Don’t Let Your Affiliate Program Run on Autopilot
Posted By Brad on February 1, 2010
As I’m doing my most favorite thing in the world today, month end reports (no, not really) I came across something that inspired this post, and that is to never let your affiliate program run on autopilot. Here’s an example of what might happen.
Say you have a publisher in your program who’s been driving $xx,xxx per month in affiliate sales consistently for the last year. Then this past month you noticed they have dropped off in sales significantly and are trending downward yet again for this month. If you’re not digging into the reports, watching trends, or listening to your publishers, chances are your letting your affiliate program run on autopilot and you will never know what happened to those sales. I bet you’ll probably just write it off to volatility in the market place, competition amongst publishers, or better yet blame it on the seasons without ever really knowing the true answer.
That’s why it is essential to be active in your affiliate program on a daily basis. Check reports daily, answer emails, follow the trends, follow the industry and ensure a successful program. If you’re in tune with your affiliate program, it’s really simple to get a true answer as to why your $xx,xxx publisher isn’t producing like they have in the past.
Shoot them and email, give them a call, hit them up on IM, what ever it takes communicate with that publisher and simply ask what you can do to help. There is no harm in asking. I’m willing to bet your publishers will be thankful you reached out to offer support. Who knows, maybe they’re testing another offer against yours, maybe they got slapped by Google, maybe they need a higher commission, or maybe the just got tired of working alone with no support from your program.
What ever the reasoning may be, it’s essential to communicate with your publishers and find out what you can do to help them succeed, get them back in your program, and driving even more sales. If you don’t, there’s a pretty good chance the thousands of dollars in monthly affiliate revenue will be lost forever.
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