Ok so it's 2008, affiliate marketing is no longer just a pipe dream of want to be entrepreneurs looking to make their first quick million.

So why is it that affiliate marketing programs are still run so poorly?

Poor Reporting and Affiliate Software

You would think in an age of web 2.0 (I hate that term) that an affiliate would be able to get decent reports on the traffic it sends to an affiliate program. Well think again. Affiliates are expected to run campaigns on a single tracker with no way of setting up individual campaigns or trackers to see exactly what traffic is converting or not.

Late Payments and Incorrect Payments

Most people who work for someone get paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on what they have arranged with their employer. Regardless of this payments are made at the same time for the right amount at each pay interval as would be expected.

Why then do affiliate programs seem to think that it's ok to pay late or to underpay what is owed? I seem to remember agreeing to terms and conditions when I signed up to these programs and I'm sure that nowhere did I agree to have to wait up to 90 days for payments. We have bills to pay too!

Poor Communications

As an affiliate you get super busy and I know we are not always the best at getting back to affiliate managers but personally I do always try to get back to them even if it is not in a timely manner.

While some affiliate managers are great communicators others either don't care or are too busy working on board reports to do what they need to do to support affiliates. How about sending a report at the end of each month of the statistics including the number of clicks, leads, sales and earnings and include an expected payment date? Email again when payment has been submitted via the accounts department to let us know.

An affiliate manager should be taking every single opportunity to get an email in front of affiliates (hint: include a small offer or promo offer in your report email). I can tell you I will sit up and take notice of these emails over your monthly affiliate newsletter any day of the week.

At the end of the day an affiliate's focus is on making as much money as possible from the traffic we have. If we are not going to get paid the correct amount and on time the odds of an affiliate pushing your program will decrease. Likewise if an affiliate cannot clearly see how their traffic is performing you will lose out.

At Trix Online Media we employ over twenty full time staff plus have a team of nearly thirty contractors scattered throughout the world. We run hundreds of affiliate websites including www.bingoport.co.uk in addition to contracting our services to other affiliates and affiliate programs.