Lack of Threads in this Forum

[Mark Robbins]

I realize that I am new here, but I am curious as the the lack of threads in this forum, or at least recent postings. Is this the result of a lack of AM's and Merchants or simply that no one has anything to discuss?

Seems to me that this forum should be a constant exhange of information and ideas. Am I mistaken?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well a couple things I think...

1st the ratio of AMs to affiliates is probably 8,000 to 1. If you look at any of the other affiliate forums they have very few AM posts proportionately to aff posts.

This forum tends to cater to and be an affiliate how-to forum. There was one forum that was only for AMs. They stopped it due to lack of interest.

Also most AMs tend to be pretty busy. If you can't even keep up with apps and newsletters you aren't going to have time for forum discussions. I think too AMs tend to want to look like they have all the answers so to come to a forum with thousands of affiliates to admit they don't know something or to ask for help is not likely.

I WISH there were more discussions among AMs here and it does happen at times,
but sorta comes in spurts.

 

[Rob_TID]

To be honest, when I was an AM, I was on my company's time. I could defend spending time on forums helping affiliates who might become our affiliates. I couldn't defend spending time on forums helping our competitors (at least that's how my old boss saw it).

Also, a lot of guys at AM level already know the rules so not as much of a need for exchange of ideas as say a newbie forum.

That being said, these days I try to contribute to every thread I think I can.

 

[Mark Robbins]

obviously i understand the time constraints, ratios and working for companies, that being said any decent AM is constantly networking, making contacts and furthering their knowledge. Plus shouldnt we all demonstrate some a bit of time management?? I am not attacking anyone or anything I just noticed the lack of threads and thought maybe we could inspire some discussion. Thanks for the responses and your input. maybe in the future we can establish some discussion without concern of helping others (we all have brains) or feeling insecure about our own knowledge.

Thanks again and best of luck in all of our programs

 

[Linda Buquet]

obviously i understand the time constraints, ratios and working for companies, that being said any decent AM is constantly networking, making contacts and furthering their knowledge. Plus shouldnt we all demonstrate some a bit of time management?? I am not attacking anyone or anything I just noticed the lack of threads and thought maybe we could inspire some discussion. Thanks for the responses and your input. maybe in the future we can establish some discussion without concern of helping others (we all have brains) or feeling insecure about our own knowledge.

Thanks again and best of luck in all of our programs

I really have no way of knowing why more affiliate managers aren't having discussions more often.
You asked so Rob and I speculated.

 

[Rob_TID]

Not quite sure why you're getting snarky.

Perhaps if you started a conversation on a specific topic to do with AM, you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Mark Robbins]

I am not snarky at all. I appologize if that is how my remark sounded. As I said I was simply hoping to inspire discussion, thats all. I understand that you both are simply speculating and kind enough to respond.
That being said I will look forward to hopefully seeing some conversations in the future and certainly refrain from commenting if there is not.

 

[Linda Buquet]

If you see any previous thread topics you have insight on or questions about, feel free to post, Mark. Often that's all it takes to get a good discussion started or re-started. There are AMs around that will jump in if someone starts or resurrects a topic of interest. (except maybe this time of year)

One of the main things I think is this is the absolute busiest time of the year, especially for retail programs which is what most of the AMs I know run. They are pedal to the medal trying to make their Q 4 numbers.

 

[Larwee]

Linda and Rob have given you some good answers, Mark.

I read every word of every post. I also have had correspondence with a lot of the members. I know about all of the things that are going on with these forums, but I might not know the reasons for all of them.

I will speculate some, but much of what I'll be telling you is based upon what I know.

Obviously there are a lot more affiliates than there are affiliate managers. However we do have hundreds of members who classify themselves as affiliate managers, and about twice as many who classify themselves as merchants. I actually did check to be positive.

There is no one reason that could be given as to why there aren't more discussions in the Merchant & Affiliate Manager Discussions forum since not all people have the same reasons for not posting in this particular forum.

I will tell you one reason is simply because some of them don't know this particular forum is here. I know that because I've told some about it who weren't aware of it.

I should add that is true of some of our other forums as well. We have some forums here that some members aren't aware of. I know that also from making members aware of some of those forums when they made a post in the wrong forum or wondered where they could post a particular question.

We have several forums here. There are some members who are only interested in certain forums. They only read and/or post in that one forum or those particular forums They don't bother to check any of the other forums.

Some members always check the New Posts or Recent Posts and see what is of interest to them. Some members never check either of those.

Some members enter our forums through the forum home page while others don't. Those who view the forum home page can see all of our forums, but still might ignore many of them.

The forums are grouped into 4 sections. Some members collapse one or more of those and don't see them when looking at the home page because those forums aren't of primary interest to them.

There are some members who subscribe to a particular forum or forums that we have and only read and/or post in those. Others do the same thing with certain threads.

I know there are some affiliate managers and merchants who are here mainly to try to recruit affiliates. I know that because they have told me. Different methods are available and used depending on various circumstances.

One of the common methods is by having a signature and then participating in the discussions, but without doing any self promotion. They do that where the affiliates are, which means the Merchant & Affiliate Manager Discussions forum wouldn't be the best forum for that. By doing that our members get to know them because they see them posting and they also notice their signatures.

I know of some affiliate managers and merchants who only come here to see if their network or program is being talked about and might answer some specific questions or deal with a problem.

There have been some merchants and affiliate managers who are members but have said they don't have time to do any forum posting. Some of these have asked me to contact them when someone makes a post about their network or program.

You might notice that often there is discussion in the Merchant & Affiliate Manager Discussions forum that is from new affiliate managers or merchants who need help. But we also have some very experienced affiliate managers and merchants who participate in this forum.

As with all of our forums there are some threads which not many people would have an interest in as well as some that might get missed by some people for various reasons.

I've given you some of the reasons. There are probably others reasons involved that would require pure speculation.

Linda gave a very good suggestion on how to inspire discussion.