Loads of Affiliate programmes seem to be closing

[Brassneck]

Been getting a lot of emails last few weeks notifying me of various affiliates shutting down. I don't do much affiliate marketing but it seems like the affiliate world is changing. Brands that I have been notified about include Staples, Firetrap, BlueChip Holidays and Octopus.

Stephen.

 

[dta]

yep - noticed that too. seems to be a very regular occurence these days.

 

[Brassneck]

Vacansoleil to add to the list since I posted an hour ago!

Stephen.

 

[aaclapham]

Not sure about the affiliate world changing, for every fashion merchant that closes at least 3 new ones appear.

Firetrap are closing their web site and going back to being a concessions brand.

Many merchants are still struggling to survive.

 

[AssetDomains]

Yep I've noticed a few closing or moving around if Staples convert for you there moving to commission junction I believe. Maybe they got a better deal there

 

[tifosi]

Just been announced Halfords is closing on Awin. Shame they were always a good xmas converter.

 

[Brassneck]

Just been announced Halfords is closing on Awin. Shame they were always a good xmas converter.

You just beat me to it! I haven't thought it through but I wonder if all these closures are related to panda, penguin, emd changes which mean that merchants are now getting traffic direct rather than via affiliates, and that the overheads of running an affiliate scheme with many members and low sales are simply no longer viable.

Stephen.

 

[AdminAdmin is verified member.]

I wonder is the dive in traffic on EMDs has had an influence on this, I know my revenues are less than half what they were before Google decided to make their changes.

My Adsense revs are also way down so they have probably hurt their own revenues as well by killing off affiliate mini-sites.

Admin

 

[tifosi]

Probably more like the bean counters at Halford seeing their revenues falling like other high-street chains looking at their spreadsheets and asking 'why are paying these people 5% of our profits'. Doesn' have to be domain-related. More like economy related.

 

[Nova]

My Adsense revs are also way down so they have probably hurt their own revenues as well by killing off affiliate mini-sites.

Its okay they save plenty of money on taxes http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9460950/Google-pays-just-6m-UK-tax.html

 

[Brassneck]

Another closure notification today - easyjet holidays

 

[figleaf007]

Think you hit the nail on the head Stephen - that and the affiliate networks relying too much on the voucher code/cashback cash cow and not looking after the content affiliates. Now that the voucher code sites have been Panda'd or people have realised they were being coneed for click, there's not really much left in the affiliate space...

 

[tifosi]

In good times affiliate marketing is a natural expansion of a business, in bad times it's the natural first contraction point, especially for high-street shops with a physical presense. Counter-productive imo, but reality when the result of panicking ceos.

For ecommerce only stores, the reverse or a 'reassessed' presence with a focus on content-only aff publishers is the case. Probably the reason for more smaller affiliate merchants coming into the space. Not all bad, their revenue share tends to be better... I refuse to promote any that give 2.5% or less.