A letter to the Affiliate Managers out there... (28)
I don't write this to hammer the Affiliate Managers out there and I am not trying to be rude... I think this can help all of you... and depending on how you operate "your business", it may make a huge difference for you and for the company that you work for.
I have talked to other affiliate marketers over the years and have seen various posts by them as well and many seem to share the same sentiments that I do which is that we noticed that the level of performance and professionalism within the Affiliate Manager ranks in the Affiliate Marketing industry varies wildly... with most being average at best.
I have also noticed that many are under the age of 30... which probably means that this is their first or maybe 2nd "professional" employment that they have had... and for some... I hate to say it, but it shows. I know some of you account managers are on STM... I wrote this for you (or your buddies if you are already a rock star).
I didn't post this to be condescending or to be a prick... I post this with the intent to put those of you who are not performing well on notice and to give you a quick "guide" to use... as you may simply not know how to be a professional... perhaps you weren't even trained other than to learn some lingo and how to use CAKE... and for those of you who are already doing well... rock on! I have created million dollar companies out of thin air, and not all on the internet either... I actually had to hustle and do things in person "back in the day" LOL, so I do have some experience and have been "around" for more than just a minute or 2.
So.. If I were an account manager with an affiliate network and my job is to bring on new affiliates, help manage my affiliate's accounts and bring business/boost business to my company, here is what I would do... and if you get a percentage of your client's sales... this is what you MUST do if you were an Affiliate Manager as I would want to make a good living doing the job if it were me... on top of the fact, it's the "right" thing to do... and some would say your duty when you took the job:
1. I would be an active but non-spammy member of all the top tier forums like STM. I would post helpful things on each forum at least once a week and answer all questions directed to me or that I see pop up when I search for my company's name being mentioned on the forum within 24 hours (if not sooner). This is not only helpful to the community and you're "giving back" but you will gain a lot of clients from it. I would guess that a good percentage of people who sign up with an affiliate network is based on what is said and done in forums like this.
2. I would setup 3 email lists up with aweber. mailchimp or a similar type newsletter service. One would be Clients - Daily, one would be Clients - Weekly and the final one would be Potential New Clients. I would tell my clients if they want my daily email which will have helpful info, program pauses, etc, sign up for the daily newsletter... otherwise they need to sign up for the weekly. I would tell them that I do require every one of my clients to sign up to at least the weekly newsletter... the affiliate manager should make it that the people WANT it because it has hot profitable info, tips, insights, etc... I would hit my potential new clients every 3 weeks to a month or so to check in. The reason you have these lists is 3 fold... keep things organized and efficient, keep the client informed and the third reason is to keep you and your affiliate network company in front of your client so they think of you first before going to another network for their offers. If your company doesn't provide this list or that one... or some information that would be helpful... then create it yourself!
3. I would also have a separate email address setup for things that people need help with within a 2 hour window... I would monitor it through-out the day and I would tell them to hit me up on Skype only for urgent (needs attention in less than 2 hours) type of stuff... I would make sure they understand this contact system which will make it more productive for everyone.
4. I would have a blog site setup... which would have my hours I am working so people know if I am around / working that day or not so they don't freak out if they don't get responded to in 10 hours because you were on vacation or took off for the day or they forgot you're 8 hours ahead of them on the clock (ie. time zone differences). Many of your clients span across numerous time zones and they don't always know which one you're in or how it relates to their own time zone. I would also post helpful info/advice and such in the blog along with links to tools. I would have a helpful FAQ and tips on it like setting up your network offers with the various tracking platforms, etc... I am sure you could have the various companies write up a quick primer for you if you offer to have a link on your site. I would post at least weekly on that site.
5. I would know the offers on my network and what is hot on other networks that my company didn't have... yet. I would know what is working and be able to match up offers to my clients because I know what they are looking for. I would keep notes and lists on my clients so I can help them... and provide them information - even sometimes before they ask for it as I would know my clients. I'm not saying run your client's portfolio but be helpful and proactive.
6. I would learn the affiliate "game" so I could be of some use to the affiliate marketers. Don't just be an "order taker"... bring value. You should be able to develop the kind of reputation that affiliate marketeers seek you out... they ask for you by name!
7. I would go to the various "vendors" out there like Decisive, WhatRunsWhere, etc. and get exclusive discounts/coupons and have those discounts on my blog in the private, members only section of my website that only my affiliates get to see. I would build a relationship with those vendors so things get done quickly and everyone benefits.
