Affiliates - What Should Sponsors Do In This Situation?

Lets say you promote a sponsor that has a bunch of sites in their program and that 2 of the sites arent making the program any money, despite a few sales happening each day to the sites in question.

in this instance, do you think the sponsor would be justified in closing down the sites or, should they keep the sites open and just launch different sites in those niches to the ones that the sites are going to be closed in and hope that affiliates swap their links out to the newer sites?

Looking at this from an affiliates standpoint, i can certainly see why keeping the existing sites in the programs portfolio would be the ideal situation, especially if i was an affiliate that made regular sales to one of these sites however, from the viewpoint of a program owner, i can also see why closing down the site would be the ideal situation and how just redierecting the traffic to one of the 'newer' sites would be a good resolve.

Just curious what the rest of you folks, ive been hearing talk that a fairly large straight program is considering closing down a bunch of their sites to make way for 'new' sites they are getting ready to launch and i was wondering what the general concensus was on this, should the program remove the existing sites from their portfolio completely or keep them open in addition to the newer sites they are going to be launching?

Regards,

Lee

if they aren't profitable, perhaps its time to think about getting the tour pages updated so they sell more?

Greetings Lee

As an affiliate, I can fully understand if a non-performing property is discontinued by the program owner. It just makes simple business sense.

You making this a topic of discussion is wonderful Lee. I doubt many owners care about the trickle-down effects of major program change decisions.

Redirecting the traffic as a program owner in a similar niche would seem to be in the best interests of both the program owner and all of the affiliates.

If a niche is being discountinued... well, if an honest program, a massive amount of emails need to be sent so affiliates can change codes as needed.

If there were only a few that seemed to be the income source for those particular sites, a personally written message should be sent. A form letter with just an added touch of using a first name will retain those hard working affiliates. That should help remove the thought of shady business.

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Originally Posted by Chilihost

if they aren't profitable, perhaps its time to think about getting the tour pages updated so they sell more?

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tour pages? What tour pages? (sorry Lee I couldn't resist)

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Originally Posted by Squirt

tour pages? What tour pages? (sorry Lee I couldn't resist)

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I am sure Squirt he was only creating an interesting topic worth discussion. I personally never signed up with Lee and his one-page tours.

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Originally Posted by Lee

in this instance, do you think the sponsor would be justified in closing down the sites or, should they keep the sites open and just launch different sites in those niches to the ones that the sites are going to be closed in and hope that affiliates swap their links out to the newer sites?

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If they aren't being updated, but still turning a profit, let them be, start some new finely tuned sites, and rework the not so profitable ones at a later time. :moneybags:

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Originally Posted by Squirt

If they aren't being updated, but still turning a profit, let them be, start some new finely tuned sites, and rework the not so profitable ones at a later time. :moneybags:

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Excellent point Squirt.

As I present written reviews of paysites, you would be amazed how many are out there not updated within the last six months... but actively accepting monies.

I think it the Straight invasion. Create and forget. HEY... we are GAY creative and on the cutting age of the best way to decorate a home, and present a GAY WEBSITE.

And like most of you I am thinking of the next best new porn idea.

Back to the theme of the thread... I think a program owner that communicates will continue to earn. Just ending and changing with no communication... well, they would lose me.

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Originally Posted by wnc

...Back to the theme of the thread... I think a program owner that communicates will continue to earn. Just ending and changing with no communication... well, they would lose me.

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Yes, I'm fine with it when the sponsor communicates. One of my sponsors dropped one of his niche sites and just redirected the traffic to a link list page for that niche without a word to the affiliates!

I don't like it when a sponsor dumps or redirects a paysite. It definitely makes me less likely to sell that sponsor in the future.

I understand it from their point of view, but still don't like it, because it trashes whatever work I've done to research the site, write targeted sales text, and establish a kind of trust with my surfers.

I can't imagine changing something without informing the people it effects!

I'm revamping something on my tools site and will be removing the older version shortly, and I'm going through mini panic-attacks that an affiliate will miss the notification that the old&busted will be replaced by the NewHotness.

But, yes, when programs, tools or anything designed to generate income is not doing its job, it is time to revamp or replace. But, the sponsor must tell their affiliates - their BUSINESS PARTNERS!

Every one of my affiliates is a business partner - you would never make a decision without running it past your partners first.

m.

I am often updating tours pages and i do inform affiliates of this.

When I recently changed the tour of one of my sites, including the logo and marketing direction of the site, I updated the design of all hosted promotional tools to reflect this.

I don’t think affiliates mind improvements at all, in fact im sure they like it. I know I love it when sponsors update their stuff!


I think its about communication Lee. If you want to get rid of a couple of sites, and you "dont" wish to take Squirts advice of leaving them until the time is right to upgrade them, then all I suggest is, give your affiliate more than relevant compensation for any lost traffic, and inform them of that is happening.

Another option would be to contact all your affiliates one by one, and if they are marketing the sites, work out some sort of solution with them to swap out the sites with others, or again, relevant compensation.