I gotta tell you, it’s nuts down here in South Florida, people are stocking up and preparing for what could be a category 1 Hurricane, Hurricane Fay, hitting us hard. Shilpi and I are ready-well as ready as well ever be for our first hurricane.
Now how do you prepare when your affiliate sales get hit by a storm? What I mean by that is your affiliate sales take a major beating between Google slaps and market slowdowns.
I know for a fact a lot of affiliates are hurting right now. My affiliate sales have been particularly slow this time of the year. I’ve seen market slowdowns before but this is NUTS. Don’t feel bad for me, overall, my affiliate profits are doing very well, thanks to some new offers I launched earlier this year that are picking up the slack of the other offers I’m running.
Will the market rebound? Most certainly, however, my philosophy is to leave NOTHING to chance. When sales slow down I get busy.
Here’s an action plan :
- First lower your bids on your existing campaign using advanced ad scheduling. The idea is to improve your profits and ROI while the market is down.
- Start researching more keywords for your niche – I’ve found this to be one of the most effective ways to breathe life into an apparently dying campaign. Time and time again I’ve been able to recover lost search volume and sales doing this.
- If your offers are all running on Google, start testing Yahoo and MSN, and vis versa. If you’re doing Google Search only, test Content Network as well, and vis-versa. Get busy testing more and more avenues of traffic generation.
- Launch more offers. I know, this one’s a no brainer. It’s also a good idea to WAIT until the market begins to turn around (Sept, Oct, etc) before you launch a new affiliate offer. However, you can start setting everything up now and even upload your campaign paused into Google, ready to launch at the click of a button!
Recovering from an Affiliate Storm is actually not that hard, the hard part is keeping your emotions in check.
Don’t freak out! Remember if you’re seeing a seasonal downturn your sales WILL GO BACK UP, even if you do nothing.
Remember ultimately YOU are in control of your success and your future.
market slow down
Hi Amit
I’ve noticed a bit traffic decline too. I’m pretty sure it is the olympics. People are spending their media time in front of the TV watching people win medals! It’ll be over in a week.
this is my first summer as an affiliate i didn’t know there was a slow season. but that really explains why my sales have slowed down so much lately i thought i was just sucking it up. thanks for the good tips amit i think they will really help me pick things up.
The future is not as bad as the evening news paints it.
Why the slowdown? I’m not from USA so I have no idea whats happening there at the moment.
I know there’s an Olympic game going on of course but if thats the cause then there’s nothing to worry bout i guess.
Thank you Amit.
As always your optimism is helpful during these times!
When will you launch a teaching product?
I need as much guidance as I can get!
I am tired of being an affiliate and want to become a super affiliate!
Hey Amit,
I have noticed a big slow-down with not only my PPC campaigns, but also with my websites I own that utilize the “CPM” Business Model.
I actually have already used several of your tips to re-gain strength and turn these slow months into record profits;)
PS. I really enjoyed your slide show from Affiliate Summit East! I hope to meet you when I go to Vegas this January for AS West!
Hi Amit,
I want to thank you for your tips.
I have noticed a 30% slowdown with my PPC campaigns too….
Regarding MSN – do you 7 copy and paste all your keywords from your Google campaigns or just part of the keywords?
I import all my Google keywords to MSN, but only 10% of the keywords are active in MSN. MSN support told me that I should have less keyword than I have I Google and even though I want to be 3-5 position in Google, in MSN I should do everything to be in 1 position.
What do you think?
Bit of slow down from July but nothing to worry about. Still making GOOD ($$$) profit a day from one campaign only. But yes time to launch more offers
gee
niche-affiliate-marketing.com
“If your offers are all running on Google, start testing Yahoo and MSN, and vis versa”
But aren’t the results theses days will be bad in Yahoo and MSN too?
How a test can be accurate if the summer is overall slow?
Hi Amit,
I really enjoy your blog. Just a quick question though, I’ve been working with ghost writers and I’m almost ready to start posting their articles into my blog. The question is, should I just use my name as the author and let the ghost writers remain ghost writers OR should I give credit due where it is earned, also so if people see different authors wrote different things it’ll make my site seem more trustworthy and authoritative and even bigger?