8. I would truly look at it and treat it like my own business almost as if it were my own company.
9. Make sure you do what you say you are going to do. If you said you were going to provide a list of X, Y and Z... or look into a broken link, a payout issue or this or that... do it... don't have the affiliate chase you down for it.
10. Don't be shady... don't tell one affiliate another affiliate's "secret sauce." Do the right thing... even if no one would find out that you did the "wrong" thing... just be a professional.
Anyways... that's my 3 cents.
PS - I know affiliate marketers aren't perfect and can be a pain in the butt or a waste of time... but that's the nature of the business. You took on the job... do it to the best of your ability... and if you follow the items above, you should see your stress go down and your bank account go up.
There are some very good suggestions here, and the affiliate managers who take the feedback on board will definitely have a competitive advantage.
Good post, but would have to disagree with
"3. I would also have a separate email address setup for things that people need help with within a 2 hour window... I would monitor it through-out the day and I would tell them to hit me up on Skype only for urgent (needs attention in less than 2 hours) type of stuff... I would make sure they understand this contact system which will make it more productive for everyone."
If I can't Skype my AM whenever I need them I don't run with them. Goes with traffic sources too that need management/optimizing by the traffic source.
Oh and also AMs shouldn't be hitting me up unless they have something to bring to me. I can not stand AMs that contact me to ask me what offers I am running at the moment.
I mentioned you can respond to them on Skype... but if you need something that doesn't require them to stop what they are doing... then why do it? To me, that's professional courtesy. Some things can wait... not everything is an emergency.
Also, being available 24/7 sounds nice on a business card but it is impractical... they gotta live life and sleep too. I don't know about you, but I am not looking for a babysitter... I'm looking for a highly motivated professional to make part of my "team." If they are bogged down in the minutiae, they can't be of service.
I provided different levels of service in my "essay" above that is appropriate to the level of attention something needs. When I "serviced" accounts back in the day... the people who used up most of my time tend to produce the least. It's that 80/20 rule in affect. I'm not saying that is you but often enough that holds true. If someone needs a lot of hand-holding, a good exec has to ask themselves if it's worth it... if not, they pass them to another executive. Not everyone is a great match.
I'm not saying they wait a week to get back to your request but it isn't efficient if the Aff Manager is constantly putting out fires or tracking down low level stuff, clearly my post encourages speed and service... but some things don't need immediate attention. If everyone was bugging them about non-emergencies... they would get nothing done.
Also, they wouldn't be hitting you up with useless stuff... like I mentioned and implied in the post - they would bring you things of value. Remember, you aren't the only account they have... they need to build a "marketing process" in their day to day and week to week tasks... and they stay in the business and excel in it bringing things of value and being of service. I didn't say I am all for token "touches" with the client. An active and professional exec in any industry doesn't have time for that. By the way, the above isn't theory... there is 20 years or data, experience and first hand knowledge behind it.
With all that being said - lol... I do think we both agree that service levels need to be raised in the industry.
One other thing... if you are an Affiliate Manager, this should come to you as good news... as there is a HUGE gap in the market for top tier Affiliate Managers... I assume you guys (and gals) get paid in percentages based off the money you bring in... if so, you could clean up if you got the whole thing down right. I'm not a big player in this space (yet) but when I was a good size player in the financial trading industry or running any of my businesses... a solid account exec inside the "industry" or with one of my "vendors" was priceless. Once you become part of someone's "team"... and they rely on you for things... and you become indispensable... and if you have enough clients who view you like that... you can "write" your own ticket. Many CEO's were once big time "sales" or account execs before they went up to the "corner office."
Great guide man, you should start an HR consulting company aimed at CPA Networks, you'd make a killing no doubt 
Excellent points.
Most affiliate managers work at least partially on a commission basis right?
These people could make a lot more money if they put their mind to it, and by doing so they would intrinsically raise their value within the company.
Hell, a motivated AM could
- use a shared Google Calendar to show when they are busy or unavailable (worked wonders for me when doing cash-based chem tutoring),
- a meeting scheduler like Doodle to encourage quick scheduling of calls to tackle things faster (calls are almost always more effective than typing away for ages),
- create their own private Slack team for sharing general info and private chatting/communication (Slack has much better image/file sharing than Skype and better chat history),
- would use something like Asana/Redbooth/etc. to manage tasks by priority for affiliates so they always know what task is next on their priority list,
- keep a private up to date offer sheet available for their affiliates on something like Google docs so they never have to ask for top performing offers, they are openly given this info at all times,
- the list goes on....
