Deciding When to Discontinue an Affiliate Program

Jan 2
06:37

2024

Chuck McCullough

Chuck McCullough

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The first paragraph of this article provides a brief summary of the content. It discusses the duration one should promote an affiliate program before deciding it's not beneficial. It emphasizes that despite a product's success on other platforms, it may not be suitable for your website. The article also highlights that only a small percentage of affiliates make money from any given program, and provides advice on what to do if you're not making money.

Evaluating Your Affiliate Program Strategy

If you find yourself among the majority not making money from an affiliate program,Deciding When to Discontinue an Affiliate Program Articles it's not a signal to shut down your website or let your domain name registration expire. Instead, it's an opportunity to reassess your strategy. Analyze your website and the programs you've joined. Identify which ones genuinely appeal to your target audience. This evaluation should be from the perspective of your visitors, not based on which programs are expected to generate the most revenue.

Choosing the Right Affiliate Programs

There's a plethora of advice on selecting affiliate programs for your website, such as those offering the highest commissions, monthly payouts, and online reporting. However, you don't always have the luxury of choice. Your focus should be on the products that will interest your visitors the most. The programs that complement your website's content and theme are more crucial than signing up for every program promising to make you wealthy with a single sale.

For instance, one of my websites caters to a highly targeted audience. Over the past two years, I've experimented with numerous affiliate programs and advertising solutions. Surprisingly, Amazon.com consistently outperforms all others, despite not fitting into the 'model affiliate program' mold.

Making Money with Affiliate Programs

If you find a program that genuinely appeals to your target audience, you can make money from it. Don't overlook products that your visitors would be interested in just because the program doesn't offer the highest commissions. If you can demonstrate consistent sales from a particular program, you can negotiate with the merchant to consider increasing their payout to you. This is a common occurrence in the industry, especially if it's beneficial for both parties.

When to Discontinue an Affiliate Program

After eliminating unsuitable programs, you might be left with those that align with your content and might interest your visitors. But how do you determine when the potential earnings don't justify the time and effort to promote a particular program?

Some suggest giving at least 3000 impressions to any given program before deciding to keep or drop it. However, success with affiliate programs involves more than just adding banners to your rotation.

Setting a Benchmark for Affiliate Programs

The benchmark should be determined by you, based on your website, your visitors, the program, and the effort you've put into promoting it. Have you integrated the product offerings with your content? Have you given personal recommendations for any of the products? Have you displayed the links and/or graphics prominently so that most of your traffic can see them? Have you informed your newsletter subscribers about new product offerings?

If you've done these things and your visitors have ignored the offerings for a significant period, it might be time to move on. Find another program and give it the same due diligence. If you do this with each of your targeted programs, you will find a program that works for you!

This process is known as testing, a concept preached by many internet marketers. Try one product, and if it doesn't work for you, discard it and try another one. Only after this testing can you confidently decide when to say "when" to an affiliate program.