Since coming back from Affiliate Summit Boston my eyes have been opened to the Search Marketing world. It was the first time I have been exposed to so many great Search Affiliates and opportunities. 

According to GroupM, search will make up about 65 to 70 percent of the measured online advertising. If that doesn’t sound like opportunity than I don’t know what does:)

The great thing about Search marketing is it separates the winners from the losers. According to revenue.com “search is an ever changing discipline, fraught with a learning curve that never straightens out.” The way to succeed is to be a student of the game and being passionate about learning and growing in the search channel. 

The great thing about AKMG is we are hungry to have a big piece of that Search percentage. Everyday we are bringing in more unique “Search Friendly” offers, studying and learning about our Search publishers in our network and in the industry. Using everyday to grow, network, and gaining a step ahead of every other network. 

Top notch Search marketers and AKMG have two major things in common: we both have a desire and a plan to be the best. 

So who wants to hop on board?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello

It was definitely the main event this week in the internet marketing world. What can I say about my first Affiliate Summit? It was FANTASTIC! Not only because I got to meet the Affiliates I have been working with the last several months but the amount of new  contacts and connections I got to make. Affiliate Summit is the true bread and butter of strengthening and building relationship with my publishers.

The biggest thing I brought back from the Summit was the electricity of the show, the late nights at the hotel bar, the buzz over our skate decks and all the new faces I had the pleasure of meeting. The show also proved to me that AKMG is a major player to be reckoned with. And we are doing some major things over here so all you Affiliates out there better take notice. Because we are making our way to becoming the Best Network out there.

I want to thank everyone for stopping by our booth and the kind words you all said about our growing company and our sweet skate decks.

If you weren’t able to receive a skate deck at the show be sure to sign up as an affiliate with us and I can ship one out to you right away. Here is the sign up link: AFFILIATE SIGN UP LINK

Chris Mello

A lot of us have heard the term “A-B-C” always be closing, but to be a great closer you have to A-B-L always be learning. To be the best at anything you must continue to learn and learn and learn. Knowledge is power especially in this game. Confidence in any sales job can be derived from two things: knowledge and experience. 

What I love about sales you can never be perfect. But you can sure get good at it really good at it. I focus on the things I can control and then let time and experience catch up. First you must master the fundamentals. A few fundamentals I live by in the affiliate game are:

-Know your offers: How can you sell it if you don’t know about it? Every offer is out there  for a reason, the more you know about all the nuances you about a particular offer the more you can relate it to my affiliate and their audience.

-Don’t tell just ask: The golden rule of sales is “answer a question with a question, not an answer”. If I tell it to you it can be rude or offensive. If I ask and get you to tell me it is the truth. The person who asks the most questions win. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

-Embrace your mistakes: Mistakes are not a good thing they are a great thing. It is the fastest to learn something and the bigger the mistake, the fastest you learn. Not only that but you build nuggets of confidence everytime you fail and overcome it.

Those are some tricks of the trade I have learned over my sales career. What are some of yours? Look people we sell every single day so what are the best techniques or tricks you have?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello 

 We had a company meeting this morning to talk about taking our company to the next level. This topic is not new to me personally but one can never here this enough.“All success in my life begins and ends with me.” That can mean two completely different things by the way that you look at it. It can scare the hell out of you, or it can excite you. Well it should do both.I believe you will never do anything great unless it makes you nervous and you are uncomfortable. You will never make any big changes if you are always comfortable. You have to have that fire in your belly to make to do something BIG! Whether it is out work the next, make that call on your chicken list, or just do something out of the ordinary.Having the power that you and only you can path the way for your future should also excite you. Life can really be whatever you want it to. Life is the ultimate truth. If you set a goal there can only be two outcomes: you either do it or you don’t. And there is three reasons for the outcome: you either want it bad enough and you do whatever it takes to get it, you are all talk and it doesn’t happen, or you never really wanted the goal so you just didn’t make it happen.So people it is all about goals and action. Lets start with short term goals first.Here are 3 of my goals that will be done by next August 2009:1- Pay off my personal debt.2- Take my wife on a trip to Europe.3- Complete a workout called “Fran” in sub 4 minutes (if you don’t know what that means just ask)What are 3 goals you want to accomplish in the next year? What actions are you willing to take to make that happen?I would love to know.Talk to me,Chris Mello