If I were an affiliate manager you can be sure I'd be doing some crazy stuff just to see how it worked out.
All very good suggestions!
You need to understand things from their perspective as well. They simply can't afford the same level of attention to a $100/day affiliate as they would to a $1000/day affiliate.
Another important point is that its YOUR responsibility to build a relationship with your AM (not the other way around).
You'd be amazed how many affiliates the average network has on their books
Feel free to hit me up if you need someone that truly cares about your AM business.
It's interesting to me what potential the "average" affiliate has - so I treat everyone the same when starting off. I see a lot of AMs wasting time to get in top tier affiliates, when they miss to invest time in bottom-up structures. I've had a lot of my affiliates grow from zero to hero. And obviously "hero" doesn't mean $x,xxx,xxx, but it means hitting your personal goal, setting a new personal best - whatever it may be. Any one person on this board can have a genius idea and hit big. That's my philosophy.
Recent sports developments (esp. in football) have shown us that big money doesn't necessarily win championships. Instead, properly investing in ground work (youth academies, training prospects) has yielded great results on club and national levels. A club like Manchester City has been somewhat successful in spending a ton of money, but they never succeeded at the highest level of play. After years of failing, they finally got the message and are now investing £200m in their newest football academy.
In my opinion, growth alone for many networks won't come from opening up their network to anyone, and then leaving them with an email address to talk to, and spam them with daily newsletters. Building true and long lasting relationships is what's going to bring in the $$$.
Sorry I didn't make it clear, I was only talking from the point of view of a high volume affiliate.
Great write-up.
From my perspective, the difference between having a good AM and front-line operations is the difference between our team working with their company or not.
I've had a somewhat mediocre CPA network that had an absolutely amazing senior AM, who would do things like respond to our team's text messages at 4 AM in their timezone on a weekend about an offer suddenly going down, getting in contact with the head contact at the advertiser's office, giving me updates every 1 hour on what they're doing, and then getting me the proper refunds on my spend as a result of their (advertiser's) screwup. I had no problems going out of my way to send that network traffic all else equal because my AM was so much head and shoulders above the competition. As an aside, that AM is no longer with the network and the replacement AM has let offer requests stay pending for weeks despite my team trying to get in contact with her. Safe to say, we don't work much with them anymore.
There is also a specific mobile CPA network that has a super strong business development team. They will constantly get better offers and more offers that no other network gets. If they had even a decent client relationship team, they would probably be my CPA network of choice to work with. Instead, the monstrosity of their AM team has lead to so many communication issues because of a misunderstanding in English, including our team wasting tens of thousands of dollars on traffic after I personally confirmed with the AM about the cap, and then having the traffic all go to a null redirect because she didn't seem to understand that telling me "You have a cap of XXXXXX" is not the same as the reality of the situation which was "The network has a cap of XXXXXX, and you are sharing this cap with other affiliates, and we don't have any cap notification emails in the system." I was not refunded anything despite their ignorance, and sadly enough this isn't the only incident with them.
I've made it a policy with my team that despite what these idiots say, to constantly monitor our links every 15 minutes because I don't believe a word that comes out of their mouths. On top of all this, despite our team sending literally 5x more traffic than EVERY OTHER AFFILIATE THEY HAVE combined on an offer, when the offer came back, I was not told that it was back nor given a private cap or anything. It's like they want to treat the people who would bring the most revenue to their company the same as they would treat someone who sends a statistically insignificant amount of data. The kicker for this particular incident is after I argued for hours as to the logic of why I should be given a private cap for a burst offer we killed in the past, I was finally reluctantly given it, and they required that I give them an estimate, so I ballparked around 75k leads that day for that offer, but we only ended up doing about 65k. The rest of their affiliates COMBINED sent about 15k. I was yelled at by my AM and she complained about allocating such a cap to me instead of giving other affiliates a chance.
