My only question is...since none of us have 1/10th the traffic that we had 4 years ago (it's all at pornhub now lol ) , then who are these affiliates that can make all these big sales? I see Warchild posting about his great ratios...and yet I remember him very concerned about losing his links on pichunter
I've never had to have links on anybody elses site as an affiliate because I have my own traffic...not search engines, not spam mail, not links on other people's sites, but honest to god freesites with real people on them.
How many are left like that out there? Not many.
If I were you I'd go in and eliminate all the affiliates that haven't done anything, not even one click, in the last year. That alone is going to thin it down. Then take a close look at who you got left.
Where is the traffic they are sending you coming from? Do they actually have a site and are really promoting you?
And then I'd go out after the last few guys who really do promote sites. Is Shemp an affiliate? Is Greenguy an affiliate? Is Worldsex an affiliate? Is Sleazy an affiliate? Get the guys who will REALLY promote you and bring NEW eyes to your site.
Even the SEO guys aren't gonna bring anybody to your site who wasn't going to come there anyway. They are just kicking your ass on placement on Google. You need real webmasters with real sites doing what the entire affiliate model was originally intended to do.
Those guys are worth every penny you pay them.
In the meantime I would NOT drop your existing guys who do send sales down in percentage. That's just not gonna fly with anybody.
And then start picking your new affiliates very carefully.
You get the right 5 or 6 guys onboard and you won't need the rest.