Paul Colligan Interviews Anik Singal

Anik: That's a great question. Actually new generation affiliate is something we coined because we really saw a trend in the industry which I thought deserves a term. And that is, you know, super affiliate in its old definition, well, kind of definition, is just an affiliate who can bring in a lot of sales for you. But what's happening is a lot of affiliates don't want to keep putting all their eggs in one basket. So what they're doing is, they're finding it's easier, instead of building one blockbuster killer site, you know, they use their knowledge to build ten or fifteen or twenty sites in various different industries and to promote various different affiliate programs.

Anik: So what happened is, maybe they're only bringing you five sales a day, and to you, they are not a super affiliate. But if you were to see all the sales they bring in collectively from their entire network, you know, so let's say there's twenty sites, five times twenty, one hundred. A hundred sales a day, well, guess what, that's a super affiliate.

Anik: So a new generation affiliate is just a really, really under the radar super affiliate, someone you can rely on to bring you very consistent sales, but they're just not going to bring you that hundred a day because that's not their business model, their business model is, you build up a... get it to a certain point, once it's getting X amount of sales, they move on and build another one. And they find it's easier than having to build one incredibly blockbuster huge site that involves a different support, and management, and all those things. So that, to answer your question, is what we call a new generation affiliate.

Paul: Do you want one of those guys over a super affiliate? Do you do something specific to get this kind of affiliate?

Anik: Well, you know what's great about those affiliates, is that they're consistent. You can rely on them. I definitely think you want them, and the whole point is you want to work with them, and you want to continue working with them to a degree where you do give them special offers and things. Maybe you don't treat them exactly like a super affiliate, because a super affiliate is going to need a little more attention, because if you don't give them that attention, they might go elsewhere. But yeah, you definitely want that new generation affiliate in your program, because like I said, they're very consistent, they don't tend to mess with their sites too much. A super affiliate, for example, is very, very keen on ROI and click-through rates and things of that sort, so if they find a better program they may very well move to it. But a new generation affiliate is typically going to find what they feel is good, and they like it. And by the time they're... maybe there is a program paying higher commission, or maybe there is a program that can work better, but by the time that comes up, they may have already moved on to a different site. And, you know, their philosophy is instead of optimizing one campaign, let me build multiple campaigns. And so, you can wake up in the morning and pretty much rely that they will have for you some new sales.