This is the type of negative behavior that should be in a textbook somewhere for the best way to alienate and make your most valuable clients swear to not do business with you ever again (unless their BD pulls off a miracle of an offer, at which then my greed for money will overturn my disdain)
@deondup - I understand that they can't afford the same level of attention for a smaller affiliate... hence why they need a system... and if they don't have time for a smaller player, hand them off to someone who needs clients. And no it's NOT the responsibility of the client to bring business to the affiliate manger or to build a relationship... we aren't in the "employee" or in business to make the affiliate manager money... it's the affiliate manager's job to generate business, THEY chose the job... so do the job. Now, I can see if the affiliate manager tried to build a relationship and the affiliate blew it off... but it's the manager's job to cultivate and make that account loyal to the network. That mentality that you spoke of is one of the reasons why so many people in the industry are mediocre... not just this industry but any... and why 80% of the account execs in any business don't make big money. The ones who make it THEIR responsibility to do the things that I mention are the ones who are knocking it out the park. In terms of how many people are on their books and that list being large... then hire more affiliate managers or don't take on so many clients or have a system in place to deal with them.
@timtetra... good points... not to sound all "old school" but many in the "younger generation" ie. under 30, seem to not "get it" when it comes to being a professional. Many seem to want to do the minimum but get all the credit and money... or they want to "debate" with a client rather than be proactive and find solutions... etc, etc. I haven't gotten "into" it or been yelled at by an AM (yet - lol), but I have seen it in other industries over the years.
@Webworx
This is a two way street.
At the end of the day, AMs do not work for you. You are not their client. This is worth keeping in mind.
The more that you can help your AM make money for their real clients, the more valuable you will be to them as well.
While there are a lot of things AMs can do better, there are also A LOT of things affiliates can do better as well to improve the AM/affiliate relationship.
@webworx - I think the problem is that for most AM's in this business, this is just a job. In fact, I know plenty of networks where the AM's just get paid a salary and not any percentage of their pub's revenue. If you look at these AM's on linked-in, you'll see that their previous jobs were completely unrelated like being a mystery shopper or some other similar job. In practice, they're a pretty face to represent the company at trade shows and to get the male-dominated end of the spectrum to like doing business with them more. I don't think it's coincidence that pretty much every amazing affiliate manager I've ever had was actually not just an AM, and that their primary job was actually business development or something where an actual competent hustler would be working in. This has nothing to do with gender either, it's kind of just common sense that if someone went out and got the account for the company then they also have the same channel to be able to get in touch with the right people to be able to resolve your high level problem in a very timely manner as well. Most AM's will just send an email at most and forget about it unless the advertiser responds at some point.
TL;dr - most networks should treat and have a channel for their highest value publishers in the same way that they have a separate business development team to go out and get offers/accounts.
Originally Posted by cmdeal
If we're talking about a classical CPA network, they operate on an arbitrage business model where they hire people to go out and find offers/advertisers. They promise huge volumes of high quality traffic at a price much lower than the advertisers could do on their own because the traffic is coming from performance marketers.
To attract traffic to fill the offers, they go out and find affiliates/publishers to provide the inventory. They offer better payment terms to affiliates, a most standardized format and system of tracking multiple offers, and a basic level of help.
In order to fulfill their business plan and make money, they need to fulfill on both sides of the fence on top of having everything go properly like having the advertiser pay on time, on top of monitoring to make sure the affiliates doesn't send fraud traffic that could make them liable for nonpayment etc.
If I hypothetically decided to start a CPA network, you better believe that I would guarantee that there are systems in place so that both the clients who have the highest billables on top of the publishers with the highest volume + quality traffic are taken care of. Your casinos, hotels, airlines etc all are on top of their game in making sure their most valued clients are able to interact with them and do business with them with as much ease as possible. Why should it not be the case as well in performance marketing?
Originally Posted by timtetra
With affiliate networks, affiliates are the suppliers. Affliates are like the employees of the casino, the cooks at the hotel, or the baggage handlers at the airport. Affiliates are the sellers and the affiliate networks are the buyers. The relationship is not a symmetrical one.
It is easy to lose sight of this fact. You see it all the time in other fields as well, especially when someone is looking to buy property, and many buyers mistakenly think that the real estate agent is working for them
Now it is certainly within a real estate agent's interest to treat potential buyers professionally. But the real estate agent ultimately does not work for the property buyer. He or she works for the property owner. In other words, the main metric that matters for the real estate agent is NOT buyer satisfaction, but the profit he or she is able to get for the owner.
A real estate can have off the charts levels of buyer satisfaction if he sells propertis to buyers at below market prices by convincing the seller to do so. This would be a bad real estate agent not doing his job properly.
In the long run, any successful real estate agent needs to treat buyers professionally, but this is only an intermediary, instrumental metric, and not an ultimate one.
