You're listening to the Affiliate Marketing Podcast brought to you by AlfiverseMedia.com. The chapter and verse of everything you need to know about running a successful affiliate program for your business. This is a podcast for digital and affiliate marketers, publishers, networks, agencies, and matec providers who operate, support, or manage affiliate marketing programs around the globe. If you want to launch, scale, and grow a successful affiliate marketing program, you're in the right place. In this podcast, you'll learn how affiliate and partner marketing is constantly changing. And tune in to industry experts who are getting behind our mic to share tactical insights and practical knowledge to help your affiliate program grow. Here you'll discover what's new and trending in affiliate and performance marketing, how to run your affiliate program successfully and gain industry insights from experts and practitioners from around the globe. The truth is, you simply won't find this information anywhere else. Now here's your award-winning affiliate and performance marketing host, an industry veteran, your affiliate marketing guide and the founder of Affiverse, Leanne Johnston.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to the first podcast that I'll be sharing with you in 2024. It's so great to be back behind my desk after taking a really short break this festive season to just unwind, recharge, and take stock of what an enormous growth year 2023 has been for Afiverse and our team. For those of you who haven't met me, I'm your host, Leanne Johnston, the founder of Afiverse and an affiliate marketing nerd. If you're here, new and listening to our podcast for the first time, you're in for a real treat. There's also a heck of a lot of episodes that you need to go back and catch up on. So no time like the present. Subscribe to this channel and never miss a weekly dose of straight talking, affiliate marketing advice, insights, and news for you to tune into. I thought it best to start this year off with a personal note about the key things that I learned running Afiverse as a business. I'll be detailing exactly what I've learned from the things that we accomplished in 2023. Namely, our rebrand to Afiverse. We're now separating our core services into Afiverse Agency, Afiverse Media, and Afiverse Training and Events. The highly commended nomination at the Global Performance Marketing Awards that we received for the client work that we delivered in our affiliate marketing agency. The two incredible virtual learning summits that we delivered Amplify and Elevate, along with the new AM Leaders event, which launched in person at PI Live last year. Ultimately, we're now reaching more than 5,000 people in affiliate marketing around the globe, and we sit in the top 25% of podcasts this year, thanks to all of you lovely listeners, and we're boasting 500 plus five-star reviews, the most for any affiliate marketing podcast on the Apple Podcast charts. We've also trained over 250 affiliate account managers in our AMP coaching program around the world and from companies like Tidio, YOLO Group, Hollywood Bets, Apex Hotels, Pooch and Mutt, Microsoft, Rubet, Omnisend, Oxy Labs, ElfSight, Diablo Media, Workable, AstroPay, Blue Inc. Digital, Open Partners, Titan FX, XMES, LT Partners, IO Digital, Teen FootRare, and CON, just to name a few. We've helped over a hundred affiliate marketing companies via our media agency services and training this year too. And we've doubled our talented team, publishing insightful content, around a thousand pieces of news, interviews, insights, and how-to guides, including 12 masterclasses, webinars, and of course 54 weeks of these podcasts. Reaching more eyeballs across the industry and helping them learn what's new and trending each month in affiliate marketing. That's over a million impressions each month. We've been growing our business despite a tough recessionary climate to compete in. And we did this all with your help and support. And by meeting the needs of our community and our customers to help solve problems and attain measurable results. Now just saying all of that has made me tired. It was quite a lot to take on, and I'm incredibly proud of my team and the service that they've delivered to over 150 brands, agencies, advertisers, and publishers that chose to engage with us over this past year from all parts of the affiliate marketing industry. So in this first episode of season 15, and before we start with a lineup of interviews we've curated as brought to you by our season sponsor, Alpha Affiliates, I want to start with just a few words of gratitude. The first being to my supportive husband, Ben, for allowing me to step forward and follow my goals. To my fellow entrepreneurs and champion supporters, my management team partners, Liana and Chris, the incredible team of affiliate rock stars and make up Affiverse. To Dean, Jeff, Jace, who work tirelessly to bring you this podcast each week, including our obnoxious intro jingle. The gracious industry mentors who have come along at unexpected times to support and uplift our mission into the wider affiliate community. And in no particular order, I'm mentioning these very special people, giving them a shout out of absolute gratitude for their time, sharing their experience, and affording me their counsel and service when I needed it most. Shri, Dennis, Rihanna Asaf, Carol, Shona, Sarah, the real Sarah Bundy, Jim, Linda, Lisa, Patty, Alona, Alex, Christy, Naomi, Florian, Todd, Matt, and Chris, plus all my female leadership tribe at Link Unite. And really there are so many more people that I could mention, but I just don't have enough time. However, you know who you are. I truly, truly appreciate you. Now everyone considers New Year as a time to make new decisions, to set new resolutions. But I find whilst thinking about change and setting new resolutions are a great way to start the month, by the middle of them I'm often too busy to see them adhere to. Maybe they were lost in the last few weeks and then old habits get setting right back in. But we're all human, right? So for me, this year is going to be about a year focused on doubling down on the little things. The things that I can do day to day to deliver to Apha vs. Mission. I'm going to be giving you more of what our clients in our community really need and want. And this might mean that you'll see a few changes on our website coming to you soon. As we deliver more ways to connect and support all of the companies that make up the affiliate marketing ecosystem, we'll also be hosting