Sometimes when merchants wonder why an affiliate has become in-active, it’s the merchants own fault. Many times if the merchants asks they will find out some very revealing info about their own site problems - problems they should have known about but didn’t - or problems they should have let affiliates know about in advance. Vinny writes about some situations where he drops a merchant because their conversions tank and the merchant does not even realize their site had problems.

…”And in all cases, the initial reponse is that everything is going great and their website is doing well. In all three cases, after further investigation by the merchant, they discover that they have a problem across the board, in one or more of the following categories:

1. New Website changes were not adequately tested and subsequently dropped conversions.
2. Affliate tracking codes were not implemented properly in new website, which leads to good conversions for the merchant, but none for the affiliate.
3. Stock/Inventory changes which were not communicated back to the affiliate.
4. Website was down for a period of time during which the affiliate was not notified.

In the scenario depicted above, affiliates act as a watchdog for the merchant, notifying them of problems, even before the merchant knows about it, because the affiliate marketer watches his bottom line like a hawk.”

Read the rest here:
The Affiliate Watchdog - ReveNews - Vinny Lingham, Online Revenue News & Opinions Since 1998. Online affiliate sales success is a 2 way street. Merchants need to be aware of the impact their site changes can have on affiliates as well as overall sales and conversions.