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CPA NETWORKS! Why don't you have employees in the 3 major time zones? (17)

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I’m sure if you live outside of the USA you can relate to this post I’m about to write. I live in Eastern Europe, and we follow the GMT+1 timezone here (CET), that puts us 6 hours ahead of New York, and 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles. When my office starts work at 8AM my reps at CPA Networks are asleep or just about to fall asleep. Come 4PM our time, the reps are just waking up, and will be heading to their office in about 2 hours. So if I’m lucky, I can catch them around 5/6PM my time… the time by which I have other things to do, and by when I may also be burnt out from having done a lot of work all day long.

Like today, I have a bunch of creatives ready and ready to launch, all my reps at CPA Networks (not going to mention any names) are SLEEPING. Now here I am, waiting and waiting, instead of working and getting shit done. WHY? BECAUSE THE CPA NETWORKS HAVEN’T THOUGH OF HAVING REPS IN DIFFERENT TIME ZONES!

This is extremely frustrating, and it just shouldn’t be. Anyway, though I’d share my rant to get the word out – CPA Networks you really need to get reps in different time zones, not all of us are Americans.

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I feel you man, I always wished the same thing too. There is a lot of GOLD that can be found when your network rep is around. I have changed my lifestyle to work in EST but when you start hiring that's not as easy as it is when you are a one man team I suppose.

- Mundo Media recently started operations in China, so maybe you can get a rep from that timezone as well.
- YeahMobi operates from China, so they are available during our timezone.

One work around I am planning on at a later stage is to hire someone offshore and have employees all round the clock. That way when offers go down, they can pause traffic and can deal with multiple affiliate networks without my intervention.

Another thing is weekends. Conversions go up during weekends and sometimes its just frustration when you cant launch something on a weekend and have to just wait till Monday and then again for the next weekend.

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Some of the reasons networks stay away from hiring AM's across multiple different timezones, extra cost, communication, harder to manage, legals, making sure AM's get a fair spread of affiliates.

However I think there should be an "after hours janitor" type roll that is introduced to affiliate networks. They can even be based in the main office!

They don't push offers, or do any of the selling. They are just there as a support contact that knows about compliance, caps, has the power to open offers, places pixels, and answers simple questions. Any changes made through the night are then passed onto that affiliate's manager in the morning.

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yeah i'm in vietnam +7. time zones can be really difficult especially for west coast US. when they go to work it is midnight for me. and when they finish it is 6am my time.
but what can you do.... it's one of the costs of doing this sort of business. you can operate from anywhere. and so can your business partners.......

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That you are still good Attila, us who are here in Asia same as hlyghst above me are having even bigger difficulties. I'm happy if I can catch my AM around 20-22pm, exchange few messages and jump into bed.

Maybe you should look at the problem from the other side - shift your working times or at least some of the guys who are communicating with networks?

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This is a mega problem, here its 3:09PM, we have like 5 geos ready to roll. My am's are catching their last ZZZzz before alarm clock goess of. Then it takes em another 2-3 hours to get to work because they start late. Like 10AM most of them, their time.

Guess what it's fucking hot outside, i want to jump in my pool, have friends over for drinks... but nah, instead i am waiting for the magical 5/6pm to arrive so i can talk to the AMs at 3 different networks... PITA..

They could have AM's working in shifts... hosts can do 24/7 tech support, why can't CPA networks?

It could boost their profits for sure, customer (affiliate) service anyone?

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Australia was the absolute worst for this. 8am there was 6pm EST (thank GOD for the odd PST network that exists), so 5pm there was the middle of the night in North America. A lot of the time I'd have to wait until after 10pm before getting a reply.

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#SuperAffiliateProblems

While I agree the time zone situation sucks, I don't understand why it has to be you who talks with the affiliate manager.

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If you're constantly having this issue, have you called your AM out about it? Do they realize how frustrating it is for you?

Timezones are a bitch when you're dealing in this industry with networks, pubs, advertisers all over the world - so obviously there are going to be times that you miss connections.

BUT on the flip side I know i've had to get up at 2:00am or 3:00am to have a call with a pub because I know they work in an opposite timezone - and as you said: If people are around, there's gold to be found. So set your expectations clear, and if your AM isn't meeting those expections - then split test AMs like you do campaigns.

Just my 2cents.

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Or just basic teamwork.

I know that I get up at 5:00am (Which is rare for someone in this industry apparently.. ) - so if I miss something overnight, someone on our team has helped me out and vice versa if i'm the first one up. It may not be 24/7 service, but a strong AM team should be able to help alleviate these issues and fill this 'janitor role' that Mr Green is talking about.

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It's 5:00am somewhere.

In terms of being better able to work with pubs, is there any reason for a publisher to be assigned one am at a network?

I would think a more distributed system similar to what seems to be unofficially happening at F5 can better help.

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I put a lot of value on being assigned one dedicated AM at both a traffic source and network level.

There are a lot of negatives like those discussed above, but it also means that you only need to hold a single person accountable for any failures (and success). They are familiar with your campaigns and can proactively look out for you, defend your creatives, suggest new sources etc. With most of the industry being commission based, they are also financially incentivised to support you.

Typically found the level of support scales with your $$$

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Just add your AM on whatsapp or whatever messenger tool he's using. Every good AM is always available for you via whatsapp/email/phone. Most questions affiliates have are questions you can normally answer within a minute or two; this is a 24/7 business!

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This is very, very true.

What motivates more than $$$?

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Yeah, i can relate to this, i just do more of my business with Asian or European based networks - when i made this change it was a huge shock when i realised i could skype message a question to my AM in the afternoon and get an answer a few minutes later! (instead of getting an email response 12 hours later)

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I totally understand, and in our case, we also have to deal with processors, ad networks, banks, etc..

The solution for us was to set OUR office hours from 3:00PM to 11:00PM CET

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I think thats the reason why ZeroPark guys work from 11am CET to 8pm. To overlap with a bit of the Eastern time. I always thought it was odd.

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