   How well do you work with your co-workers/team? I have only worked with a couple different companies in my life and I can tell you that surrounding yourself with the right team vs the wrong team makes all the difference in the world. Having the right people with the right energy surrounding you can be the difference between mediocre and #1 in the industry!Here at AKMG I believe we have a group of superstars that actually work well together and we have a group that can accomplish amazing things together.Our leadership is phenomenal. They have a lot of experience and are great role models to look up to. They are some of the most successful, dedicated, hard working, reliable, and do whatever it takes to get the job done people I know.Our staff is amazing: Our account executives are the bomb. Talk about ‘on it’. They are some of the only people I know that can have 50 things going on and always get the job done. Our affiliate management department and we know how to take care of our Affiliates like no other network. Our director of technology is a wizard with any technology question or issue and he always solves the problem fast! And last but not least is our executive assistants are always a step ahead of everyone with any administrative task.We are not only the best CPA Network in the industry, but we have a ton of fun doing what we do. If you want to meet us and see for yourself. Then I suggest you stop by our booth at Affiliate Summit Boston in August and if your nice we may give you a phat skate deck too.Now that I described my team, who is you team? Do you work well with your fellow peeps or not (you don’t have to mention any names)?Talk to me,Chris Mello

Networking is the name of the game in any business. Any type of business is built on networking yourself and your company every single day. I make networking such a priority that is takes up almost half of my work day.Up until Affiliate Summit Boston in August all of my networking was been over the phone or online. Online networking was at its best 1 1/2 weeks ago with the online expo. It was a virtual online conference and I had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of affiliates in the comfort of my office. It was great because you could contact hundreds of people at a time. If I had a connection with a person I could continue to talk with and set up a follow up after the show. If I didn’t have a connection with someone I could just not answer back to them and quickly move on to the next one. All in all it was a worth while experience.The next major networking event for me will be Affiliate Summit Boston in August. I have heard this is going to not only be a major event to build my clientele but a lot of fun in the process. I will be able to meet a lot of affiliates I have been talking with over the last few months face to face. As well as a ton of new prospects. The great thing about in-person networking is an affiliate can meet the real Chris Mello. I feel I can make a real connection with people in-person and make a much more solid relationship.So my question to you affiliates: “Is it better for you (Affiliate) to meet someone like me (an Affiliate Mgr.) in-person?” or “Do you feel more comfortable just networking online?” In-person you get the benefit of meeting face to face and get a good sense of the person. Networking online you don’t get the in-person connection but you can potentially meet a lot more people at one time.So what do you think Affiliates? Face to face or over the web?Talk to me,Chris Mello

For those of us who are on the fast track to success. Putting in a ton of hours making calls, prospecting, emailing, closing deals is an everyday occurrence. So as we are hammering it day in and day out the question arises of: How do you break up your day?Do you go non stop for 16 hours straight? (I suggest you shouldn’t or you will go…insane)Do you workout? A workout can be a great option especially for all of us that sit for a majority of the day. It can get the blood flowing and recharge you for the rest of the day.Do you read? Some people feeling reading is great because it can be very relaxing and calm you down especially when the day is hectic.Here at AKMG we have quite a few “out-of-the-box” ideas we are implementing to keep us fresh and energetic throughout the day to hit our numbers. Here is an example of a typical week:Monday:  to kick off the week!Tuesday:  to cool off.Wednesday:  Remember our skateboards? Well we use hooverboards at the office.Thursday:  We have our celebrity friends stop by to hang outFriday:  We are just happy its Friday!Now that you know the secrets to our success what’s yours? How do you break up your day?Talk to me,Chris Mello

Lately I have been gearing most of my day to prospecting new affiliates for AKMG. So I am siting in my living room watching the Track and Field US Olympic Trials and I started thinking…does my quest to find the best affiliates on the planet have to be a sprint or an endurance race?