Similarly, the hand that feeds the AM's horse is ultimately the advertiser. Keeping good relations with publishers is definitely important, but as much as we would like this to be otherwise, it is of secondary importance.
@cmdeal - I hear ya, it is a 2 way street but affiliate networks are nearly a dime a dozen... lets face it... outside a few exclusive deals that some have... which do come and go... they all sell the same "products" for the most part... the difference is the people and the professionalism/stability of the affiliate network company. When you say we are not their client... then what are we to them? The way I would look at is that the COMPANY... ie. the affiliate network has the so-called client... which is the advertiser... the Affiliate Manager also has a client which are the affiliates. Lets not forget... with no affiliates there is NO advertisers as there would be no business being done or offers promoted. I am quite sure if all the affiliates suddenly jumped ship... the affiliate network would re-evaluate who is their client and who deserves a high level of service and who doesn't. I do agree with you that there are things that affiliates could do better as well... and this forum is full of those tips... I decided to focus on the other side of the coin for this post... the affiliate manager.
@timtetra - I do notice that many AM's are under 30 and usually fairly attractive to kind of hot - lol. The mentality of just having a pretty face is short-sided though. If CEO's of these companies put a little bit of "old school" business practices in place... and marry it up with the new innovative things going on these days they could kill it. The whole industry has this "feel" about it of being slightly... umm... don't want to say shady as that isn't appropriate, although there are shady people in this industry... but every industry has that... and I don't want to say a "get rich quick" feel to it... I can't think of the right adjective but I think you know what I am saying... the bottom line is it feels like some of these companies are built on a "deck of cards." In terms of your hypothetical CPA network... I agree with you and I think there is a huge gap in the marketplace right now and I think with the right people... and financial backing a company could come and smoke the competition.
@cmdeal - in response on your newest post. If a network looks at affiliates as simply quasi-employees then they are missing out on the bigger picture. And to use your analogy of cooks and baggage handlers... if they think that's the type of positions affiliates hold... they are sadly mistaken... to use your analogy... if anything, the affiliates are the sales staff... and with any solid company... the sales staff gets the "juice" and they should since they keep the lights on. An advertiser will come and go but a top sales person, if treated right could stay for years. I would imagine it's a lot easier to get an advertiser than getting and keeping a super affiliate around (or even a solid affiliate), especially when the same offers... for the most part are on multiple networks. To further your analogy or concept about a hotel, airlines, etc... you gotta pay the "talent" well or they will walk. Great "employees" don't stick around for marginal pay or treatment.
In some ways, the affiliate networks and their offers have been "commoditized"... at face value, there is nothing unique with most of them... to survive, prosper and dominate they gotta differentiate themselves... the best and most logical way is through the people and the level of service that they can provide.
And I don't agree with your real estate agent assessment. At least not in the US... perhaps where you are it's different but the buyer's agent DOES work for the buyer. I have bought and sold 100 properties or so in my day... and I used to run a mortgage operation as well and my ex wife of 19 years was and is a top RE agent in Florida... if I ever thought my agent wasn't working for me... they would be "fired" in a NY second. Now, the LISTING agent works for the seller that is true but if you're going through the listing agent only for your deals... you're probably doing it wrong. All the top buyer's agents utilize many of the concepts I brought up above... but converted to their industry. If Agent's simply looked at their clients as the "hired menial labor help" they won't last too long in the industry.
Hi all,
First off, thank you webworx for the post. As an affiliate manager, I'm always up for constructive criticism and I'm sure every other AM can agree that we all have room to improve. The game changes fast and the position entails more responsibilities as time goes on. Just wanted to give some feedback on some of the points raised based on my side of things:
1. This is actually a great recommendation and ties into point 6 of learning the game itself. As AM's get more and more experience, they will have more value to provide to users of this forum but it's definitely hard when you are just starting out and trying to learn yourself. You have to remember that many AM's may have never ran their own campaigns before because either their job wouldn't allow or they wanted to focus on managing their affiliates. This means that the scope of our value will lie in spying ads, trends, connections to FB accts, etc. Not so much the technical side of running campaigns.
2. Great point and I'm sure many AM's probably have this in place already or some variation of it.
3. I think having another email is excessive because to be honest, everyone will want their issue resolved or looked at in 2 hours. It's better to just have one email/Skype and filter through it yourself to judge urgency/chronologically.
4. Good idea and this can probably be done in the initial conversation with an affiliate or just in your Skype "mood message".