some pretty awesome events in 2024 that you really should invest in if you're looking to generate new affiliate business, gain more clients, and learn what's new and trending in affiliate marketing. So let's get on with what I've learned from doing all of this in 2023. For me, it was an incredibly busy year. Some would say even too busy. And we did a little too much and lost our perspective at times in our focus and pursuit for global growth. Now that's not altogether a bad thing, but it sure made for a wild ride. And I see and hear a lot of affiliate managers saying the same thing. So I wanted to mention it here and remind you to be strict with your self-preservation this year. We are all working in a very fast-paced industry and taking time out to recharge your body and your mind is so important. In fact, it's something that Liana and I recently covered in our last webinar called The Seven Deadly Sins of Affiliate Managers, which is on our website. So please do go and check that out. I learned to focus on the things that really matter and not get distracted by every idea that comes into our town halls each month. We have an incredibly talented team who want to do more and keep wanting to do better. But doing one thing really well can also make the difference between success and failure. Spreading yourself too thin can just tire you out and it ebbs away at your productivity. As a result, this year, we're starting our road mapping early, and our apps manager is locking it so that we don't get distracted by ideas or ever go off-piste. I learned some hard lessons about running an independently owned business. I'm not afraid to say that I made a few mistakes, but I also learned from them. I procrastinated on big projects before hitting the go button. I hesitated as I was afraid to make a decision and was conscious always of the risks. I also made a few mistakes which I quickly had to rectify and learn from. The point is you have to fail forward. At the time you feel like a fool, but that's the failure that spurs you to grow and learn, and without it, you just won't achieve new successes. So embrace that this year. Be prepared to fail a little because that's when you'll hit the silver lining. Learning is the best way to overcome mistakes, and it definitely makes you stronger. Just like an affiliate manager has to test new sources of traffic and hope for a positive return. I learned to be brave, to take measured risks, and to be comfortable with pivoting if the results didn't work in my favor. I think it's good advice for anyone listening to challenge yourself to do this in the coming year too. You'll be surprised at the results that we'll reveal when you test and learn more frequently. I realize being an entrepreneur is much harder than it looks. There is an image that I saw online recently that totally sums up this journey perfectly. It was a graph, and on it there was an up and down line where you swing from thinking, Yahoo, this is working, to oh my word, we may go bust, and straight back up to yes, we're winning. And this is how you can feel in your affiliate program sometimes too. Especially when algorithms are changing and traffic sources die out. But we'll learn to roll with the punches and always keep carrying on. People will always copy what they deem to be a success. Brands may try to be just like you. They may even mimic your content, your pricing, your promotions, but they will never be you. So stay true to the authenticity that you have and you'll attract the right clients, the right people, the right partnerships that make sense for your business. As an affiliate manager, I want you to be true to your own unique self. Don't try and be someone else that you admire, as that simply won't bring you the authenticity of real connection. People can read through the facade and they'll steer clear from copycat sellers. The world is made of lions and sheep. Which one will you be this year and how will you stop the envy? Go back and listen to that webinar that I mentioned called The Seven Deadly Sins and be conscious from letting envy creep into stopping your productivity. Another lesson I learned is that imposter syndrome is real. I know how affiliates starting out must feel. The hurdle to get new traffic and sustain it when Google is changing its algorithms literally by the month. It can be daunting to start a business and having faith to see your vision through. It takes time to come to terms with the ebb and flow of a startup, and then it makes you focus on stability, which is something I really want to encourage all of you listening in to invest in this year as part of your strategies. Navigating changing markets and building sustainability is key when we come through a recession. Now we spent on brand all the way through this past year, attending over 23 industry events, getting Afiverse seen and heard across this industry. Now that was a big risk for us, but I think one that definitely paid off, considering the achievements and growth rates that I previously mentioned. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and do the things that you think are best and play to the variable outcomes. Too often I see affiliate managers playing it too safe and missing out on really great opportunities to test and grow their programs. So my advice from this lesson is to remain bold, take measured risks, and if you have a good team, support structure, you'll be able to weather any storm that comes your way. I realize that what I want to keep is our clients at the heart of everything that we do. As an affiliate manager, you should be doing the same for your partners. I started Affiverse to help the world to do affiliate marketing better. And that's exactly what I intend to keep doing through our agency, helping brands launch, scale, and grow successful affiliate programs, through our media, sharing industry voices, new ideas and thoughts, showcasing new products, and helping our community to gain access to new business via our events and online trainings. Some of what you'll see will become apparent in the first quarter of this year as we make a few big announcements and product reveals, especially in our media platform. And now a sneak peek at what's in store for you at Afiverse this year. I'm giving you all of our lovely podcast listeners the inside scoop into Afiverse for 2024. Starting with a full revision of our market leading AMP coaching course, which will now be available on demand at any time throughout the year. So you can invest in your affiliate management team as you hire them and give them access to