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December 6, 2018
The entire Apogee team will attend Affiliate Summit West 2019 in Las Vegas. We will have a suite at the Paris Hotel for meetings with affiliates on Monday, January 7.
August 14, 2018
I've published two ebooks on affiliate management and spoken at many affiliate-related conferences, giving other managers tips and tricks on how to succeed. Nine years since the first management-related blog post on this site, my goal here is to distill all that into ten commandments that all affiliate managers should follow.
May 14, 2018
The agreements between Apogee merchants and the affiliates need to be simple and readable. Affiliates need to understand what they can and cannot do in our programs. This video details the entire agreement and gives further explanation on some points.
March 28, 2018
For this installment of Affiliate Voices we're interviewing our friend Eric Nagel in his tiny, tiny-ceilinged room. Eric is a Partner at Rust Built, the owner of several companies including the Type-A Parent conference. Eric covered his history in the digital marketing industry and talked about the upcoming conference for Type-A this September.
March 20, 2018
During the first week of April, Christen Evans and I will be in Chicago for ThinkTank, meeting with affiliates and talking about our managed programs on the ShareASale network. We are setting up meetings now through the Pathable social network.
March 15, 2018
The Apogee Affiliates private group on Facebook hit 500 members yesterday. It was a milestone we aimed to meet a few months ago while increasing our education and activation campaigns. We focused on promoting through our monthly newsletters only and verifying that members actually belong to our managed programs.
February 21, 2018
Kicking off the Affiliate Voices video series is Wade Tonkin, affiliate manager for Fanatics.com. He and his team manage about thirty other programs on the ShareASale network. Wade has been in the affiliate marketing industry since 1999, and we discuss his history and some of the stops he made along the way.
February 13, 2018
Twice monthly Apogee will bring you the voices of the affiliate marketing industry. Our 15-minute interviews aim to educate, inspire, and entertain. The first episode leans into that third aspect, as we interview... us. Call it a dry run, or step one, for the series.
January 19, 2018
This year, the Apogee team will continue its robust recruiting efforts. We are also committed to stepping up our affiliate education and activation services in addition to recruitment. 2018 will see the rise of the Apogee YouTube channel as well, so be sure to subscribe!
January 12, 2018
This time on Apogee Live, Christen and Daniel lead a discussion about #ASW18. It's our Affiliate Summit West 2018 recap! Our panel covered what they liked about the show, what they got out of the event, and lots more.
January 12, 2018
One of the services we offer at Apogee is a tune-up for affiliate programs that need optimization but not long-term management. In October, a merchant hired us for a two-month tune-up and the results are so magnificent that we had to share them with the world.
January 4, 2018
As we approach Affiliate Summit West 2018, I wanted to take some time to remind friends, colleagues, acquaintances, affiliates, merchants and managers in this industry, who we are. What does Apogee stand for? Why do we do the things we do?
December 21, 2017
I'm proud to announce Apogee is represented on the finalists list of the 2018 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. Our client, Snake River Farms, is a finalist for Exceptional Merchant of the Year. Apogee is a finalist for OPM/Agency of the Year and I am a finalist for Affiliate Manager of the Year.
December 15, 2017
It's about that time of year again! Affiliate Summit West 2018 is coming up in four weeks and Apogee will be in attendance. Greg and Christen will be taking meetings with affiliates, attending sessions, and making the most of this fantastic annual event.
November 10, 2017
In 2015, I added a modest two-tier model to all of the programs we manage at Apogee. Twelve years ago, two-tier commissions were popular but in decline. I brought them back to Apogee-managed programs, and today, the default two-tier commission is a $2 flat payout when a referred application is approved. We've paid out 100 bonuses this year.
September 27, 2017
This is a quick case study based on one of our Apogee clients. I want to prove to other merchants that growth is possible when the right strategy, a content-focused affiliate strategy, is put in place. I'm deliberately choosing a summer month, June, because this is the typical low point for this client. We still showed growth. Q4 numbers account for 59% of the overall sales all year. Let's see how June did.
