Over the past several years, I have been working with a lot of affiliate networks. Personally, what matters most to me is the personal relationship and being appreciated. I would rather work with a group of people I liked, then make an extra 10% with some other company. I want to be able to talk to my affiliate manager and others in the company and share in their success. It’s nice to get a call or an email from someone saying "Wow, You had your best month yet with us! What can we do to help and make this even better?". Sometimes this is how things actually are… but sometimes they aren’t. For instance, I would be making five figures a month with a company for a while, then it slowly tapers off to a few thousand a month… or even into the hundreds. This can happen for a couple reasons, maybe I am focusing more on a new market, or simply found better advertising offers elsewhere. No matter what the size of the company, why let this type of revenue just slip away? Some of these companies that I have experienced this problem with have never made an attempt to contact me. (example: I work with both Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network. While testing different formats and ad placements, when I removed Google Adsense from the site for a few weeks, I never heard anything from them. Yahoo on the other hand had my rep contact me see what they needed to do for us to start pushing high volume again.) First impressions are important, and so are super affiliates… why let them just slip away?

Want to show some appreciation to your super affiliates? Here’s a list of some ideas:

• A lot of super affiliates invest money right back into their web sites and advertising. If you aren’t already, it’s always nice to offer faster payments and direct deposit/paypal to your top affiliates (if not all affiliates). Since we are using our own money and resources, the sooner we get our money, the sooner we can invest it to make us both more.
   
• Incentives are always appreciated. Big or small, it makes a big impression vs. a company that sends just the check. If you can offer your affiliates a prize or gift card for meeting a certain amount of sales/leads/commissions in a time period, this is a great way to motivate affiliates, while showing appreciation.
  (Example: I was the top affiliate for DeezTeez for several months in a row. The revenue made from the sales was nothing compared to the overall revenue generated from the site, but they would send a gift card each month to their top affiliate. I racked several of these up and put them toward the purchase of my new Sony Flat Screen Computer. Knowing that I would be rewarded for sending them sales, and wanting to stay in first place each month made me push this offer even more!)
   
• Another great benefit to both your company and your super affiliates would be to invite them to internet marketing expos and conferences, such as Affiliate Summit, Ad-Tech and EcomExpo. Throwing them a free conference pass will keep them motivated while giving them the opportunity to find new advertising methods and help further your relationship as business partners.

I know a lot of companies have already started with putting these benefits into play, thank you and congrats to you. As more super affiliates express their feelings and networks show appreciation towards their top earners, more networks will follow. Feel free to leave a post on your thoughts or what you would like to see from both sides.