The Q4 scramble no one talks about
Clients are finalizing budgets right now. Here’s what to line up before the year ends to own next year’s performance.
Even when it’s too busy to breathe, hello Q4 holiday pitching, now is the time to get your ducks in a row for next year. No really. Now is when clients are nailing down their 2026 budgets which means you only have a few short weeks to make the most of your planning time.
Speaking of ducks, look what arrived to the Karger Farm. More (as if we needed them) puppies!
Just like these pups, your affiliate plans might need a little extra nurturing before they’re ready to run — but trust me, the payoff is worth it.
If your clients haven’t already finalized their 2026 budgets, they’re about to. So if you’ve just started dipping a toe into affiliate marketing, this is your cue to double down and make it a core part of your offering next year.
Here are a few areas that you need to prepare for now if you want to make a full-scale affiliate push in 2026. They’re practical steps every PR pro should take if you’re ready to go all in.
Investment in YOU
Education is really important to me. More than learning, I love sharing what I’ve learned which is probably why this newsletter exists! So let’s dive into some non negotiable learning opportunities for 2026.
Conferences
If you’re new to affiliate marketing, there’s one fast track to understanding the industry that doesn’t involve another webinar. Attending in person affiliate conferences are where everything starts to click. You finally meet your publisher counterparts face-to-face, put names to the people you’ve been emailing daily, and swap ideas that don’t make it into media kits and official decks. It’s where you hear what’s actually working for brands and publishers.
Beyond panels and keynotes, there’s real magic in the hallways and happy hours. Every major network and SaaS partner hosts their own meetups, and those casual conversations often lead to next quarter’s biggest placements.
Personally, these are the days I most look forward to. The moments where new strategies and collaborations take shape. Every time I attend a conference, I walk away with a notebook full of ways to improve both client programs and my own systems.
If you can make it to one, I can’t say this any other way: go. Conferences aren’t just events, they’re accelerators for your affiliate education and relationships.
Conferences at a glance (for your calendar)
Affiliate Summit West — Jan 12–14, 2026 — Las Vegas (Caesars Forum). Affiliate Summit
Rakuten Optimism — May 5–6, 2026 — Phoenix (Arizona Biltmore). Rakuten Advertising+1
impact.com iPX — Jun 9–11, 2026 — Austin. impact.com
Affiliate Summit East — Jul 27–28, 2026 — New York (Marriott Marquis). Affiliate Summit
Substacks
I know. It is SO hard to stay on top of all of the incredible substacks and get client work actually done. Plus, there are SO many newsletters that provide real value. So how do you know which to follow and which to pass? Well, we like to think ours provides tremendous value, but ultimately you have to select a few and pencil in time in your calendar to read them. Filing them away to save for later will never do. I personally like to find 30 minutes in my calendar every week and mark those that don’t have proactive opps that you have to read for potential client opportunities (hello, Aly Walansky, Jill Schildhouse, Alice Dubin, Joni Sweets, Amanda Lauren, etc.) and save them for that dedicated reading. My colleague and I call it book club and we like to share tidbits we took away from it. Sometimes its a webinar (which is how I discovered the tech tool we’re going to share with you in couple of weeks) and sometimes its just a great read that gives you more insight on the industry.
Either way, the takeaway’s the same: schedule your curiosity. In an ever evolving industry, learning is part of this job, and treating it like an meeting keeps you a step ahead.
(And if the comments from our paying subscribers are any indication, this community really does deliver on value — so if you’ve been thinking about upgrading, we’d love to have you join us. But don’t worry, this post is free for everyone!)
Facebook Communities
Ex: PR Czars
If you’re not already active in Facebook groups like PR Czars, it’s one of the most underrated ways to stay connected, swap leads, and learn from other pros navigating the same industry curveballs you are.
Kris and I are both paying members of this community, and I genuinely view it as an investment, not an expense. If you land even one meaningful media hit or connect with a journalist, the membership has already paid for itself.
Beyond the tangible wins, the relationships are what make it invaluable. The conversations are candid, the feedback is generous, and you’re surrounded by people who actually “get it.” It’s a space where publicists talk shop without posturing, where you can ask questions, share wins, or troubleshoot a tricky pitch in real time.
If you’ve been craving a sense of community or want to sharpen your instincts through shared experience, this is a space worth joining — and actually participating in.
Invest in Skills That Pay You Back
One of the best ways to future-proof your PR career is by adding affiliate marketing to your toolkit. When you understand how to bridge earned media with measurable performance, you instantly become more valuable to clients and to agencies.
That’s exactly why I created the second course Affiliate Marketing & Performance-Based PR for Publicists. It’s a step-by-step course designed to help PR pros confidently set up and manage affiliate programs — even if you’ve never opened a network dashboard before.