September 22, 2017
Has your affiliate program application been declined? I'll explain why that happened and what you can do to appeal the decision.
September 15, 2017
Apogee Live returned from summer break with a great conversation with Brian Littleton, CEO of the ShareASale affiliate network. And he sings!
June 20, 2017
Our second new program announcement this month is Serenity Health & Home Decor, exclusive to the ShareASale network. Serenity Health provides more than 4,500 products from firepits to fountains to outdoor living furniture. Water is a central theme as they have an extensive selection of fountains with a wide range of competitive prices. The program is poised for growth for the rest of the year so the time to join Serenity Health & Home Decor is right now.
June 9, 2017
The discussion was Finding the Right Merchants on Apogee Live this week, as Greg walked us through his method of window shopping affiliate programs from an affiliate's perspective. What should an affiliate look for in a merchant partner? What are the red flags? We looked at programs in the ShareASale network.
May 10, 2017
Affiliates complain regularly about shrinking affiliate commissions in their favorite programs across the industry. The trend is to lower payouts, reduce the tracking gap (cookie) and/or limit the number of products eligible for commissions. The ones speaking up are bloggers, datafeeders or SEO affiliates. They say brands aren't listening to them and they don't know how to reverse the trend.
May 8, 2017
On April 29th, I delivered the keynote at the Type-A West 2017 conference in Denver. I called it Plan Your Next Evolution. The inspiration came from my love of writing with pencils and notebooks. Everyone in attendance walked away with an Apogee branded Field Notes notebook and pencils from my personal collection.
March 10, 2017
This week we invited Gerri Becker from The California Wine Club to participate in our Apogee Live conference call. Want to learn all about The California Wine Club, how to promote them, and the benefits of being their affiliate? Check out our recording of the conference call up on our YouTube channel or right here on our blog.
February 24, 2017
Our conference call this week was about datafeeds: how to get them, manipulate them, and make use of them. The call clocked in at about 45 minutes, and you can view the recording here or on our YouTube channel. If you'd like to participate in our next conference call, March 8th, join our Facebook group!
February 17, 2017
This week on Apogee Live, we discussed attribution in the affiliate channel. It's a hot topic and reflects my recent article in Practical Ecommerce. The call was a tight 37 minutes, with lots of great information. We might be getting the hang of this.
February 9, 2017
Yesterday, we started something new and exciting at the agency. We recorded our first Apogee Live affiliate meeting using Zoom, a video conferencing service. You can view that meeting on our new YouTube channel, and that first meeting is available to watch here at ApogeeAgency.com.
January 10, 2017
This morning, January 10th, 2016, marks the end of an era. ShareASale, the third-largest affiliate marketing network in the United States, has been acquired by global network Affiliate Window. We at Apogee would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to ShareASale for fifteen years of exemplary network management and industry leadership.
November 17, 2016
You must have patience to be successful in affiliate marketing; you must also ask questions, always. I'm not suggesting you act like a four-year-old and repeatedly ask why why why why why without waiting for, or paying attention to, the answers. But you need as much information as possible to make decisions on strategy and direction.
November 10, 2016
The number one piece of advice I can give to anyone interested in affiliate marketing is to have patience. This is a long-term investment and strategy.
November 9, 2016
Over the past decade or so, Google began by helping datafeed affiliates become rock stars but then systematically killed them. Some of our past affiliates with successful product promotions are no longer in the industry—that's how bad it became. Naturally, an affiliate today shouldn't bother with datafeeds or running a datafeed-driven website, right? Well, hold on. Don't be too hasty.
September 26, 2016
Affiliate marketing isn't easy. It takes time, resources and dedication. It's not something you can learn overnight and start making money with immediately. Normally, when I write about unrealistic expectations, I write about merchants—in fact, a chapter of my book is about just that. Today, I'm talking to affiliates—new affiliates, mainly. I'm talking to affiliates who might have some wild ideas about how quickly they can make six figures in this industry but have discovered that their unrealistic expectations led to disappointment. Affiliates who might be asking, "does affiliate marketing work?"
