Send Traffic To Keep Your Account Active!
 

well ok, even though it costs zero time or money to have an 'inactive' affiliate except you want to have a pretty database, why not clear out all inactive accounts, that way you can ensure:

1. your HUUUUUGE database will run 1 millionth of a nanosecond faster, making it 'more efficient' for active affiliates, and somehow 'ensure we can serve active affiliates better' (because freeing up the ZERO time on dormant accounts makes all the difference)

2. the secondary/tertiary sponsor accounts kept by most affiliates in case we need to quickly swap out in the event of a program problem/closure won't be swapped to your program

3. all the big affiliates immediately start sending you their traffic regardless of EPC because oh noes, we need to keep an account 'active'! :1orglaugh

Is there anyone who has actually been a fucking affiliate in charge of the affiliate side of programs anymore?

SMDFH

Most of those emails get marked as junk -- I don't respond well to threats ....

Well said Jel :1orglaugh :thumbsup

As soon as a a sponsor starts on these games, I keep in my mind that they are not to be trusted as a long term partner i.e. do not invest much time in promoting their products

Extortioncash still in business?

What did I just read? :1orglaugh

Agreed Jel.

I never have been the the target of such a "cleanup". But still, I keep a mental note of programs that did this in the past, and consider them untrustable.

Even better when they make it a retroactive change

And it's a lifetime revshare deal

- Continue sending us signups, or we cut off money we WOULD have paid you under the conditions you agreed to when you first signed up.

It's the first sign a ship is sinking... time to get off. :2 cents: That and having to "invoice" a sponsor to get paid.

If you have a ton of recurring billing you want to keep getting paid for, it's a great use of a trickle of bot traffic.

That doesn't work when the program requires actual signups to keep your account active. (I speak from experience)

You think they'd have a rep personally contact you and communicate to get you to send traffic instead of a form letter email threatening you it's bizarre.

Time to cut your losses and move on.

Ray
Hardlinks.org

tbh it's not about any losses (I have none), I have sent very little traffic there all the while I've had an account, and only a handful of sales. It's more about the dumbfuck short-sightedness of programs who have quite obviously never had any experience as affilates, thinking that demanding traffic or accounts will be closed is good long-term thinking.

Affiliates who sign up but send not even a single click are zero maintenance (different ballgame obviously for surfmasters who demand a box full of tools and send 4 clicks a month), and you can't tell which of those will switch their heavier traffic over to you at a point in future, especially these days with programs closing all over the place, under performing, have heavy saturation levels, and so on.

Demanding clicks is a surefire way to ensure that traffic never gets switched over at any time, and all in the name of lightening a database which let's be truthful, accomplishes what? Nada. It also doesn't free up 'resources' to 'help active webmasters make more money' (a horseshit line I've seen before over the years). Weeding out guys who email every week for this,that, and the other tools but sends fuck all clicks/sales is one thing, annoying those who have an account as a secondary/tertiary back up who takes precisely 0 seconds of time, and 0kJ of effort is pretty short-sighted, or lazy at best.

I totally get the 80/20 rule, and apply it myself continually - problem is, most people don't understand WHERE the 80/20 rule applies.... something that is zero effort, and zero time, doesn't have an 80 or a 20.... you leave those until such time as it does apply, and then see if it's a good or a bad ROI.

sponsor A: gets affiliates traffic in the xx,xxx upwards a month figure.... then goes bust/to shit
sponsor B: now gets that traffic... except they demanded it when it cost them zero of anything, so hey presto:
Sponsor C: now gets that traffic

How this isn't basic shit for programs is beyond me.

And again, because I know for a fact on past reading this is gonna be a response, this is different to:

sponsor A: has affiliates x,y,z who all demand creatives, special shit, and send 4 clicks a month between them, bringing in 0 sales.... sorry, when you have made 50,100 sales... we'll make some stuff, until then, have fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTzc7hdvKaY




:1orglaugh

I run four Affiliate Programs (see sig). This means I get, on average, about 3 new affiliate signups a day. That's around 1000 affiliates per year and I've been in this biz for eight years now.

I just checked: over 5,000 affiliates!

25 send daily-weekly-monthly hits. LOL

Does it annoy me when I see someone signup, never download tools, pics or videos, never hear from them again? Sure - but I would never 'clean house' and demand clicks! Programs that do that are, in a word, desperate and looking to squeeze every penny they can just to cover operating costs. In other words, almost-DOA.

(Hey here's an idea: how about a FRIENDLY email urging inactive affiliates to send clicks? How about the insane idea of offering affiliates MORE like a higher PPS or higher % revshare to motivate them? Crazy I know.)

Video Secrets / Flirt4Free pulls this type of bullshit, but they don't close inactive affiliate accounts. They just pay lower commissions for inactive affiliates. And ANY affiliate (including both active AND inactive) with a customer (maybe a whale) who stops spending and starts spending again several months later, loses the "lifetime" revshare from that customer. Instead of trying to build mutually beneficial long-term relationships with their affiliates, VS is driven by greed and fucks over their affiliates.

ICF / Streamate / CamBuilder pays considerable more money for my traffic anyway.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh ...

It's a pretty lame strategy, but if affiliate isn't sending traffic what do they have to lose? 1 in 100 will buy the horseshit and will start sending some traffic, and the 99 other affiliates haven't promoted the site in question and likely never will anyway? I mean, what are the odds that someone one day will say "Sponsor X hasn't updated their tours/tools/anything in 5 years, I haven't been promoting them in years, but I think I'll give them a try again"? So really, little harm done if the 99 other affiliates get a bit irritated.

amateur! :1orglaugh:1orglaugh hit me on the pm

I do it all the time - I come across a traffic source and remember program 'x' has the perfect site for it - I am sure I am not the only one...

personally, all my affiliates do well & have at least a sale every 2 to 400 hits of traffic, so personally, i´lll leave all my affiliates doing their stuff as you already know Jel x


Come and make money :thumbsup

this, very similar, the thoughts at least :thumbsup

If I still knew how to make traffic I would work with you
You seem coherent

Yeah man FUCK THAT fucking shit
Motherfuckers

So basically 99% of signups do not send even monthly hits? Why do they bother to signup in the first place?

Most times you need to sign up, to see the promo content.

The correct thought/email would be;
What would it take for you to start sending traffic?
Better content? Payout? Conditions?

I ask myself this question amost daily. LOL But also I run CCBill Programs so often people will signup to a zillion CCBill Programs then take time to test, swap out links, etc. But the others who do exactly zero - including even going to the Promo Tools and Resources pages - I have no idea. Frustrating to say the least!

Very true. Tho as I stated above, when I check my stats I do not even see new affs hitting the Tools or Resources page (the places they would go to check out the content). But I also do need to do a better job of updating the APs and reaching out to affiliates on a regular basis. :)

I can't see any reason to kick out inactive affiliates. That by itself shouldn't be a terminable offense.

affiliates can become active after years, I had a program on ice for a few years, started last year and made a huge amount. Just to prove your point here, inactive means not by definition that it is a worthless affiliate.

True. Also some affiliates are looking for specific niche content. Maybe they saw a MILF they liked on one of your Tours, signed up, grabbed a single pic of that MILF and moved on. Who knows?

It's just a shitty/desperate tactic to try and goose affiliates to send traffic. I don't like the 'hard sell' and it's likely to piss off more affiliates then the few who fall for the bait. Dumb business.

+1 "Lifetime" has different meanings to some cock suckers. :thumbsup