How to Keep Your Affiliate Marketing Business Organized

I'm fairly anal about keeping my business, and almost
all aspects of my life, well-organized. For example,
open my closet and you'll see my clothes sorted by
garment type and color (according to the spectrum from
white to black). Sick, eh? How about a food cupboard
sorted into soups, veggies, snacks, sauce mixes, pasta
and rice, etc? Oh ya, and the labels ARE turned out.
Are you ready to have me committed yet?

Wait just a moment, please. There's method in my
madness... really and truly. Surely you know people
who can't organize their way out of a paper bag. They
come home and leave their keys in a different place
each time. Then whenever they want to go out, they
need to spend 5 minutes searching for their keys...
and/or shoes, or jacket, or paperwork...

What a huge a waste of life!

I use the term 'life' because life is comprised of,
and measured by, time. Nothing is more precious than
time and making each of your moments count. Spending
time on trivial matters like looking for keys when you
could be having fun with friends and family, helping
others through your business, saving the planet, or
even taking a nap - is a waste of time. Likewise,
looking for a merchant's affiiliate interface login
and password when you want to install one of their
links on your site, is a waste of time. Scrap
that...it's a waste of time to have to look for the
link itself. All the details relating to your
affiliate marketing business need to be at right at
your fingertips.

I stay organized by keeping everything in one big
Excel file accessed from my desktop. The file has a
number of worksheets, each with its own set of
information. All the programs I'm affiliated with are
listed on one worksheet, with headings for program
name, username/ login, password, network association
(if any), primary links, my own redirect links, broker
(2nd tier) links, link for the affiliate interface,
manager's name and contact info, commission rate and
other important info. Another sheet logs all monies
owed and received, and allies income by program and
category, as well as by month and year. On another
worksheet I've listed software information including
purchase date, registration numbers and login details.
Still another keeps track of information for
subscriptions such as forums and membership sites.

Everytime I come up with an article idea, it gets
entered on the 'Article Ideas' worksheet. There's yet
another sheet with a list of article submission sites.
I log interview, presentation, and teleconference
dates and details in that file. Testimonials and
success stories have their own separate sheets. The
Net Profits Today newsletter is laid out in advance on
another sheet, with suggestions for topics and
articles. Last but not least, my project (to-do) list
is on another worksheet, filed by domain name and
sorted by date due.

The 'Big File' is always open.

When I join a program, the details get entered right
away. While reading my email, I cut and paste
testimonials right into the file, and jot ideas for
future NPT topics ... as they pop up. My site files
are organized by domain name - not generic terms like
'dating site', or 'book site', as I've seen some
webmasters do. As soon as I join a program I enter all
the details on the relevant sheet, and create a
redirect link, which I know I'll use if I promote the
product via email.

I create email filters for every webmaster I do
business with, and messages go straight into their
personal folder. One quick filter - no more filing.

Setting up - and keeping up with - such a system may
seem like a lot of work. It's not. Do it often enough
and it becomes second nature. Staying organized sure
beats the heck out of wasting five minutes trying to
find the email with that merchant's affiliate program
login information just so you find your affiliate
links.

About The Arthur

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling
"Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year
Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too
can suceed in Internet and affiliate marketing, get your:
"Super Affiliate Handbook"

David Hudson, webmaster of webcashlink,
business articles author, and a successful affiliate,
can help you with your online business.
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