5. This point is a given. Every aff manager should know what is hot on their network and what sets their network apart from the competitors.
9. 100%. Affiliates want to be kept in the loop and even if their issue isn't resolved, a simple "I haven't forgot about you" kind of note helps ease any uncertainties.
This conversation will be an ongoing thing between affiliates and aff managers, but it's good to have these kinds of posts once in a while to spark some new perspectives. Cheers everyone.
Originally Posted by cmdeal
For every run of the mill affiliate who delivers little volume, you have a middling advertiser who bills for very little. For every high volume superaffiliate, you have a high budget advertiser as well. Simply supply/demand economics will show that both are extremely high in demand. I would bet if you polled most of the top volume affiliates on here, they get solicited and begged for their traffic all the time from multiple networks. That is why I was saying any network who fails to realize that their most valuable assets in an arbitrage business are their most valuable supply and demand partners deserves to go out of business quickly. I've talked to other high volume affiliates and they've had the same experience and disdain for the network I was talking about. It's like being spit in the face by a network despite the fact that you are the biggest cog on the supply side in making their arbitrage work.
I do think though that if you are to go direct as an affiliate, then for sure the onus of keeping good relationships with the advertiser lies on your team. You are then doing the business development and their billables pay for your operations. In the CPA network example, they are acting as your business development team so the onus is on the CPA network for maintaining good relationships with their most important demand and supply side partners.
Do AM's get a % from gross profit or revenue?
Originally Posted by supermanhero1
There are different models for AMs, those that hand out gross profit % on affiliate traffic generated, and those that give them a % on advertiser revenue generated.
I find this a fascinating topic (and great responses by everyone so far, really enjoying this read) - would love to hear everyone's opinion on whether or not you think affiliate commissions for AMs are good or bad for a) the network b) the affiliate/AM relationship?
I happen to find myself in a position where I'm building up a network and couldn't care less for x% commissions, as I'm building a long term business (some say empire). I understand not every AM can be in this position, but I find this has helped me tremendously in business development with both advertisers and affiliates. I don't have to pressure affiliates to send me traffic so I can make x% commission on them. Not to sound picky, but it also helps me to know exactly who I want to work with on the affiliate side.
I think an AM being well-rewarded for their hard work in developing business is great but the volume their affiliates send is not necessarily indicative of how much work they have put in, it could largely be luck with who they draw.
Also, x% commissions may lead to some AMs bending the rules a bit if they know it means more affiliate traffic and $$... They should be concerned with helping their affiliates while maintaining lead quality and compliance for the advertiser... and in the short-term a % commission favours focusing on the former at the frustration of the biz dev team.
Perhaps a middle-ground would be attractive bonuses based on validated affiliate growth and revenue so that they are rewarded but not based on a perecentage profit model.
I would really emphasize on the professionalism of AMs.
I've had an AM call me a 'useless fuck' because I was still learning and wasn't generating a lot of revenue yet. I actually liked him because he was nice and helpful at the beginning so I referred a lot of people under him. But I only found out what he called me because my friend chatted him up and asked him about me. My friend then showed me the chat log and ever since then, I've kinda stopped talking to him because it ruined the relationship we had.
Some very good points here!
However talking to different AMs there is also the other side of the coin.
Most AMs get assigned way more affiliates that they can manage and provide a good service.
So most of them apply the 80/20 rule, focus on top revenue affiliates and ignore the rest.
Guys, I know I'm under 30 but I'm more than a pretty face here.
I'm always trying to get better at my job and I think most AM's are not only in it for the commission, but to also help newbies grow into whales and also help large affiliates feel they have a safe home for their traffic.
There's really no better feeling than getting intro'd to a newb, teaching from scratch on how to run and then seeing them grow in revenue daily. There are some exceptions to the 80/20 rule in this case.
I think the hardest part of the job is "learning" how to deal with so many personality types. I manage over 600 affiliates. I try to get to know each one perosnally (well, the ones that are actively trying to make it in this industry anyway). Some are laid back. Some will text you at 4am. Some will love you. Some will hate you (sometimes for no reason, and sometimes for good reason).
Adapting to client needs/wants is a big part of this job as well as managing personal time. I've been burnt out and hit the wall many times in my 3.5 years as an AM.
With that being said, some awesome points and suggestions in here. A good AM has probably already thought of or followed through on many of them so that list by webworx is quite valid.
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