Rick Gardiner
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Rick Gardiner

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About Rick Gardiner

Rick Gardiner is the CEO of iAffiliate Management, an affiliate management agency that helps consumer technology and internet retailers extend their brand to acquire customers they could not otherwise reach.

Rick Gardiner's latest articles

Customer experience

2013: The Year Of Affiliate Attribution?

You’ve probably read a thing or two about affiliate attribution in a trade publication or heard it mentioned at industry events. Affiliate attribution is one of the hottest and most controversial topics in the performance marketing industry today, and many Internet retailers are trying to figure out the best approach. Not only is it a […]

Customer experience

What Resources Do Your Affiliates Need?

I was recently asked by an industry colleague about resources they should be making available to their affiliate partners and what affiliates want and need to be more successful. My colleague had seen channel partner and reseller programs with robust portals that included product 1-pagers, sell-sheets, etc., that was made available to approved partners. But, […]

Customer experience

Choosing An Affiliate Network For Your Business

When’s the last time you went shopping around for a new affiliate network? Everyone’s heard of the big networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Google Affiliate Network, etc. — but what about the others? Without searching too hard, you can find hundreds of different affiliate networks on the Web with new ones popping up daily. CPA […]

Customer experience

Affiliate Management: 5 Ways To Improve Your Affiliate Relationships In 2013

If you’ve researched affiliate management and the factors that contribute to a successful affiliate marketing program, you’ve likely read that the relationship is a key component. Like any relationship, you need to start somewhere. Sometimes, you are starting from scratch; other times, you may have a pre-existing relationship that you can build upon and make better. […]

Customer experience

Multi-Channel Marketing: Working With Affiliates And Resellers

For software and consumer technology companies, working with affiliates and resellers can quickly become a cross-channel tug-o-war if there’s not a clear multi-channel marketing strategy for both channel partner programs. Having a game plan for both channels will ensure partners are participating in the program best suited for their business while minimizing cannibalization and channel […]

Customer experience

Publisher Perspective: Choosing An Affiliate Program

The final Affiliate Summit of 2012 wrapped up this week in New York City. One of the things I truly enjoy about these conferences is being able to catch-up with partners, colleagues, and friends in the industry. This year’s event was no exception, as I had the opportunity to spend time with industry veteran and […]

Customer experience

Improve Your Affiliate Program ROI

I had coffee with the affiliate manager of a local retailer recently and we talked about some of the challenges facing internet retailers, whether they’re managing an established or mature affiliate program. Early stage affiliate programs are often a new revenue stream contributing to ecommerce growth, a lead generation mechanism for your sales force, or […]

Customer experience

How Performance Marketing Is Influencing The Next Generation Of Internet Startups

There have been several interesting announcements in the last week for the next wave of internet startups. While Facebook’s IPO and subsequent lawsuit has been at the forefront, social sharing site Pinterest made a splash last week when they announced raising $100 million from Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten. Rakuten, the parent company Buy.com and Linkshare, […]

Customer experience

Differentiating Your Affiliate Program

A few weeks ago there was a great column in Marketing Land that talked about how to size up your affiliate program against the competition using nine key components and creating a competitive matrix to analyze the results. Staying on the pulse of the competitive landscape is critical in affiliate marketing given the fluid nature […]

Customer experience

Best States To Live As An Affiliate Marketer

Whether affiliate marketing is your “day job” or just a supplemental income; there are several factors that should be considered when deciding the best place to establish and run your performance marketing business. I was recently reading an article about the best states to make a living in and it got me thinking: what are […]

Customer experience

Creating The Best Affiliate Tools For Your Affiliate Program.

Affiliate tools can be a great mechanism to increase affiliate activation, revenue, and retention.  Searching for useful affiliate tools online, however, can be discouraging and frustrating as most searches that include Affiliate Tools in the query return results are ridden with Get-Rich-Quick books and affiliate marketing “systems”. As an affiliate manager, it is often challenging […]

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