Lots of affiliates managed to succeed in the short term but only a few make a career out of it.

The secret is building yourself as an antifragile pro.

We have given some thought, collectedover 10 years of our experience, and brainstormed what are the key elements inbuilding yourself to success as a media buyer in the world of affiliation,meaning-making you an antifragile media buyer. 

Based on what we have seenover the years, we have come up with 5 key elements you should always look for.

• Focus, Focus, Focus

Don’t try to shoot to all directions, focus on a few verticals only. Ask the account managers what’s working and what’s not – it’s better to start with something that worked for others and progress from there, after gaining success and knowledge you’ll be able to find potential offers by your own.

Real art is finding the balance between trying too little to trying too much, but it comes with experience. Try to invest 10% of your time to study new verticals and offers.

• Don't put all your eggs in one basket (or format in yourcase)

As part of being focused, always choose the format that works best for you and stick to it, yet it’s important to remember- not all formats stay forever. Always keep yourself updated with new formats that may emerge so you will be the first to succeed in them. this is where the margins are at.

A good example is push notifications that are booming for the past two years but now show a light decrease as regulation kicked in. It will stay for sure, but you can't rely on it only.

In page push, new tabs, etc should always keep your mindbusy in parallel. 

• Be patient, but cut to the chase

Give every offer you run its chance to perform ondifferent sources and formats, but make sure to use blacklists right away onceyou reached somewhat statistical significance.

• Keep it Data-oriented

Results and conclusions should be always data-driven.Adjust your a/b testing, live campaigns, and buying strategy according to thenumbers.

This can be achieved only if you organize your campaignand tracking platform in a way that allows you to correctly track what’s goingon in a required segment.

Make sure you adjust every few days once the campaign isrunning and showing nice results. Adjusting too often may lead you to a"local optimum", as you blacklist too fast, or make decisions tooquickly. You may see good results, but some points are better in terms ofpotential pro all around you. Look for them and push changes to the campaignnow and then to keep it fresh and actively looking for those new points. 

• Advise with others

There is no substitute for a piece of good advice from anexperienced affiliate or traffic account manager.

Make sure you are up to date with trends,recommendations, and what's hot by participating in forums, readingnewsletters, and the most important - a conversation you initiate with othersonline or face to face.

STM and Afflift are great sources of knowledge.