real life expert-led coaching, support, and training. AMP is my exclusive affiliate management coaching program designed for affiliate managers working agency, brand, and network side. It's for anybody who wants to launch and scale and grow a successful affiliate program. Over the last year, I've tested and improved the content through working with a number of companies and people across the industry, helping them to deepen their understanding and knowledge of affiliate performance marketing and refining the content and experiences to perfect it. You may have seen some of these students on LinkedIn as they posted their certificates and shared their experiences of this program too. All of our AMP alumni will be invited to join our membership network to support ongoing program growth as the year moves forward with direct access to industry experts and support from new tools and tech that we're introduced to, giving them a unique edge above their competitors. It's going to be a no-holds bar access to fast-track your performance, and I'm super excited to see this launch. We're going to raise your voices in our first industry survey. So look out for our annual survey coming out in just a few weeks' time, where we aim to get your opinion on the key topics that will impact affiliate programs, affiliate business development, and making connections to help you grow your affiliate partnerships. If you ever wanted to have your say on what you'd like us to deliver, we're putting you at the heart of our planning this year. This is your chance to make your voice heard, to gain access to everything you need to know to run your programs successfully and learn from industry experts who are coming along with Appiverse to help educate the world on performance marketing done better. We're going to be splitting our agency out from our media site to showcase how we are delivering each month for the clients that are trusting us with their affiliate programs to grow. Our affiliate marketing agency has grown exponentially over the last year, and as such, we feel it deserves a home of its own to shine. You'll see our new agency site launched in quarter one, and on it, you'll be able to explore the work that we do, the clients we help, the publishers we partner with, and the platforms that we're certified to help you with in detail. You will literally be able to knock on the front door, ask for the right level of support, and get the help you need to amplify your affiliate program. Tap into our publisher base and access experienced resources to help you expand your program and grow your sales. And then there's our awesome virtual summits. One of my passions is sharing knowledge, insightful, trustworthy, and the stuff that gives you real value. For the past couple of years, we've run our Virtual Amplify and Elevate Summits, where we aim to create the most amazing veteran speakers and bring you content coupled with virtual networking to help you learn how to change and how to increase your performance growth. And through this, we're also building meaningful connections within our community. I cannot stress the value of networking at events like this enough. I want to encourage you all to get out there and start new conversations, build authentic new relationships and invest in your own skills development. If there's one thing I urge you to do this week, it's go and book your on-demand amplified ticket. We're going to be limiting seats at this event and sharing over 20 hours of content, in-depth masterclasses curated from experts that I've sourced from far and wide around the industry. Diorize the 19th and 20th of March right now and come and join us. Tickets cost just £49 to watch all of this at your leisure and on demand. And as for my affiliate marketing trends and predictions for 2024, we're releasing these in just a few short weeks' time. So you'll have to sign up to our newsletter on affiversemedia.com to get the full summary of where I think the future of affiliate marketing is headed, and I promise you it's going to be worth the wait. And lastly, dear listeners, I want to share what's coming up for your listening pleasure on season 15. This season we have a brand new sponsor, Alpha Affiliates, who are bringing you a jam-packed series of content to learn from, unlocking new traffic sources, learning the latest strategies for improving your conversion rates in SEO, understanding the impact of fraud in your programs, which really was a shocker for me. So I hope that you enjoy that episode. Getting behind the psychology of design and how that impacts conversion for affiliates and promotions, as well as how to build a successful career in the year ahead. Just to name a few. This will definitely be a season that keeps you entertained, surprised, and informed with the latest in affiliate marketing. But now I'd like to ask you, what did you learn from reflecting back on 2023? Have you written down any goals that you want to achieve in 2024? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn and share them with me because I'd really love to hear from you and connect not just through audio, but in person too. You can reach out via my LinkedIn or message me directly on lj athiverse.com and let me know how you plan to make the most of your 2024. Thank you so much for listening. I'm gonna leave you with these final words. I'm looking forward to the year ahead, making incremental changes to the way that you work and to be kind to yourself as you grow your affiliate program and learn with us together. See you all really soon. Want to amplify your affiliate program performance? The Amplify Summit is the only affiliate marketing event you need to attend to stay ahead of affiliate trends in 2024. You'll get no sales pictures, just honest advice and answers from industry experts to the questions that you have about affiliate program marketing. Get ready to save the date in your diary as we bring you the biggest and best Amplify Summit yet. Taking place on the 19th and 20th of March 2024, we'll be giving you the inside scope on how to amplify your affiliate program and partner performance. Plus, look at an on-demand ticket for £49, and you'll gain exclusive access to masterclasses, personal group coaching sessions, and all important ask me anything sessions with real live industry experts who will show and tell you how to implement new tactics that drive consistent results. Get your ticket to join us at Amplify Now. Visit AthabasMedia.com and click the button off to Amplify Summit document.
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