OPMs offer consulting services to help Merchants start and run their Affiliate Programs.  They act as Outsourced Program Management (OPM) consultants instead of your company spending the time and costs of managing it all in-house.  OPMs offer services to manage affiliate programs or to consult on improving the performance of existing affiliate programs.

Each OPM firm is different in scope and size and experience and talent and available hours and type of programs best managed.  While all offer the same range of services, it's a very normal course of business for me to refer prospective clients (you!) to someone on this list who may better suit your needs.  You should consider contacting each and see which one you think is best for you.

OPMs that I have personally worked with -AND- I recommend them for strongest consideration for any OPM opportunity -AND- that I have personally verified are trained and have also earned the designation of Certified Affiliate Managers:

7 Days A Week Marketing - Ron Bechdolt	affiliate forum
Team Loxly - Deb Carney	affiliate forum
MadHatter - Kristin Collier	affiliate forum
AffiliateCrew - Chuck Hamrick	affiliate forum
Suluta - Michael Nunez	affiliate forum
Partner Perform - Mike Payne	coming soon
CMC - Greg Rice	affiliate forum
ARC - Andy Rodriguez	affiliate forum
Schaaf Consulting - Brook & Forrest Schaaf	affiliate forum
ShareASale - Carolyn Tang (SAS network only)	affiliate forum

Other prominent, strongly recommended OPMs:

AffSolutions - Akiva Bergstrom	affiliate forum
GSI - Matt Enders	affiliate forum
Watchdog AM - Jennifer Jordan	affiliate forum
eAccountableOPM - Durk Price	coming soon
AM Navigator - Geno Prussakov	affiliate forum
JRami - Jorge Ramirez	affiliate forum
DowntownECommerce - Adam Riemer	coming soon
AMWSO - Chris Sanderson	affiliate forum
AffAction - Shawn Schulze	affiliate forum
Snow Consulting - Roger Snow	coming soon

There are plenty of other OPMs that did not make my list.  Choose your OPM wisely and you'll set yourself on a path to success!

We highly recommend you hire an Andy Rodriguez Certified Affiliate Manager or Outsourced Program Manager (OPM) to run your Affiliate program.  If you're a merchant or sales executive and you want to learn how your Affiliate program should be run, you can also attend Andy's seminars.  Don't waste years (and a whole lot of money) by learning through trial and error!  Just one tip from his seminar can change your program for years to come.  At the one I attended, he revealed the best techniques and tools to use to find and recruit new power affiliates that fit your program best - that alone is worth the cost of attending!

• Your Affiliate Manager just departed and you're looking for a fill-in while you hire a dedicated replacement in-house Affiliate Manager or choose a new OPM
• You're just starting your Affiliate Program and you want some suggestions, unbiased suggestions - from a source like us that won't be getting paid a percent, or a referral fee, or a bounty, or a headhunter's fee or anything else that smells bad
• You want to hire an Affiliate Manager but really don't know what to tell your HR department to look for or where to start their search
• You want to know which OPM above is best for you
• You want to talk to a power affiliate about what you can do better or where you should go to recruit other high-volume Affiliates
• Your Affiliate Program isn't working well - and you need a troubleshooter or program review

• Daily Task Management of all aspects of your Affiliate Program.
• Recruit new Affiliates using affiliates we know and have worked with, dedicated affiliate forums, merchant directories, referrals and technology.
• Negotiates terms and build relationships with all new affiliates as part of recruiting.
• Work with all affiliates to grow their revenue and exposure.
• Manage power affiliate motivation including specials, raises, coupons, unique offerings, keywords, revised terms and more.
• Design initiatives, including creatives, that maximize affiliate productivity and the program's growth and ROI.
• Manage email communications with Affiliates including Newsletters that get motivate and drive sales.
• Coordinate with other internal departments to ensure goals of affiliate program remain consistent with overall goals and do not interfere with other internal and external marketing and sales efforts.
• Work with internal SEO, SEM and PPCSE teams to maintain growth, set appropriate affiliate policies and ensure affiliate program is allied with larger goals.
• Analyze metrics and create reports for all aspects of affiliate program marketing and sales.
• Draft, create, post, share, explain and enforce program policies and practices.
• Perform test purchases and testing to identify any affiliates using technology (parasitic applications) to divert proper commission credit - reward the earning affiliates!
• Create and drive promotional ideas, contests and incentives for recruiting affiliates and driving sales.
• Classify the different types of affiliates into groups, segment approaches and communications to maximize each type's contribution to the mission as well as to maximize revenue and profit contribution by appropriately managing time and resource slices by grouping.
• Make sure fresh ideas, plentiful support and useful tools are made available to top affiliates.
• Consult on your Affiliates efforts towards Search Engine Optimization (SEO), use of trademarks and related branding issues and guidance regarding keywords and ad text used for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads run in-house and by your Affiliates.
• Identify any Spyware/Adware that is affecting your programs performance or is being used by your Affiliates directly or indirectly.
• Consult for Program Growth including advising which Networks to use and to guide program.
• For new programs, or those considering major changes, consult on choice of Network or Indy platform.
• Build strong Affiliate relationships and establish trust in the affiliate program.
• Drive the Affiliate program to the top of its competitive category and explore any new areas to generate sales.
• Show, by example, how your Affiliate Program Manager is both working for you and for your affiliates.
• Encourage, motivate and activate (or retire) in-active affiliate partners in the program.
• Create and run an active recruiting and assistance forum for Affiliate information distribution and relationship building at the premier Affiliate forum on the web - ABestWeb.