Black Friday Sales 2012

In this month’s issue of Internet Retailer, they dive into a common Affiliate Marketing issue. Can an Affiliate Program have too many affiliates?

While presenting both sides of this issue, they show how some affiliate programs and networks say it isn’t worth working with Affiliates who have been inactive for over 6 months. It is wise to cut these affiliates from your program and bring your program down to a size your company can manage.

They also took a look at the Affiliate managers and companies who believe that it is foolish to cut Affiliates from your program just because they have been inactive. The sentiment being, you never know when one of your affiliates, active or inactive, may become the next Super Affiliate.

I agree with the second group of people in saying that Affiliates shouldn’t be cut from a program because of inactivity. Rather, segment your affiliates into different groups, and manage each group accordingly. Three possible groups could be “Super Affiliates”, “Active Affiliates”, and “Inactive Affiliates”. Try and appeal to all three groups and continue to grow your program. In my opinion, there is no such thing as an unmanageable program. Even if you are a small company, there is no reason that your Affiliate manager can’t spend the time to separate your Affiliates into groups and reach out and market and support them.