One question that often preys on the mind of affiliate managers, particularly new ones, is "How can I compete with {insert name of successful affiliate manager here}?"

You don't actually have to compete with them, you just need to stand out from the crowd and compete with everyone else competing with them! You don't necessarily need to be the dominant force in your chosen niche. Quite often being in the top ten is enough to have a good income without working too hard.

I always teach the people I coach that they need to go out and find twenty of their major competitors. They need to subscribe to their newsletters, read their websites and pay attention to what appears in their inbox.

Why? Because you need to understand what they are doing.

If you can find out what they are doing well, then you can emulate it and adapt it for own personal slant on the niche. You can also, of course, discover what they are not doing very well.

If you know what they are doing badly, then that is an opportunity for you to get into the market place. You can even use it as a selling point for your affiliate program that you "do this better". Of course, you never mention anyone by name, but you can make a point of mentioning that particular area and how you perform so well in it.

It gives you a chance to get a bit of an edge, particularly if your competiting affiliate manager has put their business on auto-pilot and not updated their product or website. The Internet is changing almost daily, and so products very quickly go out of date and the information in them becomes not as fresh or useful.

You can therefore capitalise on this and make it a selling point - something that differentiates you from the competing affiliate programs and gives your potential affiliates a powerful reason to buy from you. Affiliate are always looking for the latest, and best products to promote so they can earn more money.

Understanding the competing affiliate programs in your market place gives you a fine handle on the market, from pricing through to promotion. Scout out your competing affiliate managers, see what they are doing and decide how you can do it better - and then enjoy the benefits of your research!