With so many paths and such a strongly drive ROI affiliate marketing produces it can quickly become an out of controlled mess in which you loss track of what your promoting and what’s happening. Learn these 7 sins to affiliate program mismanagement to avoid them and have a strong core to your affiliate marketing projects.

1. The Wrong Network or Software

When it comes to finding the right network or software to run your affiliate marketing campaigns one important question should come to mind. ” Are you really that big in the consumer mindscape?” If your answer is no then you need to go find a network to help support you and give your customers a sense of trust by being a part of a massive affiliate network. This is why many starting out will use affiliate manager networks such as Clickbank, 2Checkout and Clicksure to name a few.

What you should always do is customize your order pages as much as possible and put your logo/brand on it to start establishing yourself in the minds of your new customers. Doing so will later on allow you to run the affiliate manager out of your own system saying on some overhead costs.

2. Auto-Approval

While it might seems like a good idea to get as many possible affiliates under your promoting your product, it could quickly become the death of your product and your company as well. Review all applications and manually approve your affiliates or you might just end up having your ads on websites you wish not to associate your brand with!

3. The Wrong Strategy

With anything a plan will get you moving in the right direction. Things to consider about your affiliate strategy are…

Are you terms and conditions to restrictive?

Are the top 5 affiliates of your program always the same? (This should be NO)

Are you to focused on niche affiliates and should you expand to other sources?

4. The Wrong Management

Who is in control of your current affiliate management? Do they already have numerous other duties? Or brand new?

While this is nothing wrong with this your company will in most cases be better off with a veteran in the niche of affiliate marketing and dedicate all of their time to just that task.

5. Nexus Law Reactions

With more support going towards this bill in many states its a good idea to know what the law is and if it effects you. Check out this map to see if your effected. Affiliate Nexas Tax – The States If your state is effected then be sure to review the laws and clearly understand them. You will need to make the proper adjustments to your affiliate management as well.

6. Ignorance is Bliss

Before we went over the extreme case of affiliates putting ads on sites in which you do not want your product associate with. While many feel this wont happen to them, what about all those uh oh moments where your affiliate sales start streaming in such as.

- Your PPC policy being violated and the affiliate capitalizing on your hard work. This is a clear violation of those Terms and Condition’s you set up for all affiliates to follow.

- You now have orders streaming in from some country in which you can not ship to.

- A website forces the visitor to buy your product before they can access the website of the other owner.

While these are other extreme cases they are things that could happen if you do not closely watch your affiliate management. Most affiliate however do not want to see this ever happen to you. They are in a sense partners of your company and your success and awesome customer experience gives that affiliate a good name themselves. As partners you should always keep in constant touch with your affiliate base and communicate with each other effective and approved methods of promotion.

7. “If you build it, they will come”

Many fall into the trap of thinking if they have an affiliate program people will instantly join and just start promoting for you. But to be honest this is the same as building a website. You need to make an effort in bringing in affiliates and giving them a reason to want to promote your product to their list. Lay out key points that make your product unique to others and why they should promote you over your competition. By providing this information and making the effort to bring in affiliates you will quickly begin to build a loyal affiliate base that will be happy to work with you for years to come.