Business
In this edition of the Affiliate Buzz, host and Instructor of the Affiliate Marketers BootCamp, James Martell, is joined by his wife Arlene, who has been away for a few weeks. In this edition they mainly discuss how you can manage a remote team to expand your business quickly. To start with however, they talk about the 2015 Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas being held at the Paris Hotel. The Affiliate Summit began in 2003; the inaugural meeting was attended by 150 people. James was unable to attend the first summit. He also couldn't attend the latest held in New York. When he can’t attend he is actively watching the Twitter conversation. The next summit will be held between January 18th and 20th. It is expected 5000 people will attend the event. Those interested can receive a special discount on the VIP access passes. Many affiliates think the cost is too high; but as has been previously mentioned on Affiliate Buzz Episode 329 these fees can be written off against your taxes. At the same time as going to these conferences, James and Arlene take a little breakation in the area. They have been many times before. On a previous visit, James and Arlene drove to Death Valley. Arlene believes the area is beautiful although it can be a little spooky because there is limited lighting along the highways. The highlight of the trip was visiting Scotty’s Castle and seeing a huge crater, which they were told about but happened upon almost by accident. Both James and Arlene really do recommend this area for getting away from it all. One of their suggestions is to go to the summit and then take two or three days out afterwards for a mini holiday. The Biggest Mistake Of Affiliates Arlene states the biggest mistake affiliates make is not being organized enough with their work, passcodes and usernames. In a business where a single affiliate can have literally dozens of codes, being organised is a must. James believes the biggest mistake for affiliates is them thinking they have to know how to do everything themselves before hiring an expert. James states that it takes too long to do any task this way and the quality is never at the level to yield the best returns. That is why he states you need to build and manage a team. One of James’ favorite statements and pieces of advice is: do what you do best and outsource the rest. During the episode, James and Arlene will discuss the following: What the problems are with doing the majority of the work yourself. What the advantages are with growing a team for your business and hiring professionals. Why Elance can be a really effective marketplace for finding the talent your business needs. Who James and Arlene hire to support their business operations. What the 15 minute rule is. To help manage this, James and Arlene use a tool called Basecamp. They have talked about Basecamp previously on Affiliate Buzz, episode 338. James and Arlene love Basecamp. The site offers a 60 day free trial without the need of a credit card. Everyone who they hire on Elance is immediately added to Basecamp. It helps with the management of projects as tasks can be assigned with specific deadlines. There are also options available for discussions and files on the system. If you do a lot of similar projects you can also create a template as a guide. This can save you a significant amount of time. James and Arlene have 180 to-dos set up in their template for starting a new website. Arlene and James both found the tool very easy to use and state their team members also find the system intuitive. Who Should An Affiliate Hire? Affiliate marketers should hire a number of professionals to support their business ventures. One of the first positions they should hire is a writer. These are people who can help with a blog post, auto-responder series and web copy. There are a number of different types of writers who write different content. It is also important to hire a graphics designer a...