Building for the Future

As many of you already know, I love sports and can almost always relate anything to some type of sport.  I will even relate this economic crisis to sports.  For all the haters out there, just keep reading.

My advice to any merchant with an affiliate program who may be seeing a sales slump, is to follow in the footsteps of the “2008 World Series Champions the Tampa Bay Rays” (gotta believe).

Ok, so you have no idea what I’m talking about… I’m telling you to build for the future.  Last year the Rays were the laughing stock of baseball; now look at them. The Rays are playing in the World Series.  This was accomplished through planning and building for the future.

The Rays knew they could not compete with the Red Sox and Yankees by paying high-priced All-Stars to play for them.  So, they built for the future by recruiting and drafting players that would best fit their team, then developed.  Look at them now; they are in the World Series and every Sports Analyst says they are built to win for the next 10 years.

Now do you see how it relates?  Build your affiliate program for the future during this economic crisis.  You do not need to compile a team of all supper affiliate performers (like the Yankees try every year without success).  You do need a few (Evan Longoria & Carlos Pena) to anchor your lineup but the main point is to have a team of affiliates that best fit your business model, and who will be beneficial after some TLC.

Do this and you can put your business in a great position for the long haul!