The first employee in the team
As we previously wrote – there is safety in numbers! And why it is worth creating a team in Affiliate marketing.
No matter how many hours you devote to work, there are still only 24 in a day 7 of which will definitely be devoted to sleep. Therefore, at some point, you will make a decision to hire your first employee. And this isn’t a one-day project.
This article explains what to look out for and how to organize the hiring process to your team.
“The world is full of people smarter than me and I don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to have worth”
Leonardo Lauder
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Step one
During your time in affiliate marketing, you’ve probably made a couple of acquaintances and collaborated with someone. Perhaps someone from the people you already know will suit you or they will be able to recommend a trusted specialist or just a responsible person who is interested in this particular work.
If you can’t find a suitable candidate, post a job posting.
Tip: Be prepared for hundreds of candidates to write to you, half of whom will not even read the full post for the vacancy. How about writing a “codeword” in the middle of your ad and asking them to duplicate it in their reply? This will at least show whether the applicant has read what you wrote.
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Step two
Take your time, it is clear that you want to hire an employee as soon as possible, transfer tasks to him, and implement all your planned projects. However, this is similar to affiliate marketing, the more leads the better.
Because one good employee can do a hundred times more and better than 5 mediocre ones.
Choose at least three adequate applicants with the experience, skills and resume you need. Conduct an interview.
Tip: If a personal meeting is not possible, arrange a phone call, do not conduct an interview through correspondence. You need to understand the degree of interest of the applicant, his communication style and motivation.
“You have to sift through a lot of sand to find gold”
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Suppose you want to hire a media buyer, what questions can you ask him:
- What do you know about affiliate marketing?
- What’s your experience?
- Where do you follow the affiliate marketing news?
- Tell us about successful and unsuccessful campaigns. If a potential buyer has experience of unsuccessful campaigns, he knows what it means to lose money.
- What is the most important thing when choosing an offer?
- What skills do you have that help you work in affiliate marketing?
- Do you have any hobbies or other interests? (Having a hobby or other interest can often indicate the constancy of a person and his decisions.)
This is just an example, decide for yourself what is important to know about the applicant for you. What are your values and those of your company. Do they match? It’s odd to hire a vegetarian to work at a meat restaurant or vice versa, they just can’t share your philosophy.
Repeat the “procedure” with all applicants. Filter out those who weren’t to your liking or didn’t suit you.
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Step three
Does a person understand what you are telling him, does he work as it would suit you? Can you work together?
A little test work – might help figure this out.
The test task should not be very difficult and large-scaled, since most often it is unpaid.
For example: If you need someone to help you look for offers, ask the applicant to find 3 weight loss offers.
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Step four
The beginning of a working relationship.
A lot depends on whether you are hiring an employee for an office or remote work.
Hiring in an office – more or less clear: hours of work, infrastructure, reporting on work done, etc., then with remote workers everything is different.
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Discuss:
- Discuss a starting date.
- Tell the employee about your expectations, how you see the order of actions for completing tasks. To avoid misunderstandings.
- State the area of responsibility of the new employee clearly so that it is clear to both you and him.
- Create a task list.
- Discuss the deadline for completing the tasks.
- How will you communicate, via email, phone, or do you have a separate channel for communication, for example: SLACK, WRIKE or TRELLO.
- Discuss the amount of payment for his work and the exact day / days of payment. Most often, buyers are paid a salary and a percentage of their profitable campaigns. This helps them to stay motivated.
Tip: People will stay with you only if they are sure that by working with you they receive more than working alone.
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Remember
Also, do not forget about the possibility of a trial period. For a full-time employee, the probationary period is stipulated in the labor code of your country. For a freelance contractor, you choose one yourself, 3-4 weeks will be enough.
Tip: At the initial stage, you can always ask for a report on the work done for the day / week
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Conclusion
In the process of finding and hiring employees, you will surely meet different people. Some will take up the project, but they will never complete it; those who will complete one and then will not want to continue working with you, and also those whom you will dismiss yourself, and would want to forget like a bad dream.
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Top of mistakes when hiring a new employee
- Hiring friends only because they are friends.
- Hiring the first person you find because you really need to.
- Looking for an employee not knowing exactly what functions and tasks he will perform.
- Just believing that the new employee knows everything about everything and not checking his previous work experience and knowledge.
- Limiting yourself to hiring only experienced affiliate marketers and employees in general.
Do you have any experience in hiring employees, maybe recommendations or mistakes that could be avoided? Share them.
