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.

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.

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.

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!