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As I lathered my face up this morning for the first shave of the month, and my first opportunity to part with my pedo bear-esque, face muskrat of a mustache that was grown for Movember, I had some time to really reflect on the month.

If you’ve never heard of Movember, it’s an event that has been around since 2004 in Australia and New Zealand and migrated to many other countries including the US in 2007. It was designed to help raise awareness for prostate cancer and other men’s health issues. The idea is simple, dig deep into your manhood for a month and donate your face to a good cause by growing a mustache the entire 30 days for donations. The donations are distributed to 2 charities:

Prostate Cancer Foundation

The Prostate Cancer Foundation (www.pcf.org) uses the money raised by Movember to fund research that is accelerating the discovery of better treatments and ultimately a cure for prostate cancer.

LIVESTRONG

LIVESTRONG (www.livestrong.org) uses the money raised by Movember to fund important programs to support young adults and their families battling and surviving cancer.

In affiliate marketing, we’re all so lucky to have the opportunity to make such good money in an industry that you can succeed in with as little as a creative mind. Not long ago, our industry didn’t even exist and although most of us are born hustlers, many wouldn’t be where they are today without it.

With Thanksgiving just passing and Christmas around the corner, make sure you take time out of your daily grind to be grateful for everything you have. I don’t just mean in a monetary sense, but also be grateful for all your friends, family, your home, and most importantly your health.

Cheers to anyone out there that sprouted a lip carpet for Movember. And to any of you who missed out on the opportunity to sponsor a mustache, remember that giving is a year-long activity. I encourage you to bust out a couple stacks for one of the charities above or ANY charity that you feel passionate about.

Do make a budget

Whether you are a super affiliate testing with a $100k buy or a beginner using a $50 coupon code to try your first campaign on Facebook - you must take some thought into how you're going to spend your budget. The last thing you want to do is turn on a campaign…blow the entire budget in an hour…and end up with no where near enough data to optimize you campaign and then be stuck with a big loss on your investment.

Make sure to get at least a few full days of traffic, some offers do better in the morning or have significant fluctuations on conversion during the weekend. Also make sure you have enough spend to get significant data; if the offer you are running pays out $100 then a test of $150 isn't going to give you near enough traffic to make an educated decision on whether or not to continue.

Don't be lazy

This "don't" includes a couple of main points:
1. Don't give up too early.
Time and time again… I have seen affiliates test a campaign for less than a day and give up… Remember that we are marketers and it's our job to split test, optimize, and maximize ROI. This is especially true in situations where you know the offer is doing well on a traffic source. If you see some conversions on your initial test but have a -50% ROI, chances are if you have any real marketing skill you can change some things or narrow down your demographic to turn it profitable fairly quickly it just takes a little effort.

2. Don't rely on duplication!
After the days when you could make a killing by simply grabbing an Acai/Colon blog from the traffic source your going to test and changing her name from Becky to Helen a lot of affiliates seem to have forgotten about innovation. Just because you see the same ad all the time on your Myspace account doesn't mean it's the only thing that will ever work for that offer. Sure… these can be used to get an idea of how the offer will perform but PLEASE test some new variations and original ads/landers/concepts along with it.

Do talk to your affiliate managers

Shameless plug or not - This is extremely important to get the highest chance for success on the time and money you're putting into testing this new campaign. There are the obvious questions to ask like ‘What's the offers network epc?', but we can usually offer you a lot more to help and useful information than just basic stats. One question I wish I heard more from affiliates is ‘What can you tell me about the advertiser?'… What good is taking the time to set up a campaign and possibly get it profitable just to find out the advertiser hates your traffic and wants you kicked off because you were targeting too young/old/females/minorities or whatever else it might be? The more transparent you are with your (TRUSTED)AM, the better we can help you create a winner that lasts; when we ask where you're thinking of running a campaign, it's genuinely not because we want to steal your campaign! We are asking because we have info coming in daily that can help you stay away from the mistakes others have made or nudge you towards profitable demographics and/or ideas. We are a valuable tool… use us!

Don't Rush

Always remember to do diligent research before going live and take all the steps you can to be prepared for a profitable campaign. (For starters just make sure the links are live…sounds amateur but it happens all the time) Do you think Picasso rushed his paintings? Think of your campaigns as masterpieces; all you have to do is use all the tools, knowledge, and skill at your disposal to sculpt it into a long-term moneymaker!

"In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it."-Michelangelo