I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw this note in my Inbox a few mornings ago…

Hi, My name is Ian and I am an Account Manager here at Linkshare. Nice to meet you!

I saw your blog post about the iTunes affiliate program. I manage that program here at LS as well as Apple. The holiday season is indeed a big time for iTunes. I noticed that in your link to sign up as an affiliate you mention the Apple Store’s affiliate program and wanted to let you know that iTunes has a separate program. So if you want to sell songs you’ll need to be in iTunes, but iPods and Macs in Apple…so why not be in both!

Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for the good word.

Best regards,
Ian

WHY was I shocked? Well, for a couple of reasons…

First, I just celebrated my 9th anniversary of affiliate marketing on January 1st, and although affiliate managers have contacted me in the past to say they like one of my articles or endorsements — up until then, no affiliate manager has ever gotten in touch with me so quickly after I'd posted an affiliate link.

Talk about the value of blogging and Technorati tagging. WOW!

But better yet, here's an affiliate manager who is REALLY on the ball! Ian is obviously an enthusiast and knowledgable affiliate account manager, and his approach was absolutely perfect.

He introduced himself, mentioned how he found me and acknowledged what I'd said in the post. He was also helpful when he very nicely suggests that I should have mentioned joining the Apple iTunes affiliate program as well as Apple Store program. He then offered additional assistance and thanked me.

As affiliates, we shouldn't be shocked by good communication. Unfortunately, however, affiliate managers like Ian are few and far between.

For example, I applied for a program run through Commission Junction in early December. I waited a week for application approval and heard nothing, so I sent sent a couple of emails through the CJ interface, and still got nothing back. I then phoned the company and asked for the affiliate manager by name. They'd never heard of her. After being placed on hold for a few minutes, my call was redirected to her extension, so I left a message. I waited 3 more days and called again and left another message. FINALLY, after almost two weeks the application was approved without the courtesy of either a returned call or an email reply.

Quite frankly, I was disgusted — and that kind of shabby treatment doesn't inspire me to make a lot of effort towards promoting this merchant's products.

So, what's the point of this rave/rant?

Well, Dear Merchants – hire great affiliate managers who have business savvy and PAY them well for their efforts. Better yet, give them incentive to help their affiliates succeed by offering them a percentage of affiliates' sales. Best of all, make sure they get proper training.

And Affiliates – don't put up with crappy treatment from program managers or merchants. Do your best to get what you want out of a particular program, and DO make the effort to suggest improvement where you see problems. Too, give KUDOs where kudos are due.

This industry is still very much in its infancy — so there's still lots of room for hope and improvement.