In today’s chaotic and demanding world, it is easy to complicate things. We often over think situations and in doing so, lose money, lose trust and in most regret, lose relationships. If we only turned back the clocks of time and reminded ourselves that the most basic events can create the best opportunities. As Robert Fulghum stated (paraphrased), take what you learned in the sandbox in Kindergarten and apply it to life and everything will be much more pleasant.

“Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life.”

- Robert Fulghum

All of these simple rules can easily be applied to our daily life and make work more interesting, profitable and most importantly, fun.

The busier I get, the more important it is for me to set goals for myself. Whether it be training for a triathlon, getting better at beach volleyball or setting work goals, they are all necessary so I can get to the next level. When I don’t set goals I often see the days pass by like lightning and wonder where the time went.

I also find this is necessary when working with our affiliates. Not only do I try to set monetary goals with them, but also personal goals. For instance, one of my affiliates has a goal to stop smoking. Every once in a while I ask if he is getting closer to quitting. In the same way, I want to help affiliates reach their monetary goals with AKMG each month so they can earn a lot more money than they ever expected. Just as the saying goes, “if you aim at nothing, you will hit nothing.” So lets all challenge ourselves and aim high – at least we will get farther than we ever did and have fun in the process!

Working on the advertiser’s side of the fence for two years has created a sense of bias in regards to maintaining brand reputation and avoiding any chance of shattering a strong brand name. I have always looked out for the advertiser, never understanding how much brand development goes on the affiliate’s side of the business, until now.

It is essential for a successful business to have a good reputation, build consumer trust and create a sense of loyalty. It is understood that the advertiser should build loyalty with their consumers, but the affiliate must do the same in order to maintain their user base. When an advertiser uses the affiliate list name, there may be a higher opening rate due to customers trusting the source of where the traffic is sent from; the list they have grown to know and trust. This is when balance is needed. Most advertisers have a need for affiliates so their products or services reach millions of potential consumers. In the same way, affiliates need advertisers so they have great offers to provide to their users.

Bottom line, it is essential to have both a strong brand name and a trusted affiliate list. Both take a lot of work to develop and are essential in potential leads or sales - which is the goal for all of us in this industry.

What a week! Offers streaming in, flying across the country to attend AdTECH and trying to maintain normality in the day to day workload in the beautiful city of Miami. Kim and I arrived in Miami late Friday evening and began our weekend of meetings (and of course a little relaxation and fun), only to realize this could be the week of total chaos, because MY PALM TREO CRASHED AND BURNED!!

We never realize how attached we are to our phones and PDA’s until they are left at home, they break or are lost. Until that moment, everything is cool and in control, we are not reliant on any technical device…. but soon the truth is exposed. You leave for work and reach over to call someone, realizing your phone is on your counter at home. Panic sets in, your heart begins to race. You try to keep your cool, but then immediately decide to turn around to retrieve your phone (completely ignoring the fact you are going to be late for work). Well, that was me this weekend, but I was on the other side of the country, two hours away from any Sprint store that could fix my phone and a scooter for transportation (forget about scooting two hours away!), so my options were limited.

Since I am not the patient type, there was no way I was going to wait until my return to get a new Palm Treo (which I hate anyways). I quickly Googled my nearest AT&T store in search of a new carrier and a new phone….why not get the sleek Curve while I wait 30 days for the new 3G iPhone that I’ve had my eye on for a while. I guess this Curve will do until I get the coveted iPhone….yes…THEN everything will be OK.

It’s crazy how much you can be into something when you get the opportunity to be in the middle of the mix.  You may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about….. LAKERS BABY!  I just found out my boyfriend bought the both of us tickets to the game!!!  We will be sitting in the schnazzy section where  we will be able to see the actual striations of the players muscles (pretty cool).  Don’t get me wrong, I like basketball (during the playoffs), but it is a whole different ball game when you get to go sit in the middle of the madness!  To say I’m excited is an understatement.  I don’t get too many opportunities like this, so I definitely had to jump on this one.

This got me thinking about opportunities that our affiliates have when hot offers come along -seizing the moment, getting the first stab at sending a fresh offer to their list(s) or placing it on their site when the offer is fresh and new.  I see a lot of good campaigns come along and wonder if this one will be the next winner.  Is the page bright enough?  Is the payout competitive?  Will it fit many of the lists or websites out there?   The cool thing about AKMG is we have a goal of setting ourselves apart from the others networks out there.   We want to have unique offers that are not over saturated and (do I dare to say)… stale.  By no means am I saying all other offers have those qualities, but it is nice when they can be set apart from the rest.   This is one thing we will do – give all of you great opportunities to make a lot of money through our network – and make it enjoyable in the process.

We recently moved our office from the back of the building to the front, so now we are overlooking lovely 3rd Street Promenade. For those of you that don’t know about the Promenade, it is like a classier Venice Beach with all the well known clothing stores, restaurants and of course the famous street acts.

I grew up in Los Angeles, so I made many trips to 3rd street, but it is a little different when you work where all the action is day in and day out. To give you an idea of what we experience everyday at AKMG, here is a youtube video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5_MpvnxpTaE

This office location is a perfect fit for the group at AKMG, because our staff is so full of energy. For example, if you read the Josh’s blog, who is head of tech, you will see he was in the Blue Man Group, so you see, it’s a perfect fit! If any of you make it out to Santa Monica, we would be more than happy to show you our office and put you in the center of the non-stop entertainment.

Well, its just about my second week at AKMG and I am finally starting to get the hang of things. It is very exciting to start fresh with a young energetic company and learn about the affiliate side of our industry. To give you a little history, I have been in the affiliate marketing space for a few years now and have had experience working on the advertiser side of things, but never had a chance (UNTIL NOW!) to work with the affiliates. I have wanted to work on this side of the industry for a while, so I am looking forward to delving into it – learning about all the different affiliates; what their likes are, about their families, and of course find out how I can help them run the offers that will work best for their type of traffic. My goal at AKMG is to help everyone make the most money possible and have a great time doing it. I look forward to working with each of you daily and meeting you at Affiliate Summit Boston this August.