Well I think both.

When I think of building a great affiliate business sprinting and endurance must go together. Sprinting, to make the most out of each work day. A goal I set for myself this month to contact 50 new affiliates a day. Now if have the endurance and stay consistent that could be 12,500 contacts I make in a 1 year period. Not too bad. I’m sure I will come across some great affiliates along the way.

Our sprint vs. endurance mindset also happens in other areas of our life. One thing I love to do is workout. People will always ask me, “How do I lose this?” or “How do I lose that?”. They think if you workout hard for a couple of weeks you should have amazing results! The truth is it takes the daily hard work (sprint) and the consistent habit over time (endurance) to build anything great business, health, relationship, etc…

So what do you think affiliates? Do you have that sprinters mindset? How long do you think it takes to build a successful affiliate business?

Talk to me,

Chris

The question was posed to me this week, and it really threw me back and made me think. The affiliate industry as we all know is a BIG TIME business otherwise why would we be in it….right? The competition is fierce, and if you want to be at the top of the food chain you must have that one thing that separates you from the pack.  What is that exactly? I have a few ideas:

WORK ETHIC. Are you willing to put in the long hard hours to get the job done? Are you willing to take your business to the next level? Personally,  I have to love my job to get to the next level. Because I do love my job,  I get to new levels every day and I make huge strides to take my affiliates with me.

PERSISTENCE. Your ability to not stop until the job is complete even if it takes 50, 100, 1000 contacts to get that next BIG client. In my mind, affiliates will only know who you are if you tell them. There is no other way around it. If I’m bugging you, its because I want you to make money!

FOCUS. I was watching one of my favorites TV shows this week, The Big Idea , with Donny Deutsch on CNBC.  On the show he had a very successful Navy Seal and when he was asked what makes him successful, he said, “you have to be totally focused on your goal”. Distractions may slow you down and  take you off course, but if you stay laser focused you will win. With all the distractions of AIM, email, phone calls, company meetings, etc. this business can be very difficult to remain focused.

TALENT. God given gifts that you have been given. Do you use all your talent to reach your full potential? Some might say some people are more talented then others. They may have a point, but I believe each of us do have that one special talent that separates us. Some people find this talent, and some people never do. My talent in this business is adapting to everyone’s personality. If you are hyper; I can be hyper back. If you are quiet; I can tone it down. I feel making people comfortable is key when communicating.

Those are a few of my favorites. So what is yours? Talk to me Affiliates.

What separates you from the next guy or gal out there? There is lots of competition!

What is your work ethic? What makes you persistent? How do you stay focused daily? What kind of talent do you have?

What are your thoughts?

Talk to me,

Chris

As I start my 5th week here at AKMG I’m starting to get more comfortable each day with my internet lingo, my co-workers and especially my Affiliates. We had our Monday morning conference call this week and the topic came up about “what separates one Affiliate Manager from the next?” Obviously hard work, keeping your promises, being available, etc….but what can really separate you from the rest of the pack? Having Fun! Let’s be honest everyone, a good Affiliate gets inundated with tons of emails and phone calls daily. What do you think they would respond to? Would it be a normal email that says what every other email says (we are the best network, we are wonderful, run offers with us!), or an upbeat energetic Affiliate manager that always has something interesting to say?

Let’s take it one step further, I pose the question to the Affiliates affiliates of the world:

What’s the most interesting gift or idea that an Affiliate Manager has done for you?

Whether its prospecting you, trying to get you to run that hot new offer etc…

Is it flowers, candy, a singing telegram or a skateboard (haha)?

What is it? Let me know… I’m interested to hear your response.

Have a great week!

Chris