What to Do When the Best Affiliate Programs Set You Free
By Jan Bay
Most of us work tirelessly for several months or even years to get our websites to the point where they are ready to feature ads for established merchants. When traffic is at an acceptable level we began to think of monetization with ads in our chosen niche. One of the best sources of income for any website is a good affiliate program that offers products or services that are appealing to the visitors that search for and find our content.
The best affiliate programs offer top-notch products at competitive prices and offer the webmasters that promote them a percentage of each sale. It certainly sounds like a win win situation for everyone involved. Both parties are achieving their desired results. The affiliate program’s business gets advertising at a reasonable price and we, the webmasters, get paid to write interesting articles about our passions in life.
In a perfect world things would rock right along with everybody getting paid to do what they love. Unfortunately, the world is not perfect and the instability of the economy can have a negative effect on consumer spending. During these times, the sales that were once flowing like water and dry up and become a virtual desert overnight.
Dedicated webmasters recognize the ebb and flow as a natural part of business and are quite willing to wait out the slow times and make the best of the good times. When sales are slow, the wait for more profitable times can be excruciatingly painful. Just when you think things can’t get much worse, the best affiliate program on your website fires off an e-mail to notify you that they are dropping you from their program.
Yes, this is a nasty little downside of dealing with affiliate programs. The very best affiliate programs are very much in demand and have the luxury of picking and choosing to whom they bestow the privileges of membership. Granted some merchants are much more trigger-happy than others but you should be aware that if your sales don’t measure up to their standards they can kick you to the curb. So what is a webmaster to do? Is there no way to get back in the good graces of your favorite affiliate program?
Before you began to remove all those ads and code from your pages, take a moment to assess the situation. Here are some tips and suggestions that might buy you some time and postpone the termination until you can turn those sales figures around.
All the best affiliate programs have program managers and you are about to get up close and personal with one of them. Consider this an opportunity to brush up on your business correspondence skills. So start gathering information that will aid you in the pleading of your case immediately. It’s been my experience that they give you about a week before they cut you out completely and you are left generating traffic to an expired program.
The first step would be to see what’s going on. Did they give you a reason for termination? If not, ask them what the reason for termination might be. More than likely lack of sales or excessive clicks without sales will be the issue at hand. If this is the case, take a look at the reports from the past year or so and see if the drop in sales was in direct correlation to a dip in the overall economy. Do you feel that the slow spell was due to a situation out of your control? If you feel that feel that your sales performance was exceptionally strong and the dip was sudden and will probably be short-lived it won’t hurt to point this out to your affiliate program manager.
Are you aware of any competitors that might appreciate a hard-working webmaster such as yourself? It wouldn’t hurt to point this out in the same paragraph as your stellar sales performance of the past. Don’t get cocky with it, but casually mention the competition and that in and of itself might get the job done. By all means point out all of your successes and state your case for any shortcomings.
A little pleading for extra time before the affiliate program manager sets the date for the parting of ways will not hurt. It takes a lot of time to rework web pages. Once you have carefully placed affiliate ads in appropriate hot spots, it’s worth spending some time gathering information and corresponding with the powers that be to avoid their removal.
Don’t consider the dreaded e-mail a done deal for termination. With carefully worded and insightful correspondence filled with positive facts regarding your affiliation it’s possible that your manager may take a personal interest and reconsider his decision. The time spent to write some letters might save you from the unpleasant task of finding a replacement for the program and reworking the bulk of your site.
The combination of Jan Bay’s love of interior decorating and child rearing motivated the building of her site, UNIQUE BABY GEAR IDEAS which features numerous articles on nursery design, reviews of modern baby gear and the creation of modern nurseries for babies
Use of this article requires an active link to Unique Baby Gear Ideas,Nursery Themes and Decorating Ideas
Tags: affiliate sales programs, best affiliate programs, free affiliate program, top affiliate programs
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