At the end of the day, the smartest investment you can make is in yourself. The PR and affiliate landscape moves fast — and the pros who keep up aren’t necessarily the busiest ones, but the ones who carve out time to learn, connect, and evolve.
Investment for clients
So we’ve talked a bit about investing in yourself — now let’s talk about investing for your brands.
As the year winds down, this is the moment to look closely at where your affiliate and performance dollars are actually working. Before you finalize next year’s budgets or renew placements, take a step back and audit which partners are truly driving impact, not just clicks, but quality conversions and adding customers into your brands sales funnel.
Start by asking:
Am I giving partners what they need to succeed?
Are we paying the right partners the right amount for the right outcomes?
Does our partner mix actually map to the customer journey we want?
The smartest brands are reallocating budget toward impactful partners and trimming low-performing channels early, so they can reinvest strategically in Q1.
Let’s be honest — the days of easy, risk-free CPA-only partnerships are mostly gone. The affiliate partnership space has evolved into the teenager that asks for your money before they go hang out with their friends at the mall. And with it, so have the expectations from clients.
But we need to reassure clients, if they want to stay competitive, they’ll need to start setting aside real budget for testing partnerships, onboarding fees, and placement opportunities. Many top publishers and platforms now require onboarding fees because they’re prioritizing partners who understand the value exchange.
This shift is actually a good thing. It forces brands (and their agencies) to get intentional — to vet partners more carefully, to track ROI more precisely, and to approach affiliate relationships like strategic investments instead of one-off experiments.
So when a client hesitates about those onboarding costs or paid placements, reframe the conversation. Remind them: the money’s already being spent somewhere — likely on Google ads that stopped converting two years ago. Reallocating even a fraction of that budget toward affiliate and commerce partnerships can yield not only measurable performance but also long-term editorial equity that will live in GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and surface your brand to the top of LLM queries and AI overviews.
Explore New Tech
Speaking of GEO, during one of my Book Clubs, I watched a webinar Muck Rack put on titled PR in the GEO future (it’s on demand here). One of the speakers was Sarah Evans of Zen Media who, truth be told, I instantly developed a boss girl crush on. She’s sharp, eloquent, and has a real grasp on where PR is headed in a world shaped by GEO.
Sarah broke down how AI-driven search and content discovery are changing the way stories surface — and what that means for both affiliate and traditional earned media. It’s one of those sessions that makes you rethink how we pitch, position, and measure success in the months ahead.
So, I had to sit down with Sarah, to share what she has been working on over at Zen Media — Published Monthly™.
Tell us about yourself
I’m a Partner and Head of PR at Zen Media and the creator of Published Monthly™, a PR and visibility system built for the AI era. I’ve spent more than two decades helping tech brands translate complexity into clarity. My focus now is where earned media meets machine learning, helping brands become visible not just on Google, but inside the answers people get from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and beyond.
What are 3 fun facts about you?
I live in Las Vegas. No, not on the Strip. ;)
I’ve been featured on The Doctors TV show, have an ongoing tech segment on CBS Las Vegas, and speak regularly on national stages — but I still get stage fright every single time before going live.
I do headstands every day. It’s my reset button.
Can you share a little bit about your history in PR industry?
I started in traditional PR before “social media manager” was even a job title (in fact, I was still using a fax machine). Over the years, I’ve helped hundreds of brands, from startups to global enterprises, navigate shifts from print to digital, from SEO to social, and now from search to AI. Each era brings new tools, but the same goal remains: building trust and visibility through credible storytelling. Today, I’m helping the industry redefine what visibility even means.
What is Published Monthly and what led to its development?
Published Monthly™ is a structured PR system that merges earned media, AI visibility audits, and content strategy into one measurable framework. It was born from a realization that SEO no longer tells the whole story, because people aren’t just searching anymore, they’re prompting. Our proprietary Prompt Discovery Index™ shows brands where they appear (or don’t appear) in AI-generated answers. From there, we build campaigns that teach the machines who you are and why you matter.
What’s the piece most PR professionals are completely missing right now that’s killing their GEO results?
They’re not optimizing for machine comprehension. Great PR still starts with human storytelling, but every headline, quote, and backlink now doubles as training data for AI systems. If your coverage isn’t readable, structured, and connected across the web, it won’t surface in generative answers. Visibility now lives inside machine memory.
The 7-Step Process
Walk me through what actually happens from the moment a client signs up to the moment they’re seeing measurable results.
Identify Your Prompt Universe
We start by mapping out every prompt where your brand should appear — from broad awareness questions to high-intent buyer queries. The bigger the universe, the more opportunity you have to expand visibility.
Define Your Content Pillars
These are the words, phrases, and themes people actually use when searching for your brand, your category, or your expertise. They form the foundation of your AI-era visibility strategy.
Write Your Quarterly Anchor Article
This is your north star content, the single page or piece that every earned link and internal page should point back to. It signals authority and consistency to AI systems.
