I Lot $1,000 a Year When a Merchant Closed Their Affiliate Program
Every summer I used to make $300 to $400 each month from as small clothing manufacturer who produced a particular type of mens shirt. I had a three-page website site for 8 years and never had to change a thing. I loved that little site. $900 to $1,200 a year with no effort. It was truly passive income.
Then I got an email two-years ago in June that the merchant was closing their affiliate program with no notice. No other company produced this shirt. However, when I looked on eBay there were plenty of these shirts kicking around. The merchant also advertised using Adsense and paid well per click. So I adapted the site to sell eBay products and put Adsense on the site. (I almost never combine Adsense and affiliate marketing links.)
That summer I sold plenty of shirts from eBay sellers and did well from Adsense. My income stayed the same. However, by this summer there were very few of these shirts left for eBay sellers to sell. The merchant stopped their Adsense campaign. My revenues fell to $26 for the three month. I just deleted this website.
Merchants often close their programs or boot an affiliate for no reason. It is their right to do this. That's one of the reasons it takes so many websites to make consistent living in affiliate marketing.
Comments
OldRoadsOnceTraveled wrote on August 29, 2014, 12:28 PM
You can't depend on anything online. You're right. Diversity is the key to survival.
Scorpie wrote on August 29, 2014, 2:35 PM
I had a connection to an automotive product that was in high demand but poorly distributed. I had five of my own websites plus ebay and amazon selling the product. My connection up and dies on me costing me insane money and cutting off my supply of product. I guess stuff happens.
BarbRad wrote on August 29, 2014, 4:13 PM
One reason I shy away from affiliate marketing is that I'm not much of a detail person. I don't have what it takes to advertise limited specials and take them down a day or week later when the specials end. I can't remember which products from which affiliates are where. That's one reason I mainly use Amazon and Zazzle. Right now my only other affiliate provided is share-a-sale. I will probably be using it more on my own blogs, but only a limited number of merchants I can keep track of. If I have too many different affiliate programs they seem to always be going on and off and that means continually changing ads. I just want to write.
I do agree with you on not using affiliate ads and Adsense on the same sites. Otherwise, Google is likely to put the same products you are linking to in their ads. I notice every Squidoo page I had that promoted Zazzle products also had ads for those same products in the sidebar. Not cool.
MegL wrote on August 29, 2014, 4:14 PM
That's disappointing. I suppose the poor economic situation affected them. You're right, you just HAVE to diversify and keep finding new products because the same thing is going to happen over and over. :(
bestwriter wrote on August 29, 2014, 8:04 PM
The virtual world has that drawback. Just packing without notice is a common thing. But I am glad that you did earn while it lasted.
NickRThomas wrote on September 11, 2014, 6:54 PM
You are right, you cannot put all your eggs in one basket, whether it's affiliate marketing or article sites. The life cycles of opportunities seem very short where online earnings are concerned. I hope you have found an even more profitable replacement.
acrogodess914 wrote on November 6, 2014, 9:32 PM
I think I need to look up more about affiliate marketing because I just don't get it.
Glenn wrote on November 29, 2014, 11:39 PM
I've made some money from a few affiliate marketers. But I also had bad experiences where some of them reneged on their contracts to continue to pay for the life of the customer.
Quinbe wrote on January 5, 2015, 3:28 PM
Normally oncE the site has run its Course and expunged all Possibilities, they fold
simplysara wrote on January 6, 2015, 12:12 PM
Deja vu! It was good while it lasted...I think I've been hearing that a lot here recently. ;)
seren3 wrote on January 14, 2015, 10:15 AM
I affiliate marketed a product for which the vendor changed the sales page to go straight to her site instead of through Clickbank. I complained but she never fixed it. I had masses of material to change to promote a similar product. Some people!
LeaPea2417 wrote on December 31, 2015, 1:04 AM
That is very sad that the business ended up closing. It is true, what the first person on this thread said, "diversity is the key to survival" on the web.