If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know that one of my traffic sources is affiliates.

The basic principle is simple:

1) You create a product
2) Publish it on an affiliate network like JVZoo or Clickbank
3) Allow other people to send traffic to your sales page in return for a percentage commission on sales that they make

There are loads of really effective strategies that you can use to encourage people to sign up as affiliates and send you traffic. And when you get these hooked up this traffic source can be immensely powerful in any niche.

I’ve personally had well over 100,000 visitors sent to me using this method with some amazing results.

However, like with anything in business and life, not everything always goes occurring to plan….

What Went Wrong

I logged into one of the affiliate networks that I use (JVZoo) and saw this:

Banned Affiliate JVZoo

As you can see the affiliate at the top of the screenshot – who will remain nameless – sent 13,849 visitors to my sales page without making a single sale!

If you’ve never published a product on an affiliate network before then it probably won’t be obvious why this is necessarily a problem.

The issue is that the traffic that this gentleman sent – over quite a short period of time I might add – was absolutely junk.

He probably purchased it from one of the various sites around the internet that make offers like “5,000 visitors for $10”.

At first site these traffic sources often sound appealing but in reality the visitors are either automated robots or come from developing countries where people are paid a pittance to repeatedly click on links.

The problem that this gives you as a product owner is that the traffic doesn’t make sales and therefore lowers the conversion rate on your product.

Several popular affiliate networks, including JVZoo, publish your conversion rates in the marketplace so this in turn puts off other quality affiliates from promoting.

I hope that makes sense? If not, please ask in the comments section below and I’ll be happy to clarify or explain it in a different way πŸ™‚

Basically, it’s a rare case of having traffic that actually hurts you instead of helping you!

Over the period that this traffic was sent, the affiliate in question was top of the list in terms of number of visitors but as soon as I saw what had happen I went into my JVZoo account and promptly set his status to “Banned”!

Important Lessons Learned

In this specific example the lesson is to regularly login to JVZoo or whatever affiliate network you are using and keep on top of who is sending you traffic.

Because I didn’t do this for a few weeks I got caught out and this guy was able to send me so many visitors, hurting my conversions and no doubt putting off other affiliates from promoting.

5 minutes, 2-3 times per week would have saved me from this.

Luckily, this particular product did very well regardless. It could have been a lot worse and I’ve only got myself to blame for not keeping on top of things!

The wider lesson is be careful who you work with in your business. Whether it’s a mentor, coach, affiliate, joint venture partner or anything else it always pays to do your due diligence.

Would love to hear your thoughts, questions and comments below. Maybe you’ve hadΒ a bad experience concerning other people too?Β Please SHARE and TWEET if you enjoyed this too to help spread the word about it. Cheers, Rob πŸ™‚