites. During one conference Francoise shared one of his successful projects. In the following three days after the conference his site dropped from position 2 to 65 as copy-cat sites arose from out of nowhere. Sure, share your ideas and provide the community with tips but never reveal your profitable sites.

4. Being non-productive
One of the benefits of affiliate marketing is that you can run a business completely on your own. However, don’t think you can do it all by yourself. Take advantage of technology tools and if necessary delegate by outsourcing your work. Sure, Francoise is running a company without employees. He does however outsource work he cannot handle by himself.

5. Getting Lazy!
As an affiliate you can make money while you sleep so it’s easy to become lazy. Make proper use of your morning energy and try to start with the most important tasks every morning. Never quit work without having made some tangible process. Francoise recommends to read the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.

6. Believing in Eternity
Your affiliate model won’t last for 40 years. Manage your risks by diversifying your traffic sources and verticals. If possible, re-invest in your projects and keep innovating. Diversify but be careful not to spread yourself too thin. Keep developing new projects and sites but stay focused on one project at a time.

7. Living the Dream
Fast cars and big houses with a swimming pool, it’s the perfect affiliate dream. Everyone is able to achieve this success. However, don’t be taken away by all these benefits and luxuries. It takes hard work to become a good earning affiliate and even harder work to stay a super affiliate. Also make sure that you build a financial safety-net for yourself.

Sri Sharma from Net Media Planet is an experienced affiliate marketer who has a strong  knowledge on how  to take grow an affiliate marketing business. Sri started as an affiliate working in his pajamas from home and expanded his business with 25 employees within 1 year. Sri shares 5 key tips on how to grow your affiliate business.

8. Have a clear strategy
When creating a site, make sure you have a proper proposition of your audience. You need to be able to make clear what the purpose is of your site in one sentence. Develop a plan on how you’ll generate traffic to your site. For example; if you select Social Media, don’t say you’re going to “use Twitter” but rather ask yourself what the purpose of that channel is going to be. Then define the monetization strategies for that site. Use an operational plan to develop a clear path on what needs to be done and to what quality standard.

9. People are your most important asset
Only hire those people who meet the values of your business (people with passion, ambition etc.). Provide them with learning opportunities to increase their knowledge which will ultimately help to enlarge your business. Retain the best of your employees. This doesn’t mean that you need to get rid of other employees though. It means that you need to identify the stars in your company and link them to the right job.

10. Time is Money!
Don’t waste time as time is money. As an affiliate it’s easy to get drawn away from tasks which are highly important but less fun to do. Identify at least 3 important tasks that you need to do each week and make sure you allocate sufficient time to accomplish them. Last but not least, enjoy what you do!

11. Create Opportunities
Don’t wait for a merchant to contact you. Propose new ways to drive more sales. Developing new relationships and building credibility will help you to coerce higher commissions. Switch your mindset from passive to proactive.

12. Stay ahead of the curve
Create the time to keep on learning. Visit conferences, read publications and keep on networking. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn from other people. The opportunity to find the next profitable affiliate model will increase if you keep on innovating.

These tips on affiliate marketing will definitely help the majority of the affiliates on their way to grow their business. Although some tips may sound basic to the more savvy affiliate marketer, it does remind us of how imperative it is to be on top of all of your business activities. Have you already thought about pushing your affiliate marketing business to the next level?