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.

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!

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.

Has your affiliate program application been declined? I'll explain why that happened and what you can do to appeal the decision.

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.

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.

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?"

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.