One partner sent 200,000 clicks in a month and got credit for one sale.

The orders were real. The customers were real. The payments cleared. The only thing wrong was whose name was on the commission.

James Nardell, founder of Affiliate Manager Experts and in affiliate marketing since 2002, joins me in the Nerdatorium to break down attribution theft. It’s a type of affiliate fraud that passes every check your program runs and still shrinks your program while the reporting looks healthy.

In this episode, we get into:

1. Why your best converter might be your least valuable partner
2. The red flags hiding in a report most programs never open
3. How to investigate without accusing the wrong affiliate
4. The one test that settles it and how to get your boss to approve it
5. The number your CFO will reach for and why it’s the wrong one
6. How James uses Claude to run his screen in about 20 minutes

If you manage an affiliate program, listen to this one before your next Monday report.

📄 Get James’s full 40-page paper on attribution theft, including the exact prompt he uses: dustinhowes.com/james

🎙️ Subscribe to Affiliate Nerd Out for more on affiliate program growth.

Keep on recruiting.

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

Go to https://dustinhowes.com/alfie to set up your account with a 30-day money-back guarantee

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

Four years ago, Daniel Stanica of Competico started tracking 100 successful blogs.

Today, the median blog has lost 85% of its traffic.

On this episode of Affiliate Nerd Out, Daniel breaks down what happened and what affiliates can do about it:

1. What wiped out so much organic traffic
2. What the surviving blogs have in common
3. The content Google and AI can’t summarize
4. Whether affiliates should chase AI visibility
5. What Daniel would build if he started from zero today

If your traffic has been sliding, this one’s for you.

Has AI search hit your traffic yet? Let me know below. 👇

#AffiliateMarketing #SEO #Blogging #AISearch #ContentStrategy #AffiliateNerdOut #Nerdatorium

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

Go to https://dustinhowes.com/alfie to set up your account with a 30-day money-back guarantee

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

Adults with ADHD are 60% more likely to be fired from a job. I’m no stranger to that.

In this episode, I sat down with Kyrus Keenan Westcott. He was diagnosed at 35 after spending decades thinking he was just lazy. He blocks time in his calendar for scheduled incompetence. It's one reason he can hold down a demanding job as head of paid media with an ADHD brain.

#ADHD #ADHDatWork #Neurodiversity #AffiliateMarketing #AffiliateNerdOut #Nerdatorium

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

Go to https://dustinhowes.com/alfie to set up your account with a 30-day money-back guarantee

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

I signed up for an affiliate tracking tool live on camera. Never touched it before.

15 minutes later, it was tracking every click on my site.

If you’re an affiliate, you know the routine: log into Impact, then CJ, then Awin, then the next one. Check stats. Copy numbers. Repeat. It eats your week.

So I brought Jorge Barbosa back to Affiliate Nerd Out (third time, he’s officially a regular) to set up wecantrack from scratch while I drove.

In the video, you’ll see:

1. Connecting a network in a few clicks
2. Getting tracking live on a WordPress site
3. Seeing which traffic sources and articles actually drive sales
4. The free bonus feature that could replace a tool I pay $300+ a year for
5. The link trick that made me say, “Oh my God, that’s a huge time-saver”

🎥 Watch the full episode here and see if you can beat 15 minutes: https://youtu.be/PSf1VieO0ZA?si=ASd4_K848XZUyxRO

Affiliates, how many dashboards do you log into every week? Tell me in the comments 👇

#AffiliateMarketing #AffiliateTracking #AffiliatePublisher #ContentCreator #wecantrack

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

Have you ever recommended someone to a client, then watched them drop the ball right in front of that client? 😬

That’s what happened to Christen Evans (she/her)

It was an enterprise brand with millions on the table, and it should have been an easy yes. Instead, she got three weeks of pushback, with the client watching the whole time.

The client’s take: “It’s almost like they don’t even want our business.”

So how do you fix it without throwing anyone under the bus? Christen and I get into it on this Real Talk Friday.

Full episode below ⬇️

#AffiliateMarketing #PartnerMarketing #AffiliateNerdOut #AgencyLife #RealTalkFriday

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

I have been burned by the word "unlimited" more times than I can count. Most pricing pages promise the moon, right until a surprise bill hits your inbox.

So I put Martin Demiger, the founder of Trackdesk, on the hot seat in the Nerditorium. I asked him straight out: what does "unlimited" actually mean at your shop?

I am not going to spoil his answer here. But he shared a wild story about a brand begging their best partner to stop sending traffic just to avoid insane platform fees. Imagine telling your best horse to stop running because the barn charges you by the stride.

Want to hear his exact math and see where the real ceiling hides?

👇🏻 Listen to the full episode to find out.

What is the worst "unlimited" fine print you have ever found? Tell me in the comments.

#AffiliateMarketing #AffiliateManagement #SaaS

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com

3 million shoppers across Asia want to buy from US brands. Most can't, because those brands don't ship to them.

What if you could reach them without changing a single thing about your shipping?
I sat down with Jeff Unze, North American GM at Buy&Ship, to talk about how brands are doing exactly that. He also shares which product categories this audience goes after, and why it's not what you'd expect.

👉 Follow Affiliate Nerd Out for more publisher highlights and conversations on growing your affiliate program.

#AffiliateMarketing #CrossBorderEcommerce #PartnerMarketing #PublisherHighlight #AffiliateNerdOut #BuyAndShip

Alfie: https://dustinhowes.com/alfie and use code DUSTIN30 for 30% off your first month

For more tips on how to scale your affiliate program, check out https://performancemarketingmanager.com