Most e-commerce brands treat affiliate marketing like an afterthought — throw up a referral link, offer 10%, and hope for the best.

That's not a strategy. That's wishful thinking.

After managing affiliate programs for multiple 7-figure DTC brands, here are the 3 biggest mistakes I see:

1. Flat commission rates for everyone. Your top performers should be getting custom deals. A micro-influencer converting at 8% deserves a different rate than someone sending junk traffic at 0.5%.

2. No outbound recruiting. If you're waiting for affiliates to find you, you're losing to competitors who are actively recruiting in DMs, at events, and through networks.

3. Zero content support. Give your affiliates swipe files, product photos, talking points, and exclusive discount codes. Make it stupidly easy for them to sell.

Fix these three things and you'll see affiliate revenue jump 2-3x within 90 days.

We do this for brands every day at PartnerPush. If you're doing $1M+ and want us to build this out for you — link's on our page.