Develop Your 90-Day PR + Editorial Plan
We build a tactical roadmap to impact your prompt universe, aligning pitches, bylines, and content to reinforce your anchor article and other high-authority pages.
Pitch and Secure Media
We execute targeted media outreach designed to generate meaningful coverage and deep backlinks; the connective tissue that fuels both SEO and GEO.
Supplement with Generative AI Wire Releases™
These optimized press releases help train AI models faster by creating trustworthy, structured coverage across high-authority domains.
Close the Loop with Schema & Signal Alignment
We ensure your site, articles, and earned media are properly structured so that every signal reinforces your brand’s identity across both search and AI ecosystems.
KPIs That Actually Matter in a GEO world
You’ve introduced “Answer Share™ prompt share” as the new KPI. What exactly is that, and how is it measured? If I tell a client they have 15% prompt share in their category, should they be celebrating or panicking? What’s a good benchmark?
The new north star metric is Answer Share™ or how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers within your category.
But percentages only matter in context. A 15% Answer Share might sound healthy, but if that’s 15% of 5,000 prompts, you’re barely visible in the ecosystem. The real question is: which prompts are you showing up for?
If you segment your data and focus only on high-intent, “buy” or “ready-to-convert” prompts — for example, “best global payroll provider” or “AI PR agency for B2B tech” — and you’re still below 50%, that’s a red flag.
The goal is to appear in at least half of the answers that matter to your category and work your way up from there. Right now, we’re in the wild west of GEO and the brands that establish strong Answer Share early will become the ones AI systems continue to reference long after the dust settles.
Timeline Expectations
What should publicists tell clients about timeline? When do you start seeing AI visibility improvements? What’s realistic at 30 days, 90 days, 180 days?
Clients should understand that AI visibility builds in layers, not spikes. Each 30-, 90-, and 180-day window signals a new phase of reinforcement inside generative systems:
30 Days: The foundation is set — we identify the prompt universe, publish anchor content, and distribute initial PR coverage. Schema and backlinks begin training AI models, but measurable change is minimal.
90 Days: Visibility starts compounding. Earned media and owned content are now referenced together across AI systems. Early Answer Share movement becomes noticeable in your baseline prompts.
180 Days: Brands typically see consistent Answer Share lift (often 10–40%) and begin to show up in more complex, long-tail and “buy intent” prompts. This stage is where authority snowballs — the system starts remembering you.
AI visibility is cumulative. The more consistent your signals, the faster the models learn who you are and where to include you in their answers.
Schema markup seems critical to this working. For publicists who aren’t technical, what do we actually need to know about schema, and how do we convince clients to prioritize dev resources?
You don’t need to know how to write schema; you just need to know how to advocate for it. Think of schema as subtitles for machines, it tells AI what your content means, who’s being quoted, and how pieces connect across the web.
The most critical markup types for PR teams are:
Organization schema: Ensures the brand name, description, and social proof are machine-verified.
Article and Person schema: Connects authors, executives, and earned placements together.
FAQ or How-To schema: Converts educational content into “answer-ready” data for AI systems.
Convincing clients is about positioning: schema isn’t a dev expense; it’s an amplifier. Without it, PR coverage has no connective tissue. It exists, but machines can’t interpret or attribute it properly.
Quick Wins Before the Full Investment
If a publicist reading this wants to start implementing GEO principles today - before they can invest in Published Monthly - what are the top 3 things they should do?
If you’re a publicist looking to start implementing GEO principles before investing in Published Monthly™, focus on these three actions:
Run AI Visibility Spot Checks
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity key questions about your client’s category — see which brands appear in the answers and track consistency over time. This has to be real, vetted data, not a personal search on the free version of Chat GPT.Anchor Your Coverage
Choose one authoritative article on your client’s site that defines your client’s story. Make sure all bylines, bios, and backlinks point to that same page.Clean Up Digital Consistency
Align brand descriptions, executive titles, and messaging across every profile and outlet. Inconsistencies confuse AI and consistency builds credibility.
What is the best way to book a call with you to learn more about Published Monthly?
To learn more about Published Monthly™, book a call here: https://zenmedia.com/blog/from-instinct-to-infrastructure-the-new-pr-system-for-the-ai-era/ or connect with me directly on LinkedIn. I personally review every inquiry from PR professionals and marketing leaders exploring how to evolve their visibility strategy for the AI era.
Have questions? Want to see an example of the report they generate? I’ll be sharing one for my brand in our Affiliate for Publicists Slack community, which is included with every paid Substack membership — a space where publicists are lifting each other up, swapping affiliate advice, and sharing live media opportunities we spot in the wild.
If you’ve been looking for a corner of the internet that actually gets this work — and helps you grow through it, this is it.
Thanks for the shout-out!! Great newsletter!