Paul Colligan Interviews Anik Singal

Paul: I would agree with you and I think the problem is - and this is where I love what you're doing - the problem is that most people drink the Kool-Aid before they do anything else and they immediately sign up with an affiliate program not even necessarily knowing what it is they want to do with it. Obviously a high level consulting firm that never bills out anything under six figures is going to have a different kind of affiliate program than a woman work-at-home mom who sells craft necklaces at Christmas time. And the affiliate marketing tools affiliate marketing is an industry. It's not a product it's not software, it's not a specific e-commerce program. And I think a lot of people look at one program, think that's all they have, say that won't work for me when they don't always understand that it's industry, not a software package. It's an application of e-commerce. It's a revenue generation strategy, not a piece of software that you download after your credit card clears. Any thoughts there?

Anik: No, I couldn't agree with you more. I think your statement about people jumping into things without ever really knowing what it is they them to do for them. What's the basic goal of your affiliate program? One of the first things we discuss in the workbook, one of the first things that you have to do is answer a questionnaire regarding what is it that you really want from this. Is it a branding strategy for you? Do you want to generate sales? If so, how many? What percentage of your overall revenue would you prefer coming from affiliate marketing? There's so many questions that you must answer and the answers to those question really could determine what network you use and whether you have a dedicated manager, or whether you have a team of 10 people or 20 people to manage. It really makes a major impact on the overall program and the eventual success that it can have. So you're right on on that. There really needs to be much more understanding and planning done before anything is launched.

Paul: Yeah. People tend to, and they do this everywhere, but it bothers me the most in affiliate marketing. They tend to buy the service or join the network or start the coding or integrating their e-commerce system before they actually get trained on what the options are out there. And then they get stuck and then they try to wrap an affiliate program around a bad decision made very early as opposed to learning what affiliate marketing is, making the right decision and then purchasing the right product. Sometimes I've seen people who've spent tens of thousands of dollars on an affiliate marketing software program technique, consultant network joining, whatever, and then they realize because they didn't get the training in the beginning, because they didn't get the knowledge in the beginning, they realize that that was wasted because they had to move on to something else. Yeah. Go ahead.