Before you begin to search for an affiliate manager, it’s important to know what you want them to accomplish.

Here’s how:

Take stock of your current affiliate program.  If you don’t already have an affiliate marketing strategy then now’s the time to plan that program and decide what you want to handle yourself and what you want your affiliate manager to be responsible for.

Assuming you do have an affiliate program already in place, make a list of the tasks you currently handle.  Include every single task, no matter how small, in this list.

Once you have this list, separate the tasks you wish to continue handling and the tasks which make sense for you to be involved in.

For example, marketing and special promotions may be one area that you want to control as your affiliate marketing campaigns may tie directly into your business marketing campaigns.

Once you have a list of the current responsibilities you need your affiliate manager to do it’s time to look to the future.

What goals do you have for your affiliate program?  Goals, as you probably know, need to be SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

Why? Because you need to create an action plan to achieve your goals.

The next step once you’ve identified goals for your program.  Create an action plan for each.  This action plan will potentially give you another list of responsibilities you will need your affiliate manager to take care of.

By now the list may be quite long.  That’s fine, many tasks and responsibilities will overlap and some tasks can be taken care of by a virtual assistant rather than your affiliate manager.

If you do not have a current affiliate program and are wondering what tasks might be required from an affiliate manager here are a few to consider:

• Recruiting affiliates
• Marketing affiliate program
• Responding to affiliate questions and concerns
• Monitoring affiliate sales
• Paying affiliates
• Motivating affiliates
• Creating incentive programs
• Distributing marketing materials to affiliates
• Monitoring affiliate activities

An affiliate manager can save tons of time and increase your bottom line however before you head out and hire someone, make a list of what responsibilities, and necessary skills, are required.

That way you can make sure to hire the best person for the job.

That being said, if your affiliate manager isn’t doing their job then you’re not able to optimize your time or your profits.

Here’s how to tell if your Affiliate Manager is worth their salt.

• Step One:  Are your affiliate profits rising?

One quick way to tell if your affiliate manager is on the ball is to simply check the bottom line.  If your profits are increasing then you can bet your affiliate manager is on the job.

• Step Two:  Eavesdrop

It’s important for your affiliate manager to be accommodating, responsive, and respectful to affiliates.  Make sure you have access to communications so you can monitor how your affiliate manager communicates, resolves problems, and responds in a timely manner.

Now of course monitoring every single communication will take too much time and defeat the purpose of hiring an affiliate manager in the first place however occasional monitoring is a good idea.

• Step Three:  Is your affiliate program growing?

Is your affiliate manager recruiting more affiliates?  This is an easy statistic to measure.  It’s even easier if you’ve established goals and timelines with your affiliate manager in the beginning.

For example if when you hire your Affiliate manager you agree that one of the goals is to increase the number of affiliates by 10% in the first year then when the year is up you have measurement to analyze.

• Step Four:  Same old program?

Occasionally part of an affiliate manager’s responsibilities are to come up with new incentives, marketing materials, and promotions.

If this is the case, is your affiliate manager holding up their end of the bargain?  Are they introducing new incentives to keep affiliates motivated and sales coming in?

Again, this is a measure which can be established in the very beginning.  For example, you can establish that you want a new promotion or marketing tool delivered to affiliates each month.

• Step Five:  Is your affiliate manager making the most of the tools, resources, and software you’ve provided?

While it’s important to hire an affiliate manager who understands and is comfortable with technology it isn’t necessary for them to have 100% competence with your chosen system.

That being said, it is important that they take full advantage of the software and resources you have.

Outsourcing any responsibility is a learning process.  There are fabulous contractors and there are those that simply don’t work out.

To make the most of your outsourcing efforts it is a good idea to establish some guidelines, goals, and measurements right from the get go.

That way you can easily determine if the affiliate manager is earning their keep.

And like the rest of us, you will need to have access to their contact information.  This information can and will be anything from a simple phone number to complete mailing addresses, fax numbers and maybe certain dates.  If you have it written down, chances are it is important.

My question is, where do you keep this information?  On your cell phone, PDA, computer, on a notepad, maybe even in a camera if there are pictures?

There are many places in which to keep information and considering today’s technology, many people choose an electronic device in which to store their pertinent information.

Wherever you keep it, there is one hugely important rule when obtaining, storing and maintaining this information:  Back it up!

I know people who are freelance writers and photographers, and those same people have lost a majority of their information at one time or another.

They wake up, turn on their computer or other electronic device and see that it is crashing or has crashed.  Imagine the stress they feel when they realize that all their information could be lost.

There are many ways to avoid this – maybe not the crash necessarily, but the loss of data.  All you has to do is simply have a backup procedure on a regular basis, and chances are you will lose nothing – or if you do, the impact will be minimal.

Alternative backup is available in many forms – using CDs to copy, using an online storage facility, or using an email service and sending all these items to yourself.

This email trick is one I use for information that is not content sensitive.  In managing customer data, keep in mind organizational skills and know what content is sensitive.

Having an organized system will alleviate a lot of time looking for information.  If there are several people who use the same information, a plan needs to be in place in case someone goes looking for what you have; if they can’t find it, at least they would know where to look.

Maybe this is something as simple as a sign out sheet.  If using a database program, go through this database every couple of weeks and update, delete or add to the information that you already have.

In doing this, you can take outdated information away and update information where necessary, which allows more accessibility for others.

Lastly, keep your information secure.  You can use the services of an outsourced company to keep your records or keep them yourself but either way, keep your information safe from being stolen.

Don’t leave information just lying around.  Don’t leave it in your car if you can help it; people break in.  Don’t leave sensitive information in your email or just in a simple saved file within your computer. Things get stolen and hacked into.

By using proper security within your database management as well as good organizational skills, you will not only save time, prevent losses and maintain security.  You will also be much happier when you are on the go and you need information in a hurry.