September 22, 2016
By now you may have heard at least a little about Conversion Lines technology from ShareASale. We mentioned the technology recently in our client announcements and every client newsletter that has gone out in August had two paragraphs about them. Maybe you saw some industry connections talking about them on Facebook, or on Twitter. We at Apogee are big believers in the power of attribution rules, and today, I'm going to teach you how it works to make the landscape more fair for everyone.
June 22, 2016
Holiday preparation in Q3 is the key to winning Q4, and with Q3 only about a week away, the time to start thinking about it is now. Apogee is looking for a repeat of a great 2015, and we're not procrastinating.
March 21, 2016
After seven years of award-winning affiliate program management, Greg Hoffman Consulting is rebranding today to Apogee, a performance marketing agency. The evolution of what was once a one-man shop with a handful of successful programs, Apogee is now a full team of experts managing major national brands such as Firestone Complete Auto Care, Sears PartsDirect and Snake River Farms.
February 25, 2016
In September 2015, I met with NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, a man with a larger than life personality and one of the stars of a show I watched religiously in the early 1980's: That's Incredible. It was an honor to be in his presence and to listen to him talk about business and life. To say that I’m a fan is an understatement.
January 19, 2016
Much to my surprise, I was nominated and chosen as a finalist for both the Affiliate Marketing Advocate and Affiliate Manager of the Year Pinnacle Awards at Affiliate Summit West 2016. More than that, I was shocked to actually win the Affiliate Marketing Advocate award at the presentation last week!
December 31, 2015
A quick scan of the ShareASale Top 100 PowerRank will show you a handful of programs that are on Auto Approve. It makes sense that this is possible but I'd like to share the hazards of this type of mismanagement. It's like having 32 cavities behind a pretty smile. It's not something to brag about.
November 17, 2015
Merchants and managers that need to understand the affiliate marketing channel have a new resource for best practices. A new book published by Greg Hoffman Consulting, Climbing […]
October 29, 2015
In October 2005, the E-commerce Director at Thompson Cigar took a chance and hired me as the internet marketing manager. I'm grateful to Mike Masse for […]
October 23, 2015
When I started as an affiliate manager in 2005, two-tier bonuses were all the rage. I saw them as a great tool but the ongoing percentage […]
September 15, 2015
I am unapologetic about my love for the ShareASale affiliate network. From the top down, it is the best network in the affiliate industry. But with […]
September 3, 2015
On July 31, we announced we were taking over the 1stinCoffee affiliate program on eBay Enterprise Network. Today I can announce that we are live on […]
July 31, 2015
Greg Hoffman Consulting has been called in to rescue a great brand's affiliate program. Our task is to find content affiliates for 1st in Coffee. The […]
March 24, 2015
Welcome to a Special Edition of our 4,294-Part series, What, More About Datafeeds? presented by Greg Hoffman Consulting. I'm your loyal Tech Monkey, Daniel. Today it’s […]
March 16, 2015
Welcome to Part Four of our 3-Part series, Datafeeds of the Rich and Famous presented by Greg Hoffman Consulting and starring me, Robin Leach. Four articles […]
November 21, 2014
From the manager's perspective, I don't thank my affiliates enough. Sure, I thank you for your promotions and your efforts and your successes. But, I really want to thank […]
May 15, 2014
We love our affiliates, big and small. I keep hearing stories of frustration from affiliates that have been removed or declined because of their size or […]
April 15, 2014
GHC affiliates who are signed up with The California Wine Club on ShareASale may have noticed that we have been working on custom commission structures over […]
January 31, 2014
Daniel M. Clark will join Greg Hoffman Consulting next week as it's Tech Manager. Daniel has spent the last year on a remote island writing the […]
August 16, 2013
If every affiliate program was managed like a fantasy baseball team, the industry would be vastly different. Of course, the same could be true if every […]